Beer Promotion In The Wild World Of The Internet

Writen by Keith Tomlinson

The Challenge for Breweries in Today's Regulated Marketplace is immense. For the past decade the advertising of alcoholic products has been increasingly subject to both government regulation and self-regulatory bodies. In Canada, the CRTC's August 1996 Code for Broadcast Advertising of Alcoholic Beverages severely restricted the way in which alcohol products are presented on both radio and television.

It is not an exaggeration to say that any advertisement adhering to these regulations would be dull indeed, and almost obscure any attempt at promotion - you can't enjoy yourself and drink beer at the same time! Print material such as entrepreneurial magazines and newspapers are less restricted, though regulated by provincial Liquor Boards. The same ethical limitations apply: do not link enjoyment with alcohol consumption; do not direct your ad to youth; do not over-promote; do not pass Go! Also, self-regulation within various media abounds.

In the United States a similar situation exists. The Federal Trade Commission and Congress are the key regulating authorities. In addition, individual media and media groups establish their own code of ethics, often refusing to publish or broadcast alcohol advertising.

The challenge? How do breweries and microbreweries 'get the word out' about their products within an advertising marketplace of such limited visibility where self-promotion is frowned upon?

When traditional methods are not a viable option we must identify and utilize those of the future. One way breweries can take advantage of modern advertising options is to share your product with the world on the Internet.

You may already have a company website. It's fun, it positively promotes your product with enthusiasm as no TV ad is now permitted to do. Your T-shirts and ball caps have their own page. Potential customers are visiting your website on a regular basis, once they stumble across your site on a night of Internet surfing. However, is this kind of customer traffic really the most effective use of such a dynamic advertising tool? All that creative and technical effort and your audience consist of web junkies and the occasional salesperson trying to sell you something. The solution to this problem is targeted pixel marketing. Websites are being developed which help increase traffic on subject related web pages. For instance, pixel space for your beer label on the beer home page may be purchased for a reasonable cost. The label then links with your own webpage.

Beer festivals may be a long established custom, however the modern version is a true advertising event and increasingly popular, not only with the locals. Beer fans travel far to attend their favorite bash. To choose the festival which most suites your product, the Internet comes to the rescue once again. A number of websites list festivals. Check the bottom row of thebeerhomepage.com for the most popular beer festivals around the world.

Besides a shift in promotional methods, a fresh approach in attitude will go a long way in changing public perception of beer. Taking a leaf out the wine industry's book may be the answer. Wine sales have risen since their advertisers started promoting wine "as a natural product, a healthy option, a sophisticated and educated choice, a compliment to food and equally popular with men and women. In fact, beer can also boast all these things, but its public perception is poor by comparison" says Peter Kendal of Molson Coors Brewers. He continues, "Beer is a wholesome, natural product, made from malted barley and hops. Moreover, moderate (and we stress moderate) beer drinking is just as healthy as moderate wine drinking".

To conclude, these are only a few examples of the way a modern approach to advertising need not battle with established regulations. A positive, open mind and a willingness to switch gears should lead to a healthy return on your advertising dollars.

Keith Tomlinson is the President of Excalibur Communications, the company that created TheBeerHomepage.com Pixel Marketing web portal. Besides web marketing and development Excalibur provides value added 1-800 lead generation, tracking and conference call services to a wide range of clientele through North America. Visit http://www.thebeerhomepage.com to find out more about this exciting and fun new way of advertising.

Not All Website Links Are Created Equal

Writen by Joe Duchesne

If you've read anything in the internet marketing arena while trying to promote your website, you've no doubt come across the advice that you need to get links to your website in order for it to do well in the search engines. I'm not here to tell you otherwise, only to point out that when someone gives you advice on getting links, don't assume that any and all links are helpful or desirable. You need to learn to go after links that will give you the best results for the least amount of effort.

Years ago, in the early days of the internet, it was not uncommon for internet 'gurus' to council people to place links on FFA lists in order to get traffic. Besides these FFA lists, webmasters were encouraged to get links from classified ads, webrings, link farms and all manner of beasts like these. These links didn't help the average user find useful information faster. In fact, if anything it made it more difficult for people to find what they were looking for.

Years ago search engines were simple by todays standards. Back then you could often achieve top ranking for a particular keyword by simply repeating these keywords over and over again. Early search engines assumed that the more often a keyword was mentioned, the more likely the page was relevant to the topic. This, of course, was not true and search engine companies eventually wisened up to this tactic.

Getting a mass of links from websites that are not relevant to the topic of your website produces little return. It does produce some return on some search engines but very little for the two biggest ones, Google and Yahoo, with Google being the most sophisticated of the two engines. Based on information from a Google patent application released a while back, experts surmise that Google will track a number of factors when determining how to rate the value and authority of the link pointing to your site.

Some of these factors include the topic of the website linking to you. If it is about deer hunting and your website is selling access to a website builder, the link won't count as highly as if it came from another website promoting a website builder or a web hosting company, web hosting directory, etc...

Number of links on a page is also important especially when factoring in Google pagerank. When another website places a link to your page, it will transfer more pagerank to your website the fewer the links on their website. Depending on how much pagerank the other website has, your link may tansfer little or no pagerank back to your website if there are too many links on the page.

Placement of the link on the page is another factor to consider. Advanced search engines like Google are now trying to discount links that are obviously advertisements or paid linking. To this end, links under partner sections, on links pages, on 'partner' pages are being discounted.

So what kind of links should you get? The best kind of links are keyword rich, contextual links within the body of the web page. Links that are relevant to the context of the page are going to get more attention that links that are clearly off topic. Including your targeted keyword between the html anchor tag is also a good idea.

Joe Duchesne is the webmaster of Screamertraffic.com a directory dedicated to helping you increase web traffic to your website. Reprint freely as long as you maintain the live keyword rich link in this resource box with the article.

A Business Owners Viewpoint Of Search Engine Optimization

Writen by Steve Collins

I am not a SEO expert nor am I a professional internet marketer. I am the proprietor of a website and I have had much bad advice and made many wrong turns in the process of setting up and running my site. I am experienced in what does and does not work if you are on a tight budget and desperately trying to get your site listed and ranked.

The reason that I am writing this article is because so many people are being ripped off by so called "experts" who claim to get results within weeks. This is not the case and if you go to any real expert they will tell you so. I do not have all of the answers but what I am giving you is unbiased and based on my own experience (mostly bad!!).

Popular myths.
Are you fed up with false promises from people who say that they know what they are talking about when it comes to search engine optimisation? There are so many people claiming to be experts and almost always they tell that there is a secret to making your site search engine friendly.

What is this so called "secret"? In answer, there isn't one! They say this to get your attention and make you feel that this not something that you can do yourself. In reality you should be able to do most of it yourself, relying on web developers or marketers to sort out coding issues.

If all of these "experts" were to be believed you would part with a huge chunk of cash. What really are you paying for? The answer would be, not much!! It is true that coding issues really need to tackled by experts. It is not true that there is a secret to how to get a good page rank. It is also untrue that any professional can guarantee you top 10 listings or that they can do anything to improve your ranking overnight.

The Truth.
OK, what can you really expect from expert intervention. What you can expect is a long-term strategy for marketing and planning your site layout. Why do you need this? Because it is more important than anything else as you will need to take time to get your site listed well and ranked highly. It is impossible to get your site ranked within weeks and listed well. You will notice that I refer to these as two separate issues. This is because they are not entirely the same thing. Being well ranked does not necessarily mean that you will be highly listed, but it does help!

The Strategy.
The strategy used to help your site would follow (roughly) this pattern:

Meta tags are essential for search engine crawlers as they read this information and us it to determine the content of your site. Your meta tag should be consistent throughout in order for it to be thoroughly effective. You should not spam keywords by using them excessively and titles, headers and descriptions within the meta tag should be consistent with the content of your page. If you have keywords in your meta tag (which you should), you should make sure that it is included in the content of your page as this makes it relevant to the crawler and will help your site page ranking.

In order to get your page rank up and get your site listed well, you will need to make sure that your site has plenty of good and informative content that is original. You will also need to update, add to and alter the information on a regular basis. This makes your site more attractive to the search engine crawlers and has the effect of boosting your ratings with these programmes.

When you have done all of this, you will need to list your site with as many directory sites as you can. It is always best to list your site with directories that ask you to place your listing in a specific category as this gives additional importance to the information that you have submitted. It is not necessary to list with sites that you would need to pay for any submission. Stick with free advertisements first as this makes your efforts cost effective. If this does not give you the results that you are looking for you can always look at paying for your inbound links at a later date.

Place all submissions carefully as you can damage your page rank if you list your site in non-related directories or categories. Be very wary about reciprocal linking. Most will do nothing for your page rank, in fact they can quite often damage it. It is always better to approach companies that are similar to yours in order to link to them. This is because your site will have something in common with the site that you have linked to and so it increases the relevance of your submission with any crawlers that trawl the site. Always get expert advice on this issue if you are not sure.

Be very careful about listing your site with the "add your site to 15,000 search engines" companies. They can do more damage than good. Constantly listing with Google or Yahoo can cause them to take your site out of their directories so caution is needed. It is better to use just one or two of these types of site, then check after about three months that you are listed on Google and Yahoo. This gives them time to include your site. It would be better to list your site yourself than to leave it to other people (or programmes) to do it for you.

Always try to list on well ranked directories first as they will help your page rank further. This is because for each site that you list on, you take a small percentage of their page rank and assign it to your own page that you have linked to. It is vital no to use auto submitting programmes that list your site on hundreds of site in one hit until you have already established yourself over a few months. This is because your site may be "sand boxed" by the search engines. They do this in order to stop spam sites setting up and then disappearing when they have spammed everyone. A lot of directories will not accept submissions made by the auto submission programmes.

There is a lot more that can be said about search engine optimisation, but suffice to say there is no real secret. The only thing that really needs expert help is coding and possibly meta tags as these need to be consistent. You should only do these things yourself if you know what you are doing as you can do more damage than good to your site. We hope that this article helps you avoid the pitfalls that we have found in the process of starting this business. Good luck.

Author: Steve Collins
Date Written: 03-05-06
http://www.regencyexpress.co.uk

What Is Link Popularity

Writen by F. Terrence Markle

Link popularity is simply the total number of web pages that link to your web page. Link popularity is an extremely important factor that is used by most of the major search engines to rank web pages and web sites. In general, the major search engines consider link popularity a key factor in their algorithms to determine the relevancy of your web page to a particular keyword search query.

Good link popularity is important because it can increase the visitor traffic to your web page. The reputation of your web site (i.e., votes of confidence from other web sites) is a measure of the site's link popularity. Your web page rank (i.e., the position your web page occupies in a search engine's results page) to a particular search query can be improved by increasing the number of relevant and quality web sites that have incoming links to your web page.

An incoming link is considered to be relevant if it is meaningful and relates to your web page. If you sell golf clubs online, relevant incoming links could be from: golf club manufacturers, golf apparel sites, competitors, golf-related directories and so forth. In addition, internal links (links from web pages within your web site) are considered relevant and essential because they help your web page visitor to navigate your web site.

It is not enough to just have web page links coming into your web page (link popularity). The quality of the incoming link is also critical. A search engine will put more emphasis on a high quality web page (ranked high by a particular search engine) than on a low quality web page (ranked low by a particular search engine). It will take many lower quality incoming links to approach the level of a single high quality incoming link.

The major search engines do more than match the content of your web page to the keyword search query to determine if there's a good match for a particular search. They look at the quality of the links to your web page. The reason is because there are thousands, if not millions, of web pages that contain the search query's particular keyword or keyword phrase in the web page content. The search engines want to deliver a list of relevant and ordered web pages to meet a user's query search.

In addition to the link popularity, search engines also look at the anchor text contained in the incoming link to your web page. It will consider your web page more relevant to the keyword query search if the text in the incoming link to your web page contains the queried keywords.

The number and quality of incoming links to your web page can be an excellent source of targeted and consistent visitor traffic to your site. In addition, search engines are more likely to index your web pages on a more frequent basis if you have many incoming relevant and quality links. The search engine spiders have a higher probability of finding you through the external incoming links to your site as your link popularity increases.

Reciprocal linking or link exchanging involves another web page linking to your web page and you linking back to their web page. If you select targeted and relevant web pages to exchange links with then you have a higher probability of gaining increased visitor traffic to your web page. In addition, your web page ranking on a search engine keyword query is also likely to improve as mentioned earlier.

Your overall marketing plan should include a link exchange campaign to help improve your search engine rankings and the visitor traffic to your web page. Spend the necessary time and energy to locate and exchange links with link exchange partners that provide a good match with your web page. Review the potential link partner's web site theme and content to determine if their link would be relevant to your site. Consider only those web sites as exchange partners with themes or topics that complement or relate to your web page.

It is important that you have a good link exchange strategy in place and a process to manage the reciprocal links. Don't link to a web page if they are not linking back to your web page. Link exchange campaigns require your attention and monitoring. You can perform the link exchange management manually or you can use a computer program that will do it for you.

There are a number of good programs that perform link exchange management functions. However, there are some programs that do a poor job. For example, some management software programs will perform automated search engine queries to harvest prospects that are not relevant for linking to your web page. Do not use "link farms" in your link exchange campaign. These sites provide hundreds of non-relevant links with no meaningful content to your site that the search engines can detect and potentially use to ban or penalize your site.

The vast majority web site owners that participate in a link exchange program do not understand the issues and benefits of the exchange. As a result, they do not maximize the potential value to be gained from the link exchange. Learn and implement the proper strategies and your web page will potentially benefit from improved search engine ranking and increased targeted and qualified visitors.

Every web site that provides links to other web pages should have a links page. Your links page will be an excellent resource for the visitors to your web site. Your web site will be more helpful and credible to your visitors if you provide useful and relevant links on your links page. You can start utilizing the power of your links page when it becomes a service to your visitors rather than a tool to obtain higher search engine ranking.

You need to categorize your links if you have a lot of outgoing links. Don't try to put all your links on one links page where it has the appearance of a link farm (i.e., no valuable content or relevance) to the search engines that want to index the page. Create a useful links page that shows only the link categories with separate links that take your visitor to an individual link page for each category. The intent is to provide a resource for your visitors that is useful and can be easily navigated. Search engines love this type of structure that they can fully index.

The incoming links to your web page and the outgoing links to other web pages should be structured in a clear manner. Provide your link exchange partners with the exact HTML code to be included in the link on their web page. This code should include your URL, your anchor link text with the appropriate keyword or keyword phrase and a concise description that incorporates your web site name and the appropriate keyword or keyword phrase.

Copyright (C) F. Terrence Markle – All Rights Reserved You have permission to publish this article in its entirety, as long as the bylines and the resource box are included. You must make all links active.

Get my FREE report "The Niche Factor" on niche marketing with Master Resale Rights at: http://www.QuikSystems.com/report/niche2.php

Get my FREE report "The AdSense Factor" on adsense marketing with Master Resale Rights at: http://www.QuikSystems.com/report/adsense2.php

How To Ditch A Quotnasty Nellie Olsenquot Whos Sabotaging Your Online Event Gracefully

Writen by Dina M. Giolitto

So you decided to throw one of those "virtual bashes" to gain you prestige and prominence in your niche... and everyone's being helpful and cooperative, how fantastic! Oh, except that one problem child, she's calling, she's emailing, she wants you to explain it all over again, she wants attention, she wants you to bend the rules for her... but what's she offering in exchange? Nothing that you need or desire! Yes, there's always the Nellie Olsen of the bunch, tossing those curls, stamping those feet and cramping your style. What's a busy online event planner to do?

1. Lay the ground rules. Your event must have milestones, deadlines, submission processes, exemptions and disclaimers to "SYOA," if you know what I mean. These are the laws that must be carefully laid out and woven into your ongoing campaign to ensure that a "Naughty Nellie" won't come along and trip you up when your guard is down. If you feel skittish about laying the laws, I'll give you my email address right now and you can call on me to get your "copywriting protection" against the Event Sabotager. Trust me, you will need it - dina/AT/wordfeeder.com.

2. Distance yourself. If you're always accessible during a vigorous event campaign, you'll never get anything done. Is old Nellie problem-solving for you again, suggesting that if you go get outside help then you would have more time to cater to her endless needs? This is nonsense, you're the Master Planner, and you must dodge the Nellster as nicely as you can. So, answer her question, post information where she can clearly see it, and then become unavailable.

3. Don't back down. If you give in to one self-absorbed person, next thing you know, the rest of the group will be clamoring their "whataboutmes". (Well, hopefully your group has more class and style than this, but one never knows.) Don't cave to the pressure of a chronic demander who's asking you to give them special treatment, trying to bribe you with things you don't want, or manipulating the rules and attempting to force-feed you your own words so that they get their way in the end. Someone who is this persistent has likely done zero to support you. They're looking out for number one and that's no one you want on your side. Remember - if they don't get what they want now, they won't be back to ask you for more later. Hold your ground!

4. Highlight the good eggs. During the course of your event promotion, you'll be "public speaking" to the group at certain points. Focus on the people who have pitched in with support, time, effort, creativity, connections, word-of-mouth marketing, assistance, and anything else that you'd consider instrumental in making the event fly. Be sure to thank them graciously at every turn, because in comparison to Needy Nellie these people are a Godsend! Turn your attention on the good eggs, and that unpleasant vision of your tormenter getting the best of you will soon fade away.

5. Ask for cash. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that Nellie the Needler has got a tight grip on those purse strings. So if she continues to prod you for special favors, give her a big smile and ask for payment. You're an online marketer after all - there are no regulations or rules except the ones that you lay down for the projects that you own. As an online marketer, you've probably devoted a heap of nonbillable hours to this extravaganza anyway. There comes a point where if someone can't observe your deadlines or requirements and is making demands of your time you should just ask for payment. Either outcome of this will be desirable: Nellie actually pays you (a small miracle in itself), or the more likely scenario - she runs away to go pester someone else.

Yes, there will always be that one person who makes your life a living hell. Get away from them if you can. After all, you've got a major event to plan.

Want to witness event planning live in action? Please join me and my marketing friends for the First Annual Web Content Awareness Day, scheduled to launch on February 9, 2006 at http://WebContentAwarenessDay.com.

Sneak Peek: Visit the Countdown to Web Content Awareness Day Blog and learn how you can ride our wave of high web traffic!

Paste in this link:

http://wordfeeder.typepad.com/web_content_awareness_day/

Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Liked this article? Have more of the same emailed to your inbox each month. Sign up for the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine from Dina at Wordfeeder.com and learn to write search engine friendly web copy and market your web based business for free.

What Color Is Power

Writen by Sylvia Dickens

If you're struggling to make your web business thrive, there could be many factors holding you back. It could even be the colors you wear. Do you know the color of power?

Every day, we are bombarded with opportunities and links to "secrets" that are supposed to open the floodgates to success.

This constant flow of offers usually looks like this: "read this"; "find out how the gurus do it"; "this is guaranteed to work"; and "if you haven't tried this, it's time you did." In the end, are they truly helpful resources or just distractions?

Like many of you, I constantly get drawn in by those promises that turn out to be empty repeats of information I already know. The problem is, I often think I don't know enough until I see their tips. Then, it comes clear that I truly am already in possession of everything I need to succeed.

"Oh, yes. I know how that works. I read about that before," is my usual response. Yet here I am again re-reading the same advice. In the end, all I've done is allow myself to get distracted. In turn, it means time taken from doing the real work to get my business off the ground and in profit mode.

Recently, I was drawn in by a product that promises to have the answer to succeeding online. It even goes so far as to suggest I can make $1000 in 2 days. My curiosity is pumped once again. This time, however, I find that the product is loaded with ideas that the average Joe can implement on a shoestring budget. When I read those ideas, they made sense and I wonder why I didn't think of some of them before.

The answer is that I spend far too much time looking for "the answer" instead of using what I already know. This constant search fills my mind with the wrong focus. Rather, I should be using my own creative thinking to come up with marketing ideas, given all the knowledge I've already accumulated.

An e-book I received in exchange for my email address turned out to be extremely valuable. It goes through the entire process that a successful internet marketer went through during his 'green' years.

As a teenager and high school drop-out, he got the brilliant idea to set up video games in his parents' garage. He would charge his friends and neighbors a small fee to play them. It was a humble beginning, but today he is earning big money on the internet.

He studied every piece of marketing material he could get his hands on and sought those who had already made it big. No point reinventing the wheel. It took years for him to perfect his online business, but he did. He had a dream and he refused to stray from that path.

Recently, he was interviewed by another successful internet marketer in which he reveals the steps he went through to reach the level he's at now. He explains how the average person can shortcut their way to success.

Tip #1: Focus. Don't jump all over the place trying different things. Find one marketing method that works for you and your business and put all your effort into learning about it. Study it inside out. Only after you've done that are you ready to put it into action.

This will bring you faster results and maximize your time and energy. When you find a system that works, duplicate it for even more success. For example, if you are good at writing ads and getting results with Google pay per click advertising, study it intensely. When you're satisfied you know all there is to know, find another marketing technique if you want and study it until you perfect that skill.

Tip #2: Believe in yourself. Banish negativity from your life, even if it means steering clear of people who bring you down or squash your dreams. These are your dreams, not theirs. Put your energy and thoughts into making them happen. All dreams are possible, even if they take some work. You just have to maintain your faith and pursue that dream.

Oh, I guess you want to know what is the color of power. There are several theories about this particular color. One popular belief is that it inspires and reflects anger. After all, bulls seem disturbed by it. In other situations, it's considered seductive.

For the internet marketer, however, it means power. Red attracts power and wealth. Surround yourself with red. Wear an item of red clothing and see how your situation improves. Don't forget to focus on your dreams. Attune yourself for wealth.

Copyright 2006 Sylvia Dickens

Sylvia Dickens is an author, book reviewer and internet marketer. You can download a copy of "Passive Income Secrets" audio e-book at her site: http://www.book-titles.ca/PassiveIncome.htm

Internet Marketing Is Changing Right Before Your Eyes

Writen by Ken Nadreau

There's no doubt about it . . .

Big changes are in the air!

In the midst of all the usual scams and rip offs, there's a New Wave of Marketing techniques that are beginning to immerge that will forever alter what you do, or will take you out of the game.

The choice is yours!

You see, what most marketers have been spending their time on might be called "peer marketing", that is selling to their fellow marketers. Hundreds and hundreds of programs and ebooks have been written designed to draw in affiliates to do the bidding and "leg work" for those producing them.

So now we have tons of "how to's" and just as many affiliate programs that have, over time, gotten real old.

Then, on top of all that, you have thousands of traffic exchanges and paid to read email advertising sites to make us think that we're actually marketing to someone.

But in reality, all we're really doing is perpetuating this "peer marketing" phenomenon that's frankly spinning our wheels and getting us nowhere.

We all know it's not working. We all know that, in spite of all the hype and hoopla, 95% of all online businesses are still failing miserably.

Let's face it, Internet Marketing is in a rut that's got us all running around in circles!

But all is not lost!

Lately, new tools and methods to infuse new life into online marketing have been hitting the scene . . .

Things like Niche Marketing are beginning to draw many away from "peer marketing", and teaching them to spend their time finding out what other people want and connecting them to those products.

What's being discovered, actually, is that the average online marketer, who's been bogged down with trying to sell useless information to their peers, is generally well conditioned to slip right into Niche Marketing.

You see, there are tons of marketable, every day products available on the web, and there are just as many marketers who've learned, due to immense competition,to be extremely convincing.

Putting the two together is creating a remarkable edge over the product producers who, most often, have minimal skills in advertising.

Most of these products, easily accessible through reseller programs, can be marketed alone or in combination with other product via quickly set up websites.

And, because there's no production costs, in either time or money, most advertising campaigns can be generated in a very short period of time.

So you might say, Internet Marketing is finally evolving in a much more constructive direction!

Yes, online sales people from all over the world are now learning how to do what a sales person is supposed to be doing . . .

Finding people who are really looking for what they sell, and selling it to them!

Do you hear someone knocking?

Oh . . . It's Opportunity!

About The Author

Ken Nadreau is the author of "Get Niche Quick", and one of the pioneers of the New Wave of Internet Marketing. He is dedicated to ending the stagnation and lowering the 95% failure rate for online businesses.

http://get-niche-quick.com

krnadreau@taoenterprises.com

Internet Business Marketing Methods

Writen by Todd Lavergne

The internet is a great place for people to start the business of their dreams. Online businesses are cheaper to run than standard retail businesses because operating methods are generally low-cost, and internet businesses have very little overhead expenses. Internet business can contain a great deal of products and information without the expense necessary for standard businesses. An internet business can be operated at home, and marketing an internet business has many low-cost options and methods not afforded to regular business owners.

Marketing methods are numerous, but not all methods of internet marketing are known to internet business owners. Low-cost internet marketing methods are available to internet business owners, and these methods are easy to implement. These low-cost marketing methods make it simple for anyone with an internet business to make that business a financial success. An internet business owner doesn't have to be a corporate giant in order to receive the internet marketing it deserves.

For internet businesses and websites to obtain the highest search engine rankings, they must receive an adequate amount of internet traffic. The more the traffic, the higher the ranking. When marketing a website and looking for low-cost methods, this seems like an unfair disadvantage. Internet business owners seeking more traffic submit their websites to search engines in order to increase traffic. If search engines won't list websites high upon their lists when traffic is low, how can internet business owners receive the traffic they need in order to gain higher search engine rankings and a chance at success? This is a marketing nightmare for those looking for low-cost marketing methods. Link exchanges are the answers to those wanting low-cost internet marketing and high search engine rankings.

Internet business owners looking for low-cost internet marketing should seriously consider becoming involved in link exchange opportunities.Exchanging links with other business websites is not just a low-cost marketing method, exchanging business links is often free. There are websites where those wishing to exchange links can find compatible link partners also interested in low-cost and free marketing through increased website traffic.

Once internet business owners are receiving the necessary website traffic in order to achieve high ranking search engine status, they should submit their internet business website to all of the major search engines. Search engine submission and marketing is low-cost and often free through search engine submission services. Website owners using these services are generally asked to place a link to the website submission service on their website. With proper keyword density and meta tags, business websites will achieve higher rankings on major search engine lists. Marketing a business website through low-cost and free online services is an effective and intelligent method of internet business promotion.

To find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home visit: http://www.EarnBonus.com

Finding And Promoting A Residual Income Program

Writen by Andrew Saari

So, you've had some success with Internet marketing, and you're looking to take it to the next level. Or, are you new to it and still searching for the ultimate product? A residual income program may be just what you're looking for.

What is residual income? Let's start with a brick and mortar example: Say you're a car salesman. You sell a car. You get a commission, right? Nice, but to get another commission, you have to sell another car. Sounds like a job to me, doesn't it? Now, that car you sold needs to have insurance, right? The insurance agent sells the same customer insurance. The agent gets a commission check, too. But, the difference is every time another insurance payment is due, the insurance agent gets another commission check. Nice, huh? Make one sale, get commissions forever! This is what is known as residual income. Now, the insurance agent can concentrate on making another sale, which will give him even more and more residual income, year after year. The car salesman has to sell another car to get another check. Which sounds better to you? Before you rush out and become an insurance agent, let's see how to apply this principle to online marketing.

Now, let's say you have a product that you're selling. It sells for $50. Your marketing efforts cost you $25. That leaves $25 for you. Nice. Now, Imagine you found a product that has a residual income of $50 a month. It costs you the same $25 to market and make one sale. After 1 year, the total income is $600, of which $575 is pure profit from one sale! Keep making sales, and the profits would keep compounding. Making just one sale a day for 3 months, your monthly income could be over $3750! After a year, your montly income could become quite staggering-even if you quit advertising.

Ok, now the big question. How do I find a residual income program for me? There are a few options here. Create your own. Some ideas include: Start a newsletter. Getting paid subscribers to a newsletter you write on your area of expertise is one. Web hosting is an option. Starting a web hosting business where you collect a monthly fee would be another excellent idea.

Maybe you don't want to go through the hassles of creating your own newsletter week after week, or whatever your time frame would be. Perhaps you don't have the ability to write the sales letter to sell it yourself. Or, you don't have the technical knowledge required for web hosting. Then, an affiliate program may be what you are looking for. This means you get a commission off of someone else's existing product. You may even use their marketing materials. All you do is promote the product and send visitors to their site using your ID.Then, you get a piece of the profit. Sounds even better, huh? There are hundreds of these opportunities to be found online. Take a little time, and find the one that's right for you.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

Your product should provide a value to your customers. People buy because they feel they're going to recieve something of value. You get what you want by helping people get what they want. Offer an inferior product, and customers will not buy, or they'll cancel their monthly subscription and take your profit with them.

Use the product yourself. If you're trying to sell your customers a product they don't believe in, they will sense it, and not buy from you. If you don't believe in your product, who will?

Some affiliate programs pay on more than one level. Much like MLM, you can get paid on other people's sales, too. Getting any ideas yet? Do a search on residual income affiliate programs. Find one that appeals to you.

Now, you've found your product. How do you promote it? Use the same techniques that have proven effective for other online products. We'll go through the basics:

PPC-or pay per click. Probably the fastest way to get a new product in front of the customers who are searching for it. All the major search engines have their version. Visit their advertising center and check out your optiions. You may need to play around with keywords and bids, as well as advertising copy, to find which converts best.

ezines-There are thousands of ezine publications online. Practically every niche has dozens (or more). Find one that accepts advertising, or maybe even start your own! Find one that your product would appeal to.

Your own opt-in mail list. If you've been successfully building your business and have built up an opt-in list, send your offer to your list. If they've already bought from you, they likely will again, if what you're offering is similar.

Other people's opt-in mailing lists. Some lists accept advertisements for a fee or a cut of the commission. Warning: Never send spam or bulk email to anyone who has not opted in to a list. This can get you in trouble with the law, as well as alienate the customers you're trying to reach.

Write an article such as this one. Make it informative, not a sales letter. You're allowed to put a tag line at the end with a link to your url. There are dozens of services to submit them to, and web publishers who are constantly looking for new content use them. They publish them on their websites, and you get links to your site, which send you free traffic. Everybody wins and it's very effective. (And cheap!) If you don't have the knowledge, or the time to write an article yourself, hire a ghostwriter to do it for you.

By now you should have gotten some great ideas on what you would like to promote, and how to do it. All that's left is to go out and do it! Find the right one, and you may just become the next Internet millionaire.

Copyright 2006 Andrew Saari

Andrew Saari operates several online businesses. To learn from over 50 of the most amazing minds on the planet who collectively have helped millions of people achieve astounding levels of success and sign up for a free residual income producing website, visit http://www.easyachieve.com

Examples Of Quotbusiness Opportunitiesquot From The Internet World

Writen by Yigit Djevdet

Income Earning Offers By Mail
I send you an unsolicited e-mail and guise it as a business offer. I do my best to make the opportunity sound like a dream come true. I talk about the wonderful house you will own, the expensive car you will drive and the lavish holidays you will be able to afford. Can you but trust me to send a measly amount of ($SUM) so that I can reveal to you the secret.

This comes in many guises. For example, I fool you into thinking that I have the perfect formula for beating the odds in some gambling venture. Or that I have made many thousands of dollars using this or doing that. You will be surprised to hear me say that all this may in fact be true. However, an offer received in this way (i.e. unsolicited mail) has virtually no chance of being genuine. But, if you are really tempted and want to be sure, just do a search on the name or the company. If no name or contact information is given then you can forget it straight away. Most scams of this nature are however clever and they will provide you with this information.

If your search reveals nothing about the contact then forget it. If there are many references to the name or the company, dig a little more to find what people are saying. If all these checks reveal positive results, then the next plan of action is to reply to the mail (this should be standard practice even if you asked to be included on some mailing list) and ask as many questions as possible and wait for a reply. If the reply comes quickly (a day or so), is not an automatic response and all your questions are satisfactorily answered, you can probably go ahead. But never hurry to give your money away.

Income Earning Offers Over The Net
The most notable types of offer you may come across are: Home Working, Multilevel Marketing (MLM), Affiliate Programs, Reselling and Surfing for Cash.

Now if you do come across any of these sites, particularly after having done a search engine query, the chances are that you are looking for some kind of opportunity. You are testing the water, as it were. It is the same as looking through the classified section of small adverts in a national or local newspaper. The chances also are that you are looking for a second income or even a complete change of work for whatever reason. You might be fed up with your boss or the pay is too small or the hours are long or the people are unfriendly. Most of us have done the job thing and I think we all know the feeling of how each of those things eats away at your happiness. Whatever your reason is, it means you are vulnerable. You are impressionable, especially if you are relatively new to this sort of thing on the net.

These are not words of discouragement. They are words of caution because you will need to exercise sizeable quantities of it in order to avoid slipping into a scam. The plain reason is that it is often difficult to see the difference between a scam and a genuine offer. However, there are certain signs that you will be well advised to look for.

Let us first try to address some questions that the prospect will almost certainly be asking before I list the danger signs. In general, people I speak to or converse with on this subject ask me the following questions (often in the order I present them below):

Q1. Is it really possible to earn some kind of income on the net?
A1. The answer is an emphatic YES. The reason for this answer is a direct result of how the question is posed. The word possible is used. So, after some thought, the question is rephrased.

Q2. Can anyone earn some kind of income on the net?
A2. The answer is the same, YES. The question is really no different from the first one. But just to appear a little more sociable, I may add that anyone with patience, a reasonable intelligence, and a natural disposition to hard work can make money on the net. By adding this extra bit, I save the next question which is: "Could I earn some kind of income on the net?"

Q3. How much are we talking about?
A3. Very difficult to say. It depends on a lot of things. First, it depends on what type of activity, what type of business, what type of good or service you are offering. But obviously there are people who are making lots of money and there are those (the majority) who are making very little. The range averages from $30 per month to $20,000 per month.

The answer to question three quickly separates prospects into two categories. The get rich quick people and the I am ready for hard work and to be patient people. So the moral of this story is that if I advise you that you can earn $20,000 per month by working an hour a day, I am not lying to you but I am misleading you. I am giving you the impression that this can be achieved quickly, i.e. within days or weeks or even months of having set up your Internet home-based business. The truth is that all successful people who have made very large amounts of money on the net have spent a lot of time refining, rebuilding, changing, learning, reading and gaining valuable experience in the process.

Consider a business on the high street. A small grocery shop does not make as much money as a supermarket. Even if the volume of customers were the same, people would come in, look around, not find what they want and make their way to the nearest supermarket. The point is, any business, even an Internet one, has to be built gradually. Your customer-base has to be established, your reputation has to grow, the popularity of your site has to flourish and you have to keep working at it (even when you think you have the perfect site). The good news is that if you adhere to all of the above, the work really does get less and less.

I wrote this article specifically for those (perhaps newcomers) that are entertaining the idea of going into business using the internet. The candidate will have undertaken many searches to find the right sort of "business" but possibly without the knowledge of what they might expect to find. It is really to sound a note of caution and inject the benefit of experience and wisdom into the mind-set of those that hear about the glories of "home working" and "making $1000s just by working 2 hours a day". These are just a few of the many emotion stirring headlines con-artists use to grab and keep one's attention.

I am also the author of a fantasy/supernatural novel called "Will of Dreams", for which I have built a dedicated website http://www.willofdreams.com awaiting the command finger hovering impatiently above your mouse to click upon it.

Internet Marketing Reality Check

Writen by Jeff Palmer

There are thousands of web sites, books, CD-ROM's, cassette tapes and various other forms of communication devoted to the topic of Internet marketing. The majority of these sites profess to offer "secret strategies" and "killer tactics" which promise to increase your chances of having success on the Internet. Of course you must fork over your hard earned cash for these wonderful pearls of wisdom. (Many of which turn out to be nothing more than pyramid schemes and other scams)

With all of these so called experts lining up to take your money and fill your head with dreams of making easy millions you may find it difficult to filter out the facts from the fiction. I will take the unenviable role of fact giving, bubble burster and tell you flat out, "There are no secrets to successful Internet marketing!"

Let me repeat myself, I said, "There are no secrets to successfully Internet marketing"

Successful marketing, whether its online or off, requires careful planning and a lot of hard work. And no amount of marketing will ever meet with success if the product being marketed is a bad one. This is especially true of web sites, which carry the remarkable distinction of the almighty back button. I know this from first hand experience with companies that have spent ridiculous amounts of money to market web sites which were basically unusable.

Now that your dreams of sailing around the ocean sipping margaritas, while an Internet cash machine deposits six figure sums into your bank are thoroughly dashed, lets explore some of the common issues associated with true Internet marketing success as well as a few of the many misconceptions.

The same principles that govern off-line marketing practices apply to online marketing. Research, Planning, and Analysis.

Research:

Determine what makes your product or service stand out from the crowd. What do you offer that the competition doesn't? How do your prices compare to others in the market? What features of your product are one of a kind? All of this information will help in designing your web site to reflect a unique selling proposal. A unique selling proposal answers the customer's question, "What's in it for me?" Gather all the information possible that answers this question and use it in planning your web site.

Planning:

Develop a marketing strategy for your web site.

Are you selling merchandise online? Are you advertising a service? Who are your customers? You must determine exactly what it is that you want your website to accomplish. Example: If your web site is focused on making it easier for potential customers to learn about your services, focus your attention on offering as much information about your services as possible. Price comparisons of your competition, directions to your business location, contact information, testimonials, etc.,are a good place to start. Plan your web site around a central goal.

Analysis:

So your web site is up and running, you have developed a marketing strategy and people are interested in your product. Now its time to figure our what is working and what isn't. This aspect of marketing your web site can be one of the most difficult to understand. This goes well beyond simply counting the number of visitors to your site. It requires analyzing the habits of those who travel to your site. Determining what features of your site compel visitors to purchase your products, what features turn visitors away. It is important to analyze every single feature of your web site, from the sales copy to the navigation. You must understand how every feature of your web site supports or detracts from your marketing success.

Hopefully by now you realize that Internet marketing requires more than just an out-of-the-box solution. There is no magical formula to marketing online, and those who say otherwise should be scrutinized. The incredible variety of businesses online require individual marketing strategies and plans. A real estate web site should not be marketed the same way as one selling comic books. Any salesman would have a difficult time selling denture glue to a teen-ager, it just doesn't fit. And neither do one size fits all marketing plans. Target markets have to be considered. Planning, strategy and analysis must be carried out in order to achieve any kind of lasting success.

Make your web site usable and you will gain success!

Now, if you would like to send me a check for $30 for this "killer strategy" please feel free to do so. Otherwise, take this bit of information and file it in the "critically important" category. By usable, I'm talking about such web site considerations as working links, fast loading pages, limited use of images,animations and other "fluff" that will make most users hit the back button faster than you can blink a virtual eye.

Fact: Most Internet users will hit their back buttons if a web page doesn't load in 20 seconds or less. Increasing the speed at which your web site loads greatly increases the likelihood that it will ever be seen.

Submit your site to 100,000 search engines for just $29.95 !!! Beware of offers like this, the truth is there are only a handful of search engines that most people use to find things online. Concentrating your marketing efforts on these few search engines is much more effective than having your site listed in a million places that nobody will ever see Bear in mind that most of these multiple search engine submittal sites are profit driven, and the only one making a profit is them.

Fact: Google and Yahoo are currently the major players in the search engine game comprising 54% and 41% of all Internet searches respectively.(Source: Comscore Media Metrix 05/04) There are several techniques to achieving higher rankings with these two search engines none of which are secrets. Read my article on search engine optimization for more information about this important topic.

Number 1 Ranking in Google! Guaranteed!

I have seen many web sites offering search engine ranking services, making claims like the one above, The truth of the matter is that it is impossible to guarantee a number one ranking with Google's free search engine submission. As I have stated previously there are a number of strategies and steps that can be taken to optimize your web site for search engine placement and achieve the highest rankings possible. Guaranteed results are a myth, it is possible to have the highest ranking in Google for search terms that aren't commonly used, but then, what's the point?

Fact: It is true that you can purchase advertising space using the Google service called AdWords. Advertisements appear in the right hand column of Google search pages.

Successful marketing of your business online requires time, effort and patience. There are no easy solutions. But, a fair amount of devotion and common sense can yield truly impressive results.

Jeff Palmer is an internet marketing consultant and search engine optimization specialist. Currently residing in Queensland Australa. Mr. Palmer is the author of numerous ebooks and articles concerning online advertising and marketing.

Online Paranormal Magazine

http://www.the-psychic-detective.com

Selling Products Online Whats Your Story

Writen by Stephanie Diamond

I know that you're excited about the products you sell online. But do you communicate that excitement to your customers? Based on the bland product pitches I see everyday in my marketing and design business the answer is clearly no.

To sell your product, you need to become a storyteller. In your personal life you apply this principle everyday. You tell friends and loved ones the story of your day and the funny or tragic things that occurred. You need to take that power of storytelling and use it to sell your products. You already have this skill, make it work for you.

Here are five things you can do right away to generate excitement for your products:

1. Understand the NEED your customer has to buy your product.

This sounds deceptively simple. Every marketer makes a long list of features and benefits about their products. But think about the need your customer would satisfy by buying your product. Would they feel smart, innovative, trendy? Would they feel that they had improved their plan for the future or proved themselves a good parent? These are the needs that really drive sales. Carefully think about which ones apply to your product.

2. Develop a one-to-one story based on that need

Once you are satisfied that you have identified those needs, create a story about your product for each one. The key is to create the story in the style you would tell a friend. This is difficult work, so don't be discouraged if it takes time. If it were easy, the world wouldn't need advertising agencies. And many of their campaigns don't hit the mark either. For example, if I am selling a software product, I need to tell you why using this product will make you better liked at your job or encourage your boss to notice you. This doesn't eliminate the need for features and benefits. It allows your customer to imagine herself as a success after buying your product.

3. Find different ways to tell the same story

The web is a medium that allows you to sell products in a variety of formats, video, audio, text, graphics. Not everyone responds to the same format. If you tell your story in a variety of ways you will capture more of your audience. The mistake most people make is to choose the format they like best. Try to accommodate as many buying styles as your budget allows.

4. Build trust and credibility

This is obviously the cornerstone of selling online. The need is heightened because the customer never meets you face to face. Don't bother with slick, bombastic language. It doesn't work for very long and it will generate mistrust, not excitement. Words like 'fastest' and 'best' can be substituted by 'faster' and 'better.' Hold to the truth, it's always the better choice.

5. Test reality— often

I recommend to my clients that they revisit their sales 'stories' on a monthly basis. This may sound excessive, but we live in a society where the world turns on a dime. One day your ideas are cutting edge and the next they seem stale and outdated. Not only do you need to understand what your competitors are doing, you need to evaluate how your customers are reacting to your 'stories.' Revise and refine as often as necessary.

Digital Media Works, Inc. is an Internet marketing and design firm. A seasoned 25+ year marketing professional, founder Stephanie Diamond is experienced in building profits. As AOL Marketing Director, she created a highly successful line of multimedia software products that sold millions. Check out her website at (http://www.DigMediaWorks.com)

Is Free Killing Your Sales

Writen by Lewis Leake

"FREE" what a great word.

We all like getting something for "FREE" don't we? Especially when it's something really good that we actually need and can use.

Everywhere you look on the Internet there are FREE ebooks, FREE autoresponders, Free websites, FREE this and FREE that.

And we all take advantage of this to some extent don't we?

The 'guru's' even tell you to give away FREE ebooks to get visitors to your site or to sign up for your newsletter. So "FREE" is good.

However, there can be a downside to "FREE"!

Let me tell you a little story - it will be short.

A month or so ago, I sent an ad to a newsletter. The ad was for one of my affiliate programs and like most affiliate programs, the URL was very long.

The editor of the newsletter suggested that I shorten the URL by using a re-direct service. Well the price for the re-direct service was really great - "FREE" - so I signed up and registered all of my affiliate programs.

Everything worked fine for quite some time.

However, a little later I received a newsletter from the above editor. While viewing the newsletter, an ad caught my attention so I clicked on the link. All I got was a "site not found" page. I tried it a couple of more times and always got the same page.

I was more than a little curious by now because this advertiser was using the same re-direct service that I used. I tried a couple of my links and wouldn't you know it, I got the "site not found" page also.

I found out a little later that the re-direct service had some server problems. They were working on the problems but the re-direct service was apparently a sideline business for them so it would be fixed - whenever.

Needless to say, I wasn't happy. I scrambled around and changed my links as quickly as I could.

How many sales did I lose? Could have been only a few. Could have been a lot.

How much aggravation did it cause me? A whole bunch, believe me.

You've heard the old saying, "You get what you pay for"! Well, I certainly did. "FREE" can still be a good thing if you're just getting started and want to "test the Internet waters" before you invest a lot of money.

However, if you have an Internet business and plan to make a profit, "FREE" isn't the way to go.

Remember - "You get what you pay for".

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Lewis Leake helps people work from home. His website at GrowNetProfits.com contains tools, resources, articles, newsletters, product reviews and traffic builders to help you make money from your home based business. Click here to get additional articles, tips and resources -- http://www.grownetprofits.com
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Seven Reasons Why New Products Fail

Writen by Bob Cannon

The most optimistic success rate I have run across for new product ideas is about 3%. In other words, 97% of product ideas never successfully enter the market. There are lots of reasons for this low level of performance, but there is a consistency around a few common mistakes that routinely present themselves with inventors and new product marketers. These are not the only reasons, but if you can avoid these mistakes, you can greatly improve your chances for success.

The Product: The single biggest shortcoming in new product introductions is not fully understanding the product, its usage and the target market. A dead give away to this problem is when I ask inventors to define the target market and they tell me, "Everybody." If your target market is everybody, you are doomed to failure. It is like shooting a gun at a bull's eye. You will most likely never hit the bull's eye if you are aiming at the whole target.

The Opportunity: One of the most difficult questions to answer in preparing a new product for market is defining the opportunity. Sadly, there is not enough information available about most product categories and if you have something that is entirely new, there are no reference points, but this is critical information for the decision- makers you will be dealing with. You must have some verifiable estimate for the potential of this product.

The Channels: With most products, there are going to be intermediate steps between you and the end user of your product. What Channel or Channels will you choose? What are their expectations? Can you provide what they require? What do they require? Are there any trends that could affect your successful launch?

Your Circumstances: There are usually three factors that each inventor / marketer must understand about themselves before they go to market. Do you know what those 3 factors are and what options are available to best match your circumstances?

Research: Many people think they are marketing their new product idea or invention. The truth is you are also marketing actionable information and knowledge, but where do you go to get that information and knowledge? Once you do get it, how do you put it together?

The Fuzzy Front End: The people you are trying to sell your new product or invention to have a perspective that is different than yours. Do you understand their perspective and can you provide answers to their questions both asked and unasked?

Your Offering: Successful new product introductions require more than just the product. If we all just bought products, we would all be driving the same make and model of automobile. People don't just buy products, they buy features and benefits and image and status. How are you going to package your product for success?

These are examples of just a few of the issues that we talk about at our new website http://www.marketingnewproduct.com. We have even developed a collaborative consulting product call the Quickie Market Analysis to help inventors, and new product marketers avoid these pitfalls.

It doesn't really matter where you are in the process of introducing your product. The Quickie Market Analysis will pick you up where you stumbled and move you toward success. Visit the U.S. Hardware /Hardlines Resource Center to learn more.

Copyright Bob Cannon/the Cannon Advantage, 2005. All rights reserved.

Bob Cannon helps inventors, imagineers, importers and manufacturers successfully introduce new products to the Hardware / Hardlines Marketplace. Check out his blog at http: http://www.takingaim.blogspot.com Bob can be reached at (216) 408-9495 or mailto: bob@marketingnewproduct.com

This article courtesy of http://www.marketingnewproduct.com You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.

Learn The Five Key Steps To Getting Free Publicity For Your Internet Site And Products

Writen by Dianne Beiermann

1) Website Focus

Make sure your site is focused on a specific category of products. I cannot stress this enough. The editors will often check to see if your site features products that are in the same category as your product press release. This is one of the key ways you can get free publicity for your products. Because when you send out a press release on a new product, the editors will check your site to make sure that you offer similar products. Once they see that you offer a wide range of products in this same category, you will greatly improve your chances for getting free publicity for your products and website.

2) Target the right magazines for your products

I have talked to many people who are tempted to send out their press releases to every magazine available. I strongly advise against doing this. It is simply not effective and can even upset the editors when you send them information unrelated to their audience. It also reduces your chances of getting in the magazines if you are sending out press releases to every magazine category. The key is to stick with the most targeted magazines for your products and only email them with your product announcements.

3) Be consistent and patient while emailing the editors

It is very important to be consistent when you email the editors. Try to introduce a new product on a monthly to bi-monthly basis to the editors of the magazines. If you do it on a consistent basis before you know it, one of your products could be picked up in one of the magazines. It is also important to be patient with the process. You may not here anything for a few months and then all of a sudden you will find out that a magazine picked up your press release and is running it. On average it takes print magazines a month to three months to print your press release. For online magazines you could have your press release picked up within days or weeks. That is why it is important to target both.

4) Be prompt to an editor's request

Be prepared when the editors contact you. Many times an editor will want to contact you and ask some basic questions about your company. Another reason they might contact you would be to include your product in their next issue. When this happens the editor will ask you for a 300 dpi photo of your product to be e-mailed to them so they can put it in the magazine. Through the years of doing e-mail press releases, I have learned to contact my suppliers before I send out a press release and ask them for a 300 dpi photo. I keep the photo(s) on file in a computer file folder marked "editor's photos." They are easy to retrieve, and since I already requested the picture ahead of time, I can just retrieve it from my file and send it to the editor within minutes of the request.

5) Follow up with a thank you note whenever you receive free publicity

Whenever you receive free publicity send a thank you note to that editor to let them know how much you appreciate the write up. This is also a good opportunity to let them know how the ad is working for you. The editors love to hear about the success you are having with their magazine. To find out more about getting free publicity for your products and site visit www.productpressrelease.com

Dianne Beiermann is a results-driven internet marketer and online business owner. Dianne Beiermann is one of the leading experts in press release marketing for online businesses. Productpressrelease.com specializes in assisting individuals and businesses with obtaining free publicity for their products and website. You can visit their site at: http://www.submityourrelease.com

Home Based Business The Cheap And Nasty Way

Writen by Stephen Brennan

Today I read an article about 'Splogs' by Jim Hedger of StepForth Placement Inc., which prompted me to pen this article so I imagine the credit for its conception, should go to him.

Splogs are websites that are principally conceived and built for the purpose of 'earning' (and I use the term loosely) revenue through such programs as Google Adsense™. These websites do not exist to sell anything, instruct in any way or even to inform, although they probably do in some instances because of the amount of information they contain. They are simply websites with no purpose or value in real terms except for the amount of information about a specific subject, which is found to be in many cases, stolen from other websites. The content is stolen either manually or by using 'bots'. The latter method makes it possible to produce hundreds of pages of content with little effort.

As a result, Jim points out, millions of these Splogs have appeared over a relatively short time.

Jim's article talks about how the theft of this information can sometimes adversely affect the owners of the stolen material and other websites who have reprinted it with permission. My intention is not to repeat Jim's article, so you can read about these aspects yourself at: Splogs + Scraping + AdSense = Fraud.

To my surprise and a little anger, it turns out that many of these websites are created using the free hosting and free blog software offered by most of the major search engines!

I've always advised, in person, when contacted by email and in my writings that first thing ANY serious home business or online businessperson should do is GET A DOMAIN and HOSTING. These can be found for as little as $4-95 per year (domain) and $1-99 per month (hosting), with more facilities than your average Newbie could want. These figures are hardly 'bank-breakers', in fact, if a budding home business person doesn't have the $10-91 (or even less) that it would cost to get started for a quarterly period, they obviously have other, more important things they should consider using that money on.

I may be criticized for this remark however, in my opinion, I believe the free website and blogging services supplied by any entity should be reserved only for 'Personal' websites, like those which families or individuals use to post about their hobbies, likes, loves and interests. They shouldn't be available for any online 'business' purpose at all. That, of course, would include banning Adsense and such programs from being added to them. I actually imagine that's what they were probably initially intended for anyway.

Anyone who has a serious desire to earn income of any description through the Internet should be doing so from his or her own bonafide domain. I acknowledge that I have no right to declare what should and should not be contained in other's websites however, when the propensity is there for harm to be done to other websites and their owners through theft, I will have my say.

Needless to say, as the subject of these 'Splogs' has become 'hot' recently and obviously, reports of webmasters being adversely affected have been made, Google has actually gone so far as to ask website owners to report sites, which appear to be 'Splogs'. This is definitely a move in the right direction, in so far as something is being done at least to discourage the practice and root out this type of website.

With Google™ indexing something like 34 billion websites, there is a lot of rubbish around and much of it is making the Search Engine results a bit of a mess. These days, when simply entering an everyday keyword or phrase for search, I generally find that half of the top ten results are rubbish, rather than good examples of the kind of website I would like to find.

The practice of 'Splogging' for Adsense and similar programs is, in itself, a bastardization of home business but to achieve it through theft of other's content and to present it using free facilities is really another of those nasty practices we really don't need on the Internet.

The 2005 Edition of Steve Brennan's popular ebook title 'The Affiliate Guide Book' is available now. He runs RAISE - Rheumatoid Arthritis Information Support and Education and also operates a number of Affiliate wesbites including Cheapest Viagra Online-Plus

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tips

Writen by Juste Gnimavo

Affiliate Internet Marketing is not a game, it's a real business. The right way to make quickly and easily full time income if:

- You avoid the biggest mistake most affiliates make when marketing online,
- You work smarter, you're patient and use the right Affiliate Internet Marketing tools,
- You understand how to market online and make a success plan that will allow you to realize your financial goals,
- You follow the truly advice gived by expert affiliate' marketers...

To start your Affiliate Internet Marketing Business today and earn the money you expect to make, follow these simple steps:

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tip #1: Find your right market

When starting an Affiliate Internet Marketing Business, most people decide FIRST to choose the products to promote and after months, ask themselves why they didn't make money. It's one of the biggest mistakes you must avoid. The First step when starting your affiliate business online, is to FIND your TARGET MARKET.

Your target audience is some people who're looking for something, the right way to resolve their problems or to satisfy their needs. If you find your right market, you'll realize your financial goals. There are many places to search your target market: Google, ebay, amazon, groups, forum etc...

Going to the various discussion boards and reading the kind of questions that are out there. Subscribe to newspapers, magazines. Find and collect questions asking for help about one specific topic. if you could find an answer for the questions asked by people, you've got a market.

Join forums and spend some time looking around, posting introductory messages and reading what the other members have to say. Reply to some posts. Then when you're ready to start talking about your product, you'll have a more receptive audience.

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tip #2: Get the right products that resolve your target market problems.

After finding your target audience, it's now the time to select carefully the products to promote. The products you decide to promote must response of you target market' needs. There are thousands of affiliate programs on the net. Use the search engines to find them. For example, if you want to promote online dating product, you can type on the search bar of any search engine " online dating affiliate program". So for any affiliate program you're looking for type "keyword + affiliate program".

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tip #3: Get the right domain name, web hosting and profesionnal autoresponder.

Build a website around the products you select to promote. You can have a domain name at less $8. Point your domain name to your website. Your domain name must give a perfect idea of the business you're running. For example, if your target market is people who are looking for ultimate way to lost weight, your domain name can be: www.weight-lost.com or www.WeightLostSecrets.com

Build highly opt-in list by creating landing pages to collect your visitors name and e-mail adresses. When people visit at the first time your website, most of them won't purchase your products. So you'll use your autoresponder to follow up them. Don't forget to upload to your website the required legal documents (privacy policy, earnings disclaimers, etc...) to protect your business.

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tip #4: Get Quality Traffic to your new website.

The most efficient Affiliate Internet Marketing Strategies are: Article marketing, Pay Per Click marketing, Blogs, RSS, Ezines, Forum, Press Releases, Search engines, Viral Report etc... I recommend you to Test. TEST TEST and TEST. Find what work and what doesn't for your business. If you start with Pay Per Click marketing, write killer ads to convince your visitors to buy your affiliate product.

But if you want to start with search engine marketing, optimize each page for different keywords. Build search engine friendly sitemap. A sitemap guides your visitors to the particular pages of your website they have a point of interest in. With it they would save time following links. Find potential partners to link to in order to have a good PR.

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tip #5: Take Action Today

Most affiliates talk about starting a business, working hours they want to work, taking vacations. However, they never make the most important step, and that's getting started. Take action today. Start searching your target audience. Invest the necessary time and money into your Affiliate Internet Marketing Business and you'll realise your financial affiliate' goals.

Juste A. Gnimavo an Affiliate Internet Marketer reveals Breakthrough Affiliate Internet Marketing Tips to earn $100,000 per year. Visit his website: http://increaseyourmonthlyincome.com to run successfully your Business.

Carpenters Build Strong Foundations

Writen by Doug Channell

Carpenters Build Strong Foundations!

Carpenters…as do builders of Affiliate Marketing programs…realize the importance of a strong foundation!

Whether you are building a house or a work from home, Internet Affiliate Marketing business…the strength of the underlying foundation provides strength to the remainder of the project.

The foundation is what holds everything up!

The Foundation:

• Must itself, be based upon Rock!

• Must be Strong!

• Must be Effective!

• Must exhibit Integrity and Non-compromise!

The Foundation of an Internet Affiliate Marketing program encompasses the initial web site construction. From domain name selection and registration to the original look and feel of the Home Page…

…to the effective usage of keywords in the construction of informational content pages… to the creative and eye pleasing formatting of pictures, images, white space, and headlines…

…to the offering of valuable information and related search opportunities via links to complementary web sites…to the offering of e-books, newsletters and e-zines…

The Foundation must be all that and More!

Current research reflects the notion that web site visitors decide in .58 seconds whether they will remain on the page, or click to another…that's literally the blink of an eye!

That's how much time your web site has to make a "good" first impression!

.58 seconds…that's 58 one hundredths of a second…gone almost as quickly as you can read it from the screen!

First impressions are Everything…and you can't get them back…they don't come with second chances….bam!…and they're gone!

That illuminates the importance of a strong, effective foundation!

Carpenters know it…Affiliate Marketers know it!

Doug Channell is the founder of http://www.Alpha-Affiliate.com that answers questions related to Affiliate Marketing and derived benefits!

Learn how, with minimal computer skills, you can build and Implement your own web site that can Evolve into an income earning, work from home, web business!

Dont Forget Bob

Writen by Kathryn Thomas

So you’ve got everything in place, busily working away for you. You’ve got your banners out, you’ve exchanged links, you’ve optimized your site for the search engines, you’ve got ad and P.P.C. campaigns bringing site visitors, your sales copy is converting them to customers or getting them on your list. But did you forget B.O.B.?

B.O.B. - the Best Of Both worlds. Man does not live on the Internet alone, you know. Those same people who become your customers online actually live and breathe in the outside world. Let B.O.B. help you integrate the outside world to the Web world, and increase your bottom line.

There are many ways to bring in additional streams of income using B.O.B.

One of the best ways, of course, is by referrals. Just as you use testimonials on your site, also get your customers to refer you to others on the outside. REMIND them (frequently) to tell their family, friends, and business buddies about your site. Getting a short and memorable Domain Name definitely helps in this regard.

Providing a special incentive, such as a discount or gift to both your customer and her referral makes both of them feel that you are giving them a special deal. People like to feel special, and they like special deals that others can’t get. This adds to customer satisfaction, which will, in turn, get you more referrals.

Thus, one more stream of happy buyers!

Another technique is using business cards as ads to increase your online sales. A properly designed business card for this purpose would be geared toward getting the card-holder to visit your site. Don’t just put your name and website on the card! Give them a reason to go there. Give them an incentive, or make them curious enough to want to check it out. Also, don’t try to sell your product on your card - just create enough interest to get them to your site, where your sales copy will either get the sale, or get them on your golden list!

Whatever you do, don’t mislead the prospect just to get them to your site! That will only serve to use up your bandwidth, and irritate what could have been your newest customer.

Be sure to give your card out everywhere you go - the gas station, the grocery store, the restaurant, the mall, the symphony, the museum - everywhere.

Leave a trail of cards behind you - one more easy technique to add to your bottom line!

There are many more ways to increase your online sales by coordinating the outside world with your Internet marketing techniques. Be creative in your integration, and you will find your site getting more and more visitors.

So don’t forget to use B.O.B. (Best Of Both worlds) in every marketing campaign to build your business to the max!

About The Author

Kathryn Thomas, born, raised, and living in Texas, believes in doing things in a BIG way. Be sure to visit her at http://www.HeresTheMoney.com to get free advertising, list-building, gifts, cash & prizes!

Bursting With Benefits

Writen by Anita Larson

Do your clients or potential clients know the benefits of working with you? Are those benefits outlined on your home page or services page?

In a printed offline brochure or flyer you can say so much more than on a website. When someone has something in their hands and is reading it, they will spend minutes rather than seconds. Online text is best when brief and bullet-pointed. Online it's a matter of seconds for someone to connect with you or your services. If they don't see the benefits or what's in it for them, they will click on over to the next website.

Benefits that speak to emotions are very powerful and work better than stating boring company facts. Here is an example of a great benefit. Anyone who has hired painters will surely relate to this.

I recently got a flyer from a Colorado painting company. On their offline printed flyer they print their top benefits. One of the benefits is: "No Nonsense Work Ethic: As we work on your house, you won't find any loud music, smoking or undesirable language, just clean-cut gentlemen, painting your home quietly and efficiently. We only have one job going on at any given time and that's yours."

WOW! Doesn't that speak to your emotions? When I went to their website I found the brief, bullet-pointed benefits right on their Home page. Next I clicked on Our Methods and saw more details similar to what is in their printed flyer. Very well done!

Products and Services are what you GET from a company. Benefits tap into the emotional needs or concerns of your ideal client. What is the common emotional thread that ties all of your clients together? How are you meeting their needs? What are the words used to describe their emotions, beliefs and needs?

When your website is bursting with benefits you will attract more of your ideal clients.

Anita Larson, The Web Muse & Co., Creating websites and marketing strategies to attract your ideal clients. Sign up for the free Museletter for do-it-now marketing tips and web wisdom at http://www.thewebmuse.com/museletters.html

The Web Muse & Co Website: http://www.thewebmuse.com Phone: 303.791.9539 Email: anita@thewebmuse.com

Six Key Online Marketing Techniques For Internet Success That You Cannot Afford To Ignore

Writen by C. Bobo

I. Email campaigns.

These are best accomplished through having visitors submit their email address on any page on your site (ensuring that you offer a privacy guarantee). The input field must be made clearly visible on all site pages, and invite the visitor to submit their address in order to obtain a special report, newsletter, or some type of informative piece of great value to them.

A database is then built over time behind the scenes, as a result of this lead generation, and a monthly e-mailer is sent in order to stay in touch. This establishes, on a regular basis, expertise on the part of your company, exposing the receiver to many topics and aspects of your industry. In order to provide an additional pull, each email should also contain an incentive at the bottom for 10% off products or services, a free consultation, or the potential for winning a prize.

Many positive effects result from the above-mentioned actions and incentives. The email recipient is educated ongoingly, they warm up to what your company has to offer, expertise is established, and they are already educated when they are ready to hire you – meaning your company saves on time and effort getting them up to speed!

II. Landing pages.

Creating Landing pages is another effective, but under used, method of marketing.

A landing page is a detailed information page about a product, service or offering that users click through from an advertisement (Web, Print, word of mouth, etc.), email or search engine result.

Landing pages are superior to a home page because they are targeted to a specific task that controls the user's experience and leads them through a process (sale, email collection, survey, and so forth).

There are a number of ways to market a landing page and each strategy is specific to the content on the page.

III. Archive of articles.

The creation and addition of informative articles is a powerful way of pulling visitors into your site. These can be written by your company and/or others, and are simply placed on your server with a top-level menu that makes it easy for search engines to go through all the pages and index them for searchability. There are many writers who make their work available as long as they are credited and contact information is provided.

The benefit here is in placement with the search engines. By having a plethora of keywords on these pages, there is a greater likelihood that a visitor will be pulled into this domain when they search. Each page has the site's design "wrapper" around it which provides the visitor with navigation into the site, if they wish to pursue it.

These archives can be available through your main site via a link, or not at all. Perhaps these articles don't tie in well with the main site and are simply used as good information to pull in an audience. In other words, lead generation.

IV. The "chapter" concept.

Incorporating the following concept has great potential for enhancing your marketing efforts.

Simply place the chapters of a book or mini-course on your site as separate pages, where each chapter has fields at the bottom for the visitor to sign up and receive one article per week. Each article is then emailed to them and again, has an incentive at the bottom for further pull. Note: If you are publishing someone else's work, be sure there is no copyright infringement!

Once again, these can be simply sitting on your server to register on the search engines, or somehow tied in to the main site. A random chapter, for example, can be placed on your home page, which then leads to the signup page.

V. Building an online community.

One effective method of drawing people to a URL that can be easily tracked is by inviting them to answer a particular question or join a discussion. This can be in the form of a bulletin board, or a more simple method of posting their comments (as illustrated at the end of this very article!).

As always, the user signs up first, submits his/her comments in a field, and then gains access to a listing of all submissions for further reading. This not only allows visitors to see how others are thinking, but gives your company a wealth of information on people's views and attitudes for further shaping of your products, services, and marketing efforts.

VI. Tracking online.

As mentioned above, URLs for tracking are very powerful. Through Web statistics, all these mechanisms can be tracked to see what is working: hits on individual pages, emails submitted, responses to incentives, etc. It's all a numbers game!

Tracking, of course, includes constant monitoring and adjusting, in order to discard what is not working and to optimize the schemes that do yield results. We highly recommend Claude Hopkins' "Scientific Advertising" as a reinforcement on this core concept.

The key is implementing and maintaining systems that have proven to be effective over and over again. Email campaigns, landing pages, archiving articles, building an online community, applying the "chapter" concept, and tracking results are truly the tricks of the online marketing trade for the continuous growth and vitality of your business.

____________

Red Frog, Inc. is the Portland, Oregon ad agency that provides worry-free experiences and powerful results in the areas of Marketing, Print design, Video production and Web/CD-ROM development.

(888) 955-0550 | http://www.RedFrogInc.com

© 2005 Red Frog, Inc. You have permission to distribute this article as long as all of the text contained herein remains intact.

5 Tips To Ranking Well At Search Engines

Writen by Lynn VanDyke

Do you have a product or service that you want to sell on the Internet? If so, there are a few fundamental components that you must know. Putting your product or service up for sale is easy. You can find a cheap hosting plan and get a 1-5 page site up within a few hours. But what happens next?

Unfortunately, most businesses will never sell their product successfully on the Internet. Their sites may be flashy, but they are not receiving visitors. To receive an endless supply of free, targeted, leads from the search engines you should consider a few of the 5 tips below.

Tip #1- Provide High Quality Content

Providing content does more than give out generic information. Providing content builds trust between you and your visitor. The more content you give, the bigger the bond. Your content should focus around very specific keywords. Each page on your website should be optimized and focused on one keyword.

Finding keywords is a task in and of itself. I will be the first to admit that hunting down keywords with a high demand and low supply is not the easiest task in the world. It can be boring and repetitive. After awhile the numbers will blend together and you will feel a bit dazed. But do not stop now! Keywords are the foundation for your content pages and for your business.

Tip #2- Find Relevant Linking Partners

The days of trading links with any old site are gone. There was a period in time when search engines counted how many links in you had to your site. They factored that and determined if your site was good or not. So if your site had 300 other sites linking to it, search engines would have probably considered it a better site than one with only 10 incoming links.

Search engines have wised up since those days. Now search engines place more emphasis on relevant links. Your site should only link to other sites that are high quality and relevant. If your site is about cookies then you should not be linking to a site about gambling. It doesn't make sense for your site visitors, and it doesn't make sense to the search engines.

When you trade links with a relevant, high quality site be sure you specify where your link should be placed, for how long, and what it should say. I often see people exchange links and within a few days the linking partner has taken down the link. Only do business with trusted webmasters.

Tip #3- Submit Your Site to Site Directories

This is a great way to get high quality and high ranked sites to link to you. Think of a link to your site as a vote of confidence. Site directories are less popular than search engines, but their link to you helps you increase in search engine rankings. Be wary of any site directory that makes you pay for submission. There are plenty of great directories that allow you to submit your site for free.

Getting as specific as possible with site directories is a great idea. If your site is about cookies, you should try to find a site directory that only deals with desserts or foods. General directories are fine, but be sure you submit your site to the appropriate category. General directories tend to have a category for almost any topic.

Some site directories will ask you to link to them first. This is your choice. I do not link or pay to get into any site directory. There are too many free ones that do not require a link back. Remember to place only relevant links on your site. Would your cookie site visitors want to click on a link for a site directory?

Tip #4- Add a Site Map

A site map is a single webpage that contains links to all the other pages on your site. Adding a map will help your visitors find information quickly. Besides being a helpful tool for visitors a site map also helps search engines find pages. When a search engine spider visits your site it crawls through a page. It visits all the links on your page and it checks for keywords. This is why keywords and relevant linking partners are recommended above.

Once the search engine spider finds the site map it will find all of your other pages. Search engine spiders do not like to dig very deep into sites. They like to search through 2 or 3 'levels' of information. So pages that are hard to find will not rank well or they will take much longer to rank well. A site map helps the engines find all your pages at once.

Tip #5- Be Patient and Find Other Means of Traffic

Waiting for the search engines to scour your site and rank it could take a bit of time. I recommend a lot of patience. When I post a new content page on my website, it takes a few weeks to get noticed. Some search engines are fast and rank the page immediately. Others are a bit slower.

While you wait for your pages to rank well I recommend finding alternative ways to drive traffic to your site. You can look into PPC (pay-per-click advertising), article writing, off-line ads, buying ad space in newsletters, doing a joint venture with a fellow webmaster or post in relevant forums.

These 5 tips to ranking well at the search engines are tried and true methods. I have built a site using these 5 tips and can personally attest to their sheer power. Patience is the hardest part. Keep building relevant content, link to relevant partners, submit to site directories, add a site map and then keep going.

Persistence pays off. Building a web business takes time. Your business needs to develop and mature. Using some or all of the above tips can ensure a big payoff down the road.

Copyright 2006 strength-training-woman.com

Lynn VanDyke builds successful websites. She provides several options for business owners including a "Jump Start Your Online Business" CD-ROM. Visit http://www.LynnVanDyke.com to learn more about her and her services. Lynn's content website is ranked in all 3 major search engines and is in the top 1% of all websites worldwide according to Alexa.