How to Drive Traffic to a Brand New Website

Every single day, more and more people upload brand new websites to the Internet. I don't have any figures but there must be hundreds of thousands of new pages being added daily (if not considerably more!)

The one thing that all of these new websites need in order to make their existence worthwhile is traffic, which leads me to one of the most common questions I am asked and the subject of this newsletter: 'How can you generate traffic to a brand new website?'

Of course, there are a number of different answers to this question and what I would do myself is probably very different to what a completely new Internet entrepreneur would do. The reason I say this is that the first thing I do when launching a new site is make use of my existing website traffic by advertising the new site on my other established sites. In addition, I have the luxury of a large mailing list which I can use to drive traffic to the new site.

I appreciate that anyone starting out in online business won't have these options open to them (and in fairness, neither did I when I first started), so let's look at things from the beginning. Day one of your first website.....

It is a fact that the quickest and probably most effective way of bringing targeted traffic to your website is by paying for it. Now before you rush off and sink $50 into one of those '50,000 hits for $50' schemes, DON'T, this isn't what I mean. Those schemes are largely a complete waste of money. Even if you get the traffic that you are promised (as opposed to some software script visiting your site and pretending to be a visitor), it will not be targeted and therefore there is a very low chance that the traffic will generate sales. When I talk about buying traffic, I mean by using the pay- per-click services offered by most of the big search engines.

You probably already know the sort of thing I mean - for example, Google Adwords. Pretty much any search on Google will display a list of adverts down the right-hand side of the page and these are all paid adverts. Every time you click on one of them, the advertiser pays Google a fixed amount which could be anything from 5 cents upwards (depending upon how competitive the keyword is).

Pay-per-click allows you to be very selective about which keywords your advert is shown for and this allows you to target your advertising perfectly. Other big names in the pay-per-click market include Overture, Espotting and Findwhat.

Now, before you all start emailing me and saying that you already knew about PPC let me just say that I am well aware that people know about it. The problem (as I see it), is that people aren't using this type of service because of the fact that they don't want to spend any money on advertising. That's all well and good but the fact is that the Internet is getting more and more competitive each day and the chances of you building a successful website business from scratch without investing any money are tiny to say the least.

If you want to attract a decent level of traffic to a brand new website in a short period of time, it is almost a necessity that you use pay-per-click on one of the main search engines. If you don't, then the growth of your traffic levels will be painfully slow and inconsistent at best.

When I launched my very first websites I invested heavily in pay-per-click advertising. At one point, I was spending over $6000 a month on Google Adwords alone!!! Seriously I really was spending that much money. It was a constant battle to tweak the website sales copy and continue to test the advertisement text just to make sure that my sales were covering the advertising payments each month. At the time I was probably just about breaking even but buying traffic in this quantity meant that I was able to fine-tune my sales pages and start to build up a list of mailing list subscribers.

Once you have got to the stage where you know your sales pages are converting visitors into buyers, then you can start to gear up with other methods of getting traffic to your site - writing articles, linking strategies, viral methods (ebooks etc), using your eBay 'About Me' page, using your link as a signature when you post on forums etc. All of these methods will win you traffic (and in most cases it will be completely free) but it will take time for the traffic to build to a worthwhile level. If you rely solely on free traffic, you really will be building your business one hit at a time.

Of course, once the free methods of gaining traffic start to pay off, you can begin to wind down your paid methods, though you may not want to - after all, if you are earning more in sales than you are paying for your pay-per-click traffic, why stop it?

As your portfolio of websites grows, you will also be able to share the traffic around a bit by linking to your own sites and of course, if you are capturing your visitors email addresses, you will be building a mailing list of people interested in the products you are offering.

Like I say, I appreciate that the above may not be the ground-breaking secret that you were hoping for but as with so many things online, there really is no secret. Achieving success is simply about taking action and whilst you can succeed online by spending very little money, the chances are that you will succeed a lot quicker by making a bit of an investment. You don't have to be spending thousands of dollars a month as I was but any new business owner should be prepared to invest a few hundred dollars a month in order to get things off the ground....

Top 10 Ways to Make People Buy!

Here's a great list of the top 10 ways to make people become buyers of your product:

1. Use the word "fast" in your ad. People want fast results, fast delivery, fast ordering, etc. Nowadays, we usually value our time more than our money.

2. Use the word "guaranteed" in your ad. People want to be assured they are not risking their hard earned money buying your product.

3. Use the word "limited" in your ad. People want to own or receive things that are exclusive or rare because they are considered to be more valuable.

4. Use the word "easy/simple" in your ad. People want easy ordering, easy instructions, easy to use, easy payments, etc.

5. Use the word "testimonial" in your ad. People want to see believable proof before they buy your product. It should be reputable and specific proof.

6. Use the word "discount/sale " in your ad. People want to find bargains. They could be rebates, one time sales, percentage offers, get one free offers, etc.

7. Use the word "free" in your ad. People want free incentives before they do business with you. They could be free books, accessories, services, etc.

8. Use the word "you/your" in your ad. People want to know that you are talking them. This'll make them feel important and attract them to read the whole ad.

9. Use the word "important" in your ad. People do not want to miss important information that could effect their life. People will stop and take notice.

10. Use the word "new" in your ad. People want new products or services that will improve their life like new information, tastes, technology, results, etc.

RSS: The Wave Of The Future For Ezine Publishing

A powerful innovation, known as RSS or really simple syndication, is destined to revolutionize the way ezines are delivered to their subscribers.

In fact, Microsoft's plans to add RSS to the new version of their Internet Explorer and Longhorn operating system means that RSS will become mainstream very soon.

How can publishing your ezine in RSS profit you?

By using RSS to publish your ezine, you'll be able to completely bypass the email filters that cause many ezines to lose their profitability.

You'll also be able to have complete control over your ezine's content, making your messages much more effective because you won't have to worry about your ezine getting blocked.

In addition, you'll never lose subscribers due to them changing email addresses.

As long as your readers continue to subscribe to your feed, they'll continue to get your RSS ezine, regardless of which email they use.

Now, the key to creating a successful RSS ezine is providing your readers with valuable content.

First and foremost, your readers are going to want useful, informative content from you, and by giving them what they want, you'll be on your way to:

1. more sales of your products
2. more commissions when you recommend your affiliate programs, and
3. more repeat ad sales, because you'll have a very responsive subscriber base.

An excellent way for you to add your own winning content to your ezine is to write articles on the topic your ezine covers.

Through your articles you'll be able to:

• build up your reader's trust in you.
• increase your status as an expert in your field.
• add your own unique voice and style to your ezine.
• successfully promote your business through your resource box at the end of all your articles.

In addition to writing your own articles, you can ask your readers to send you their articles, or you could publish "free to reprint" articles in your ezine.

Some article writers also make their articles available to their affiliates to earn commissions.

You simply join their affiliate program and then publish their articles with your affiliate link in the resource box.

By doing this, you'll be able to easily increase your commissions.

And if you have an affiliate program, you can also use this strategy to get more new affiliates that will successfully promote your products and add to your bottom line.

Making Money with Popular Search Engines

With so many internet and home business opportunities on the world wide web nowadays it is very confusing as to know which ones are scams and which are not.

However, even though I am sure that most of the money making schemes advertised have their merits, it would give the entrepreneur great peace of mind to know that he was building an internet business in conjunction with a credible and high profile corporate.

Credibility is a vital component of doing business on the Internet and I am sure that you would agree that credibility would give any “Internet Business Opportunity” the ability to convince you that it was all above board and a genuinely sound opportunity.

Well there are such opportunities and you do not even have to have a website to capitalize on them and to build a successful online business.

This is how it works…

Some of the top search engines have pay per click programs that essentially show small text advertisements to the right of their many search engine results (and in other places for that matter – for instance Google shows them on websites whose publishers have signed up to display them).

These advertisements have been paid for by advertisers who are participating in the respective search engine’s pay per click program and are displayed and ranked according to the keywords they have selected and how much they have been willing to bid for them.

Now for the important part…

The power of this marketing strategy is such that with a well driven pay per click campaign, huge amounts of traffic can be driven to a particular site almost immediately.

For those of you who know, many sites have huge hours invested in them to improve their search engine rankings and to generate traffic and after years (in most cases) don't come close to the amount of traffic that a Google Adwords campaign, for example, can generate overnight.

This type of campaign can have your text ads displayed in both the search engine results pages as well as one appropriate websites all over the internet. Therefore the reach of your advertising would be immense.

This means that you can set up a Google Adwords campaign and drive traffic to your affiliates’ sites (with your affiliate id in the url of course) and receive the commissions for all the sales that have been generated by the traffic driven through your adwords.

This all sounds great, but what's in it for you if you don't even have a website?

Well, if you are affiliated to a site/s or company where you earn commission on sales, your commissions will skyrocket with an Adwords campaign aimed at your affiliates’ sites.

One word of caution…

You could waste your money and become disillusioned by embarking blindly on your pay per click campaign.

Therefore, it is highly recommended to read up on how to maximize your earnings & not to spend money unwisely and research carefully as to how much to bid on specific keywords and what keywords would work best for you.

For more resources on this subject go to http://www.income.za.net and http://www.internetbusiness.co.za.

Google's Own AdSense Tips

Google is at least as interested as you are in having your ads perform well on your site. And they've gone to some work to provide the information you need to optimize your AdSense.

What's fascinating to me is that apparently not everyone bothers to read their tips. And even some that do, fail to apply it.

That said, you need to be aware that simply using their tips doesn't guarantee successful ads and decent CTR (Click Through Rate). How many times have you heard this? You have to test. You have to try alternatives and see what really works best for you, on your pages, with your content and your visitors. Test, test, test some more. Track your results, analyze them, try variations. Too many of us don't test. We hear the mantra, but we don't do the work.

First, let's see if we can get an idea about location. (The graphic is included in the article on my site or you can take a look at it at the Google link included below) Generally, above the fold, at the top center of your content, below top navigation is the hottest location. Not immediately below which is good but not quite as hot. In a left sidebar, to the immediate left of primary content or below the primary content are also good. Most other locations are generally cooler.

Again, you need to test and you need to consider your users behavior - and their behavior may vary on different pages with different kinds of content. Google suggests that in some cases, such as articles, the best location can be at the end of the article. To quote Google, "It's almost as if users finish reading and ask themselves, What can I do next?" Well targeted relevant ads right there can provide the answer.

Don't blindly assume that sticking a nice big rectangle in the center above the fold will do it. It may, but depending on your content, it may annoy or inconvenience your users.

Users tend to focus on content, navigation and to a lesser extent graphics. Positioning your ads near these elements will often work well -- if those ads are targeted to your visitors needs.

The top three performers among the Google ad formats are the 336X280 large rectangle, the 300X250 inline rectangle and the 160X600 wide skyscraper. Google reports that the wider formats tend to do better than the taller ones. One reason may be that these are, perhaps, easier to read since they have fewer line breaks and require less eye movement. But, you need to use formats that fit your pages well. Once again, you need to test, but redoing your pages to suit a particular ad format may not be a reasonable alternative and you may discover that a different format actually gets better results.

Now we come to color. Conventional wisdom says that colors which tend to blend into your content do better. Some go so far as to suggest that colors which make the ads look like part of the content are best. Personally, I think anybody really believes those ads are anything but ads, but who knows. Google suggests that you may find that colors that standout from your content do better - or maybe the opposite. This is absolutely an area where you need to test alternative color schemes. Going with the conventional wisdom usually works fairly well, but without testing you could be leaving a lot of money on the table.

Google allows you to have up to three ad units and one link unit on your pages. If you have long pages with lots of text, can only use small ad units or are in a niche with a large ad inventory, multiple units can pay off. Keep in mind that the way ad serving works is that the higher value ads are delivered to the first ad unit block encountered in your code. Always make sure that this first ad unit is displayed in the best location (yeah - test). You want the higher paying ads to be in the prime hot location on your page. Weaker locations can get the lower priced ads. And if none are available, then nothing will display unless you've included an alternate ad URL in your Google code. To maximize monetization you should be including alternate ad URLs, especially if you are putting multiple units on a page. The use of an alternate ad URL also eliminates the possibility of being served PSAs (Public Service Announcements). It's your real estate, maximize your returns.

Nothing here is secret. Except for using the alternate ad URL, all of this information is available from Google's Optimization Tips page - http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html . You can buy books and courses, visit a dozen forums and, in the end it comes down to what your visitors do on your site. The best you can get is general guidance. This means averaged outcomes over many sites, many types of content. If you are serious about doing whatever you can to really optimize your AdSense returns, there is only one thing to do - test. Whether it's AdSense, opt-ins, copy, headlines - anything with a measurable outcome that you can track - then the way to improve is to test and keep on testing.

Top 10 Keys to a Successful Online Business

Starting an online business is not always as easy as it may sound. But, running an online business has many benefits over its offline counterpart. First, and the most appealing, is you'll most likely be working from home from your own computer, and working the hours that suit you. And secondly, you have the potential to make a lot more money than you would if you were working for someone else.

Before embarking on an online entrepreneurial quest for the perfect home-based business, it's advisable to look at the array of online business opportunities available, and decide which would be the most suitable for you. While it's quite conceivable, that the most profitable and legitimate type of online businesses can be operated successfully by one person, most involve a collaboration of skills and input.

For the individual, making money online is a very real prospect, but there are some important factors that should be considered before taking that first vital step.

1. Should you sell a service?

Unless you have a well-developed skill such as, web design, graphics design, writing or some other creative or artistic flair, you'll have to concentrate on finding or creating a product.

In selling your services, you must first determine whether a paying market actually exists for your services. Initially, you'll need to do some research and look at similar services being offered. A good indicator is usually when there are numerous similar services available. This would suggest a buoyant market, but it's not always the case. A friendly yet inquisitive email sent to a few established service providers in the business you're considering, should give you an insight.

Take a good look at the existing competition. Look at the quality of their work. Could you do it better? What prices are they charging? Could you do it cheaper? If you can effectively do either of these you're on your way to building online wealth.

2. Should you sell a product?

More people than ever buy products online, but the main thing to consider is whether you want to sell a tangible product or a virtual product.

As with selling a service, you must first determine whether a market exists for your product. Look at similar products then decide whether there's room for another player. All products will have to be sold through a website, from which an order can be taken and a payment can be processed. If you have the knowledge and necessary skills, you can easily build the website yourself. Otherwise you will have to pay a professional.

A tangible product is something that can be held in the hand, therefore it will also need to be packed and shipped. Processing orders is very time consuming, but more importantly you may have to keep inventory, which can be very expensive plus you'll need to find storage space.

An alternative is to sell virtual products. These include downloadable e-books, videos and information products. You'll still need a website with ordering and credit card processing facilities, but you will not need to keep any inventory and it won't take up any space (except on your computer's hard drive) Many successful Internet marketers use this method to maximum effect.

3. Selling someone else's product

Some of the best online business opportunities are very simple to set up and run. The first of these is affiliate marketing. You simply find some existing products that are being successfully sold on the Internet, and sign up for their affiliate program. Basically, this is straight-forward process. You complete an online application form and you're given a reference number, which you can embed into your marketing links. The host company will also track your sales and pay you commissions. All you have to do is sell their products.

Some people go overboard on affiliate programs, trying to sell anything and everything they can sign up for. It's advisable to concentrate on a few related items such as e-books on a similar subject. When that enterprise begins to make money online, start all over again with a set of different products. With careful consideration and clever marketing, affiliate programs can be the perfect way of making money online. A good place to start is www.clickbank.com.

4. Buying a business or franchise

If you'd prefer to buy a readymade business, there are many to choose from. Some established and profitable Internet businesses will gladly sell you a franchise. This will most likely be a clone of their existing business, but beware! Owning a franchise business on the Internet will prove useless unless you have territorial rights. The problem with online franchises is your limitations on what you can sell. You must sign an agreement with the franchisor, that you, the franchisee will only sell their range of products. Check out the various franchise opportunities at www.usatoday.franchisesolutions.com

5. Online investment opportunities

Not strictly a business opportunity, but investing in real estate or stocks and shares has become big business in itself. The Internet has opened up all kinds of opportunities for investors, and it's so easy to go online and find stock brokers willing to advise you where to put your hard-earned cash for the maximum return. The big consideration with investing is to remember that prices can fall just as quickly as they rise. For all the information you need on investments, visit www.investorguide.com

6. Finding the right market

Whatever service or product you decide to offer your online customers, you must first establish whether there's a need for it. If there is, you'll have to work on an effective strategy of getting your product in front of your prospect ahead of the competition.

It's been proven time and again that small is big. The small or niche market has been responsible for many people making a nice profit from the Internet. It's as well to remember, that a niche market on the internet could number well over a million potential customers. Just 5% of a market this size, each buying a product with a $10 profit margin, would return $500,000 in profits.

A few examples of niche markets might be: Holidays for singles over 40, sports and fashion wear for children 6-24 months or easy car maintenance for lady drivers.

7. Online Auctions

The phenomenal success of online auctions, eBay in particular, is unprecedented. Not only are the online auction companies making large profits, they give everyone an opportunity to sell something to anyone anywhere in the world. From fashion accessories to collectibles and sports equipment to memorabilia, there appears to be a market, although limited, for everything.

The key to success here is to buy wholesale and sell volume. When you've got to the point of making good money from online auctions, simply write a book and tell everyone else how you did it. To get started in online auctions, go to eBay, click on wholesale, buy some stock and resell individually back on eBay.

8. Paid Surveys

Some people might not consider clicking boxes alongside questions a valid business opportunity. But if you consider it work, and the survey companies are willing to pay you, then it must be a form of business to be considered. It's something almost anyone can do, doesn't require any specialist knowledge or skill and can be done from anywhere.

The downside is, it's tedious and won't make you a fortune. However, it's the ideal part-time opportunity for people with a few hours to spare or to run alongside a new venture during the 'quiet' periods. To sign up for online surveys visit: www.surveyclub.com

9. Enthusiasm, Commitment and Self-Discipline

Looking at the various online business opportunities and how you should evaluate them is only part of the equation for online wealth building. Working for yourself in your home-based business will require real enthusiasm, commitment and copious amounts of self-discipline. Whichever route or opportunity you consider, all will require a degree of 'do-ability'.

Be prepared to spend more time at your computer, especially in the early months, building your business and getting your products in front of likely prospects. If you do it right, an online business can pay you big monetary rewards.

10. Accounting the costs

If you plan to set up and run an online business as your main source of income, beware! The tax man cometh! An online business is no different to a bricks and mortar business, in the eyes of the IRS. If you establish an online business and you're making a full-time income, don't forget to inform the authorities. You must have a business name, although this could be your own name, preferably a business bank account and you'll need to inform the IRS.

You'll need to keep records of all your business transactions for accounting purposes and you'll need to set aside a percentage of your profits to cover taxes. Microsoft's Excel program is perfect for keeping records of this nature, but don't forget to keep a back-up of your files, just in case. The message here is to play it straight and keep it legal.

Of all the things you should consider, when planning to start an online business, the most important is undoubtedly marketing. Marketing strategies can make or break a business.

How To Use a Podcast For Internet Marketing

Although podcasting is trendy, it's vital to remember that when you use a podcast for Internet marketing, your podcast is really just another delivery mechanism – a way to get your marketing message across.

Because it is a new delivery mechanism, there's a chance you'll get so wrapped in the technology that you'll forget the basics, the AIDA formula. You need to give people something that they want to listen to, and you can’t go wrong with the AIDA formula. AIDA is used in copywriting, and is an acronym: AIDA means Attract/ Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.

You need to get people's attention, arouse their interest in your product, get them to want it, and finally take action to buy it.

Using AIDA In Your Podcasts
You can use the AIDA formula to market your products via podcasts in several ways. Firstly, you can use the podcast to attract people to a Web site where you're selling products related to the podcast theme. The podcast is the attention-getter. You can have ads on your site selling your products, and include mention of them in the podcast too. Next, include valuable information or entertainment in your podcasts to make sure that people subscribe. When they subscribe, you can market to them over and over again. This is the Interest factor. You arouse Desire by mentioning your products and their benefits in your podcasts. Finally, you need a call to Action, to ensure that people take action. "Buy before midnight on Thursday, and receive _________"

Making Your First Podcast
Making a podcast (it's really just making an MP3 file) couldn’t be simpler. Here are the steps:

1. Plug a microphone into your computer;
2. Record your podcast using a program like Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ (it's free);
3. Create an RSS feed – more information on that here http://www.ipodder.org/whatIsPodcasting (don't let the technical jargon make you nervous, the RSS Feed is just a reference enclosure that lets listeners know when you've put a new podcast online);
4. Upload the podcast to your Web site, and then upload the podcast's RSS Feed to a destination like Podcast Alley at http://www.podcastalley.com/ so that you can start getting a mass of happy subscribers.

Get Interviewed On a Podcast
If you don’t want to make your own podcasts, offer yourself as an interviewee on other people's podcasts. This saves you the trouble of recording your own material and putting it online, and you can promote your products on someone else's show as easily as you can on your own.

When you create your own podcasts, you'll want to ask people to join you for an interview too. You can even ask people to send you MP3 files of questions or tips, that you can include in your podcast.

So there you have it: podcasting, another tool to add to your Internet marketing toolbox. If the idea appeals, give podcasting a try.

Tips For Maximum Adsense Content Relevancy

One of the most essential aspects of getting the most out of your involvement with Google’s Adsense program is to be certain that Google serves up the most relevant ads possible on your site. The concept is easy to grasp--visitors travel to your sites in search of certain content on their topic of interest. If they see advertisements directly related to those content desires, they are far more likely to click on the ads than if they encounter only tangentially related material or, in a worst case scenario, ads that are not even related to their interests. As such, it is in your best interests to make sure your site displays relevant ads. Here are few tips for improving your content relevancy to produce more accurately targeted contextual advertising from Adsense.

FIRST THINGS FIRST. Before you even begin to use Adsense as a monetization tool, make sure there are relevant ads for your site or pages. In most cases, you will have determined this long before you even embarked on site design or content development. However, if you are thinking of adding Adsense to an existing site built with other monetization strategies originally in mind, you may not have bothered checking to see if other advertisers were going after that particular market. Be sure you are addressing a topic for which ads exist in sufficient quantity. If related advertising is sparse, it will difficult to avoid irrelevant ads.

KEYWORDS MATTER. You do not want content that is overstuffed with particular keywords to point of destroying readability and value, but you do want to make sure your materials make liberal use of on-topic keywords likely to spawn the most relevant possible ads. Experts maintain that using keywords with your titles and H1 tags is an excellent way to assist in getting the most relevant possible ads. This has added advantages in terms of search engine optimization, as well.

METATAGS. Once upon a time, metatags were a critical aspect of search engine optimization in general. Although the engines rely upon metatags far less than they once did, there is some evidence to suggest that using ad-triggering keywords in your pages’ meta-tags may increase the relevance of the advertisements displayed. This strategy may help, and it certainly cannot hurt.

LOOK FOR LACKLUSTER CONTENT. Many sites to a great job of supplying content related to particular themes or keywords in the main portion of a page, but have sidebars, headers and footers filled with less targeted terms and material. Take a long look at your navigational elements and other “side of the page” text and remove keyword terminology that may be leading to irrelevant ad service. Alternatively, you can use Adsense’s section targeting tool to remove those areas from Adsense’s consideration completely, so long as you do not plan to display ad blocks or ad link units in those areas.

TIGHT THEMING. You want to keep content tightly themed. That means you do not want to feature long, rambling articles that cover multiple topics. Instead, rely upon materials that address singular issues. You also do not want to feature multiple chunks of content on disparate matters on the same page for that very same reason. The value of tight theming may extend past individual pages. Many publishers argue that Adsense tends to reward tightly-themed overall sites with more relevant ads, as well. Even though this aspect of theming is not as well researched and proven, it makes sense to follow the practice, because of the search engine optimization advantages of having a focused site.

BLOCK THE BAD ADS. Monitor your site regularly and take note when irrelevant ads appear. Then, take the time to add them to your blacklist for the site. Google does give you the ability to block individual ads via the Competitive Ad Filter. If you block out commonly served irrelevant ads, you may improve your chances of featuring more ads upon which your visitors will actually click.

The more contextually relevant the ads appearing on your site are, the more clicks you can expect to see. As such, it is important to make an effort to use a combination of proven SEO methods that also work well with Adsense and some program-specific maneuvers to secure the best possible ads on your site.

Building Strong Website Traffic

It is worth looking at some values and strengths of a few technical and promotional elements of your website that will help you to lay a foundation in building profitable online success. Once you have decided on your market and have chosen a relevant domain name for your online business, you need simple and effective tools and methods to put and keep your business on a profitable track. Ideally you will want to make use of easy-to-use methods that keeps visitors coming to your website. Lets look at a few practical ideas.

When a visitor comes to your website you have to get their follow-up information by collecting their email address. It is important to ‘enable’ your web site to automatically deliver quality content such as a newsletter to visitors and allow you to follow up with extra information when necessary. Top marketers agree that this forms a large percentage of their online success. How do you do this? You create forms on your web pages, giving visitors the chance to subscribe to your opt-in list, newsletter or report. This allows you to introduce your service and offer something valuable in order to build relationship. Email follow-up through autoresponders is totally free and an absolute necessity for implementing. All you need to do is integrate the autoresponder into your web site via a form so that you can pre-load it with your newsletters. You may say that you’re not a writer, but what do you know about your industry? Write it down and put it into an informative newsletter. Subscribers can now begin to see you as an expert on the subject and look to you for the solutions that your business is already offering.

Once your newsletter is up and running, you can use these very same tips and ideas you share with your subscribers and also write a weekly article about your product or service, and then submit it to ezines online. This is very easy to do and will have great response for your business. There are tens of thousands of ezine publishers online that needs good content, and will give you valuable exposure for your business. You will have many sites linking to your site and people will be able to read what your business is about and visit your website. Then they will also be able to subscribe to your newsletter which provides even more information about your product or service. Each article has got a resource box at the bottom which allows visitors to visit your web site. Write your 4 to 6 line resource box by viewing some samples online and making up your own. Finding details of ezine publishers can quite easily be done through looking up in search engines.

Let’s go a step further and look at newspaper classifieds. By using little snippets of ideas from your newsletters and articles, you can come up with short eye catching promotional messages to use in newspaper classifieds. There are newspaper companies that offer state wide and nation wide advertising in their papers, often covering readership in excess of 2 to 3 million. By placing 10-15 word tiny classified ads all over the globe can dramatically increase your website traffic. A big mistake people make when doing this is to try and make sales directly from their ads instead of just generating leads for later follow-up. You would want to get your leads to your web site first from where they can subscribe to your automated content.

Lastly lets consider the eye opener an affiliate program can have for your business. With the right product or service it is by far the hottest way of building your business and customer base. Submit your program to affiliate directories across the web. You’ll have affiliates making sales for you and not paying a cent in advertising until you’ve made the sale! Your advertising will be covered by your affiliates, and you can concentrate on providing customer service and continue follow-up with your increasing customer base through newsletter delivery and other product offers. By becoming familiar with how important it is to stay relevant in implementing these factors will benefit your business and you will find that you’ll be achieving better results.

8 Ways To Increase Your Affiliate Commission

1) Collect your visitor email addresses by providing free reports.

Offer a free report to your visitor. This report should provide helpful and valuable information. This will enable you to collect your visitors email address and follow up with them. Use an autoresponder to automate this work for you.

Some of them are:

• http://www.getresponse.com
• http://www.aweber.com
• http://www.freeautobot.com

2) Publish your own newsletter;

Publishing your own ezine and building up your subscriber base. Most of the successful Marketing Gurus have a large subscriber base. The reason is simple, "The Gold Is In The List". Successful Marketers like Terry Dean, Jim Daniels etc have been successful in using this technique.

3)Write your own endorsement or review the product you're promoting.

A heartfelt honest testimonial is hands down the best way to get a prospect to buy. Your prospect wants to know how this product has ben helping you. This will help them to make the decision to buy.

4)Use your web site 404 (Error) page.

Even though we try to build a perfect web site, sometimes something may be missing without our being aware of it. That's why the software may still have bugs even after being tested a few times. Check with your web hosting company to see if you can customise the error page. In my case, I use my error page to promote Marlon's products. I put up the ebook cover and the ad on the error page. Whenever someone is looking for a page that is missing or mistypes the name, this page will help me to promote Marlon's products .

5) Fully utilize your thank you page .

After the visitor opts in to your mailing list, redirect them to a thank you page where you can recommend your affiliate product. Yanik Silver is using this technique; After the visitor submits their email for the report, they will be redirected to the thank you page. In the thank you page, Yanik will recommend a few products to his prospect. However, Marlon and some other Marketers prefer to sell 1 product at one time, which they believe it is more effective and less confusing. You can test these 2 methods by using a simple java script so that the thank you page will be rotated. One is with a single product recommendation and the other page will be for multiple product recommendations. Test it out to see which one gives you a higher conversion rate.

6) Track your ad and advertising.

You have to track your ad copy and advertising campaigns. This will enable you to know the conversion rate and then your ROI. (Return On Investment) Some of the tracking tools you can use are

• http://www.adminder.com
• http://www.hypertracker.com

7) Let your affiliate program presell for you.

Some of the affiliate programs have prepared valuable reports, newsletters, or courses to help you to presell. Some of them are Ken's Site Sell products, Marlon's Weekly Marketing Tips and Sumatra's Search Engine reports etc.

What you need to do is try to get your visitors to opt in to these mailing lists and let their information do the presell work for you. I was able to secure 2 sales for Marlon's product for this months through this method. What I do is put the opt in form of Marlon's Marketing Tips into the bonus page where my subscribers go to download the bonus ebooks that I have set up for them. In addition, I also put the opt in form into the thank you and error page, right at the bottom of the product recommendation.

8) Give bonuses when someone buys from you.

Everyone on the web is selling almost the same products as you. By offering additional bonuses like software, ebooks or information, your prospect may feel that the added value to your product tips the scale in your favor over the same product being offered by the others.

This does make you different from the others and puts you in "A Unique Selling Position"

How To Start a Profitable Online Business in 5 Easy Steps and For Under $40

You’ve heard it a million times; “It takes money to make money!” Although this is very true -- I have targeted this article for every one who is looking to start a profitable online business with a $40 average budget.

So you want to start an internet home business?

There are five important steps you must follow:

1. Find a product to sell
2. Design your sales page
3. Setup credit card processing on your website
4. Find a website host and upload your sales pages
5. Promote your website products

Now the questions remains: How can I follow the above steps with a $40 budget?

1) Find a product to sell. Average cost: $30

You can buy resell rights to quality information & software Products for as little as $30. A quick search for the terms “resell rights” on any major search engine will produce plenty of product offers for you to choose from.

Once you have bought the product/resell rights you will be able to sell the product yourself and keep 100% of the profits every time. Another advantage of selling digital products online is that they costs nothing to deliver. Translation: huge profit margins.

2) Design your sales page. Average cost: $0.

That is right, $0. Most, if not all, digital products for which resell rights are available come with a professional ready to take orders website. This means that as soon as you buy resell rights to a product -- not only will you have a product of your own -- but you will also have a professionally designed sales page to start selling your product immediately.

3) Setup credit card processing on your website. Average cost: $0

There are various ways to this; however, since we are trying to keep our expenses to a minimum we are going to use with paypal.

Visit www.paypal.com and open an account. Their website is very well designed and it does an awesome job of guiding you trough the registration process. NOTE: paypal will setup your merchant account at no cost but will deduct 1.9% + $0.30 transaction fee.

4) Find a website host and upload your sales pages. Average starting cost: $13.

Well, you can do this for free but I wouldn’t recommend it. I suggest that you choose www.godaddy.com as they are highly reliable. Note that I am not affiliated with godaddy in any way; I advocate them because I am a customer myself and I have experienced nothing but 100% top service. You can register a “.COM” domain for as little as $8.95 per year and get hosting for only $3.95 a month.

5) Promote your website products.

Now that you have completed steps 1 trough 4 you need to drive traffic to you website. I suggest that you start by advertising on free classified sites, joining free traffic and banner exchange programs, join list builders, use free email safelists and other similar free programs.

Note: Although it is not free -- I suggest that you start a Pay Per Click Campaign at any of the top search engines in order to drive highly targeted visitors to your site/s. Overture, Google Adwords and Findwhat.com are my top picks for these type of marketing.

Final Thought.

There you have it: a fully functional online business in 5 easy steps and for under $40. Always keep in mind that knowledge is money… the more knowledge you have the more profits you will rake in. Always keep learning about internet marketing, stay focused and never quit.

How to Make a Fortune in the Internet Marketing "Gold Mine"

It is a well known fact that in the gold rush days of the Old West, most of the fortunes were made not by the gold miners themselves, but by the people and companies that supplied the tools and equipment the gold miners needed. Some, such as Levi Strauss and John Mohler Studebaker, became household names. The tools of the time included pick axes, wheel barrows and clothing.

Knowing this, and hoping to find my own fortune, I went in search of the "gold miners" of today. I looked high and low, read everything I could get my hands on, and finally, it came to me! Every day thousands and thousands of individuals go in search of their fortunes on the internet marketiing "gold mine." Then, I asked myself, "What are the tools today's gold miners need?" I came up with 5 key tools that everyone who is marketing on the internet needs.

First, they need a domain name. A domain is where you live on the internet. It is your address on the internet. It looks something like www.yourdomain.com. This is a unique name that belongs only to you. It is as unique as your home address, phone number, or Social Security number are. No one else has this domain name, except you. All of your webpages with associated graphics and documents are placed on your domain, so people can visit your website.

Secondly, they need a web hosting account. The internet works through servers - computers that are always online for the world to access. Your personal computer can access the internet, but the internet (generally) cannot access your computer. In order to make your website available to the world, you must first upload your domain to a host, or "webspace". Web hosts provide space on their servers so you can upload your webpages, graphics, audio, video, and text documents to your domain, enabling other people to access them via the internet.

The third tool they will need is an autoresponder. An autoresponder will automatically send a series of emails to potential customers who have signed up to receive them on a form on your website. Only a small percentage of visitors to your site will join on the first contact. Studies have shown time after time, people will still be signing up after 7 or more contacts. If you advertise only your affiliate link, you are losing out on a lot of potential money. Most prospect(or)s don't buy on their first visit, but they might submit their names and email addresses to get free information. With a good follow up system, you can convert several times more prospects into customers than one time visitors.

The next thing all modern gold miners will need is traffic. In order to get traffic, they will need to advertise. Without a way to get visitors to your site, no matter how good the site is, it would be worthless. No visitors, means no sales. There are numerous methods of advertising on the internet. We'll explore some of the paid methods here. There is pay-per-click. This means that everytime someone clicks on your advertisement, you are charged. Another type is traffic exchanges. Most traffic exchanges give you advertising credits in exchange for viewing other marketers ads. Some are completely free, while others charge a fee for premium services not available to free members. E-zine advertising is another type of advertising. This includes classifed and solo ads. Others who have built a large list or base of subscribers to a newsletter often sell advertising space. Classified ads are much like newspaper classifieds. Price is often determined by where they are placed. They are also called top sponsor, middle sponser or bottom sponsor. A solo ad, like the name implies, is sent to the subscriber list all by itself. These can be highly effective when targeted to the right market.

Lastly, they need a system. A system is an organized, established procedure that produces predictable results, no matter who is using it. Most successful internet marketing systems utilize advertising to drive traffic to a website, more specifically to a lead capture page (also known as a squeeze page), which entices the visitor to sign up to your mailing list. This, in turn, is usually connected to an autoresponder loaded with messages designed to build a relationship with the (potential) customer - and of course, make sales, all basically on auto-pilot.

You don't have to re-invent the wheel, create your own tools or even sell every tool to every miner out there. There are plenty of quality, established ones available already that will pay you a commission just for referring the prospect(or)s to them. All you need to do is find a way to supply the modern internet marketers/gold miners with any or all of these tools, and you may be on your way to your own fortune.

How To Leverage Your Ebook Income

A common product to many marketing offers is an ebook, but not all ebooks are created equal. Once an ebook is written it can be sold or given away to promote another product or product line. Content can be written by you, or written by a ghostwriter for you, or you can purchase private label rights [PLR] on an existing ebook that you can modify, re-title and re-brand.

Ebooks are a good way to add value to a promotion. If you have written a new ebook then you can pick up some PLR ebooks to complement and increase the value of your offer.

Many of the ebooks bundled with promotions deliver content in ways that leave room for significant improvement. For example, some of the obvious features of a book are table of contents, headers or footers with page numbers, chapters with titles and sometimes sub-titles. If any of these hallmarks are missing from an ebook, then it can be improved.

If your product is too short to include the main traits of a book listed above, the terms booklet, report, or special report can be just as effective for promotion. Conversely, you can abstract content from PLR books or articles to supplement your project.

Although professional software and its use are essential to competitive advantage, it is not that expensive to hire a professional to package for you. Both money and time can be saved with a bit of planning to optimize your ebook profit potential. For the same price of some ebooks, you can purchase your own ebook income generator package from h4h.biz. The difference is how and how much money is returned to you on your investment.

As a professional packager I am always upgrading my software and skills. Like anyone who wants to earn income, there is a learning curve to the tools of the trade. On the internet, it includes the hardware, software, and skills in their use that determines how well your business performs in your market niche or sub-niche. Although software is a common denominator, how it is used is as different as the people using it.

There are a many good reasons to hire someone else to do a job better, sooner, or just get it done. For example, I am not a bookkeeper but I do have the same software as my bookkeeper. I know enough about using it to generate reports, but the rest I pay her to do. On the other hand, I’m a graphics specialist that uses most of the professional software on a daily basis. I manage my projects by sub-contracting surplus work to freelancers. This enables me to do as much work that comes my way while managing continual development of my business systems.

In my experience it is important to learn as much as you feel comfortable with about the tools of the trade because even if you don’t use them on a daily basis yourself, you place yourself in the position of being a well informed buyer that understands enough of the technical jargon to make an informed purchase.

When I taught at the Pre-Press Institute, I would break the learning curve into lecture, lab, and experience. The lecture was a combination of reading to prepare, then watching and interacting in a demonstration. The lab time was spent learning how to do-it-yourself with immediate feedback to questions as they were asked. I explained experience as the combination of learning to learn, practice without the lab feedback, and on-the-job feedback from colleagues or clients. I have adapted many features of this training model for internet delivery. It is now available by membership to my online project workspace. It is just a few clicks away.

19 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Website!

I think this is a great explanation of why your business needs a website! Read carefully and enjoy.

1. It is the most cost-effective way to advertise.
2. Your customers expect it.
3. You will sell more products and services.
4. You will be able to provide information to your customers more cost effectively.
5. You can receive feedback via your Web site.
6. It is much easier to stay in contact with distributors and sales reps.
7. You can provide better customer service.
8. It's the best way to stay competitive -- considering that most of your rivals already own their own Web sites or are looking into getting one.
9. Your business will grow immediately. Any small, local business has the ability to be an instant international sensation with franchise penetration in every city -- simply by getting an on-line presence.
10. Your business will look more professional.
11. You will gain credibility. A professional, well-designed site makes your business look successful, and builds trust in your company and its products/services.
12. You are open 24/7 without any added overhead and your sales potential may increase exponentially.
13. You have the ability to update sales information in real-time.
14. It is much more convenient for your customers to purchase your goods and services on-line than by physically coming to your location.
15. You can introduce new products to the market faster.
16. You can display your entire inventory without increasing warehousing costs.
17. Update your documents and manuals online in one centralized location.
18. Expose your business to new markets you may not otherwise reach.
19. You can't afford not to. With Internet sales increasing almost 400% in the last six years, it's just good common sense to boost your business onboard the Internet superhighway.

Get $55,336.90 In Your PayPal Account Today!

I thought this video was great! It shows you how to make this amount of money quickly with a few entrepreneurial tips and tricks of online business. Enjoy!