Surfing Searching Amp Networking 101

Writen by Ant Onaf

Everyone knows the internet can be very useful for finding information or learning something new. In all honesty, the internet should be your #1 resource for finding any remote information. The problem is everyone do not know how to use the internet to find information or to their advantage. It's simple and I'll give some tips & secrets to successfully using the internet to your advantage.

Surfing the Web:

The first thing the internet is ...is "information". Lots of it. Anything you want to know or need to know can be found on the internet, but where do you find it? There are so many resources and ways of finding information. Surfing the web is probably the best way to find non-targeted information and find a new website. When surfing the web you basically, start with a common site (or not so common). Begin by browsing the content within the site...then you click on a link which takes you to another site and you browse through its content, click on a link within that site which takes you to another external site...and you are surfing the web. Browsing through content. Those few task just mentioned can sometimes be an hour or two worth of surfing, mostly depending on the interest of content.

Searching the Web:

A more targeted approach is trying to find information about a specific product, service, person, place, or thing. For targeted searches we need a tool, something that will help us find what we are looking for. The most common tool is "search engines". Search engines are designed for this particular task, to find information across the web. Search engines have special digital robots which search through millions of websites at incredibly rapid speeds, crawling and digging through tons of websites and indexing them into its databases for faster retrieval. When you go to a search engine like Google and type in a keyword or phrase then click search you are presented with URL's which have been indexed within the search engine database and matches the keyword or phrase which you entered. It cannot be expressed enough to say how well you should familiarize yourself with using a major search engine. You should be able to use a search engine to find just about anything you can think of.

Forums & Discussion Groups:

Forums & Discussion Groups are a great way to find information on the web. Participation and contribution is what makes a forum or discussion group useful, powerful, and successful. These are ways to help others, communicate with others, share knowledge or experiences with others, or simply chat and network with others. Most forums or discussion groups are niche markets and targeted to a particular audience.

There are a few that are for the general population. A very popular forum in the webmaster world is WebmasterWorld.com (no pun intended), their targeted market is webmasters, online advertisers, search engine optimizers, internet engineers, and internet enthusiast. You can find very useful information within most forums & discussion groups. The proper way to participate & contribute to forums & discussion groups is to help others when you genuinely have an answer, don't just guess and post...you can make an educated guess and post, but blindly guessing just to raise your rank is childish and unhealthy for the platform. When debating, remain civil and courteous to others.

When debating, you should have some sense of intelligence and knowledge about the topic at hand. Respect others opinions and views. Don't try to change minds but try to get your point across rationally. Never pick a fight or get in between a heated discussion. Keep your username/handle (and real name) respectable.

Remember that you cannot hide on the internet any information you provide or any public information can come back and bite you....e.g. username stalking, which I will get into more about later. Stick to those guidelines and your forums & discussion group experience may be well received.

Blogs a.k.a. Weblogs, Online Journals, or Online Diaries:

This is the next generation way of obtaining information on the web, but gracefully becoming a prominent way. Blogs are not only personal entries about a individual life. Blogs are used to convey information and provide a confident platform for retrieving the latest trends, gossip, news, information, rumors, and hype. This can be accomplished by an individual, a group, or a company.

Most blogs allow visitors to leave a comment. Familiarizing yourself with a handful of blogs is a perfect way to network and connect yourself with people who share your interest. Blogs are mainly niche markets, though there are many successful miscellaneous, personal, and general blogs. Blogs are most successful when updated daily and is dependent on the social and emotional connection you have with your audience. Blogs are usually personal thoughts, opinions, views, and experiences of individuals. Sometimes individuals form a group and author a group blog, providing thoughts, opinions, views, and experiences from each member of the group, this sometimes makes a more powerful and interesting blog, a popular blog which utilizes groups is boingboing.net.

It is a good idea to start a blog of your very own, there are numerous free blog host out here, such as: journalhome.com, blogger.com, and livejournal.com. The blog host makes it easy to begin blogging (the art known as authoring a blog). You simply signup for their service, choose your template (design & layout), and begin writing your entries. You do not need to know any programming, but it helps to understand HTML, if you plan to fully customize your template. It does not matter what you write about, it can be personal, professional, casual, informative, instructional, entertaining, or anything you can muster up. It is your personal space to author. Even though it is your personal space on the web it is strongly recommended to limit your personal information on the web, when visiting any website, never provide too many details.

Once you have had your blog hosted for some months/years and it has grown to a respectable state, then you may decide to host your own blog. The main benefit of hosting your own blog is the scalability and branding. Though, hosting your own blog means you will need to spend money, install scripts onto your server, and configure your script and server. I recommend using one of the mentioned blog host before hosting your own blog, hosting your own blog without an audience is not wise. Blog host are the best places to start, because it is free, easy, readily available, and they provide you a community (audience).

Doing Your Homework:

Using the mentioned information portals above, you should be resourceful in finding any information you need on the web. When doing business on the web you should only rely on trusted sources. This comes down to doing your homework. If you find a company on the web which you wish to do business with but have never heard of the company, then you should use good judgment. The best way to make a good judgment call is to research the company and website. If you utilize any of the mentioned above you should be able to find reliable information. Gather information from several different sources and then compare the results. Basically, does the good outweigh the bad? You now have a rational review to use good judgment. Using advanced technologies is also sometimes necessary such as using advance search operators, such as: " " (which when quotes surround the keyword will return the exact search phrase) or use of the plus (+) sign (which will return any search which contains keywords in your search phrase). A good site that makes use of Google operatives is soople.com.

Username Stalking:

Contrary to the name the art of "username stalking" is considered positive in my form of expression. It is wise to choose a quality username when conducting business online. Typically, an active internet user should have a different secure username/password for conducting professional business and a different username/password for personal and miscellaneous activities, as well as a different email addresses. Note: A different secure username/password can also be used for any account which stores any financial or credit card information, you should never use your personal, miscellaneous, or free account username/password in relation with your business username/password or your financial/credit card username and password. Having more than 3 different username/password combinations can become a bit confusing, just the same as explaining it is.

Username stalking is the act of searching the web by usernames. Usernames and handles when applicable are the most visible information about a person on the web. Choosing the right username and handle is suggested because you do not want to misrepresent yourself. E.g. if you never worked on cars you wouldn't choose a username such as: TheAutoMechanic, would you? You want to choose something that represents you or something which is generic and general. When you are familiar with a plentiful of forums, discussion groups, blogs, and other communities, you will become exposed to usernames. These usernames can soon become handy.

If you are on a forum which interest you and after looking through the post you find someone who has your same interest, views, opinions, and thoughts...then surely you would be interested in frequenting his neighborhood. Finding his hangouts can expose you to a new crowd of individuals who you relate to. This new world can possibly be more advanced or less advanced than your current internet world, but hopefully something new and interesting.

Do a search on your own username in Google and see if it gives you results from sites which you are a member or have frequented. This is why it is recommended to separate business, pleasure, and finances on the web. Using different unrelated secure usernames/passwords is the best way to separate the three. Username stalking is not anything new, but it isn't something publicized because most who use that technique are wrong doers for different purposes. This is a great example of how it can be used wisely and responsibly. Always, remember usernames and any other information deposited onto the internet is not a secret, even if you can't find it.

About The Author

Ant Onaf is the owner and founder of http://www.JournalHome.com He is an online internet marketer, content writer, and IT consultant. Ant Onaf has years of IT-related experience and Internet-related experience. His ingenuity, dedication, and passion for technology, internet marketing, & writing have made him a monumental icon in the World Wide Web. His blog can be visited at http://www.journalhome.com/AntOnaf

Ezine As A Viral Marketing Tool

Writen by Douglas Peirseille

A very popular method of marketing ezines and newsletters is by making them viral. If your newsletter contains information of value, such as tips, hints, news or tutorials, you'll find that subscribers will forward it on to others.

Ezine Advertising is one of the most powerful ways to market and promote your other products and or services. There are literally thousands of electronic newsletters on the Internet with millions of people who subscribe to them. Placing ads in online newsletters is an inexpensive way to reach your target market quickly -- especially when you compare it with other forms of advertising.

In 2002, ezine publishing took a quantum leap, as its status evolved from "amateur's hobby" into becoming the most powerful marketing tool for business online. Email newsletters have come of age, and increasingly, more ezines will take this route, as subscribers prefer them to drab, lack-luster text-only ezines. In the coming year we'll see more ezines published.

There are tens of thousands of Ezines being published every month, with a collective audience of millions. And the editors of most of those Ezines are all looking for quality content for their newsletters.

If you master this technique of making the Ezine viral you can get your name and your website URL in front of 100,000 or even a million readers.

Tips for making the ezine viral

Pick a topic that you know something about and then go to the Search Engines and find as many websites as you can that deal with that subject.

As well as collecting information for your article, make a note of any URLs that offer free resources dealing with the topic of your article. Include those URLs in your article.

You should choose a topic very carefully. Once the topic is selected, doing enough research on the subject is vital. Organize the material and write in an interesting style. Make sure that you provide links to free resources.

The content in your Ezine should not be pure sales copy. There has to be valuable and genuine information. Promotion of your product or service should be subtle. Viral marketing using Ezine is different than running an E Mail marketing campaign that blasts millions of mail messages to unsuspecting readers.

At the end of your article, attach a 5 or 6-line 'Resource Box' that includes your website URL and/or your email address.

When you have finished your article, do NOT send it off straight away. Let it lie fallow for 2 or 3 days and then come back and read it again. You'll be amazed at the improvements you can make. Those final improvements are what make the difference between an article that gets published and one that doesn't.

Word Of Mouth

"Word of mouth" advertising can be very effective. Besides, it is completely free. The Internet takes this ancient form of "buzz" and promotion and amplifies it with a global network of people connected digitally. "Word of mouth" now has an Internet version called "word of mouse" (computer mouse). With greatly increased speeds, people refer things to their friends and families spreading the word through the Internet and to the far-reaching corners of the world. This can be done for your ezines as well.

Many smart marketers and publicity people have learned to harness the power of viral publicity with Internet "Tell-A-Friend" promotional techniques and tools.

Providing incentives as part of the "Tell-A-Friend" technique ensures higher success rate. For instance, the website www.wz.com conducted a giveaway contest where they gave away 4 Sony PS2's before Christmas as a website promotion. They also gave people who had entered the Giveaway the opportunity to get additional entries and additional chances to win by telling a few of their friends on the "Thank You" page.

On the "Thank You" page, every giveaway entrant received the following message: "Tell your friends about WZ.com, and get an additional entry for each friend you email." In return for the favor, they received an additional chance to win for every friend they refer. This simple addition increased Tell-a-Friend results by 96 times.

So how do you use this technique to leverage and increase your subscription rate, and "word of mouse" publicity? It's simple, just "Tell-A-Friend" or "Tell-A-Friend about everything"! You can add Viral "Tell-A-Friend" forms to all of your web pages just below the subscription offer. This technique is simple and very effective.

Offer your ezines to all your customers, friends, relatives, and colleagues. Let them spread the word. Offer your ezine as a promotional tool to your affiliates if you have an affiliate program. These can drastically improve the subscriptions to your ezine.

Douglas Peirseille info@newslettermarketingtips.com

Ezine Marketing Magic - http://www.NewsletterMarketingTips.com

What Is Your Online Target Market

Writen by J.M. Davis

Who are your customers and how intimately do you know them? Well, if you expect to be successful online you must know your customers very well. Doing the necessary research in the beginning, can save you a ton of money and heartache in the end.

When beginning the research on your target market, start with a general definition of your customer. This includes the demographical information:

• Age
• Gender
• Nationality
• Income
• Economical Status
• Geographic Location

The next step is digging deeper into their spending habits and comfort level with surfing the Internet and making online purchases. This information can most often be obtained by conducting a survey of the people who match the demographic criteria that you collected in the section above. Below are some questions to get your started with your survey, these questions can be asked in an online survey or passed out during an in-store survey:

• Where do they shop?
• When do they shop?
• How often do they make special purchases?
• How often do they make routine purchases?
• How important is price when they make a special purchase?
• How important is price when they make a routine purchase?
• How important is quality when they make a special purchase?
• How important is quality when they make a routine purchase?
• How important is availability when they make a special purchase?
• How important is quality when they make a routine purchase?
• Do they shop online?
• How often do they shop online?
• Where do they shop online?
• How important is price when they shop online?
• How important is availability when they shop online?
• How important is brand when they shop online?
• How important is security when they shop online?
• How important is online product comparisons to them?
• How important is selection when they shop online?

It is important to pay close attention to the silent signals your visitors are sending your. These signals can give you an even deeper view into what your customers expect from you, your website, and your product. For example, if you find through your website statistics program that visitors to your website are abandoning their shopping carts, you can make several assumptions:

• Your shopping cart may be difficult to use
• You may not offer the payment options that the visitor wants to use
• Your shopping cart may not allow for visitors to return to your store
• You may not offer the shipping options the visitor wants to use

Understanding your target market is one of the most important elements in designing and maintaining a successful website. If you don't know who your customer is, how do you expect to offer the products and services they need?

J.M. Davis is the owner and operator of The Site Therapist, a Website Usability Firm, dedicated to preventing Internet Suicide among websites. J.M. has almost 10 years of experience in the Internet industry. For more information about website usability or to have a usability analysis done on your website, visit J.M.'s website at http://www.thesitetherapist.com

The Downside Of Targeting Niche Markets

Writen by Jordi Shoman

While there exists a rather large potential for profit when marketing for a specific audience, the process is not without its disadvantages. The work that must be put into analysis and research is often overwhelming and the unwillingness to put in the effort is frequently the downfall of businesses seeking to target a niche market. While this process can certainly be time consuming, it is essential that a business looking for a niche market complete this research. In performing the necessary market analysis a business can gain an upper hand on its competition.

The main goal of businesses looking to target a specific audience is to identify the needs of this niche market and learn how to better serve them, thereby increasing their sales and profit. Without the research and analysis it is nearly impossible for a company to do so. Within the analysis a business should aim to obtain information on the extent of their market, trends within the market, competitor prices, particularly those selling a similar product or providing a comparable service, and the preferences of this niche market also. The information you collect and examine must be accurate if you are to make a well- educated and beneficial business decision. As such one can see how rigorous this process can become, especially when one considers the need for information authentication.

While conducting this research can be quite painstaking, there are means through which a business can alleviate some of the stress associated with market research. Businesses can easily take advantage of the methods of conducting a market assessment in order to obtain better quality information with fewer errors. Using libraries, business publications, questionnaires, media sources and information obtained from government agencies can make the process of market analysis much less chaotic and simultaneously make it seem like less of a disadvantage.

Interested in Online Business? Do you have articles to distribute about Online Business? We provide in depth Free Online Business resources. Free website content

How To Make The Most Of Public Domain And Private Label Content

Writen by Deepak Walia

There's so much public domain content available all over the internet, with Master Resale Rights available and sites springing up left and right with Private Label articles you can use to create your own products, but what do you need to bear in mind, what is the best way to use all this content and what can you create with it?

What to Look Out For:

Copyright - you absolutely must check on this - violating someone's copyright is not clever and can be a really expensive mistake not to mention seriously damaging your reputation. Is it really public domain? All those lawyers fees can really mount up when checking into all this but believe me, you really don't want to end up in court over it.

Public Domain Content -

If you have the money to have a lawyer look at copyright for you then fine, go ahead and get started. Where can you find this type of content? It can be difficult to find content that is free to use but here are a few links to get you started:

http://www.gutenberg.org/
http://www.wikimedia.org/
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html

Master Resale Rights -

If you can't afford expensive lawyers what else can you do? One rather less pricey way is to buy Master Resale Rights to a product - this gives you the opportunity to name yourself as the author, use the content in another product, rewrite the whole thing - the possibilities are endless. Just be aware with this that you will need to look at the terms and conditions of what you are allowed to do with the product before you buy.

On a budget? - not to worry, there are still many ways you can find great content without spending a fortune or worrying about whether you can legally use it. Look for membership sites that provide private label and/or guaranteed public domain content. You could also sign up to some of the well known internet marketer's newsletters. Why? Well if you're serious about internet marketing you should be checking out all the latest happenings anyway, but a lot of newsletter owners will have free ebooks, giveaways and articles to download - some of which you will be able to use as your own.

So you've got your content ready to go and you've checked your rights and permissions but there is one more thing to think about - sites such as http://www.copyscape.com can check for duplicate content on the internet and of course so can the search engines. This could mean anything from the search engines deciding they won't rate your site as highly because the exact same content is available elsewhere to some smarty pants asking you if you really did write that incredibly good article because they've seen someone else claiming that they wrote it too, so you do need to be aware of this when looking to use content you haven't personally created, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go ahead and make the most of all that wonderful information.

What Can You Do?

You could just read the information to learn from it yourself; you could read it to get ideas for businesses, more articles, content, the list is limited only by your imagination.

How about:

Ebooks
Print Books
Presentations
Membership Sites
Face to face courses
Mini courses
Teleclass content
Webcast content
Podcast content
Blog content
Content for your Autoresponder
Ezine content
Articles for your site to build AdSense income pages
Viral Reports
Tips Lists

When it comes to using all the content you have gathered, you need to look through it all and decide what you want to produce. If you plan to use content from more than one source, such as 2 or 3 articles by different authors to be combined into a report, you will need to go through and change the content into a similar style, check that it is all written in the same tense, make sure the formatting is the same throughout, check for spelling and grammar (for example - spelling for some words is different in the US than the UK) and look through all the articles to see if any of the points made are duplicated.

Once you've done this, make a list of points you want to make in your report, read the articles through again and start combining them together to fit what you want to say - cut and paste to copy sections into the right place.

Next, look at the way your draft reads now and see if it fits your style of writing, your personality and your business. Reword it to fit with this - there's no point in producing a very formally written, stiff sounding report for a hobby site.

At this point you could just tweak it, proof read it, and then go ahead and publish it but to take it a step further and make it really unique, why not look at how you might rewrite it so that all of the content is yours - now you've got the basic idea down and laid out, it shouldn't take you long to reword things, add in some of your own ideas and keywords that fit your site, and maybe a few quotes and suddenly you're looking at something that no-one else has got, that the search engines will love and that no-one can claim you copied.

Time to start creating!

Want to go beyond private label content? How about *high end* private label services! Bet you've never heard of THAT before. Deepak Walia suggest you head on over to "MonthlyNicheProfits" http://www.topgunpublishing.com/recommends/mnp_articlemarketer_03.html to see what the newest buzz is all about!

Blog On Business Market Basics Learn Market Strategies That Will Produce Results

Writen by Michele McRae

With today's changing environment it's time you took control of your life. Stop letting others decide your type of work, if you work, when you work, and how long you work. Stop worrying about having enough money to pay the bills.

Turn this negative uncertainty to a positive certainty. Change the way you make your decision. The position you find yourself in today is the result of the decisions you made yesterday. There are turn key opportunities just waiting to be unlocked.

With the cost of gas prices going up we all need extra money. One check is just not enough. Going to a second job will take you away from the family leaving you frustrated. What can you do? Now opportunities are available to earn extra income from the comforts of your own home.

Learning the Basics is all you need to get started. Activating principles that will generate multiple checks coming in every month will put you on the road towards financial independence.

Sometimes fear keeps us from geting started. The fear of the unknown. Knowledge is a very important tool. It will let us know the direction inwhich we need to go. So take a deep breath and go for it. Remember when opportunity knocks, someone has got to get up and answer the door.

Many roads lead to success. Our company specializes in providing you with proven techniques that will lead you to streams of financial freedom.

http://streamsofsuccess.com

Forming Profitable Joint Ventures

Writen by Darryl DeLong

You won't be involved in Internet marketing long before you see the term "Joint Venture." Perhaps you are familiar with the term from its application in the business world but don't see how it would apply to Internet marketing.

Actually, it is one of the most exciting ways to generate targeted web traffic that you will find.

For purposes of definition, you could say that a joint venture is an operation involving two or more Internet marketers, each contributing unique resources for their mutual benefit. That may sound a little stuffy, so look at it this way. Say you and your neighbor both need to plant trees in your respective backyards. He only has a wheelbarrow and you only have a shovel. Neither of you can do the job effectively by yourself, but together you can accomplish the job for both of you. That's a joint venture (backyard variety!).

Similarly, in Internet marketing, each of you contributes something that the other lacks, so that you both benefit by gaining more sales, site visitors and subscribers. In the majority of cases, this involves a product and a list. You may have created an explosive eBook (like this one!) but since you have been in marketing only a short time you don't have a very big list of people that might be interested in your eBook. But you have a friend who is also marketing online, and he has an opt-in list of 5000 subscribers that have already expressed interest in the topic of your eBook. In a simple joint venture, he emails his list about your eBook and keeps a commission on any sales. You make a percentage on every sale and get a large number of targeted traffic to your site. The traffic may turn out in the long term to be more valuable than your immediate eBook sales. That's because, if you have an attractive site set up to entice visitors to leave their email address, a good portion of your friend's list becomes your list!

Joint ventures often are more complex than the simple one described above. You will see many joint ventures involving several marketers, perhaps a dozen or more. Sometimes a product isn't even sold – the main purpose is to get traffic to the web sites of the marketers and build their opt-in lists. In this kind of joint venture, each marketer contributes some product they sell or own. Then the JV may proceed any number of ways. The marketer (or marketers) with the list(s) may set up a contest, where the winner or winners gets all the products. Another way is to offer the participants the choice of one or more of the products if they visit all the web sites involved and sign up for all the opt-in lists of the marketers.

You could also do ad or article swaps (assuming you and your JV partner both have an ezine or newsletter). You could offer an eBook you have written to another marketer to be given away on his or her site. You have your name and affiliate links inside, and may give the eBook both more value and a viral quality by allowing the recipient to change some of the links to their own so they will want to pass it on. Your JV partner, in turn, has something of value to offer to his or her site visitors or subscribers. These are just a few possibilities; the options are limited only by your imagination. To summarize, here are some general types of JVs for you to think about.

Cross promotion – promote each other's product or service, such as ezine ads in each other's ezine.

Co-development – work together with another marketer to create a product such as a book, which you both can sell.

Product endorsement – pay a percentage of profits to your partner who endorses your product to his list.

Cooperative list building – similar to cross promotion, but concentrates on building the opt-in lists of each.

Regardless of the details, all the participants get a large number of visitors to their sites and the opportunity for their op-in lists to grow dramatically.

Are you ready to start a joint venture?

There are several things to consider before you rush into your first JV. First you need to select the right JV partner. A wrong choice can spell disaster for your project. It's best to start with people and businesses you already know and trust. If you have already decided all the parameters of your joint venture, it will be easier to choose the partner – it is someone that can complement what you already have.

Using a simple example, if you have the hot eBook, you need a partner who has a list, not another hot eBook. But if you have bigger plans for your first JV, you may want to partner with another eBook owner and together seek out additional JV partners with complementary resources. To help you get ideas and pick up additional JV partners, talk to your marketing friends about your JV idea and see what suggestions they might have.

If you can't find the JV partner you need from among your friends or business acquaintances, you may need to seek them out other ways. If you subscribe to several ezines (and you should!), their publishers may be good candidates since you presumably are subscribing to ezines that target your area of interest. If you don't know of any good ezines that target your market, look at http://www.directoryofezines.com/.

What about the details of your JV? That will vary greatly depending on the type of venture you have in mind, but here are some general guidelines. If you will be offering a commission on sales, be aware that the average is about 50%. This may seem high, but, to restate the old adage, would you rather have 50% of the profit from 100 sales or 100% of none? You are unlikely to attract any serious JV partners if you are only offering a commission of 15 or 20%. Also, you are unlikely to attract many quality JV partners if their commission is less than $25-30. So a $10 eBook simply isn't a good JV attraction. And when you talk to someone about a JV, if you will be proposing to provide a product, offer it free so they can properly evaluate it – don't expect them to pay for it.

When you get ready to contact site or ezine owners you don't know, you need to create a good JV proposal letter. Remember they are busy just like you and won't read a long letter, so keep it short. Since the recipient probably regularly receives JV offers, you need to make yours stand out.

Following is a sample JV proposal you can learn from. It will of course need to be modified to fit the details of your proposed JV. In addition to an email (or instead of one), try faxing a copy to your potential partner; it is more likely to get their attention.

Dear ________,

My name is ______ and I visited your web site at http://www.________.com today and was extremely impressed with the quality and content of your Internet marketing articles. The article on _________________ was especially helpful to me. I run the _______________ site at http://www._____________.com and would like to offer you a free copy of my package. I would also like to discuss the possibility of a joint venture between our companies which could significantly increase the profits from your web site. Please call me at ____________ or email me at __________________ at your earliest convenience.

Thank you, ____________ ________@___________.com http://www.___________.com

Darryl DeLong is an established Internet Marketer and Ezine Publisher. Learn how to build up your opt-in list, increase site visitors and sales with my brand new ebook entitled "Viral Internet Marketing Strategies" get a free copy here: http://www.viral-internet-marketing.com

Discover What Is 10 Times More Powerful Than A Good Headline

Writen by Mouloud Siaci

I am really happy now because my efforts on writing the headline above have finally paid off!

Most e-books and reports on headline generation are incomplete and rehashed information. Many of them are nothing more than a pile of out-dated theories that get no results. In a nutshell, they tell you to apply one formula and get a miraculous money-making headline! They all miss what a headline really is.

Here is why...

Basically, a headline is a sentence that attracts reader's attention. Right?

But everyone uses headlines and no one really stands out of the crowd though. That's why you need a 'good' headline. So you apply one of those 'miraculous formulas' and you come up with a good headline. In that case, you can force prospects to ignore your competitors' headlines and read yours! Great.

But as you can see. People are smart. Most of marketers use those formulas just as you do now. Just when you thought you would made a start, you are back where you begin.

You definitely need something that beats any good headline out there. You need a 'proven' headline!

I won't waste your time here. So, I will get to the point and tell you about my "make or break" secret to choosing effective titles. I have discovered this technique through my 4 years of writing on the web. Here it is:

Headlines which shift your focus, will also do the same with your customers -Period.

And here is exactly how I apply it to my copywriting...

First, I brainstorm a series of simple lines using the obvious mechanical components like:

1. Use one of these formulas (but not necessary!):

The "How to..." formula:

How to become _____

How to earn _____

How to get _____

How to improve your _____

How to win _____

I will give you a classic that has proven to be successful: "How to Win Friends and Influence People".

2. Use benefits not features: You have certainly heard about this before. And yes, it also applies to headlines. For example: Headline #1: "How to Send Your Article to Hundreds of Editors" Headline #2: "How to Get Your Article Published by Dozens of Editors"

Personally, I prefer the second headline because it is much more interesting. Don't you think?

3. Use power words into your headline: A power word can really entice people to action. I maintain a list of power words I use from time to time. Here are a few:

Automatic, Bonus, Easy, Exclusive, Free, Guarantee, New...

The important thing is place one or two of these power words so that the headline becomes stronger. Don't get me wrong, I didn't say you stuff the title with these words! Use them only if they do really apply to your ad copy.

Well, try to compile a list of three up to five 'raw' headlines from what you have learned so far. But wait, do not publish them; not yet. Before that, you need to select the most appealing title. The one that will drive most visitors attention. How can you do that?

Simple. Just read all your headlines out loud and 'zero-in' the one that makes you take action... The one that leaves you wanting more.

I call this, the proven headline.

In fact, this is the title that can almost guarantee that readers will notice it. How do I know that?

Very simple. I believe that your qualified audience will always be attracted by the same things you are interested in. If one sentence can have such an effect on you, it will do the same on your targeted audience. It is as simple as that. And it works!

Don't worry if you cannot seem to come up with the proven headline on your own. I still have a fantastic solution for you at the end of this article!

With that said, I have to tell you about a phenomenon that is spreading around the internet. I am talking about software automation. And especially, headline generation software. I have been building software for the Internet business since 2002, so I know how these bots work.

People love these programs because they are easy to use. I can understand that. But do they know that the headlines generated that way are not gauranteed. To simplify to the extreme, these programs adapt well-known headline formulas to your business -no more than that. The drawback is the lack of updates. In fact, theorical templates that once worked well, don't pull anything today.

So if you plan to invest buckets of cash on one of these programs, ask for regular updates (that should be free of charge). Otherwise, you are throwing your hard-earned money in unprofitable advertising and rehashed information.

Another popular alternative is testing your headlines. Yes, the same old 'trial-and-error' cycle. You know... placing a headline, checking out your web log stats weekly to figure out the click-through rate. Then comparing it with the previous headline results and repeating the whole process over and over again...

Please, don't get me wrong, the headline testing is fine. There is nothing wrong with this concept. But it is too difficult to set up and maintain. Actually, I know of no marketer who enjoys doing that. I mean, who has the time (and nerves!) to place, check, track, compare, refine, replace again week after week...

Unless you have plenty of hours a day to spend in front of your computer. Or you are well paid for doing that!

As an online marketer (merchant or affiliate), you cannot afford to explode your marketing budget on testing like $Million companies do. In fact, if there is one secret on success online, it could be this: "Get the best from your money and time".

It is all a return-on-investment game. If you have $45 to spend in marketing your online business then make a '$45' marketing plan. Otherwise, you are heading to bankruptcy sooner or later! And remember, you are running a business instead of just a hobby.

Don't make the mistakes we have made; it has taken me 4 years to discover this real good method. My advice is let people test and adapt what really works to your own needs; that's just good business!

Get Dozens of New Power Headlines Every Day Utilizing ONE Simple, Proven Resource: Our 5000+ Time-Tested Power Headlines Database. To Get Instant Access, FREE Consultation and Detailed Information, mailto:proven-headline@sendfree.com

Traditional Mediums Versus Search Engine Positioning

Writen by Sajjad Ahmad

Banner Advertising:

Paying $15 for a 1000 impressions on a high traffic website. Sounds like good exposure for a low price? It is! After all you will have a 1000 unique people view your banner. But how many actually end up clicking on it, and how many more actually end up buying stuff from you? According to most industry sources the average click through rate of a banner campaign is 0.38%. So you get 3.8 people to click on your banner for $15. And the rate of conversion is typically 1 to 5%. So how much do you actually spend before a person buys from you? You do the math. It appears quite a lot to me.

What about those popup ads? Or the ones that keep popping up and refuse to close? Wouldn't that give you more exposure? Some banner sellers would love to make you believe that. Well its not the case. Ever had one very stubborn popup refusing to close? How irritating is that? I would never even buy anything from that kind of banner advertiser. Its downright irritating to have banner popup in the face when you are in the middle of surfing for some useful information.

Pay Per Click Search Engines:

The internet boom may be over, but for search engines the boom may have just begun. Many engines, the most famous being Overture and now Looksmart have turned to this model. Pay per click model makes you pay for the amount of actual clicks your site link receives and not for the number of exposures. Sounds good? It sometimes is very effective too. For starters, you get quality traffic, cause the people who click on your link would have searched for a term relevant to you. However it can be pretty expensive. Overture makes you bid on the term you want to rank high on, and trust me sometimes the bids get pretty high. Looksmart on the other hand charges you $0.15 for each click through you get. Pretty expensive, if you have a small budget. However, if this scheme appeals to you, you are better off asking a SEO to implement it for you, instead of trying it yourself, since it can get pretty expensive for competitive terms.

Conventional Media Campaigns:

News paper advertisements, Posters, Television and Radio adverts, all come under traditional forms of advertising. However for most medium sized websites Television and Radio ad's are way beyond budgets. And for an internet firm, it is of paramount importance that the newspaper or magazine reader who views his ad, remembers the website name. And as most experiences marketing guys will tell you, for that to happen you need to advertise regularly for a period of time. You add up the cost for an effective campaign and it will work out to be quite a sum.

Search Engine Submissions:

Search engine submissions include keyword analysis, study of competition, optimizing your website for the chosen keywords, submitting to search engines and directories and repeating the entire process and submissions over the period of time. Sounds quite a lot? It is. But is it expensive? Well, it varies for the kind of optimization you require, but trust me, at the end of the day, it is cheaper than most of the methods we discussed above.

Can you do it yourself? Yes you can, if you have the time. Should you train somebody inhouse? No, I don't think so. You will end up paying him a monthly salary which will definitely work out to be more than what you will pay a qualified SEO, and more often than not, he wont know all the tricks and methods a professional SEO would use.

What about those quite cheap off the shelf softwares that promise so much? Well, they don't choose your keywords, they don't optimize the website, they don't study your traffic trends over the period of time, and finally they don't change with the rapidly changing algorithms and guidelines of search engines.

How about the traffic quality? Is it inferior to the traffic generated by banner ads or newspaper adverts? On the contrary. People had to have searched for a keyword relevant to your website before clicking on the link. Hence the traffic generated, contrary to the myth, is highly targeted.

And lastly, Are Search engine optimizers expensive? Not at all, especially in comparison to the other forms of marketing. And a good SEO, will help you drive much more quality and sustained traffic to your site than any of the other mediums would be able to...

Hope you enjoyed reading this article... Look forward to hearing from you. So until next time... Happy Surfing!!!

Webmaster of different SEO websites. Hobbies are writing articles on SEO for public readings.

Virtual Real Estate

Writen by Karen Kelley

Virtual Real Estate—just what am I talking about here? If I look up "virtual" in the dictionary, it gives me words like near, practical, fundamental, or essential. It also lists actual as an antonym. Remember in school how we were required to use the new word in a sentence to show that we understood the meaning? So many times we have heard sayings like, "Oh, that's a virtual impossibility", "Virtual Reality", or "She is virtually unstoppable."

As you can see in these phases, virtual is being used as an adjective or an adverb. Here we are using it as a descriptive meaning practically, fundamentally, or essentially. The word virtual can also be used as a noun as in this example: virtual focus. Here, the meaning of virtual focus is a "point" from which rays of light seem to emanate but do not actually do so (such as in the image in a plane mirror.) Now we are going back to another word we learned in grade school, antonym. Antonym mean opposite. The thesaurus tells us that "actual" is the antonym of virtual. To look at this closer, consider "actual real estate" compared to "virtual real estate." You can go out and see, touch, and feel actual real estate.

Virtual real estate requires that you use a computer to "see" it. Virtual real estate has no physical borders. Anyone (with a computer) from anywhere can visit the virtual real estate site anytime. When you create a web site, you are creating virtual real estate. It can be just as valuable as actual real estate.

In fact, a profitable web site can be more valuable than you ever imagined. Another advantage of virtual real estate is that almost anyone can afford it. In fact it is so inexpensive to create a virtual real estate site that many entrepreneurs have several of them. Each site can promote a different product, value, or information because what appeals to one person may not appeal to another. When you want to purchase actual real estate, a real estate agent helps locate the type of property desired. However, with virtual real estate, you only need to find the training on how to develop a web site (lots of courses out there) and then the product you will promote.

Can't you see it now, new classes creeping up: Virtual Real Estate Agents or Virtual Real Estate Development?

Good luck in this new virtual reality,

Karen Kelley

This and many more topics on the creation of profitable web site techniques are taught at =>http://www.InternetProfitMentor.com Also included is a FREE 12 hour video course.

Karen Kelley has worked for over 25 years in the computer technology field. She is now developing virtual web sites.

Online Ad Tracking An Ongoing Process

Writen by Karen Fegarty

Without tracking, your online advertising is just a shot in the dark. Many new and seasoned marketing individuals spend significant dollars on Pay-per-click (PPC) banner advertisements, ezline ads, and other online media but do not know which ads have brought them the greatest success.

You know that you should be tracking all of your online ad buys, but are you? Do you understand your numbers and what you should do with them? Are you refining your email and online marketing efforts accordingly?

It is important to track all of your online advertisement, even if your ad provider is showing you your results. You need to employ your own tracking to double-check.

Types of online marketing avenues that you should be monitoring:

· Site links
. PPC
· Articles
· Ezine advertisement
· Banner ads
· Signatures Tag
· Forum postings
· Email marketing promotions
· Free Classified listings
· Paid Classified listings
· Surveys
· Auto responder
· Reciprocal link

Statistics that you should be concerned with:

Open-rate - Particularily important in email marketing. This statisitic will tell you how many people opened your email marketing message. This number should be used as a estimate to measure trends and not an absolute number. Many variables can effect the accuracy of this count. For example, an open rate cannot be used in a text message, so if your message is being displayed and opened in text, the count will not increment. As well this count will be incremented if Outlook clients are displaying the preview pane. If a client shows the message in a preview pane and then clicks to open, you will get a count of two.

Click-through - A count of how many people clicked on a particular link in an email or on a text or banner link on a website. Ensure that your tracking software or service shows both clicks and unique clicks. The number you should be most concerned with is unique clicks. You do not want to be billed for someone who clicks on a particular ad 30 times in one minute.

Sales or actions count - Most tracking systems offer the ability to place code on your sales confirmation page and tie this to a tracking link. This count will tell you which online ad resulted in a sale.

Sale details - Some tracking systems allow you to add specific details about the sale to the tracking result. This usually requires you to be able to add code to the server side code of your website.

How do I get these statistics?

You will need to employee a speciallized tracking link for all of your email marketing and online marketing efforts. Many advertising options will provide you with these statistics, as well PPC engines like Overture and Google will provide you with click counts. It is important as well, to employ your own tracking to get the results from advertising that does not provide you with stats, as well as double-checking the results from those that do.

There are two main types of tracking systems. One, a service that is web-based that allows you to manage your tracking without the need for servers, or software downloads. Two, software that you would need to employ and manage on your server.

Service options -
ezTrackZ http://www.eztrackz.com
Hypertracker http://www.hypertracker.com
Adminder http://www.adminder.com

Software options -
AdtrackZ - http://www.adtrackz.com
Dynatracker - http://www.dynatracker.com

What your statistics tell you:

. Which ad copy had the most clicks and lead to the largest

number of actions or sales?

. How many people opened your email messages. Should you

resend?

. Who opened your email message. Should you resend to those

that did not, or send a follow-up to those that did.

. What faired better, banners or text links?

. Did you PPC advertising count and bill match your tracking

results?

. Did your online ad result in a positive Return on Investment?

Gathering statistics is just a start. Now that you have this data you will be able to make decisions and refinements to your email and online marketing.

Take this information and change your marketing accordingly and you will find that you often can save hundreds if not thousands of dollars monthly.

Karen Fegarty is a marketer with MailWorkZ and ezTrackZ. MailWorkZ is an innovative company focused on developing effective emarketing tools. With products like Broadc@st's Email Marketing Software and services like ezTrackZ online ad tracking, and the newest addition, Black List Monitor, thousands of MailWorkZ customers have a suite of products to help increase market share, revenue and profits, as well as improve their customer relationships.

For more information on products or services offered at MailWorkZ's, please visit http://www.mailworkz.com

Super Simple Search Tips And Tricks The Power Of Discovery Keywords

Writen by Derek Franklin

Whether you're looking to create an infoproduct or you're looking to learn about a topic for your personal enrichment - anything from scrapbooking to buying a home - using 'discovery keywords' can be one of the best ways of finding tons of quality content on the Web.

Using them is easy, and they work on almost any search engine you like to use.

This is such a simple trick, one you're going to be so thankful for learning about.

So, what is a 'discovery keyword'?

It's nothing more than a special keyword that, when used in conjunction with most general keywords, can help you quickly find extremely useful search results related to your topic.

Here are some 'discovery keyword' examples:

• tutorials
• secrets
• tips
• articles
• guide
• checklist
• FAQs
• resources

So, instead of searching for 'paris travel'(which will return over 100,000,000 results), search for 'paris travel tips', 'paris travel articles', 'paris travel guide', and so on.

Instead of searching for 'buying a home', search for 'buying a home tips', 'buying a home secrets', or 'buying a home guide'.

Here are a few more examples:

scrapbooking

• scrapbooking tutorials
• scrapbooking secrets
• scrapbooking tips
• scrapbooking articles
• scrapbooking guide
• scrapbooking checklist
• scrapbooking FAQs
• scrapbooking resources

dog training

• dog training tutorials
• dog training secrets
• dog training tips
• dog training articles
• dog training guide
• dog training checklist
• dog training FAQs
• dog training resources

Hopefully with these few examples you can begin to see how the quality in your search results will begin to improve as soon as you begin using discovery keywords.

Derek Franklin is the creator of Search Automator Pro (http://www.searchautomator.com), which in seconds can turn your search into a treasure-trove of tips, tricks, ebooks, audio clips, images, videos, guides, PDFs, and more.

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If You Sell A Product Use Online Marketing Part 2

Writen by Judy Cullins

When you offer your products via an email campaign to get people to visit your Web site, or sell direct through email, you reap many rewards--you create more profit, spend a lot less time promoting and marketing, and get to be known as the leader in your field.

1. Offer improved customer service and support.

All new subscribers to my ezine get 2 free special bonus reports. I receive their email address. I keep these in a file and follow up every few months with an email "thank you" gifting them with a free special report or free email answer to one question. Customers love a freebie, and they will connect my name with any future purchase they need to make.

For coaching services, I send out a note periodically that includes all the extras I offer. My clients give me the testimonials that remind me of those extras, making it easy to relate.

2. Reduce support costs.

Your online home office costs a fraction of what a brick and mortar storefront would. Think of the rent, the gas you save! Online services cost just a little: Web hosting, Web maintenance, and an email server are a few. Since online marketing is far easier, you'll need only a part time computer or virtual assistant. Reduced costs = less business expenses. And, you will spend less time and money to reap bigger profits because your target market is all online business people.

3. Reduce your time in the office.

It's far easier and faster to use email than phones or faxes. You don't have to have expensive and time-costing lunches with associates, because you can email at your convenience. And, it's all in writing. My promotion time is now only 6-9 hours a week after one year of foundation set up.

4. Reduce the cost of doing business.

In your home-based virtual office, you will have much less overhead. When you self-publish eBooks or other information products you won't have to spend time or money on postage, packaging, or mailing. You don't spend money on printing yielding much more profit as well as reduced expenses.

When you apply online promotion such as submitting free articles to ePublishers who are crying for them, you spend around an hour or so on each article that can be recycled many times. The actual time of sending it out is a few minutes.

Even if you need to mail your product, you still will have to spend less time and money.

Using email to offer and sell your products reduces your dependence on other sales channels such as the brick and mortar stores, traveling to give talks, and writing "round file" press releases.

When you market Online, you eliminate the middleman who can take a hefty percentage of your profit--up to 90%.

My motto is: If someone else who takes a commission can't sell at least 10 times as many products as I can, I don't need them."

5. Reduce your marketing time because email communication is short, fast, and gets to the point quickly.

You don't have to spend time buying stamps, logos, special envelopes and stationery. You do need to keep track of every customer, subscriber and Web visitor. Be alert to collect every person's email address when you meet and greet. Place each one in a categorized file, so you can laser target messages to one audience at a time.

If you sell books on your Web site, you can look like Barnes and Noble reaching thousands, even tens of thousands each day. Your visitor will have an easier time to find your product because you offer only a few on your site.

If you are like me, you will enjoy keeping track of your increasing sales each month. You will enjoy staying in touch with your potential buyers. People Online are hungry for your information and product. Put your effort into online marketing and win!

Judy Cullins, 20-year book and Internet Marketing Coach, Author of 10 eBooks including "Write your eBook Fast," and "How to Market your Business on the Internet," she offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, The Book Coach Says...and Business Tip of the Month at http://www.bookcoaching.com/opt-in.shtml and over 140 free articles. Email her at mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com

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Communication Can Make Or Break Your Online Business

Writen by Mark Ramirez

Many companies are now doing the majority or even all their business online and foregoing the "Brick and Mortar" storefront. It is easy to see why that trend has happened. For one thing, the cost of setting up such a business is relatively inexpensive and easy. There is no need to pay for the overhead of a physical building. Also, the cost of maintaining a Web site is minimal. Moreover, the Internet provides a convenient and efficient way of marketing products. As more and more people are spending time on the Internet, the market of online customers continues to grow.

But when businesses shift from face-to-face customers to anonymous online customers, there is a loss of personal connection and trust. All the online spamming and scamming hasn't helped the matter at all. That has eroded the trust in E-commerce and the credibility of many companies. How are you gaining and maintaining customer trust? What are you doing as an online vendor to communicate to your customers?

In an online world, business just doesn't stop after hours and on weekends. What are you doing to answer your customer's questions? Here are a few things that you can do to improve communication with your customers:

1. Offer a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page and online product support information. This is an excellent way of answering basic questions that may otherwise flood your support email. For example, our voice-changing product, MorphVOX, has a FAQ on the common issues that customers may come across. We also have provided detailed online documentation on topics that users may want to explore more. This takes care of roughly 95% of the questions people may have.

2. Add a support email link on your Web site for issues that can't be resolved by the Web support. At Screaming Bee, we try to answer our customer questions within one business day. More often, we'll answer questions within an hour of receiving the email. I believe that we have gained many loyal customers because our aggressive efforts to meet needs in a timely manner.

3. Provide a message board or forum for customers to voice their opinions, add comments, and interact with each other. Remember that people are social creatures and like to be heard. This also helps to build up a community of users that are empowered and have a say in the products and services that you provide.

4. Write a personal email to each customer. Have you followed up on your customers after they have made a purchase of your products or services? This is essential, not only from the perspective of getting feedback on how to improve your offerings, but more importantly, maintaining the trusting, long-term relationship with your customer. Send them an email within 3-4 weeks of the first purchase. In this way their experience with your products and services is fresh in their mind. Remember a customer who is ignored is a customer who is lost.

Spending time and effort on better communication with your customers will pay off. Your company will rise and fall not on the customers you gain, but on the customers that you don't lose. Loyal customers will be the ones that give you the best testimonials. They also provide you with the richest, organic, word-of-mouth marketing. Remember that every happy customer is a testament of your company's success.

Mark Ramirez is CEO and co-founder of Screaming Bee LLC, a leading provider of voice software and solutions for online games and messenger applications. For more information visit: http://www.screamingbee.com

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How To Make An Extra 10000000 Each Year

Writen by Karin Manning

HOW TO MAKE AN EXTRA $100,000.00 EACH YEAR BY ADDING A FEW LINES OF SCRIPT TO YOUR ONLINE ORDER PAGE

McDonalds has added over 200 billion dollars to their sales with their one line "Would you like some drinks or fries with that?"

Sales are made or lost by what is written in your online store. What you say and how you say it determines just how much merchandise is sold in your online business.

If your thank you page simply says thank you and then proceeds to finalise the ordering process you are missing out on some serious money that should be lining your pocket.

Why? Because that person has ALREADY made a decision to buy something that you are selling.

That person already has their credit card ready to make a purchase from you.

That person has already come to the decision that what you are selling will help them in some way.

So to make more money with no extra effort on your part let your customers (note they are not your prospects any longer) come to a positive choice when they go through the order process by assuming that they will incre*se their order by making another positive choice.

For example,

• Would you like an order of chocolate or vanilla ice cream with your cake" assumes that they will have ice cream already with their cake, they have to choose which flavour.

• Would you care to order a red or white wine to go with that"?

• Would you care to order a copy of Autoresponder Magic or Million Dollar Letters at half price"?

All these gives a positive choice. No matter which one the customer picks you win.

These questions are much better than a question that involves a yes/no answer. By of*ering two choices it is generally assumed that the customer will make a choice between the two products on of*er.

What you say in your ads and when interacting with your customers is worth a fortune to you.

But only if you apply what you learn

Wouldn't you like to enjoy a bit of cream on top with a short paragraph on your thank you order page?

Any time an order is placed through your website just add the following line of script…

"Thank you for your order. Because your order is over XXX (be sure to make it just below whatever the minimum order price is so everybody qualifies) you actually qualify for our special of*er".

Then briefly describe the special of*er (whether it be product or service) and the savings and benefits they will receive if they order NOW. Just this one little strategy can easily convert a $17.00 sale into a $30.00 or even $50.00 sale. If you're not using this strategy now I suggest you implement it right now. Leaving it off could cost you a fortune.

About The Author

Karin Manning is the author of The Ultimate Campfire Kitchen & Camping Guide which contains 580 delicious and easy camping recipes guaranteed to tantalize your taste buds. To immediately download your copy go to http://www.easy-family-camping-recipes.com

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