The advantages of working online as compared to offline

With millions of people on the Internet now, there is an explosion of online businesses. This means that there will be both successes and failures, but that is characteristic of any type of businesses – Internet or offline. You may have heard stories of people, acquaintances even, who have made a lot of money working on the Internet. Some of them claim to not even have put any money down on their online business and working a few hours a day. True or false, take these stories with a pinch of salt, and be ready to work hard and put in the required amount of investment to make your online business a success.

However, starting an online business does have potential advantages to the owner as opposed to an offline one. The most common advantages are:

• Low start up costs – while the Internet is not necessarily the place for easy, quick riches with no effort, in many cases, the costs of start up can be low compared with brick and mortar businesses. Rent, maintenance, inventory and many other costs may be cut down or completely avoided. Sometimes just a few hundred, smart planning and a great business idea can get you started.

• Extensive marketing opportunities – There are a number of tactics and tools that Internet-based marketing affords – from SEO to affiliates and email marketing. Additionally, these marketing tools are easily accessible and generally much more cost effective than offline business marketing tools.

• Easy tracking of results – Something offline businesses spend a lot to achieve can be automatically and cheaply achieved by an online business. The simplicity of tracking preferences, tracing potential customers and access to contact information makes marketing and customer relationship management that much easier for an online business.

• Global reach – While an offline business may have no reach beyond a small local area, an online business is empowered by the Internet to achieve a global audience, much more economically. With the correct marketing, the online business can tap into a huge Internet audience for its products and services.

• Manage and transmit information – The Internet is a great way to manage incoming information and transmit information to present and potential customers and employees. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) can be posted on your website and these FAQs act as a 24 hour helpline for the small business. It’s a great way for online businesses to display changing information, receive customer feedback through remarks posted online, or display sound or video clips to help sell a product. And this is all done at a much lower cost than an offline business that offers these services would pay.

• Easy reach to local or specialized markets – The Internet offers the online business a cheap and easy way to connect to its local market. By linking to other local sites, an online business can drive local traffic to its site at a cost much lower than that of advertising in your town to create awareness. Access to specialized markets can also be achieved best by working through the Internet.

With the numerous advantages of starting an online business, as opposed to an offline one, it should come as no surprise that plenty of success stories exist in this domain.

Using the Internet

Dependant on your age, looking back on all those years that you spent sitting in classrooms at high school may bring back some daunting memories. Working by set rules, not being allowed to do what you want, yet at the same time it may be possible that you are feeling a sense of regret; a sense that comes with maturity when you look back and thing I could have utilised that time better and learnt something instead of mucking around. In previous years, the only options to enhance your education would be to go to night classes or take up a part time degree at a university, yet that is now a thing of the past. With aid of the internet comes unlimited potential to learning online, and people have started picking up on this fact providing services to help enhance our education. In fact, by reading this article you are already proving how versatile the internet can be at providing an education, and when you finish reading this, you should hopefully be raring to go to set out and learn something new!



When it comes to the internet and education, it really boils down to what you are looking for. If it is a formal qualification, then there are sites out there that will teach you online and either provide a test via the internet, or arrange an exam in a public exam room. However, if its just pure knowledge you want instead of the credentials, then you have got a mass of information at your finger tips ranging from full depth tutorials to short 101 sessions to help teach you something new. There are topics from learning a new language by use of audio, to teaching you how to fix a car. It really does depend on what you are after.

For instance, if you are a coder and you are looking to learn a brand new language, then the best way to proceed is probably through online tutorials. Most of the tutorial sites online list tutorials written by people like you and me, attempting to pass their skills on. For example, www.w3schools.com provide in depth tutorials to nearly every single web based language out there. Each tutorial is broken down into key parts with examples how the code works, making it easier for you to learn. The worst tutorials are where they show you something and do not explain how it works and you should steer clear of these types.

When it comes down to it, if you are just looking to enhance your education using the internet, the best way to go about it, is searching for information on that topic using a search engine like Google. There will be a guarantied chance that you will find some information on what you are looking for, however it is important to understand that to get the best possible education out the internet, it pays to use more than resource. A lot of the sites out there providing you with the education are written by average people, just like the tutorials I mentioned earlier. There are no standards or specifications they have to abide by, so if chance would have it, you may stumble onto a site filled with incredibly well articulated rubbish. In other words, it looks good but the information is worthless. Cross referencing your information is a key point to good research and learning!

Now reading this, you may still feel a little lost as you might just want an online reference you can go to. Well, to help you along, www.eliteskills.com/free_education is an excellent free reference site. It has tons of links to help you get started on what you want to learn, linking to genuine university sites where they put their lectures online for students and anyone else interested to learn from. A lot of the information on there leads to pod casts where you can download entire lectures via Itunes. Examples would include their language section. If you click on their basic French link it will open up Itunes and provide you with over 100 tracks containing individual lessons from a French Teacher.

For those of you who want to actually earn a degree online, or get some qualifications, there are options for you to. However it is important to note, that for a degree or qualification, you are going to have to spend money on it. Free sites offering free qualifications are probably fakes trying to draw you into their ad venue scheme, and they are just not worth it, so please be aware that it’s going to cost you money. How much depends on what you want and who you go with.

One of the best sites out there to obtain a degree or a course is the Open University. While based in the UK, international students are always welcome, and all their courses can be done online. This would appeal to people who are serious about gaining some extra qualifications alongside the ones you have already got (or have not got if that is the case). They offer nearly every type of practical degree from languages to sciences, and are an excellent choice if you want to have a job alongside it.

If you do not fancy joining the Open University, then have a look around your countries universities and see if they offer any degrees or courses online. It is not guarantied that they will, but you might get lucky and find a few that do some courses.

Basically, using the internet for an online education is an excellent idea if you approach it with an open mind. Never take anything for granted on it, and be wary of cheap deals to get you a qualification. If you see a course you want to do on a site, then search about for other people who’ve done it and see if they would recommend it to you

All Hits Are Not Created Equal

After all the debate over website design, shopping carts and credit card processors,every website owner eventually comes to the startling realization that they need one more thing to survive - website traffic!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is A Work At Home Business Opportunity The Right Thing For You To Do?

A lot of people are starting to work at home. They do this by finding the right work at home business opportunity for them. Not all of them will start their business with a work at home business opportunity but majority of them will. However, before you start a home business you will need to evaluate yourself and what you want for your life.


Working at home is not as easy as it sounds. There are all kinds of things that can make it more difficult than a job would be. You may have kids that you are trying to raise and this is hard by itself. However, when you have kids and are trying to do a home business it can be even more difficult. There may also be other things in your life besides kids that can make this even more of a challenge for you. So this is why you need to figure out if this is what you really want to do.


First, you need to figure out if you are a self motivated type of person. This is definitely something that you want to be able to do because of all of the things that can get in your way of working on your business. You will have to be able to work when you can find the time and do it without anyone telling you to.

Second, can you keep your expectations realistic? This is something that you will need to realize is important. You can become very discouraged very fast if you are not able to be realistic about your home business and the income that you can make to start. It is possible to become rich with a home business but you need to remember that it will take hard work and time to make this happen.

Third, can you set goals and stick to them? This is important for any business to help you stay focused.

Fourth, can you treat your business as a business and not a hobby? When you treat your business like a hobby you will be disappointed with the results that you get. A business needs to be worked at like what it is, a business.

Fifth, are you financially responsible? This will be important for you when you only have a certain amount of money to your budget for your business. It will also be important when you start making money because for a while you will want to put that money back into your business to help it become more successful.

These are just a few of the things that you need to ask yourself before you try and start a home business. When you are not sure what you want or can do you will not have much success. So take the time to evaluate what you want.

Legal aspects and implications of e-mail marjketing and related spams laws

Ecommerce can be best described as a marketplace on the internet, which comprises distributing, marketing, buying, selling, and servicing of products or services through electronic systems such as internet or other computer networks. It can be also viewed as an electronic business application targeted at commercial transactions involving electronic funds transfer, e-marketing, supply chain management, online marketing, online transaction processing, automated inventory management, electronic data interchange, and automated data collection systems.

Ecommerce is indeed the most efficient and convenient mode of transactions nowadays, but this business needs strict compliance with laws and related legalities, particularly dealing with marketing, because you are dealing with others’ money.

If you in the ecommerce business, then strictly avoid fraudulent promotions, otherwise you could be charged for spamming under the new CAN-SPAM Act, which was signed by President George W. Bush on December 16; the Act is a federal initiative designed to regulate the most harmful and annoying practices of spammers. Violation of the Act can result in the following consequences:

• Revenue losses and damage of reputation
• Major e-mail service providers such as AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo! filtering your messages to block them
• ISP may shut down your e-mail account
• Web host may shut down your web site
• Under the new federal CAN-SPAM Act, you can be fined (up to $2 million) or sentenced to jail (up to five years)

Therefore honestly promote a legitimate business to sell real and valuable products or services.

Operate a legitimate business:-

Do not use falsifying headers to force your way into peoples’ inboxes. Avoid using deceptive subject lines, hijacking other peoples' e-mail accounts or computers to send spam, creating e-mail or IP addresses specifically to send spam, and sending unsolicited e-mail with sexual content and emails to people who have requested to be removed from your list. These are malicious ways of forcing messages into the inboxes of people who don't want them, which are not only annoying but are illegal and unprofitable.

Plan responsible e-mail promotions:-

Always obtain permission from the target users before sending them emails. A user must never get a mail that he is not expecting. Avoid buying or renting email lists as they do not promise validity and at times you end up paying for the addresses that are invalid. If you buy email lists, find out how those addresses were collected. If people in your purchased list have not agreed to receive email related to promotion or advertisements, you might land into the troubled waters.

Be very careful while choosing a subject line; it should be self-explanatory about the content within the email. Mention the real return address and place a functional ‘unsubscribe’ link in all the emails. If you have an exhaustive list of emails you will have to seek professional help to install an ASP or any other suitable program to manage ‘opt-ins’ and ‘unsubscribe’ requests. You must send commercial or promotional emails/ newsletters through you’re your company’s official email address.

Finally, stay educated about e-mail marketing and spam laws. Laws and their definitions are changing; therefore obtain regular updates on the related laws.

The Advantage of Freebies Online

It is sometimes difficult for companies to introduce new products or services to the public. Often times the best way to go about this is to simply give away many of the products for free. This is where freebies come in. By giving away freebies online, word of mouth about the product can be established and the company can actually start selling the products for a profit.

Many freebie sites online can offer expensive products such as ipods, digital cameras, and even laptops. While technically these items can be free, participation in other companies' offers is sometimes required. The only thing you need here is simply your time.

In return for getting the freebie, some websites will ask you to try additional offers from the advertiser. This is sometimes necessary for more expensive items, like electronics such as iPods. By participating in these programs, you will be able to get points which entitle you to bigger and better freebies.

Some freebie sites might ask for a small fee to compensate for shipping or maybe just a small trial fee. While you might run into these kinds of freebie offers, there are also 100% free offers that you can take advantage of online as well.

Don't jump to conclusions and think this could be some kind of scam. The freebie industry is huge, and many reputable companies are using freebies to promote their new products and services. The nice thing is, as a consumer, you can take advantage of these freebie offers on your own free will.

Freebies online aren't limited to just high dollar electronics, either. You can have your choice from many different freebie products including coupons, health and beauty products, freebie clothing, free food and drinks, free eBooks, and even free vacations and freebie gift cards. There is really no limit to the amount of free things you can get online. Check out freebie directories online which will point you in the right direction, getting you exactly what you want for free.

People have been taking advantage of freebie products online for only a year or two, the industry is relatively new. With the advent of the internet, it makes it easier for companies to promote products for free since marketing can be done a lot cheaper on the internet. This translates to more freebie products for you to take home and try out for yourself.

It's no suprise that people just love to get stuff for free, and big companies are taking advantage of this fact to draw extra business away from their competitors and back to them. This is the main reason why the freebie industry is completely legal. It is a marketing tactic used by businesses and websites online now, so it's definitely not a scam in any way.

You can start getting freebies online now, with the click of a button and just a little bit of your time. It's totally worth your time, everyone loves to get freebies no matter what it is.

Affiliate Marketing - Making Money on Autopilot

The Internet offers a lot of ways to earn money that didn't exist ten years ago. One of the more popular ways of making a living on the World Wide Web is through affiliate marketing. This method of advertising rewards those who promote a product for a seller or manufacturer by giving them a portion of the sales price when an item sells. As an affiliate, you don't actually make the sales; you simply advertise a product and direct the customer to the site where they can make the purchase. When they buy, you collect.

The system does have its rewards; one of them is that you can promote products around the clock with a Website without having to deal with customers directly. Customers can visit your Website, see your promotion for a product, and click on a link to buy it without any direct involvement on your part. In that sense, affiliate marketing can be "automatic", but prospective marketers should not confuse "automatic" with "no effort."

Many authors of books devoted to the topic of making money sell their books via affiliate marketing. Many of these authors, in order to increase sales, suggest that as an affiliate, you can make money on "autopilot", and that doing so requires little or no effort. They often embellish this even further by suggesting that it is only necessary to work one or two hours a week to make a fortune online. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth about earning money through affiliate marketing is that it is, like anything else you might do, hard work. It is true that you can create a Website with information and links that customers may use to make decisions and purchases. Once you create such a Website, how will customers find it? You have to promote that Website, and doing so is hard work. The online marketplace is a competitive one, and establishing a viable Website while competing against thousands of others can quickly become a full time job. This is particularly true if you create more than one Website to promote more than one product.

Even if you get a lot of visitors to your Website you will find yourself continually making adjustments to the site's content in order to increase the number of visitors who make a purchase. A simple "this product is good - buy it!" will not persuade many visitors to make a purchase. You'll have to do a lot of time consuming experimentation in order to find something that works for you.

Is there money to be made in affiliate marketing? Of course. Anyone thinking that it's "easy money" or that you can create a business in minutes that will start making money today should probably reconsider. As with any business, making money online is hard work.

eBay - Part Time Or Full? How To Decide

Going full-time as an eBay seller is living the dream: making a real income, working from home, being your own boss and all the rest of it. It's the promise of a million scams, and it's finally come true - at least for some.

What they don't tell you in the success stories, though, is that becoming a full-time eBay seller is by no means for everyone. You really, really ought to try it part-time before you even consider taking it up full-time, and even then, caution is advisable. Before you burn your suit, here's a list of questions you should ask yourself.

How Much Do I Earn From eBay Now?

Work out how many hours a week you spend doing eBay-related things (be honest here), and divide it by the average amount of profit you make in a week. If you were doing full-time hours, would you earn as much as you earn now?

Do I Have a Good Job?

Think about what you might lose if you give up your job to focus on eBay. If you're in a well-paid job with good promotion prospects then it's well worth reconsidering: you might get a few years down the line and wish you'd stayed in your traditional job, as you'd probably be the CEO by now.

Would I Really Make Much More Money?

Unless you're selling a large quantity of small goods, most of what you do on eBay will be waiting for auctions to end - and you can wait at work just as easily as you can at home. This is why whether you would make more money on eBay really depends on what kinds of items you're selling - for low value items, going full-time could be a good move. For high-value ones, the chances are you'll hit the limits of how much money you have to invest in inventory long before you hit the limits on your time.

Is my Home a Good Place to Work?

Quite apart from anything else, you might find that the dream of home working is more of a nightmare in reality. People can start to depend on you to get things done that need to be done during the day. If you have a wife and children then they can resent the fact that you're in the house but refuse to have anything to do with them for large parts of the day. Giving in to any of these things and stopping work for a while will cause your profits to fall.

Can I Survive if it All Goes Wrong?

In the end, would you be able to get by if you had a month or two where you sold literally nothing? Or would you be desperately looking around for a job and cursing the day you ever discovered eBay? That's the real test.

If you made it through all these questions, then I guess you're cut out for the eBay life - and even if you didn't, you'd be surprised just how far you can get part-time.

How To Super-Charge Your Free Ads, Articles and Press Releases

In the last ezine I talked about “How to Find Free and Low Cost Advertising Sites That Work”. Today I want to
show you how to maximize exposure of your ads with keyword optimization.

One way to super charge your paid and free ads is to write your copy with specific keywords in mind. The
reason for this is that if the title and the body of your ad includes the keyword, search engines will be much
more likely to pick up your ad, article or press release. The more focused your article, the higher up you’ll
show up in the search results for a specific keyword included in your article.

Believe it or not, even free ads can sometimes get to the top of Google and Yahoo within days of being
published. This will not only give you the benefit of exposure within the actual ad site, but possibly 100 times
the exposure in Google etc. This same principle is true when writing articles and press releases.
You can take a look at an example of mine by typing in “PromoBlackBox” into Google. You will find several links
to my videos on Myspace. By the way, video uploads to Myspace are free. Another example is my link
“PromoBlackBox Sales Reps Needed!!!” (located on “Ablewise” which is another site offering free advertising).
You can type other keywords into Google and find a plethora of ads about PromoBlackBox that were placed by
others on Craigslist (and other free ad sites). Notice that, because they include the keyword, they received
great page one placements in Google. And again, the same it true for articles and press releases as well.

The way I accomplished this was by having the keyword “PromoBlackBox” in mind
before writing the ads. When I write ads for use on FREE advertising sites like
Craigslist or Backpage, the first thing I do is select the keywords I want to target.
This interesting tip also enhances promotion of videos when you upload them
into Myspace (or other social marketing sites).

Let’s say that you want to get good visibility for the keyword “Business Opportunity”
or the “name” of your business opportunity. You would write the ad, being sure
to include the keyword in the headline and also in the body of the ad at least two
times. When writing articles and press releases, I also include my name and
company name (as additional keywords), so they will show up when people type
my name or company name into Google.

You can take an additional step to supercharge articles and press releases you
write by including recent quotes from celebrities, industry leaders and top
companies in your field. You can find recent statements by though leaders in
your business by do a search in Google such as…“keyword news”, “keyword
press releases”, “keyword articles” (replace keyword with your keyword). You’ll
be amazed at the number of quotes from high profile people you’ll find.

So next time, don’t just write an ad…super charge it. You might just get 3 to 100 times more response!

Never miss any of our “Marketing Insight” ezines. Subscribe now and be informed via e-mail or RSS feed.

Don’t Ride Your Bike In The Post Office

A couple of days ago I went to our little, tiny post office on the military base where I work. There is about enough room for 10 people to stand in line at this one clerk office.

I notice a sign on the wall as I was standing in line and just had to ask the postal clerk about it. The sign read, "No bicycles allowed in the post office."

I was definitely confused and could not understand why the sign had been posted, so, I asked the clerk.

He told me that about a week prior some guy rode his bike up the ramp to the post office entrance and went inside, along with his bike. He was told to please take the bike outside and he retorted that there was no sign stating that he couldn’t bring his bike in. He complained and whined and eventually took his bike outside muttering all kinds of threats and insults.

I couldn’t believe this. I was told it was true and that was why the sign had been posted. I joked with the clerk that I should go out and drive my truck inside, since there was no sign telling me that I couldn’t.

So, where am I going with this and how does this apply to article marketing?

Most article directories have a list of submission guidelines. They usually specify how long an article should be, what the rules are for links, and what HTML can or cannot be used.

There will be additional guidelines and each site will vary slightly in what they will or will not accept. But, we can’t cover everything in one or two pages of guidelines.

Just because I don’t have anything in writing about not posting graphics in the article resource box, doesn’t mean it is OK. Common sense should prevail.

Just because I didn’t say that you shouldn’t bold every other word, doesn’t mean you should.

Just because I didn’t say that you cannot embed a video in the middle of you article, doesn’t mean you can or should.

Just because it is OK to do it one way on another article directory site, doesn’t mean it is OK to do it on mine.

I think you get the drift. I cannot list each and every little thing that is or is not allowed. I list some general guidelines and then if your article is declined, it will come with an explanation. Please read them and make the corrections.

Most people just ignore the email that says their article was declined and then continue to break my set of rules. I put up with this for a little while, and then cancel the account. Then the person gets upset with me. Such is life.

Read the guidelines, follow the rules, check the reason your article was declined, and don’t ride your bike in the post office

How To Build An Opt-In Email List From Scratch

The most powerful tool in online “email” marketing is to build an opt-in mailing list. An opt-in mailing list is 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. The best gift of this powerful tool is the possibility of being able to talk to people who are particularly interested in your product, service or organization.

This gaining popularity of building opt-in mailing list is known as Permission Email Marketing.

There are do’s and don’ts in starting your opt-in mailing list. Here are some of the most important tips worth mentioning:

DO’S

1. Put a subscription form prominently on your website. You can create your own subscription form using a software Sign-Up to’s form builder.

2. Inform people that they can subscribe to your email list on the signature of your normal work emails. This will enable it to link straight through the form on your website.

3. Ask people permission if they do want to be subscribed on your mailing list. As much as possible avoid being suspected for SPAM.

4. Be clear on how people can benefit from subscribing and how often will you contact them. Make them know exactly what they will be receiving.

5. If you can, contact new subscriber as soon as you can. Welcome them with notes and tell them what to expect.

DON’T

1. Don't purchase lists that you are not 100% sure that are opt-in. Always have an evidence to prove the legitimacy of the opt-ins. Do not buy email lists, purchase opt-ins.

2. Don't add everyone who has ever emailed you to your list. Always ask permission first or have them sign up through your website.

3. Don't abuse people’s trust. This is a sure way to ruin your brand and you. Soon enough they will ignore your messages.

Building your opt-in mailing list is cheaper than in sending direct mails. Printing, envelopes and paper used as material further add up to the cost. Here are some ways to effectively start your opt-in mailing list:

1. Do offer a Free Newsletter. One of the most effective ways to build an opt-in list is to offer your online visitors freebies of value such as newsletter which will contain information that they can relate to such as tips, tools, recipes, travel itineraries and others.

2. Do Make it Easy to Subscribe. Provide easy steps for subscription so that subscribers may find it easy to do so and would not be discourage. For more subscribers, tell them the exact benefits they can get out of the subscription.

3. Do offer Quality Content. Be sure that what is written inside the newsletter, freebies and information found in your website are all of value to increase visitors dropping by your website.

4. Do participate in Forums. Discussion boards and forums are all over the net. Try to actively participate in these boards especially those in the line of your interest or your business. Try to build your reputation with credibility. In your forum discussions, always use signature ads. These are ads you would put in place of your signature. (ie: Who else wants to make an extra $150 a day? {always add your website link})

5. Do write articles. This makes you an instant expert in your chosen field of interest. You just have to play on it and use it well in your business goal.

6. Do write an e-book. An excellent freebie for those who visited and subscribe in your mailing list. The e-book does not have to be expensively made or elaborate but it can be a compilation or a collection of best articles, business tips and resources.

7. Most importantly do Co-registration. A very effective way to build a monster list in a very short time

How To Find Free and Low Cost Advertising Sites That Work

I get this question a lot. “Can you tell me great sites to advertise on for free (or very little) money?” In the early
days of my home business career I followed other people’s advice and advertised on the free and low cost ad
sites they recommended.

Frankly, most sources, especially from popular teachers that have training sites, are useless. These free sites
may have been great sources when the teachers found them, but after thousands of their pupils started
advertising on them as well, (often promoting the same opportunity) they’re pretty much useless.

The free sites on how2succeedonline are much fresher since I am constantly searching for new ones that have
enough traffic to deliver good results. Today I will teach you a technique that I use to find free sites that haven’t
been so beat up with overuse. In essence, I’m going to show you how to fish for vehicles that will give you a
constant stream of fresh, new advertising venues with less competition.

This is so simple it will blow your mind…which is, of course, true of many of the most successful techniques. By
the way, I found many of my favorite ad sites this way!

Let’s start by typing in “Business Opportunity” into Google Search or any search engine you prefer. You can
use the keywords that you currently use to promote your business (i.e. “make money online”, “Home Based
Business”, etc.). You can even do a search for the keyword of the opportunity you represent like “EDC Gold”
“PWF” or “1Step System”, etc.

Then I look for optimized search results that appear on the left side of the page
(not the pay per click part of the page). As I go down the page, I look for ads that
are part of forums or ad sites. You’ll find several ads on the top three pages that
are ad-posting on third party sites offering advertising vs. company owned or
opportunity sites that just talk about their product, service or opportunity. Many
of these sites offer free or low cost advertising. And best of all, Google has found
these sites and elevated their index (so they appear on pages 1-3 of the search
results), even in highly competitive areas where popular keywords are used.

You’ll find more quality sites than you know what to do with, just with the use of a
few keywords.

Next, place your ads on several of these sites. To maximize your response, make
sure your ad is keyword dense (lots of keywords repeated throughout the text of
the ad). If you do, not only will you benefit from the traffic that advertising site produces, but you’ll also benefit
from the very high listing on Google and other search engines, which will boost your traffic by possibly hundred
fold.

Another technique you can try is typing the words “Free Advertising Help” into Google. It’s not as good as my
first recommendation, but still better that joining other team members and advertising on the same pages being
used by thousands of direct competitors.

On one of the next articles I’ll talk about is how to super charge your ad for search optimization…you’ll be
amazed.

“Increase Quality or Bid $5.00 to Activate”

Solutions For Google Adwords


If you’ve ever done a Google Adwords campaign, you might have come across this message for one of your
keyword which reads “Increase quality or bid $5.00 to activate.”

First, let’s look at the reason for this. When Google looks at any placement, it looks at
relevancy (perceived relevancy in this case) as discussed in previous Marketing Insight
ezines. The reason you have gotten this message is that Google feels that your ad
does not relate to the keyword - so it de-activates that keyword. What this message is
also saying is that, if you don’t know how to use Google Adwords, you should be paying
5 times more than necessary. So what do you do?

WHAT NOT TO DO:
Google make fortunes from people who are so desperate to have their ad shown on
that keyword that they agree to the given price. That is a huge mistake and will cost
you big. Imagine your lead cost going up by 5 times for that keyword!

Here are two better options for you:

1.) Remove the keyword from that campaign and place it into another ad group that is
more relevant or create an ad group campaign that has the keyword in the headline.
This is what you should have done from the beginning - group related keywords
together so they make sense.

Here are some examples:

· GROUPING THE WRONG WAY – keywords like Home Business,
Earn Money, Online Business, Make Money Fast with an ad that reads
“Make $20,000/mo From Home”. The problem is, even though the ad
might be good, the keywords are too different and do not match the ad,
therefore your ad is being de-activated.

· GROUPING THE RIGHT WAY – The right way to do it is to set up 3 separate
ad groups for the above keywords and add related, similar keywords to it
like this – Home Business, Home Based Business, Business from Home, etc.
– The ad would read – “Best Home Based Business” or
“$1,000/Day-Home Business” (some of the keywords are in the title)

Create another ad group for your other keywords like - Earn Money, Earn Money
from Home, Earn Extra Money, etc. Your ad would include some if not all keywords
in the title like – “Earn Money Fast”, “Earn Money While Sleeping” “Earn $3,000/Day”,
etc.

In other words, when you have the keywords matching the selection of words used in your ad, and your
keywords appear in the headline, your ad will rarely be deactivated.

You just accomplished two things…not only will you not have to pay the higher price , instead, more likely, your
cpc will drop even lower than what you paid before they asked you to increase your bid. Plus your click rate is
even higher because the ad is more relevant.

2.) The other thing you can do is just delete the keyword for a few days and put it back up. Most likely, you’ll
be back to the original bid price.

Bottom line, Google will reward you for relevancy and will charge you extra for generality. So, next time you get
this message, do the smart thing and retool your adwords campaign and don’t just pay the requested increase.

Never miss any of our “Marketing Insight” ezines. Subscribe now and be informed via e-mail or RSS feed.

How to Double Your Response in Google Adwords

The #1 mistake that costs online advertisers thousands

95% of advertisers make this mistake. As discusses in my other article titled “How Google evaluates Your
Adwords Campaign”, Google works very differently from other search engines concerning pay per click
campaigns.

So what's the #1 mistake that costs the average advertiser thousands? The answer is encompassed in two
simple words – “Content Network”. Google will probably never tell you this because they make too much money
from unknowing novices spending more than needed, being unaware of their “Content Network”.

When setting up any pay per click campaign in Google (Google Adwords), there are three main areas in which
you can display your ad:
· Google Search
· Google Search Network
· Google Content Network

Google Search and Google Search Network normally deliver relevant searchers.
By default however, Google already has their Content Network checked for you
on their ad set-up page. But how closely matched is the Content Network to your
Adwords? Usually it's not well matched at all. You will get lots of clicks from
responders to these extended relevance sites, however, the quality of this traffic
is horrific at best. Not only is the traffic terrible, your click rate will be much lower
when including the Content Network. What's worse, if you remember my last article,
one of the key factors that affects your ad position is your “average click rate", so
this can be a double negative whammy. By just de-selecting “Content Network”
(in the “Edit Campaign Settings”) you can significantly improve the click rate of your
campaign which will then also give you better ad positioning.

Remember, the better your click rate, the higher your ad will be positioned. If your click rate drops below about
0.5%, your ad will rarely display at all. On the other hand, if you have a click rate of 2%, 3% or even higher,
your ad will be positioned much higher than if evaluated by price alone.

One more negative alert – click fraud within the “content network” is much greater.

Another great way to improve your ROI and lower your cost per click is to examine where your traffic is coming
from within the Google Search Network. If you determine that a lot of traffic is coming from partner sites like
www.ask.com for example, you could eliminate the “Search Network” targeting as well and save some additional
money. Advertising on these partner sites directly will save you about 50% for each click. The downside, of
course, is that it will take more time to manage the extra campaigns. It also depends on your overall budget.
The more you invest, the more it is worth looking at the option of eliminating the Search Network as well and
setting up separate campaigns on sites like ask.com.

The bottom-line is that, just by de-selecting “Content Network” you will dramatically improve your results and
save huge amounts of money.

Look for our next article, where we’ll look at the 2nd biggest mistake when doing Google Adwords. Sign up for
our “Marketing Insight” ezine and be one of the first to view it.

The article is brought to you by A Billionaire Secret

How Google Ranks Your Pay Per Click Campaign

Let me first say that Google Adwords (Google pay per click), when done correctly, will give you the best return
on your money compared to other online advertising options. At the same time, if you don't know how Google
evaluates your campaign, it could cost you a fortune.

Let’s first examine how Google is different from other search vehicles. Most search
engines base the placement of your ad on how much you pay per click, i.e., the one
who pays the most for a specific keyword will be positioned in the #1 spot.

Not so with Google. In an attempt to deliver more relevant content to its readers,
Google uses several parameters to determine the order in which it serves up its ads.
Not knowing or ignoring these parameters can cost you big! And unless your enterprise
has very deep pockets, it can even mean the difference between success and failure.

When doing a pay per click campaign on Google, your ad position will be based on
keyword selection, ad relevance to keywords, bid price, average click rate, how long
visitors stay on your site, and even the match of your landing page to your ad and
keyword. Essentially, you could be paying the most per click and be listed in the 5
position! Or vise versa, you could be paying less than the top 5 bidders and be in
the #1 spot!

When setting up your Google Adwords (pay per click) campaign, all these elements
will affect your position in the ranking, so make sure that:
· Your keywords are not too broad
· Your ad relates to your keywords (keyword grouping is important)
· Your bid price is at least competitive
· Your click rate is good (above 1-3% is great, below 0.5% is a killer)
· Keywords you choose match the content on your landing page
· You use text instead of Flash. This is very important…using Flash landing
pages without text will affect your ad position in a negative way (Google
perceives pages with no information the same as pages with non relevant
information).

The more you adhere to these parameters, the lower your cost per click and the
better your conversions will be. I appreciate Google's well thought out ranking
policies. When searching online for info, I hate nothing more than clicking on an ad that
sends me to a page that has little or nothing to do with what I am researching. If I don't
see relevant information within a few seconds, I'm gone, and irritated about the waste of
time!

Look for our next article, where we’ll cover “The biggest mistake when doing Google Adwords”. Sign up for our
“Marketing Insight” ezine and be the first to view it.

The article is brought to you by A Billionaire Secret

Make Money Online by Marketing Info Products - Guide and Tips

If there is one bit of advice I can ever give you, whether it be about marketing or business success in general, it is a quote from Russell Crowe in Gladiator:

“On my mark, unleash hell.”

Yes, you might have heard one or two other marketers quoting this very same line. And with good reason. That one line epitomizes the very core of what all marketing programs teach you. Here’s a break down:

Find your target
Pick a market that is favorable for approach. It doesn’t have to be the perfect idea, just one that works on paper, and most importantly, something that you know you can do while maintaining interest. Also you should do some online research to find out the demand level of your target market. You certainly do want to sell in a market that is poor in demand.

Prepare your approach
Mark out the main spots – what sort of advertising mediums can you use? What is your budget? What is your exact strategy for each medium? No need to go into excruciating details, but you should know, for example, your allocated monthly budget for your PPC campaign, your target keywords and the expected cost-per-click for each keyword. This will at the very least help you monitor your advertising and tune it based on the results.

Intense marketing
There are two different approaches in this regard. Use the first one if you can afford to spend a lot of money on traffic, use the second if most of your advertising budget will be paid for by your business even at the start.

- All-out marketing, pulling out all the stops at once, complete blanketing of your target market.
- Slow build-up, tackling different advertising mediums one by one, building to crescendo effect where at the end, you replicate the effect in the ‘all-out marketing’ technique.

Taken by itself, the term ‘unleash hell’ is also used to describe another valuable business lesson:

If you have a product, or a business idea, or a service to sell, get it out there! Take your business to the market first, worry about refining and managing later.

Essentially, don’t wait months to find the perfect idea. Pick an idea that’s good enough, and launch your business. If you are a resume writer and want to sell your services online, throw up a website, put up your basic contact and payment information and begin promotion.

Too often people wait too long until they have the ‘finished’ product before starting their marketing campaigns. A newcomer shouldn’t waste their time like that. The product will be developed along the way through customer interaction anyway. On the other hand, there is no way you’ll make any money without traffic. So go get that traffic, and ‘perfection’ will come in due time.

How To Publish Your Way To Success

Did you know, self-publishing is one of the easiest ways to make money on the web. Of course, it requires talent, but it's easier to learn than you might think.
Getting Started:

Choose a subject that interests you. Select a subject you enjoy or want to learn about. As an example for this article, we will use "Computer Tips."

Okay, next collect the information to put in the book about "Computer Tips". A good idea to collect tips would be to use your own knowledge, contacts, friends, online associates, family members, even neighbors.

Contact everyone you know who owns a computer; ask them to share their favorite computer tips with you. Tell them if you use their tip you will include their name in the book. After several contacts you should have acquired a stack of solid information.
Now, it's time to start sorting the information and separating it into categories. For example beginner tips, hardware tips, software tips, online tips, troubleshooting tips. Place each category into its own file. Each of these categories will be the chapters in your book.

Next, begin composing your book on the computer. Don't panic! It's not that hard. Write a brief intro. Write your name and contact information, any copyright information, a brief disclaimer. Publishing date, origin of publishing.

Remember all those tips you collected. Select the best tips of the lot. Now break that down into brief chapters.

Now end the book with a pertinent ending sentence or paragraph. Your name, contact information and a link back to your website.

Now the book is ready to publish.. You've read everything and checked for misspelled words or obvious grammar mistakes. You are now ready to see the final result of your hard work.

If you publish online you will need an eBook creator, which could cost anywhere from $29 and up. Or you might decide to search online with Google or Yahoo for "free eBook creation software" and download.

Download the software and take it for a test drive. Follow the instructions on setting up your files and publishing.

If your eBook is less than 10 pages you might decide to call it a report. More than 10 pages would classify as an eBook.

Well, alright now. Let's sell that book and make a profit! One good idea is to call all the people who offered you tips for your book. Price the book around $20.00 Sounds like a deal! Especially for people hungry for helpful tips from a savvy computer expert like you.

Offer all the contributors a discount on your new book. Maybe a 50 percent discount. Everyone who contributes would certainly love to have a copy with their byline (name) included. This is called ego stroking sales tactics (works for me!)

Have a website? Offer the eBook to all your website visitors. Set up a sales page advertising your book along with ordering instructions. You will want to set up a shopping cart to handle sales. Or alternatively use a service like pay pal or clickbank to handle sales without the hassle of needing a merchant account. Note: Although clickbank cost money to host your book you will attract affiliates who will eagerly sell your book. This translates to more profits.

Also, consider contacting ezine owners online. Offer them a free copy of your book in exchange for advertising space in their publication. Visit online ezine directories and search for ezines in a similar category as your book. Contact the editor with pertinent details.

It's amazingly easy to create your very own book online. There's no hidden secret to publishing. So called publishing guru's want you to think they have the answers or insider secrets. For most of those on the Internet the so called secret is just a good idea and a way to reach targeted customers.

Every person reading this article has a book inside of them! Think about it. Everybody knows something about a topic that other people would pay good money to learn about. You can be sure!

So, what are you waiting for? Get Busy! Pick a topic, gather the information, and process it. You'll be a published writer online. Others will think of you as their writer friend. You'll be able to strut your stuff with a certain pride. Yup, I'm a writer! And place that on all your emails, letters, stationary, and business cards.

Use Keywords In Page Titles

By: Siam

It is recommended to use keywords in page titles itself. This title tag is different from a Meta tag, but it's worth considering it in relation to them. Whatever text one places in the title tag (between the title and /title portions) will appear in the title bar of browsers when they view the web page. Some browsers also append whatever you put in the title tag by adding their own name, as for example Microsoft's Internet Explorer or OPERA.

The actual text you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how a search engine may decide to rank your web page. In addition, all major web crawlers will use the text of your title tag as the text they use for the title of your page in your listings.

If you have designed your website as a series of websites or linked pages and not just a single Home Page, you must bear in mind that each page of your website must be search engine optimized. The title of each page i.e. the keywords you use on that page and the phrases you use in the content will draw traffic to your site.

The unique combination of these words and phrases and content will draw customers using different search engine terms and techniques, so be sure you capture all the keywords and phrases you need for each product, service or information page.

The most common mistake made by small business owners when they first design their website is to place their business name or firm name in every title of every page. Actually most of your prospective customers do not bother to know the name of your firm until after they have looked at your site and decided it is worth book marking.

So, while you want your business name in the title of the home page, it is probably a waste of valuable keywords and space to put it in the title line of every page on your site. Why not consider putting keywords in the title so that your page will display closer to the top of the search engine listing.
Dedicating first three positions for keywords in title avoiding the stop words like ‘and’, ‘at’ and the like is crucial in search engine optimization.

Avoid "Bad" Manners While Blogging

Blogging, the hottest trend in online publishing right now, is currently spreading like wildfire across the Internet.

A cross between an online journal and a bulletin board, everyone from rock starts, politicians, business leaders and your average "Joe" or "Jane" can instantly become a center of influence online using blogs.

But, as with any social interaction, certain rules apply (my grandma calls them manners) in order to be viewed as behaving "properly."

One of the things that give blogging such strong appeal as an online publishing method revolves around "comments."

Blogs that allow "comments" enable readers to respond and elaborate on the information posted by the blog owner.

These comments and the free exchange of information, opinions, links, and new ideas creates the dynamic and growing content that makes blogging such a popular online activity for both publishers and readers.

However, rules and unwritten customs about the proper use of "comments" on a specific blog are also where most of the problems and controversy will arise.

Since a successful blog eventually becomes a community of people (albeit in cyberspace), proper social behavior is critical to be an effective and accepted member of the community.

Keep these basic rules in mind when approaching a new blog that allows commenting by readers so you won't find yourself on the wrong end of a scolding by people who operate with a different set of rules than you.

As with any social circle, violating the group's rules and customs will instantly cause a negative backlash.

** Keep It Relevant **

Stay on topic with the post you're commenting about in a blog. Nothing will earn you the wrath and disdain of your fellow posters and the blog owner faster than posting an off-topic comment.

** Watch What Others Do **

Different blogs operate under different rules. What rates acceptable in one blog would earn you a verbal thrashing in another. Before posting (especially if you have not posted to a specific blog before), look to see the types and quality of posts others make regularly. Are they long or short? Do they contain a link to the person's website? Is there a "signature" under their name?

** Be Polite **

It's fine to disagree with people when making a comment, whether it's the blog's author or a comment made by another reader. It is not, however, acceptable to launch a personal attack on anyone or make nasty comments in someone else's blog. If you feel the need to do so, do it in your own blog. It's the same principle of you can say whatever you want in your own house, but when you're in someone else's house, you act right (and better than you do at home).

** You Can't Respond to Everyone **

If you operate a blog and someone asks a question, try to respond, but both sides should understand that you can't respond 100% of the time.