May 29th, 2009 by sugig

It is fast becoming a fact that in order to know maximum success, any and all businesses are going to have to have some form of web presence. Whether they be traditional retail stores, trades services or transport operators, as online advertising becomes the affordable and most successful mode of promoting a business, those who don’t adapt - and adapt quickly - will be left standing by the wayside or very possibly trodden underfoot by their competitors.

It would be very common for someone with little knowledge of the Internet and the online community to think that in order to promote their business online and consequently increase their sales and/or business profile, all they have to do is get a website. This would certainly be a good start, but that is all it is: a start. Even the most professionally constructed website possible will know very little success if it itself is not promoted and advertised around the Web. So how do we do this? How do we optimise our presence online in order to increase our business?

Let us assume we have taken that first step and had prepared for us a very respectable website. What we now have to do is begin the process of letting people know that we and our website are there. “But isn’t that what Google does,?” some may ask. The reality is that if Goggle itself doesn’t know we are there, it can’t advise anyone else of the fact.

Google spiders crawl the web looking for sites and evaluating the information which they contain. What we therefore have to do is essentially lay bait for those spiders. We do this chiefly by linking to our site from elsewhere on the Internet and including lots of quality, fresh content on our site which we update at regular intervals.

The first step to boosting the presence of our site should be to submit its URL to bookmarking sites such as Digg, Reddit or Delicious. These are sites which contain millions of links to websites, categorised depending upon their content, and are available to view by all site members searching for sites on a particular topic. These sites are very popular with the search engines and can dramatically improve your chances of being found and highly ranked in this respect.

Social networking sites are also attracting a lot more business members these days. MySpace in particular has a lot of pages run by small businesses. Get your business on to it, create a wining profile for same and promote yourself around the site. The beauty of MySpace is that a lot of people search for other members by geographical location so if your business is for example a traditional retail outlet this multiplies your chances of people who can actually use your services or buy your product finding you.

If your business is professional in nature, you should most definitely sign up to the LinkedIn site. This is a directory site of professionals in a whole host of different fields who put up their profiles, interact with each other via relevant forums and exchange ideas and tips relevant to their particular fields. It is also possible to link to your website from your profile page.

As your Internet abilities improve, sign up to sites such as Hub Pages and Squidoo. These sites allow the individual to build their own mini web pages via a succession of very easy to use tools and are incredibly powerful for promoting both businesses in general and their websites.

These are just a few ideas for you to use when looking to promote and increase your business online. Hopefully by such as participating in the forums on LinkedIn you will soon determine any more and not be left behind in the new technological age.

May 29th, 2009 by sugig

I’m refering to those products titled as “How to make so-and-so $$$ in so-and-so days” even if you don’t know what to do. The product creators then proceed to show their screen-captured checks on their sales pages. Well, nothing wrong with them. These type of packages are like the “Greatest Hits” albums which contain nothing but THE BEST. They contain the exact historical accounts of what successful Internet Marketers did that gave them the ‘big break’.

If you just follow and copy what they did, you will be successful…

Frankly speaking, this whole idea of “following and copying” is not as simple as it seems. If the 95% poor can copy the 5% rich perfectly, then the poor can become rich, but this is normally NOT TRUE! Let’s not say Donald Trump…You can’t even copy your classmate! You can model after Donald Trump, but ultimately you can only be YOU! It is only your own chicken nature that demands your fullest self-expression in order to be alive, especially for a netrepreneur!

I really salute you if you can copy 100% someone else’s methodology, but most of us can’t. Step-by-step systems can only be as relevant as they can inspire you with sheer confidence and into massive action. So how do you begin to appreciate step-by-step systems?

There are only 3 things you MUST learn to look out for when studying these instructionals. Just don’t read them like novels; scan through the pages quickly!

1) Any specific stages or processes in the Internet Marketers’ work that you know you can do well immediately.

2) Resource links…admit it, take away the black words and it’s just a book with hyperlinks slapped in it. Nothing wrong with that In fact, these alone are worth the investment.

3) The way they write. The instructional-style demands the writer to not only be short, simple and straightforward, but more importantly, make sure readers do not think too much and too hard.

With this tip, we think you can now go back and review whatever step-by-step systems you had come across and check whether they are worth your investment but bear in mind the real ROI is in the application of your understanding of the materials.

Continue to invest in yourself and you will grow to take massive action. Sooner or later your own passion and ideas are going to demand even more of your self-expression to be bigger and better online. Otherwise, we look forward to the day you create your own step-by-step system.

May 29th, 2009 by sugig

As advertising on the internet becomes more and more popular, many small business owners are turning to search engine marketing as a way to promote their business, their products, and their services.

Search engine marketing is one of the oldest forms of internet marketing, allowing the technique to be refined by nearly a generation of individuals. Today, search engine marketing, along with other forms of internet marketing, is a multi-billion dollar industry reaching millions of individuals each day and providing thousands of jobs for people across the country.

Search engine marketing is used to make a website appear higher in the returned results when a certain keyword is typed into a search engine. There are currently three different ways that a company can use to receive a listing that is higher in the search results than their competitor’s listings; search engine optimization, paid inclusion, and paid placement. Each of these ways uses a different method to determine which company’s website is listed at the top of their search results for certain keywords.

The paid inclusion method of search engine marketing is exactly what it sounds like. Companies pay the search engine company to have their web address included in the listings for certain search terms. If a person types that term into the search box for the search engine, the search results will only include the websites of the companies that have paid to be included in the search results.

The paid placement method of internet marketing is used by search engine companies to determine the order in which the websites that are returned for a particular search result are listed. Using this method, the companies that pay extra fees to the search engine company will have their web site listed higher in the search results than those of companies that chose not to pay the extra fees for improved listing placement. Some search engine companies have their services tiered, so that a company can select how much they would like to pay to have their web site listed in the search results and choose to pay an additional fee to be placed at the top of that tier.

The last method of search engine marketing that is commonly used by companies that do business on the internet is search engine optimization. Search engine optimization involves making the content of the website attractive to the search engines so that the search engines will determine that the company’s website is the most relevant to the topic searched and therefore will place the web site higher in the returned search results. Search engine optimization is typically achieved by the strategic placement of keywords or keyword phrases throughout the content of the website.

May 29th, 2009 by sugig

If you are working at a broader level than just “one company” or “one website” - if the electronic world is a landscape you know you can engineer, design, build LOADS on, and profit from in many ways, VERY OFTEN integrating it with realworld stuff you are already attached to… then you still need to understand something very basic about strategy something all to clear to someone sitting there with nothing, working from scratch.

Right now I have two things to do with one period of time and one set of physical/mental resources - I have to choose, and the choice is being made as I write… I could spend several hours engineering a new ‘territory’ - a website I have devised/thought-up which I have all the online facilities to build, sql databases, front end pages and all… even the email sending stuff for user signups, for alerts - whatever I want, I can write. Naturally it would take weeks to do it. But I could do an hour of it tonight. Since I have resources for only a short one-off work stint, it really does mean all I could do (other than set up the sql databases and tables, which I already did, a few days ago, anyway) is a very basic, primary bit of work which still would need weeks more work before something visible would be ready.

Instead, therefore, I’m sticking to doing some writing for Helium - work of that ilk is more abundant, and less well paid, but ultimately it is reliable, and it is vital for your strategy to keep what is reliable at the forefront, particularly at times when resources flounder. Such times are evidence that what is reliable is more important than even the most profitable objects when the latter require the fullness of time, of cycles of completion, to guarantee any income. This article, on the other hand, though far less well paid than the website I can spend 3 weeks building, will guarantee an immediate financial return, or near-immediate.

On the internet there are LOTS of false stepping stones, so if you have reliable means out here, make sure you keep them burning. I would even suggest that brick-and-mortar businesses who are part-online should ALL be selling advertising space by now, otherwise they are NOT sound business people, since they are just not milking their resources for maximum profit

May 29th, 2009 by sugig

I have completed 16 years of running my own business (technical consultancy, being run from my home). I will essentially consider 3 major points which I find very valuable for me in justifying my continuation with my own business.

(1) NURTURING MY VALUES AND PRINCIPLES:

By being an entrepreneur, I am able to enforce my principles and ethics of business that I personally value in my business.

Before starting my venture, I was in employment as a sales professional. I was particularly loath to dealing with orders from Government organizations where some customers were corrupt; the conduct of some customers in huge private organizations was anathema to my personal value system. I was always finding myself in very awkward position, as I was duty-bound to serve my customers with respect.

When I started my own show, I was free enough to enforce my choice of whom to entertain as my customer and whom to shy away from, if their expectations clash with my personal values.

(2) EXCERCISING FREEDOM WITH ACCOUNTABILITY

Being an entrepreneur means primarily to have my freedom of choice and be accountable to that choice. I exercise this freedom in several areas:

- I can accept or decline an Order, based on my own likes and dislikes of doing it.

- I can set my own level of profitability that I would like to have on a specific order, be it low or high

- I can choose the level of risk within which I would accept a task; sometimes I might love to take one as a challenge; sometimes I may shy away from one, from the point of profitability or loss of credibility in case of failure.

- I can choose to execute the task at my own pace, to the extent of perfection to which I can polish the work, at times even resisting pressures of delivery from the customer.

- I can appropriate my earnings according to my preference - to pump in a major chunk of it for development of the business or into the family, on payouts to employees or on extravaganza.

- I can set my own targets - be it turnover, profitability, annual growth or future expansion plans - based on my personal preferences rather than based on the ambitions of a boss or a corporate body.

(3) KEEPING MY TIME AND MY PRIORITIES UNDER MY CONTROL:

By being the owner of my own business, I am able to allocate my time at my will into my profession, into my family and into my hobbies or into my spiritual pursuits. My time is not at the beg and call of my boss. My time is not meant to be whiled away in unproductive office meetings and conferences or in travels that I loathe to undertake.

However, it can not be denied that our prime accountability in any own business shifts to the customer from the boss; consequently and rightfully, the customer demands the maximum attention and allocation of our time. But still, I retain the freedom even to deny my time to the needs of my customer, should I wish to divert it to some other activity I value more, provided I am prepared to face the consequences.

May 13th, 2009 by sugig

Affiliate marketing tips

The overall benefits of publishing well-constructed articles for various products, and making a share of the profits through affiliate advertising is a rewarding way to boost web based revenues, many publishers and webmasters have made this a splendid single source of earnings. However,

writer suavity plays a role on creating enticing content that stands high above the crowds.

Understanding how to effectively utilize the opportunities presented by an affiliate program enables users to place ads for other companies or products on their sites in exchange for passive income in the form of publisher compensation, but it may prove to be a daunting task for the novices. So it necessary to follow simple guidelines to using a distinguished affiliate network like Commission Junction, one the most sophisticated networks on the internet.

It all starts by signing up for your free publisher account, and you do not necessarily have to be a pro at affiliate marketing to kick start your way to the affiliate dollars. All you need is provide relevant personal details, and the details of your website, newsletter, blog, or whatever means you wish to use for your marketing program. You will be required to illustrate the nature and purpose of your site, and the type of products you feel are most appropriate for your blog or site.

While you can certainly ask for a complete list of all advertisers, this method allows you to view the most relevant programs first.

Be aware that some programs will allow you to sign up instantly by clicking on the “join network” link, and others requires you to go through an application process, they will respond to you within a couple of weeks. There is sizable variety so you have the capacity to be selective, it is best to start by really getting to know those that will serve you best. In other words, you want to promote products and services with professional websites that have functioning links and reasonable commissions.

Understand how you the system works, for example, unlike Google Adwords, affiliate networks rarely, if ever, pay per click, instead, they pay commissions upon an actual purchase or action. You will make a percentage of the profits from each sale that originated from one of your fortunate links. It is also common that some affiliates will compensate you for every individual you direct to them and goes on to complete a particular action, like filling out a form, completing a survey, or signing up for a newsletter. On Commission Junction, details of how an affiliate pays before even signing up by clicking on the link of your choice, do not sign up for anything when in doubt, clarify all the dark angles first.

May 3rd, 2009 by sugig

A financial empire from your laptop! Can you believe it?

Computer and Internet let us to do things never imagined before. Who could imagine making millions just from a computer? Now it is not just your imagination its reality!

Where to start?

The fastest way: Advertising

Thousands of aggressive and furious merchants need you to deliver their ads to potential buyers. And guess what is the easiest way of doing this: Adsense.

Google makes a fabulous job when they keep and maintain the most successful Advertising Program ever created. You own a small simple website and you could never sell ads to advertisers the traditional way. Now you just need to put some Adsense ads on it. What could be simpler. Imagine this, you make a website, write a couple of pages, submit the domain to Google and all you have to do is to check your bank account to see when Google makes a transfer or when does the check arrives. It very simple. The best part of it is every person on earth can do it. No special knowledge required, no college required… Just imagination and a website.

Follow these steps:

1- Make a website or Blog. You can use a free service like blogger or freewebtown but for more professional ones you should get professional hosting.

2- Get traffic. You make a website but if nobody visits it it is the same as having no website. You should buy some cheap advertising first.

3- Sign up for Adsense. Once your website gets approved, congratulations you can start showing ads and making money!

Ok how much exactly can you make?
It really depends on a series of factors. The most important of all is eCPM, this means the amount of money your site makes for each 1000 visitors. If you have a 10$ eCPM this means you will make 10$ for every 1000 visits. How is the eCPM calculated? The official Adsense blog has the following formula:

eCPM = Total earning
- x 1000 = eCPM
Impressions

So for example, if you have a 10$ eCPM website and if you get 1.000.000 visitors per month, you will make 1000$ per month. Simple!

To increase the earnings of your website without having to get more traffic there are two things to remember:

1-> CTR is the % of clicks your ads get. The higher the CTR, the higher the earnings will be per 1000 visitors and also the eCPM will be higher too.

2-> Price per Click some ads are more expensive than other. You can expect to get from 0.01$ per click to 50$ per click. When designing your content keep in mind that some works are more expensive than others. A very good easy way for get more per each click is to use synonyms of words that are more popular and expensive. Get a list of high paying Adsense keywords. You can find lots of them on Google and for FREE.

If you manage to get a 100$ eCPM page, which is not an inhuman achievement, you can make 1.000.000$ with just 10 million visitors. Some websites get hundreds of millions visitors every month and they make more than 10$ eCPM pages. They really make lot of money. If you do not believe it, just take a look at the amount of ads they show on each and every page. Its crazy! But makes crazy money too!