Must-Have Internet Marketing Tools

By Daegan H Smith

A carpenter, no matter how skilled, won't be able to work without his hammer. A painter can't paint without paint. Skills and experience are always helpful in any kind of business, but they aren't enough in the long run. You need tools, materials, or resources to help you attain your goals. The same holds true in Internet marketing.

Must-Have Internet Marketing Tools

The following Internet marketing tools may not be considered a necessity, but the benefits you can derive from them are not something you should disregard.

Get People to Subscribe to Your RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are one of the easiest ways to update past, present, and future customers of the latest going-ons in your business or website. RSS saves time and effort for everyone and since they're simple and relatively free to create, giving them a chance won't hurt your business. To maximize the benefits from RSS feeds, consider posting a link to RSS FAQ in your page so that people who haven't yet tried subscribing to RSS feeds will finally have an idea of what they're missing on.

Make Good Use of Emails

Although the system of sending and receiving emails isn't flawless, it's certainly more reliable and effective than having your mail handled by the post office. Emails are one of the most underestimated Internet marketing tools online and it's high time you put them into good use.

Firstly, use emails for an efficient way to provide customer service and support. Being able to respond to your customers' inquiries and concerns in a reasonable period of time will build consumer loyalty and strengthen your customer base.

Use email to send newsletters to your customers. Instead of spending a lot of money having actual newsletters printed and mailed, create a digital version and send them for free to your customers. And since there's no need to worry about the costs of creating and distributing newsletters, youíre free to send them out more frequently than usual. Of course, be sure not to flood the inboxes of your customers or your plan would just backfire.

Lastly, create an email-based auto-response system so that you can right away acknowledge specified actions taken by your customers.

Create Events that Allow Interaction and Participation

It can be a contest or an event where your customers can interact with a famous figure. It doesn't matter what kind of event you end up organizing just as long as it can generate positive hype for the business.

In creating events, you must keep the following considerations in mind.

Firstly, there must be something you're offering in exchange. For contests, the rewards are obviously the ones serving as an incentive for people to visit your website and participate. Be sure that you spell out the rewards or benefits clearly.

Secondly, what you get from these events must be naturally greater than what you're spending on it. Don't offer what you can't afford to give. Thirdly, don't forget to have press releases created. They'll make sure that your target market is aware of your event.

Get a Blog

People tend to prefer businesses that they can boast of being 'personally' familiar with. With a blog, you can get your customers to know more about you as a person and hopefully win their trust and loyalty in the process. It's also a good way of learning more about your target market and using this knowledge to improve your products, services, and operation.

About The Author:

Daegan Smith Is And Expert Online Marketer "Wanna Lean The Secret To Making $85,147,717 Per Month While Quickly And Easily EXPLODING Your Network Marketing Organization by 7,141 People Without EVER Buying Or Calling a Single Stinking Lead?" Free CD Explains All: http://www.easymlmprofits.com

Top Internet Marketing Strategies For New Websites

By Daegan H Smith

It is your first time to open shop online and you're wondering what you should do to make your presence felt. The Internet is a daunting world. It's almost as vast and unlimited as the universe, making the prospect of getting your website within your target market's radar seemingly impossible. Be that as it may, your new website still has a chance of surviving and especially if you consider the following tips.

Top Internet Marketing Strategies for New Websites

In the Internet, paid advertisements are definitely bigger and brighter, but search engines still give free advertisements a fighting chance. Here's what you can do to make your new website known without spending too much money.

Create the Best Website You Can

No Internet marketing strategy can help you if your website isn't worth visiting in the first place. Start with the design. You want the kind of web layout and design that your target market will instantly find appealing. The layout must also be user-friendly: it won't do to have your readers lost and unable to find their way back to your homepage. In most cases, navigation will be made easier by creating highly discernible links and uploading a site map.

Understand How Search Engine Optimization Works

Search engines can make or break you. If youíre not in the good side of search engines then it's almost impossible for your website to get noticed by the right people. If you want your target market to discover your website, you need to know how to please search engine spiders.

You need to understand, for instance, why using HTML codes is a positive thing, even if it offers less flexibility and options than other and more sophisticated languages. You need to understand the importance of keywords and the dos and don'ts that come along with using them.

Content Is King

Your website must offer valuable content. Search engines may be responsible for getting readers to notice your website, but it's the content that will ultimately be responsible for making them come back to your website again and again.

Content is what makes visiting your website into a habit. For content to be valuable, it must have relevance to your readers. If teenagers make up your target market then you need to discuss something they can relate to. Talking about the most popular TV shows might get them to listen to you but discussing the stock market would just fall on deaf ears.

Secondly, the data you're providing must be of interest to your target market. It's not enough to simply discuss an important subject. You need to show them what they'll get from it. Ecology is an important issue, but do people generally find time to learn more about it? But with the right perspective or approach, such as using Leonardo di Caprio as spokesperson or pointing how unawareness of ecological issues could cause them to die in five years, even the most boring of subjects will be diligently pursued.

Spell Out the Benefits

People just seem to get busier and busier everyday, and that's one of the reasons why they don't have the patience or inclination to check out websites whose benefits are ambiguous at most. If you want people to pay attention to your website, you need to find the equivalent to having a neon signage flashing the benefits of visiting your website. The message must be simple, straight forward, and powerful: let them know what they'll get and they'll come to you if they want it.

About The Author:

Daegan Smith Is And Expert Online Marketer "Wanna Lean The Secret To Making $85,147,717 Per Month While Quickly And Easily EXPLODING Your Network Marketing Organization by 7,141 People Without EVER Buying Or Calling a Single Stinking Lead?" Free CD Explains All: http://www.easymlmprofits.com

Assessing The Real Value Of An Expired Domain

Article By John Khu

Newbie expired domain traders often find it very difficult to assess the real value of their domains. In fact, judging the real quality of an expired domain that you are thinking of buying
could be a hard game. However, when you understand the basics and fundamentals of expired domain industry, how it operates and works, how you can sell a good domain to a prospective buyer and how you can extract maximum benefits from an domain expired, then it becomes possible to create a blueprint for generating a substantial amount of online income.

Knowing more about the expired domain that you wish to purchase will help you in the long run. There are several tools that come handy, while you search for a very good expired domain. Here are some of them:

Using Wayback Archive: This is an excellent utility that can help you know more about the quality of expired domain that you are planning to buy. With this tool, you can inspect how a domain looked in the past, what was the main activity, what were the products sold or what type of information provided there. Knowing about the antecedent of an expired domain will help you in designing a solid future strategy for your business.

Using Linkpop feature: This is a tool that finds out the total sum of links to other productive web sites. This is a utility that also helps you detect the number of links and incoming traffic to a domain.

Overture with and without extensions: Overture Keyword Selector Tool is an excellent tool that displays how many times a search was made in one of the major search engines for a specific period, say one month. Google Pagerank or PR: This is yet another tool that helps you find out a particular expired domain's commercial importance, by the total number of votes it received by links and sources from other web portals.

Alexa Ratings: This web site ranks a particular web domain by the total number of visitors to a particular web site. The user must use Alexa.com web site tool bar to conduct the search.

These wonderful tools come very useful and handy, when you want to assess and evaluate the quality of a particular expired domain. However, the most important factors that you must consider before buying an expired domain are:

a) Accuracy of Linkpop estimates

b) Most probable incoming traffic and links

c) Overture Keyword tool evaluation to test what advertisers are paying for targeted traffic.

d) Checking to see, if the expired domain in question provides a click through rates of about 5%. This is often the most difficult part of the exercise.

In the end, the choosiest domain is the one that provides you an excellent opportunity to extract and squeeze the best possible income. A good expired domain is also the one that provides you an excellent click through rate when you expose it to a lucrative domain parking or PPC campaign.

About the Author:

John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

Three Major Mistakes By New Online Business Entrants

By Rami Doleh

People who are starting their journey to establish their own online business, usually commit fatal mistakes that will result in the usual disappointments that we often see in this marketplace.

In this article we will list the usual mistakes committed by new entrants into the online business marketplace hoping that we will be able to help them avoid such mistakes from the very beginning.

Mistake No. 1: New entrants, or as the market calls them "newbies," usually start with excessive energy and the first thing they do is to search for online opportunities. This is the first huge mistake.

Mistake No. 2: A huge percentage of the opportunities that will come out of the search conducted in Mistake No. 1 are affiliate opportunities. A newbie would become more excited here after reading the hyped up sales letters that he/she is getting. Eventually the newbie will do the inevitable and take out the credit card to join one of those opportunities that promise income in no time. Even if the idea was legit and in many cases it will be, the prospect still does not know anything about online business, let alone affiliate marketing.

Mistake No. 3: After few days the newbie will discover that the opportunity that he/she joined is not making any money, so now its time to quit and search for something else. The newbie does
not know that the problem is not really in the affiliate opportunity. Actually the newbie most probably still does not know that he/she is involved in affiliate marketing. After few trials with different affiliate opportunities the newbie realizes that this online business thing is crap and waste of time and money.

The above three mistakes can very easily be joined into one. The huge mistake that is conducted here is getting into online business head first without knowing anything about it.

The first step in anything in life is learning. Before thinking of establishing an online business, a newbie needs to know the following:

1 - What is online business and its different models?
2 - What is online marketing and how does it differ from one model to another?
3 - What are the different tools of online marketing?

These three questions are not easy to answer and online gurus have written a lost of e-books and articles trying to answer one or more of those questions. A newbie needs to search and read as much as possible about the above three issues so that he/she can create a personal opinion and then a decision.

The main resources a newbie should concentrate on to gather such information are the free Resources. Don't go on buying e-books at the beginning, there is a lot of free information on the net. After you have exhausted this aspect you will have better knowledge to be able to decide which material to buy and which to avoid.

What are those free resources?:

1 - Articles Directories
2 - Blogs
3 - Forums

After getting the appropriate knowledge a newbie is able to do take the following decisions consciously:

1-Which online business model he/she going to adopt.
2-Which marketing strategy and tools he/she is going to use.

This means if the newbie is going to search for affiliate opportunities, he/she is going to do it consciously knowing exactly what to look for.

In this article we have followed the steps approach, which means get the knowledge first and then have the business. We admit that there is another approach which is learning by doing. This means getting involved in a business and then applying what you learn to that business. This is a good approach only if you know which online business model you want to adopt.

Affiliate opportunities have started creating training resources and courses to enable their affiliates do a better job marketing their products and services.

The problem that I find here is that only a few affiliate opportunities have constructed a structured training that would train affiliates with zero background on the ins and outs of
affiliate marketing. The majority have opted on collecting e-books and other resources and put them in one place for their members to read.

About The Author:

Rami Doleh has dedicated all available resources to put people on the right track and help them establish their affiliate business. For More Information and to find how to contact Rami for any questions visit http://www.BusinessFountains.com/affiliate-Opportunities

A Perspective On Starting An Internet Home Business

By Ronald Mills

The Internet is one of the few things that changed everything. For example, not too long ago, public access to high speed communication consisted primarily of the radio, telephone and television. With the exception of the telephone, the communication is in one direction only. But, with the Internet, we can communicate interactively and to a far greater extent than with the telephone. Imagine that!

In just a few short years, the Internet has become a substantial forum for education, entertainment, communication and for conducting business. It facilitates the exchange of a wide variety of products and services. Some examples include books, movies, toys, power tools, music, furniture, appliances, medicine and a ton of information on just about any topic. The consumer is highly selective and the business owner is focused on learning how to form and sustain a mutually beneficial business relationship. Establishing that relationship isn't always easy, but it might not be as difficult as you might image. Why? Because if you have the desire to be successful and the commitment to learn and take the appropriate action, then you can be successful.

The successful business owner is one who: a) has the capacity to offer the right product or service, b) can enter a niche by giving the consumer something competitors have not thought of, heard of, or were unable to obtain, and c) is willing and able to work hard at making their internet home business presence known. The enterprising individual will find that the internet
makes it possible to sell goods and services without having to maintain an inventory, employ a sales force, or even deal with shipping! In addition, there are some home business opportunities where the owner doesn't even have to worry about making or receiving telephone calls.

So, how do you get started? Well, starting an internet home business begins with the development of a business plan. That's very important. You know what they say about not planning, don't you? They say that those who don't develop a plan are actually planning to fail! The business plan outlines what will be sold to whom, and how the business will be advertised to reach the targeted consumer group. The plan also includes specific benchmarks for performance. This allows the entrepreneur to regularly monitor how well the business performs against established objectives. In this way, the plan is continuously improved to ensure the success of the business. This so-called paperwork must not be neglected. If it is, then the business will ultimately suffer. Worse case is that the entrepreneur may go out of business. So, like they say, you need to plan your work and work your plan!

The next step is to set up a website. Maybe you've heard it said that sooner or later one realizes that they need their own web site? It can be set up by the entrepreneur or out-sourced. Some might yield to the temptation to set up their own web site and that's ok if they know exactly what they are doing and how to do it. Otherwise, they should out-source it. Why? Because their web site is the visible presence of their business, just like a building would be. Imagine how few customers would visit a dysfunctional and run-down looking building! Your web site doesn't have to be the slickest thing out there, but it must be in good shape with respect to download speed, ease of use and the presentation of graphics and text. So, whether you set it up yourself or out-source it, make sure your web site is presentable for doing business.

The above addresses only two of the basic start-up steps. While they are certainly important, there are also other important steps required for the start-up, operation and sustained growth of an internet home business.

About The Author:

Ronald Mills is the owner of http://LongTermProfit.biz and believes that the right education
and training increases the odds for long-term profitability. To learn more, sign up for his FREE Home Business Tips Newsletter at http://www.LongTermProfit.biz

Are You Aware What Is Required In An Internet Home Business?

By Muneer Al-Busaidi

Having a home based business opportunity has such a strong appeal that if you were to search for home business on the internet you find thousands of websites. It is actually possible to find every sort of opportunity imaginable from being a customer service agent to becoming a professional home stager. No matter your race, gender, culture or religion, the internet does not discriminate and you can find something that would suit you personally. At the end of the day, it just comes down to knowing what it is that you want!

Your first obstacle in the search for an internet home business is finding an interest. Once you have overcome this obstacle it is all about asking yourself various questions about what you are looking to achieve with this business. Asking questions about how much time you can spend on growing it, conflicts with your schedule, personal agenda or caring for your children? Once you fully comprehend these aspects, it is time to move into other areas of the business. Get familiar with tools that you will be utilizing during your internet career. Get a computer or laptop, an internet connection, and somewhere to work in peace.

Do you understand all that needs to be done, or should you be taking courses online at the same time in order to learn what to do? Many of the home based opportunities that you can do via the
internet will offer various courses that you can do in your own time as well as possible phone contact with a mentor who is experienced in this business. Let us not forget the possibility of learning online via books from your local library to increase overall knowledge of business in general.

Make sure you understand the income potential of what you choose to do. Will ends meet in your household once you undertake this path? As a general rule, it is important to save for three months to assist you in your everyday expenses and other basic needs. Try not to put yourself in situations where you can fall behind on payments or have to live of one dollar noodles for a month!

It is only once you have fully understood the requirement of your internet opportunity, and once the precautions have been made to begin your business in a well planned and thought out process, that you will find that you are prepared. You will experience the joys of earning from the comfort of your home and being truly independent from the hassles of an employer. Your time would be your own to manage, and you will comfort knowing that you do not need to sacrifice time with your family to pursue an indefinite future.

By following these outlined suggestions you can prevent otherwise unforeseen circumstances concerning your pay, your overall satisfaction and the like. Poor planning of the business has been attributed to the statistically 90% failure of home businesses in their first year. Preparing for the journey before you begin however is the simple solution and knowing what you know now, you can put your best foot forward and make the leap.

About The Author:

Muneer Al-Busaidi is a successful internet marketer and has found success with Success University. Learn more about this AS SEEN ON TV opportunity and development program by visiting: http://www.MoneyTimeSecurity.com

How To Succeed In Marketing On The Internet!

By Chandrasoma Perera

If you want to succeed in internet marketing you have to have the Never Give Up Attitude. You have to keep on trying and trying. You should be like rubber balls jump back when you fall and keep bouncing back after failing to get a sale through with a customer.

Internet Marketers are not the type who feels dejected after being rejected once by a customer. They know the art of coming back with a fresh alternate approach to get a YES every time they get a NO from a prospective customer. They possess the knack to analyze a rejection and amend, alter or change their approach accordingly and get the acceptance and finalize the
sale. In marketing many a sales is made after customer had said No. That is the real challenge for a marketer to change a NO from his prospective customer to a YES.

The ideal person who can get results is the one Who Would Not Dare to Go up To the Gate of the Heaven and Honk until the Door to heaven Opens for him!

That is the characteristic that is needed to make a sale. It is persistence at its best. It is the willingness to go beyond the barriers to get what you want and not stop until you get it. This stick-to- a-task attitude and the result oriented frame of mind is very essential to be a successful internet marketer. Of course, the internet marketer should be armed with all the related information available to provide to the customer who always want to know more and more like Oliver Twist asking for more. In the internet environment it is a situation that more
and more information on strengths and weaknesses of similar products from your competitors are readily available to the customers in the market. This make it more difficult to satisfy the customers and attract them to by from you.

That is why, in Internet business it is not easy to woo a customer. Many sales letters, email promotions, solo and classified advertisements are glanced at and deleted because people have less time today. Time has value. So, your efforts should be always to grab the attention of a prospective customer. After seeing an offer again and again many times only the customer think of giving attention to it or subscribe.

What you offer may be excellent but to get the customer attention you have to present it in an eye catching way to draw customer-instant-attention to make him look at it more than once and even prompt him to read it. That is where advertising comes in. Even then, since there are similar products, similar services competing for customer attention, you are required to put in to it a great deal of innovative thinking so the manner of presenting will make the difference in attracting customer attention.

The prospective customers may not read every word that appears on your advertisement, email or news letter. Therefore, it should be attention grabbing for the customer to glance through before deleting or setting it aside to see for a second time. This is why online marketing is not easy as many thinks. There are big timers, seasoned marketers who could afford to spend big dollars lavishly on skillfully created advertising presentations to grab the customers. They can do it but for you and me it is difficult and we have to keep on trying in an economically tight manner as our advertising budgets are limited.

In Internet Marketing there are many methods used to woo the customers like building your own list of subscribers and communicating to them on a regular basis till they get convinced to buy, sending emails to safe-lists, advertising online and off-line, article marketing, using blogs etc. With all these marketing approaches too it is still difficult to capture a prospective subscriber to complete a sale in the midst of sever competition online that prevail due to the openness and speedy ex-changeability of information etc in the internet.

So it is the one who has the will to win, persistence, courage and willingness to try, try, try and try again till the result is seen, who can succeed in Internet Marking Arena.

For an example of a site that attractively present products to catch the eye of customers visit: - http://www.chanano.com

About The Author:

The Author is Chandrasoma Perera who is the owner of http://chanano.com and http://guideonlinebiz.com and Chandrasoma writes regularly on wide variety of subjects. To
learn more about starting your own home based business earning six streams of income visit http://www.chanano.com

Reputation Management Tips

By Brick Marketing

Managing your company's reputation on the Internet is one of the many ancillary marketing strategies that have emerged from the explosive rise of search engine marketing over the last decade or so and is no small consideration for businesses of all sizes now and for the near future.

Why is reputation management relevant to your company?

The short answer: Reputation management matters because more and more people use information found online to influence their purchasing decisions. If someone searches for your company's name or one of your products only to find negative feedback on the first search results page, the sales opportunity is lost.

Remember the old adage about bad news traveling faster than good news? The Internet not only validates the truth in that statement, it accelerates it.

Because your company's reputation on the Web matters now more than ever, here are some reputation management tips to help you get started:

1. Determine your company's current reputation – Find out how your company is perceived online. Conduct searches using your company name and look for negative feedback on blogs, forums, and other online communities where people might leave feedback about your firm. Also think about subscribing to Google Alerts and other online services where you receive notice when new postings appear online containing the keywords and phrases you have chosen.

2. Issue press releases regularly – Use the power of well-written, newsworthy press releases to announce company anniversaries, new product launches, promotions, relocations, etc.

3. Build online profiles – Connect with your target audience through social media sites such as MySpace, FaceBook, and others. Social media sites are a great way to post positive information about your company. Make sure that your company name appears in the URL.

4. Register domains – Register domains with your company name whenever possible. If your preferred name is already taken, get creative and use variations to get your firm name somewhere in the domain name. Use the name in the content of the site. Write your site content to entice your viewers to visit other pages of the site.

5. Add sub-domains – If possible, register your URL with different suffixes like .net, .info, .biz, etc. Also see if site names like www.yourURLblog.com or www.your-URLblog.com and other variations are available.

6. Start a company blog – And update the blog with new content regularly. Blogs are inexpensive, very popular, and search engines love them. Blogs also provide a great opportunity to get your message out there and for feedback.

7. Retain the services of a pro – Consider hiring a reputation management professional to guide you through the process. An outside perspective is always helpful for fresh insight that you may not consider.

The reputation management tips are just a few of the many ways that you can manage your firm's standing online. Most cost very little and the information gathered in the process provides a clear perception as to how your target audience views your company and products.

About The Author:

Brick Marketing offers full service Website Marketing services such as: Pay Per Click Management, Search Engine Optimization, Social Marketing, Blog Services, Affiliate Program Management and more. Call 877-295-0620 or visit:
http://www.brickmarketing.com/reputation-management.htm

Internet Marketing Strategy For Your Home Business - Know Your Competition

By Anderson Josiah

One of the biggest challenges any new business owner will face is dealing with the threat of new competitors who want to get a piece of your market. This is something that you cannot get away from when in business so forming a powerful strategy even before you start up is very important in order for your business to be successful in the long term.

Additionally it is not only very important to know and understand your direct competition but you also need to now about indirect competitors in your market. Using the internet to spy on your competition is a very powerful marketing strategy.

Nearly all the goods that are available on the market have substitutes and compliments.

An example is if someone wanted to purchase some powered detergent if she or he could not find any in the supermarket they can then probably decide to buy liquid detergent instead.

This is also true for any type of industry because customers will always be able to find substitutes for services and products that they can't find. We also need to consider having a very effective distribution system that will allow you to reach targeted customers where they are located; this will greatly increase your money earning potential.

It is also a very good idea to always check out the features of your competitor's products, the quality and price range that they offer.

Being aware of the weaknesses and strength of you competition and comparing it with your own will give you the opportunity to put in place strategies that will allow you to effectively compete in your marketplace. You would want to concentrate on your good points and try to take advantage of your competitor's weak points. Remember your competition would be doing the same to you, they would try to point out your weak points to your customers to try to improve there market share.

In addition to your present competition, you should also consider future competition because it is very possible that new competitors will try to enter your market in a couple of years. You can visit blogs, forums and chatrooms that are related to your particular market to keep up with new trends, technologies and potential threats to your business. Having a very strong strategy and a loyal customer base will enable your online home business to survive all these potential challenges. Most new businesses put there emphasis on a low price range and this could either be a good or a bad for your business.

An example of this is that it can be great if the product that new competition is offering has a lower price but if it is of a poor quality this will establish your product as a superior good or product. But, if they are offering better good and services at a much lower price, then you might need to get involved in a price war. Never forget that your strategy should always depend on the particular situation and perception of your market. If you would like to know more on this topic check out the link below for "Dotcomology" the art of making money with your home business.

About The Author:

Andy The Home Biz Wiz recommends for more information subscribe to my FREE Internet Home Business tips newsletter and get hundreds of money making tips and tricks along with FREE Software delivered to your inbox. A $147 value, yours FREE: http://www.MakingMoneyFromHomeOnTheInternet.com

Internet Marketing Strategy – Online Internet Business

By Anderson Josiah

Three Things NEVER To Do with your Online Business.

In business there are certain things you must not do if you want to be successful in your online home based business. But if you already run a successful business you would already know this. If you are new to business ownership the following tips can be very helpful. First of all never ever skimp on promotion advertising and marketing. Without adequate marketing your business can end up making a huge loss in product or services sales.

A perfect example is a small business that sells audio CD's for children that is introducing a new item on the market. This business is unknown and relatively new. They have a great website which they advertise in a couple of the local newspapers, Only a small handful of people will be aware of this new company and its audio CD product. A much better way of marketing and advertising would have been to advertise in larger nationwide newspapers or putting there website address on a Billboard that can be seen by allot of people in heavy traffic areas. This might be a little more expensive but you will get more bang for your buck, you will reach a greater audience base.

Secondly never underestimate your competition; use the internet to do some investigating and always keep your guard up. If you are in a very competitive market you should consider this. If
for example you own a Music Site you would want to know if any sites have any special offers. Do they have a greater selection? What are there rates like, are there prices cheaper or more expensive? Do the have discounted packages like buy 5 get one free? You need to pay close attention to both the bigger and smaller Music Sites both in your area and nationwide. You want to be competitive with there prices so if you can't go cheaper try to at least match there prices. Customers love to get cheaper prices even if it only saves them a couple of cents.

Lastly you should never go into business without properly researching it. You want to ensure you know as much as you can about the home business you are planning to get involved with.
You want financial details and as much information on your potential competition, the internet can help you get this information. When you devote time to do research you improve your chances for success, it is almost guaranteed, you would not want any surprises coming up later down after you have invested your time and money. You want your business to run as easy as possible

If you follow the internet marketing strategy above your online internet business would be on the right track. This will help you create a good business foundation. Remember do not enter
into any business venture without proper planning and research. Treat your company like you would treat your children. Nurture it, give it allot of loving care and all the things that it will
need to grow and you will be happy with the results If you would like to know more on this topic check out the link below for "Dotcomology" the art of making money with your home business.

About The Author:

Andy The Home Biz Wiz recommends for more information subscribe to my FREE Internet Home Business tips newsletter and get hundreds of money making tips and tricks along with FREE Software delivered to your inbox. A $147 value, yours FREE: http://www.MakingMoneyFromHomeOnTheInternet.com

Small Business Marketing | Getting Great At Article Writing

By Marketing Buzz

This article looks at what and why small and medium sized business owners need to do to turn their ideas and dreams into reality by actually using article writing to grow their business.

Using article writing as part of your business marketing can generate traffic to your website and increase your income and exposure for you and your business.

In this article I'm going to look at why article writing is one of the easiest ways in which to market your business and why it needs to form part of your ongoing marketing mix.

If your business has a website, a blog or an online shop then article writing is for you. You can have the best website in the world but without regular visitors and traffic to your site then it's not really worth having on online presence at all. And there really is only 2 ways to get traffic to your site – you pay for it (pay per click, banner advertising, affiliate schemes, directory advertising etc) or you get free traffic (optimization in the search engines natural or free listings
being the main way).

Don't get my wrong paying for traffic can really work and pay per click advertising is great as it gives you instant results and if you can convert visitors to sales then it can make you and your company money.

HOWEVER, you can get even better results by being listed high in the natural search engine listings (or SERPS) and article writing can really help with this.

When people use a search engine like Google they are presented with numerous listings based on what they are searching for. The sponsored (or paid) listings appearing at the top and down the right hand side and the free or natural listings appearing on the main page. Pretty straightforward yes? But what am I telling you that you don't already know?

Well did you know about the 70/30 rule?

The 70/30 rule means that 70% of visitors to a search engine will click on a free listing rather than a paid for listing who just get 30% of total clicks. This means that even if you run highly successful pay per click campaigns over two thirds of people searching for your product/company/service could be going elsewhere unless you appear high in the free listings.

Now if you have a large marketing budget then I'd recommend investing in search engine optimization (be careful though as there's thousands of so called SEO experts out there who make big promises without delivering).

However if you don't have a large budget then article writing can really help you move up the rankings, establish you as an expert in your field and mean you get traffic, visitors and sales for little time and money.

Marketing done well can transform your business from an also ran to leaders in your particular field and size of your budget doesn't have to hold you back. Be smart with your marketing and article writing and watch your business grow – JUST DO IT!

About The Author:

Mark Burdett is the owner of The Marketing Buzz. For information on The Marketing Buzz and their range of small business marketing services visit http://www.themarketingbuzz.co.uk

Internet Marketing - One Giant Leap for Mankind

By Paul White

Those Oldies amongst us who can actually remember Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon never think of it as just history. We were there. It was live, and we were all part of it.

Practically everyone on earth who could, was huddled around a TV set watching the shaky black and white pictures in awe.

It was something that united the whole world like nothing before. First stop the moon,then onwards to the stars! They talked about tourist trips to the moon within 5 years. Hotels on Mars within 10 years, and a passenger cruiser to Jupiter by 1999!

But harsh economic and scientific realities meant a rapid slow down in our race to the stars, the space program was downgraded, and dreams of space travel for everyone were pushed aside, and all but forgotten. But then something else came along, even bigger than the moon landing in the history of the World - The Internet.

Now there really was no limit to what man or womankind could achieve.

With the internet, you could make your own personal journey to the stars! Untold wealth for everyone we were told, just pick up your free site, and wait for the money to roll in. Not just to the stars, but to heaven itself!

At least that's what we were all led to believe just a couple of years ago, when Amazon introduced the first affiliate sites. But sadly, just like the little boy playing with his space toys,
excitement, and expectation have given way to frustration and disappointment, and a general feeling that it just isn't possible for normal people to go to 'infinity and beyond!'

So is it time to take off your play spacesuit and give up? Is it time to shrug your shoulders and resign yourself to the fact that yet another of your dreams has been jettisoned out of orbit?

NO! In fact the space race has only just begun!

Even though your experience with the internet may be a disappointment so far, just stop and think. Can you imagine what disasters would have happened in the early Apollo missions if the astronauts had not been such highly trained professionals with the best possible equipment and resources.

Why should the internet be any different?

The journey to the stars is not just for the elite few. It is for everyone who chooses to travel. But you must have the right resources. You must have the knowledge, expertise and equipment necessary to survive. Quite simply, your business will die without it, just like an astronaut without life support.

For example, did you know:-

*You must have your own Website. It should be professionally designed with links to several affiliate/associate sites. A free affiliate/associate site is not enough on it's own.

* You also need to have your own domain name, not a free site name with a really long URL that no one will want to click on.

* You need to read everything you possibly can to learn how other people have done it. I now have a collection of dozens and dozens of Free e-books which I give away on my site, which contain all of the knowledge you will need.

*You can get thousands of people to your website by offering freebies and other things. Just spend a few hours surfing all the freestuff sites for things you can give away on your own site.

* You must have a constant source of traffic going to your website. Only a tiny fraction of people visiting your site will buy anything, so you need to get thousands to visit. Once you understand and accept this, and know how to get them, then you are on your way!

*You will never make any money by only advertising on free sites, even with submission software. Let people place an ad free on your site. You will get far more response than placing your own ad on someone else's free site.

*Once you start to become successful, then you can become even more so, by writing your own articles and submitting them to some of the thousands of e-zines and getting free publicity.

* Definitely the best way of doing business is to have your own newsletter to communicate with your customers to build up a relationship with them. For this you need a listserver. This is software which enables you to communicate with thousands of people at once.

I used to be like one of those poor monkeys in the early space flights, being led blindly into oblivion by their masters. Believing all the hype about instant riches, and not being able to do anything about it. Luckily I realised before too late, that instant riches is just fantasy. But with an investment of time to learn what to do, and an investment of money to get the right tools, anyone can be in control of their own flight to the stars!

About the Author:

Paul White webmaster of:- http://www.profitmountain.com is a former teacher who now dedicates his time to helping ordinary men and women to recapture their dreams and make money online. Feel free to e-mail regarding any online questions you may have:- webmaster@... Subscribe to profit mountains money making newsletter, and get free advertising for a year, and tons of other things!

Internet Marketing - Creation and Evolution

By Paul White

And in the beginning came the creation of the internet, the entrepreneurs paradise on earth!

And with it came the Billboards and Discussion groups, and newsgroups then FREE classified and FREE links sites and FREE FFA software, and bulk E-mail programs to send your sales message to 10 billion eager credit card holders!

And when Bill Gates said:- 'you simply must have a website', how could the people ignore the word? Both big and small, every business had to have one, because the word had been spoken.

All of their sales projections were multiplied a thousand fold in anticipation of the new customers around the world, who would be sure to buy from them online, rather than at their local store. They knew it would happen because the creator had said so.

And then Amazon created a FREE self replicating affiliate website in its own image to show the true way to go. And the word was that everyone on earth could now start up in business, and it was their destiny that they should all become millionaires, for FREE!

How could life get any better? Pure heaven! Paradise created here on Earth for all of mankind! ...Mmm...What happened?

Like everything else the internet evolved. From it's humble military origins, used by a few elite 'cybernerds', it became the multimedia worldwide phenomenon we know today, and it still has a long way to go before it finishes its evolutionary journey. But is was never meant as an entrepreneurs paradise, whatever people wanted to believe.

Yes the faith and belief are still there, and rightly so, but the realities of evolution have changed everyone's perception of reality.

All of the small and large businesses have realised that just having a website does not mean that people will visit them, or buy anything.

And just like the creation of the universe, the internet is now going through it's own big bang, but in reverse. The internet is imploding, getting smaller, as the companies who believed that the internet was created for them, and that new customers would be sent to their site by divine intervention are folding.

The internet was not created for business. The internet was not created as a way of making everyone on earth with a website rich.

But the internet has evolved into the most amazing marketing tool ever invented in the history of the world!

But like any tool, you have to learn how to use it.

Just having a website will not make you money. You need to promote it just like any other business.

A search engine was not created to send people to your website. It is used by people who are interested in something, which may be the same thing you offer, but unless you are lucky enough to be in the top 20 of a search engine, no one will find you. Which means you have to promote your site in other ways.

(Incidentally, search engines change their criteria so often nowadays, that it has now evolved to the point where luck is just as important as scientific analysis in getting a good position!)

So sites like GoTo.com have come into being where you can choose your position on the search engine by bidding on key words.

Placing your ad in a FREE classified or FREE link site, may have been worthwhile at the beginning of creation, but they have now evolved to the point where they are only useful to the actual owner of the classified/link site. Having a FREE classified section on your website is a way of getting people to visit. You can also keep in contact with them by sending them an e-mail when their ad expires.

And what of bulk emailers? SPAM has evolved into a socially unacceptable practise, and spammers are realising that there are far more effective ways of marketing and making money without offending anyone.

People are also realising that their FREE affiliate site that thousands of other people have got, will not turn them into millionaires.

However a way of marketing has evolved which does work, where you have lots of different programs and promote them all at once by having them all featured on your own individual website, and drive traffic to it.

A vast amount of ezines has also now evolved. You can place your ad in targeted ezines to thousands of customers at a very reasonable price.

Or even better, start your own ezine or newsletter. You can get thousands of people to subscribe by offering things on your site like FREE Ebooks and Software.

Using a listserver, you can communicate with all of them at virtually no cost to yourself, and as all of the people have subscribed, they want to hear from you, and see your latest offer.

Even if, like most people you used to believe in the creation theory. The realities of evolution are much better as far as your bottom line is concerned, since there is far less competition!

The internet was not created to make everybody on earth rich, but is has evolved so that anyone who invests in the tools and works hard to learn how to use them, will be successful!

About the Author:

Paul White is a former teacher who now helps people around the world to become wealthy online. Visit his popular site:- http://www.profitmountain.com

Learning More About Expired Traffic And Its Importance

By John Khu

Every year millions of web portals become expired and redundant because of a number of reasons and causes. As a result of this, these web portals loose millions of hits and web site visits in the process. Most of these expired domains were once thriving businesses and money making ventures with a considerable amount of expired traffic attached to it. So, how this perceived expired traffic help you as a domain trader? Expired traffic is creating a big buzz these days and people are flocking over to buy an expired domain with expired traffic.

Expired traffic is just like using someone else's efforts to create a significant online asset. With expired traffic, you can save your money, time and effort. If you find an expired domain with plenty of expired traffic, you are a sure winner! It is almost like adding a huge bonus to your online kitty. The rule is very simple here: If the expired domain name that you buy has a
reasonably good link popularity value associated with it, it is highly probable that the expired domain in question was once thriving with plenty of site visitors.

Thus, the most important idea here is to buy those domains that come with plenty of traffic expired and gone. You may need to isolate such domains from a big inventory of expired domain names and register the ones boasting high link values as well as traffic. It seems that such domain names are commercially viable and highly critical for your online success.

However, there are conflicting views on the viability of expired domain that had a large amount of expired traffic in its previous avatar. While some people say that major search engines have a
practice of deleting the expired domain names from their search directories, others disagree with this argument saying that major search engine do not have the time to delete all those millions of web sites from their directories. This could be a major blessing in disguise for those expired domain traders who look for expired traffic.

The major task for you now is to locate those expiring domain names that carry plenty of expired traffic and inbound links. If you are lucky, you can even find a very good domain for a very low price of less than $50! You can use expired traffic for a number of purposes. The most important benefit of having expired traffic in your command is that you don't have to run around in search of traffic. Since the traffic is already there, with your expired domain, you can just use it immediately for your business purposes. If you are already running a web site, you can reroute the expired traffic to that site. This will help you sell you products or services with out putting extra efforts. If you feel that the expired traffic is of high quality, then you can dispose of the expired domain for a premium price. If you are a newbie, you can place your expired domain in a parking service and earn some form of income on an ongoing basis.

However, buying expired domains based on their perceived age could be a tricky issue and you may need to learn and understand how the age of a given domain expired can really help you in your domain trading business.

About the Author:

John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is the owner of the path breaking web site called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

How To Measure The Effectiveness Of Your Article Marketing Campaigns

By Bill Platt

I frequently rant on Internet marketing and some of the gurus who try to bend your ear. Why? Because many of these so-called gurus trash everything that makes sense in this Internet world,
especially when they realize that they cannot make money from the techniques being recommended.

I don't preach marketing concepts solely for the purpose of selling my products and services. (If you happen to buy my products or services, then awesome, but that is not my point when I share information from my SEO and other marketing campaigns.) I preach the concepts that I have used for myself successfully. Either you can trust me and test the things I recommend, or you can listen to the gurus and drown yourself in pity, when you realize you are not finding the success you seek.

I present things in such a way that anyone can actually go out and try my suggestions on their own, with or without my help. I want you to at least try what I suggest. I don't want you to try once, but I want you to commit yourself giving the suggested methods a chance to work for you.

Yes, I preach article marketing in connection with building link popularity value for your website (and I operate an article marketing company). But, I am not the only article marketing company out there. So, it remains possible for you to employ my article marketing techniques, without actually using my services specifically. (If you want to use my services, great, but you don't have to do so.)

Frequently, new customers come along and say, "Bill, I am going to try this once. If it works out for me, I will be back." My response is often, "Dude, you are selling yourself short, when you do something just once!"

As a person who has only written one article, you are just one in thousands of uncommitted, wannabe article writers. Your article may very likely be overlooked, because the publishers do not yet know your name or why they should care that you are writing articles.

When publishers have seen your name, 3, 4 or 10 times, then they are more likely to open your articles to see if they like your writing style and to see why they should pay attention to your message. Once publishers begin to pay attention to what you write, then publishers will open more of your articles, and perhaps publish your articles more frequently.

When you do a one-time out article, you are riding solely on a prayer, for success. (I am not in the prayer business - please see your pastor for that service.) But, if you can commit yourself to ten articles, your chance for article marketing success has been improved tenfold.

The first thing that needs to happen for article marketing to work for the promotion of your website is for you to create great content that other people want to publish. Then you must get noticed by the (ezine and website) publishers that will want to publish your articles. Once you have an audience, don't let them down --- keep giving them more content so that they can turn to you always.

To express this point, let me share a couple names with you. How many of you have heard of Willie Crawford? Willie has written and distributed 123 articles through my program, and he has 140,000 search results for his name in Google (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22willie+crawford%22).

My friend Clinton Douglas IV has written and distributed 36 articles. Google credits him with 17,500 mentions in the Google search results for his name (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22clinton+douglas+iv%22).

Both of these gentlemen suggest that they rely primarily upon articles to build their presence online. Of course, Willie is somewhat of an exception, since he has his fingers in so many pies. But, Willie still attributes much of his success to article marketing.

When it is time to measure your article marketing success, you should never go to Google's public search results and pull a simple search for your name or a link:yourdomainurl.com search. You should not even go to Yahoo's Site Explorer to find the same inforamtion.

Instead of relying on the public records for inbound link counts, you should register your website in Google's Webmaster Tools control panel at: http://www.google.com/webmasters

On the public side of Google, my site shows 33 inbound links (http://www.google.com/search?q=link%3Athephantomwriters.com) and Yahoo Site Explorer credits me with 1,478 inbound links. But, inside of Google's Webmaster Tools, I have +10,000 inbound links according to Google's records. I am not going to divulge exactly how many inbound links I have (according to Google's Webmaster Tools), but even I was surprised by the strength of my link counts.

The fact is that Google will only show you a really small sampling of the inbound links for your website, and while Yahoo is more free with this information, they also fail to show anything more than just a small snippet of the number of links you will actually have for your website.

So, if you are truly interested in learning the value that you created with your article marketing campaign, you absolutely have to login to Google's Webmaster Tools to get to the truth of the matter.

But, building links is just one facet of a successful article marketing campaign. There is also the reputation you build for yourself when you teach your readers something of real value in your articles. There is the consistent traffic you can receive to your website when your article is published on a website that has a regular audience. And there is the surges of traffic you can receive to your website when your article is published in a large newsletter.

I have always tried to play straight with folks, so please take this advice as it is intended. If you are only going to do one article to see where article marketing can take you, spend your money on paid advertising instead. But, if you really believe that those of us who have written hundreds of articles do so, because this marketing method works, then make a serious commitment to seeing an article marketing campaign through to success.

About the Author:

Bill Platt has been providing article marketing to his clients since 2001 at: http://www.thephantomwriters.com/ He offers ghost writing and article distribution services. With lots of experience writing articles that attract publishers, readers, traffic and sales to his website, Bill wrote an ebook to share the secrets of his article writing success that can be found at: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html

Or read his blog at: http://article-blog.thephantomwriters.com/

Internet Marketers: Will You Quit or Overcome The Obstacles Before You?

By Bill Platt

There is barely an industry on the Internet who has not been touched by those who quit and those who overcome obstacles to success. "Attrition" is a term that describes the "people who quit." I utilize the term "attrition" most often when I am talking about subscribers who leave a newsletter's member list, while others discuss the term in regards to people who quit business opportunities to pursue greener pastures.

Silly Cows and Three-Year-Old Logic

I grew up in rural America, so I fast caught on to the phrase, "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." Those silly cows can be in a field full of lush, green grass, but it never fails that many of them will strain against the barbed wire fence to reach out for that brown grass outside their enclosure.

My three-year-old once explained to me, "Cows do not have any brains." I told him that of course cows had brains. He insisted they did not. I asked what made him so sure, and he responded, "Well, they don't know how to talk." Ah, the beauty of a child's logic.

Success Online Begins With Commitment

Far too many people on the Internet have yet to figure out how to succeed online, but they are experts in how to quit, before they ever give themselves a chance to succeed. Someone once told me that in network marketing, 80% of all new sign-ups quit one opportunity and move on to the next one, after only two weeks. That is one heck of an "attrition rate".

Success online begins with the acceptance of one simple word, "commitment". Followed closely by commitment is investment. One must invest their time, their heart and soul, and sometimes their financial resources, in order to find the success they desire for themselves.

When I started my current business in 2001, quitting was not in my vocabulary. I started my business with the commitment to stick to my task until I found the success I desired. In March of 2005, I quit my day job (which required 65 hours most weeks, and 90+ hours per week during December) and risked it all on my own belief that I had laid the foundations that would make me successful in the long run. My revenues last year were three times higher than what they were, in the year that I quit working for other people.

After starting my online business, I kept my job for another three-and-a-half years, and then I went solo. I have been flying solo for just over three years now, and each year since leaving my job, I have been met with sales that continue to climb.

I recently did an analysis of my business' growth over the years since I started it. In four of six calendar years, my business grew by more than 100% in just twelve months. For those of you
who are not math-savvy, that means my sales doubled in four of six years - it tripled its sales in its first full year (against a partial-year), and it doubled its sales in its third, fourth and fifth years of operation. My business is in its seventh year of operation. I will have my seventh year anniversary in October of 2008.

Overcoming All Obstacles In Your Path

If I had quit my business opportunity after only two weeks like most people do, I would still be working a job 65 hours per week at a job I mostly hated. But, because I was willing to do what
was required to overcome the obstacles in my path, I now work from my home, available to my children when they need me. I was glad to leave the job world behind, especially during the
Christmas shopping season when I had been required to work 90+ hours per week.

Even now as I write this article, my five-year-old is sitting behind me in my chair as he is fond of doing, and he is watching Spongebob Squarepants as I type. I listen to Spongebob more than
I watch it, but I have to tell you, it is truly a funny cartoon. Spongebob's writers realize that mom and dad watch the show too, so they have been kind enough to include jokes that mom and dad can appreciate too.

Obstacles Fall When You Approach

Commitment, investment and overcoming obstacles will deliver you to success online, but "belief" will carry you forward to greatness. When you begin to believe that certain good things will come your way, the laws of the universe will stand behind you and elevate you to greatness.

The following book titles should be required reading for anyone who strives for greatness in life:

* "Think and Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill

* "The Laws of Success" by Napolean Hill

* "The Magic of Thinking Big" by David J. Schwartz

* "Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life" by Donald J. Trump and Bill Zanker

* "See You At The Top" by Zig Ziglar

Each of these books addresses the concept of creating and possessing a real "belief" in yourself and your potential for success. "The Magic of Thinking Big" is my personal favorite, although the book "Think and Grow Rich" runs a close second place for me.

When you strive for a goal, you can reach it with a lot of hard work. But when you believe that your goal will absolutely be achieved by you, call it "faith" if you will, then there is nothing that could stop you from achieving your hearts' desires.

As you gain levels of success in your business and life, you really should use those successes to strengthen your "belief" in yourself and your capabilities. At first, the "ownership of success" will be hard to accept. But, if you continuously apply your success to the foundations of your belief, you will eventually know in your heart-of-hearts that success is yours to possess.

Do Not Be A Quitter

After two years of failure online, many people will quit this online thing and declare to all of their friends and family that no one can succeed online. The declaration will be made as if to assure the listener that if the speaker could not do it, then no one can.

Let me assure you of one thing. If you try to find success online in the same way that the speaker did, then you too will surely fail. But if you pick a target, commit yourself to reaching for the target, invest yourself fully in achieving your goals, overcome all obstacles that will stand in your way, and finally, believe that success is yours to possess, then you will succeed online as many of us have already done and continue to do today. I will sign-off by swiping a book title from Zig Ziglar, "See you at the top."

About the Author:

Bill Platt has been providing article marketing to his clients since 2001 at: http://www.thephantomwriters.com/ He offers ghost writing and article distribution services. With lots of experience writing articles that attract publishers, readers, traffic and sales to his website, Bill wrote an ebook to share the secrets of his article writing success. It can be found at: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html

Get More Targeted Traffic To Your Site

By Casey Moher

There are dozens of good ways to send people to your website. These methods come with a wide variety of results and difficulty. As much as possible, I've worked with and tested many of them. Here's a run-down on one that I believe is highly effective.

Give Your Visitors A Free Gift:

Information that can truly be a help to your visitors is a great place to start. The right information can truly make someone's life better.

Overcoming an ever-present hurdle in the form of inherent mis-trust on the part of your visitor will always be with you. Overcoming this hurdle is vital to the success of your venture.

Your focus should be to find and share valuable information. An on-line approach is the most efficient way to find and distribute valuable information. It doesn't take much search time before you will be discovering subjects and information that folks want to know. Once you find the topics being sought-for, you will want to spend your time learning and writing about them.

One strategy you can employ is to share the information in the form of a multi-day mini-course that people can receive from you. You will find more success if you spend the time necessary to
make this a high-quality gift. Extra effort at this point will increase the value of your subscriber list. Very little cash takes you a long way in this project.

You will be offering to share this information in exchange for your visitor's name and e-mail address. The best way to perform this information capture function is to use a 'squeeze page'.
Establishing a squeeze page can readily be done starting with a simple website.

Some very professional design work is available at affordable prices these days. In a very short time, your own squeeze page can be activated and running.

You can have your own squeeze page up and running fast, just let me know. You can move things to auto-pilot function starting with these strategies.

With care, your subscriber list can be cultivated and a long-term relationship built with the members. Your efforts can become continually more rewarding all the time for all concerned as you move forward with this venture.

You can reach people around the entire world and provide them with value using your valuable products, services and information. You can be paid very well in the process.

Here's another way to utilize the power of free information to build good will and interest before a person ever visits your website There are a number of methods, strategies and delivery
formats available to you. Take the time and whatever the minimal expense is to do a professional job.

Remember that your internet visitor is there because of a desire and a need for some basic information. Put their needs first and realize they did not log on looking for an opportunity to send some cash your way. You have to overcome an always-present barrier of doubt in your visitor's mind. Provide valuable information at no cost and you will quickly erode the doubts. Valuable information can be found readily on the internet. You also likely have more information and knowledge of your own than you realize. A quick search of some key-word tools will reveal to you the topics of interest and need of large groups of people.

The whole key to making article writing and publishing work for you lies in NOT trying to sell something to the reader right away. If you write a self-serving article that is really a sales
promotion, it will be very transparent. You will have done more to alienate and push people away than to pull them close. After your article has presented the information, it's fine for you to include a resource box at the end. The resource box gives your name, website address and what the reader will benefit when they visit it.

Everything got much easier in the article-publishing process recently. There is some new software out there that makes the process push-button easy. This program keeps content unique and speeds things up tremendously. Science and industry now have the capacity to produce, publish and distribute articles to thousands of readers.

You will do well to include article publishing and distribution in your long-range strategy. Automation and professional publishing services can reach thousands of readers very quickly.
If you want more information on these useful tools (or anything else in this article), just contact me.

About the Author:

Casey Moher - Caseymoher@... (801) 941-3334

Mr. Moher is a Registered Pharmacist and Life-Long Marketing and Sales Professional. You Can Get His Free Five-Day Mini-Course on Building Targeted Website Traffic by visiting: http://www.newtrafficmaster.com

ROI: The Only Number That Matters

By Ken Daniells

Have you gotten bogged down with numbers that don't matter?

The success of your direct mail campaign is ultimately measured, not by bounce-backs or number of responses, but by one simple number: your return on investment (ROI). As the owner of your business, you must know this number for every marketing campaign you run.

You may believe every campaign number is important--list size, bounce-backs, leads generated, number of responses, number of appointments, and number of sales. At the end of the day, there's only one number that can tell you if your campaign was a success or a failure.

This might sound unrealistic; you may wonder if you can really judge an entire campaign based on one number. To illustrate this reality, we'll examine two real-world examples, and then we'll look at how you can measure ROI for yourself.

Let's start by taking a look at two very different campaigns. As we go through them, decide, if you were the business owner in each, would you consider the campaign a success?

* Lots of sales, small profit each. In our first example, Jon sells a paperback book. He sells copies at a $2 profit. He sent out 10,000 postcards at a cost of $3700. As a result of that campaign, he sold 1500 books which is a 15% response rate. But because his profit on each book is only $2, he actually lost $700 on the campaign.

* Few sales, big profit each. Peter offers home mortgage services. His average income per new home mortgage is $5000. He sent out 30,000 postcards at a cost of $9800. As a result of that campaign, he closed five additional home mortgages which is a paltry 0.001% response rate. However, because his profit on each home mortgage is $5000, he actually profited $15,200 after his campaign costs.

If you were Jon, you might have considered the campaign a success because of the high response rate. Knowing what you know now about the actual dollar value of the campaign, though, do you think Jon should repeat the mailing?

Commonly, business owners make the mistake of judging a campaign based on the response rate, instead of the profit involved. And if Peter were to make that same mistake, he would miss out on repeating his $15,200 success.

Now that you understand the importance of looking at your ROI as opposed to focusing on the other campaign numbers, let's walk through the process of the actual calculation. Don't worry, it's not nearly as complicated as it might sound.

1. Get out your numbers. Gather your numbers from your last postcard campaign. Because this is a new formula for you, you may not have every number you'll need and may need to estimate some of them.

2. Fill in the blanks. Using BOOM! Ink's online calculator or this formula, plug in the numbers from your last campaign.

* ([Average profit per sale] * [Number of sales from campaign]) - [Campaign expenses] = [Profit] * ([Average profit per sale] * [Number of sales from campaign])/[Campaign expenses] =[ROI %]

Armed with your ROI from your most recent campaigns, you'll be able to make smart decisions about which campaigns are worth repeating and which are ready for retirement. Keep this formula in mind and you'll watch future campaigns flourish.

Make good use of what you know about ROI to BOOM your business!

About the Author:

Ken Daniells helps business owners and organizations to increase income and profits using practical, but often overlooked marketing basics. He is the founder of BOOM! Ink, a marketing company dedicated to helping small business owners market effectively and grow. For more free articles, tips and advice, visit http://www.boomink.com

----------
This article is distributed on behalf of the author by
http://SubmitYOURArticle.com
SubmitYOURArticle.com is a trading name of Takanomi Limited.
Takanomi Limited is a limited company registered in England and
Wales.
Registered number: 5629683. Registered office: 31 St Saviourgate,
York YO1 8NQ.
Full contact details are at http://takanomi.com
----------

--- End forwarded message ---

Repetition: What You Need to Know About Marketing Success

By Ken Daniells

Are you stopping before you get the results that will revolutionize your business?

Building one postcard upon the last creates a haven for your customers. It builds their interest in your business until they're ready to buy. This is the true power of a marketing campaign--one postcard enriches previous cards until they crescendo into a marketing campaign.

The key to most success is persistence, and marketing is no different. If you want your business to be successful, you must market continuously.

* Golden Nugget #1: The marketplace is noisy. The average American is exposed to more than 5,000 marketing messages a day (Yankelovich, Inc.). This makes repetition crucial--your audience will hardly notice your message the first time you send it.

* Golden Nugget #2: Repetition delivers sales. Successive postcard mailings deliver nearly twice the response of the first card. If your first mailing results in 30 sales, 60 or more may result from a subsequent mailing. That makes repeated mailings smart budgeting.

* Golden Nugget #3: Someone's not ready. Sending more than one postcard to the same audience increases your chances of catching people when they need what you're offering. Most of the time, no response from a prospect means "no for now." Mail to that list again and you'll find new buyers.

* Golden Nugget #4: Don't stop mailing too soon. Experts advise mailing to a list at least three times before calling it a dud. As long as you're getting a high ROI, there's no reason to stop mailing to that list.

* Golden Nugget #5: Building trust takes time. People need time to start to trust you. Successful marketing relies on the KLT factor--Know, Like, Trust. Reach out to the same list and build that KLT factor over time.

Allow your campaign to grow over time. Patiently build that KLT factor for your list. Each additional postcard will bring in profits, and by the time you've come to the end of your marketing campaign, your ROI will be considerably higher.

Now that you're committed to repetition, how often should you mail? Experts suggest sending postcards every 4 to 6 weeks to keep your business "top of mind." This top-of-mind placement will translate into more sales.

If every 4-6 weeks is too often, mail at least 4 to 6 times a year. That will keep your message front and center and help you leverage each mailing into greater profits.

Mailing less frequently works, of course, but mailing more often lets each postcard build on the last, leading to exponential returns on your investment.

Ultimately, repetition is the golden nugget that makes the difference between a successful postcard and a postcard that brings a BOOM! of business through the doors.

About the Author:

Ken Daniells helps business owners and organizations to increase income and profits using practical, but often overlooked marketing basics. He is the founder of BOOM! Ink, a marketing company dedicated to helping small business owners market effectively and grow. For more free articles, tips and advice, visit http://www.boomink.com.

The Top Priority For An Online Business!

By Stephen Beck

As an expert in teaching families to start online businesses, I am asked a lot of questions about selling on the Internet. By far the most common question is, "What do I sell on the Internet?" or "What types of businesses have been successful in e-commerce?"

The answer is...you are asking the wrong question. Why? Because products come and go, but the people you are marketing to remain forever. Meaning, the product you are selling this year may not be the same product you are selling next year, but you will be selling to the same people. That is, if you are collecting their name and email on your web site.

That is why your top priority as an online business owner (after you determine what your niche is) is to collect the emails of your visitors. This can be done with a simple email capture form available with any autoresponder service. Then you can use that autoresponder service to send sequential messages to the people on your email list.

For example, if Bob joins your email list (via your email capture form at the top of your home page) on Monday, he will begin receiving an email every 7 days about who you are, what your credentials are, what you are selling, why they should buy from you as opposed to the other guy, and so on. If Sally joins a month later, she will start receiving your messages in the order she needs to receive them.

Sally will not receive the same message 17 that Bob is receiving because she needs to receive messages 1 through 16 first! The messages that Bob is receiving since he joined a month before will not make sense to her. That is why you need to send sequential emails through an autoresponder.

Think about that! How many of your products require more than one email to answer all the objections your customers have? Or how many of your products require some basic knowledge before your customers realize they can't live without it? Nothing is better than sequential emails for getting the job done.

Another benefit of sequential emails is that people will see them eventually, even if they join your email list at month later. This catches the missed sales that are so prevalent when online business owners have a single promotion that misses everyone who came to the web site after the promotion is over.

So, get an email capture form and place it front and center on your home page or most popular page. Offer something really valuable in exchange for their first name and email. I offer mini-courses for marketing online. It doesn't have to be expensive, a downloadable report, mini-course via email or a link to a video will do, but it should be something that your customer really wants to entice him to give you his most prized possession: his email address!

Concentrate on building that list of email subscribers and you will have an online business for years to come. Neglect building an email list and you are at the mercy of products that may not last through year's end!

About the Author:

Stephen Beck teaches you how to write an ebook http://www.8weekstoprofits.com/ and Create a "cash on demand" online business by watching his free video about information marketing products http://www.8weekstoprofits.com/.

Online Strategies & Tips for Website Development

By Paul Majestyck

So you want to be an internet star? You have an idea or product or service to sell, or you simply feel you must have a website of your very own. And now that you've decided, you really have no idea where to start.

So you're casting about online for strategies and tips that will tell you how to build a website that is attractive and functional, one that really expresses what you are all about.

This article aims to give you just that, and more. Read on and you will not only find some great online strategies for your website, but also some great tips for moving forward with your online business marketing plan.

Building blocks of the website:

The first thing you want to determine is your niche market. You want to find a little corner of the net world that you can make all your own, or as close to your own as possible.

Try to hone in on a product or service that you think there is a need for, but one that isn't wildly popular. That way, you'll be creating a comfortable playing field for your website without too much competition, but with enough attraction to do you some good.

A very good suggestion might be to hang out in online discussion groups with an eye toward discovering your niche market. What do people want? What are they looking for, especially online? Ask them!

Now that you have your niche, figure out what makes your website unique. Think of at least one reason your potential customers would buy from you, and not others.

From this position, build your list of keywords and phrases, the tools you will use to be found by your potential clients. Always remember, it's easy to get swallowed up in the internet ocean. It's hard work to find just the right combination to make your ad come to the surface, thus providing the visibility your website requires to sustain itself and your online business. But it is those web marketers who do the hard part that take home the bulk of the spoils.

Prepare your marketing tools, as many as you can think of. The list is practically endless: web content, newsletters, autoresponders, blogs, articles, and banners...and anything else you can think of.

Don't forget the follow-through. Test your system to see if it works. Keep trying various combinations until you find the one that clicks.

And never forget: Do it right once, and you can do it again and again...a whole lot easier! Website marketing is not for the meek of spirit. But those who stay the course usually wonder how they ever lived without it.

About the Author:

Paul Majestyck is the publisher of Global Entrepreneur http://ibuildempires.wordpress.com/ EZ Affiliate Profits - 100's of Great Articles Top Notch Resources Product Reviews Free Downloadable e-Courses & Videos To Help You Shorten The Online Learning-Curve And Start Generating Income . Visit : EZAffiliate Profits
http://ezaffiliateprofits.blogspot.com/. Also be sure to visit The #1
Digitital program and product store on the internet eNetMall http://www.enetmall.net/

Making Your Home Business Web Presence Count

By Dustin Heath Cannon

Today it is virtually unthinkable to run a home based business and not have a website. In a day and age where the local telephone book is rapidly being replaced with online directories, more and more consumers want to see what kind of products and services you are offering and what you can do for them before they will ever call you. Similarly, many a business mom or executive will not take the time to visit your store, call you, or otherwise query you on your services and you will be wise to display your wares online so that at a glance a person can decide that your business fits their needs.

To this end, you will need to have a great looking, professionally done website. Stay away from the home jobs done with the free website builder that demands a link back or forces your visitor to endure a pop up. Instead, bite the bullet and register your domain name. In the same way, have an email address that reflects that domain name. You home business will not be taken seriously if your email address goes to Hotmail or Yahoo. A customer will not consider spending a couple hundred dollars on a refurbished television if the contact information is a post office box, a generic email, and the website little more than a freebie site hosted by Yahoo.

Resist the temptation to build your own website. More often than not the newbie will be so enthralled with their ability to build a site that more often than not the site gets over-built and unnecessary add-ons, such as visitor counters, guest books, and web rings are added – none of which belong on a professional business site. Similarly, beware the broken link that leads nowhere! Nothing makes your site look more unprofessional than a link that does not work. When you take the time to actually do it right, you may be wasting precious working time. Some people think the most productive people in the world are those that only focus on what they're good at and hire out people to do the things they are not as good at.

All these problems can be avoided by paying a professional web developer to create your site and set it up so that it will meet your current needs and grow with you as your business takes off. In the same way, ensure that you will have your domain name properly registered. Your web address should in some way reflect your business name, but at the same time be short and to the point. If your name is lengthy, you might just want to opt for a descriptive web address. For example, if your business specializes in dog grooming for Pinchers less than 35 pounds, you could name your online address Pinchers in the Tub. If the business' regular name is New York Pinchers in the Tub, you will do well to leave out the name of the city simply because it is too long to be memorable.

About The Author:

Dustin Cannon, of Next Level Enterprises, LLC is a successful Internet marketer working with top leaders in the home business and Internet marketing industry. For more information on the Next Level Wealth Team visit http://www.nextlevelwealthteam.com/

Autoresponders Are a Publishers Best Friend

Article by Bill Platt

How many times have you subscribed to a new ezine (online newsletter), and then when the first issue of the ezine arrived, you were scratching your head as to how your email address ended up on the list? Our lives are often so tedious that little details often slip right from our memory.

The point is this. If it happens to you, you can rest assured that others have the same experience as well.

Sometimes when this happens to us, we just unsubscribe from the list after that first issue. We cannot remember what compelled us to subscribe in the first place, and the first issue of the ezine does little to rekindle our initial enthusiasm for the ezine.

As publishers, autoresponders can serve us well. When used correctly, autoresponders can strike while the iron is hot, cementing the subscription for the new subscriber.

If your ezine has been around for a while, or only for a few issues, seriously consider taking the time to compile a "Best Of" issue.

Be certain to list subscription instructions near the top of your "Best Of" issue, and also ask people to forward it to their friends.

Your "Best Of" issue should be placed into an autoresponder email address, and then given away at every opportunity. The moment the issue is ready, you can notify your subscribers of the existence of the issue. In the ezine information area of each issue, you can also remind subscribers that the "Best Of" is available at such-and-such email address. Ironically, some of your subscribers will download your "Best Of" several times.

The most important reason for building the "Best Of" issue is not for the benefit of your current subscribers, though most of them will appreciate your making it available to them. The best reason to implement the "Best Of" autoresponder is for your new subscribers!

When someone subscribes to your ezine, they will receive their "Welcome to My Ezine" notice. As they are reading the "Welcome" message, their enthusiasm is bubbling over. Waiting for that first issue will be tough unless there is an invitation to receive their first issue NOW.

In your "Welcome" message, you should let them know that if they would like to get started right away reading your ezine, then they should send a blank email to your autoresponder address for the "Best Of" issue.

New subscribers will gorge themselves on your "Best Of" issue, and they will remember your ezine when the first new issue arrives in their mailbox. If the "Best Of" issue was precisely what they were looking for, you can rest assured that they will eagerly open each subsequent issue of your ezine, with delight in their hearts.

If you do not have the ability to set up autoresponders on your own domain, one company that offers a free autoresponder service is: http://sendfree.com/

If you take the time now to implement the "Best Of" autoresponder, the rewards will most certainly be long-lasting. Remember, the best time to get a new subscriber to fall in love with your ezine is when their interest is the highest --- at the very moment they subscribe to your ezine.

About the Author:

Bill Platt has been engaged in article marketing since 1999 and has offered his services to others since 2001 as a article marketing service provider. He offers article ghost writing and article distribution services, to his clients, many of whom have been with him since early 2002: http://www.thephantomwriters.com has written an ebook to teach people how to be as successful with article marketing as he has been. Bill's Article Marketing ebook has received many excellent reviews.
http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html

Viral Strategies for Internet Marketing

Article by Christian Fea

First of all, I realize that anything with "viral" in the name doesn't conjure up images of something you want close by, but there is a new type of Internet marketing known as "viral marketing" is worth investigating. Despite its unflattering appellation, it is an effective Internet collaboration marketing tool, and one that is important to understand if you want to expand your business.

What is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is a strategy that encourages your business to carry a marketing message via e-mail, and to partner with other businesses, which will attach your marketing message to their emails. This is ultimately another form of collaborative marketing for your company, but one that lends credibility because your message is passed on through other companies. The name viral marketing was chosen to indicate the way a virus can rapidly multiply within a cell, and ultimately taking over the cell, bending the cell to the whims of the virus. This aggressive expansion and growth is the target of a viral marketing platform.

The strategy ultimately uses a network of relationships that you have developed, as well as the relationships and resources of the companies with whom you are collaborating, which are attaching your message to their emails. This can work both for your own business, as well as a collaborative marketing partnership with other companies.

You can include a marketing message in the emails that your company sends to its clients and customers, and you can contract to have your marketing message sent by other companies, via their emails. By creating collaborative relationships with secondary companies to pass along your email advertisement, you will be able to reach out to a whole new client base that, perhaps otherwise, you would not have been able to target.

This may sound a little confusing at first: am I sending marketing messages along with my companies emails, or are other companies sending my advertisement along with their emails? The answer is either, or both—both are good ways to get a marketing message broadcasted. Using an outside company often involves a fee, but may be a worthwhile investment due to the sheer volume of people you'll be able to reach, as well as the range of customers you'll be able to target, because it differs from your typical client base.

A Few Examples

You have undoubtedly been exposed to viral marketing, yet have not realized it or registered the fact. One of the most classic examples of viral marketing is used by the free email website, Hotmail.com. If I have a hotmail account, automatically attached to each email message I send is an accompanying by a message from Hotmail.com, encouraging the recipient to sign up for an account. In this way, Hotmail is advertising its own business through the emails that each of its existing clients sends.

Another clear example is that of e-greeting cards. Each greeting card that is sent carries the company's marketing message, encouraging the recipient to send a card using this service. If I receive an electronic greeting card from a friend, I will automatically be prompted to send a card using the site from which I've just received mail.

Viral marketing is a newer Internet marketing strategy that was more recently developed and is quickly becoming popular. It is a strategic way to advertise your business and services, as well as to partner with other companies to help you form a broader collaborative marketing platform.

About the Author:

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A strategic Collaboration Marketing consulting firm. He empowers business owners to discover and implement Integration, Alliance, and Joint Venture marketing tactics to solve specific business challenges. He demonstrates how to create your own Collaboration Marketing Strategy to increase your sales, conversation rates, and repeat business. Contact: christian@... http://www.christianfea.com