Starting an Online Business from Scratch
Copyright 2005 Elisha Burke
Making a living online is not a difficult process for someone with drive and determination. It involves developing a strategy and sticking to it. There are many options available for you to make a living online. These include promoting and selling your own product or promoting and selling someone else's product as an affiliate.
Products
If you are creative enough, you can design and create a product that you can re-sell. This can be quite beneficial to you and is great way to make a living online. If you are planning on going this route, there are many things to consider. The product you choose to create yourself should really appeal to others and be able to be sold easily. You should offer a competitive price for it and know how much profit you will make on it. It is really important to have a good business.
Business Plan
If you have never done a business plan you may need to seek assistance. Free assistance may be availabe in your areas through your local Chamber of Commerce, Business Development Center or the Small Business Administration (SBA). You can also find many books on this in your local library. Search online under 'business plan software' and you will find many software packages designed to walk you through the entire business planning process.
Affiliate Marketing
However, if you would like to sell someone else's product, there are so many to choose from. Find a product in an area that you would like to promote and sell. But before you commit to any product, it is a good idea to review the company's product on how you will be paid and when. These are important things to know when you are trying to make a living online.
Create A Website
If you are new to selling online, you will have to create a website. Creating a website can be an easy or stressful process depending on your knowledge of computers and computer software. Popular computer software for creating a website include Microsoft FrontPage and Dreamweaver. There is also specialty software you can get as well. If you are not familiar with these programs, or with creating a website, there are many companies you can hire to do this job for you. If find a company that can provide design and web hosting, this is a real bonus. Before signing up with any company, be certain to check out the company's portfolio as well as inquire about "down time" Take the time to compare the many web hosting companies as many of them are not reliable and others are not suitable for online businesses.
Promote, Promote, and then Promote some more...
After you have chosen a product to sell and created a website, it is now time to promote this website. Promotion and marketing is key to you making money. Especially if you are just starting out, you should make every effort to promote and market your website whenever and to whomever you can. The more traffic you drive to it, the more money you'll make!
There are many resources available online (many of them free) to help you promote your online business. Do research and find out which sites are really making money. Follow the lead of the experts or gurus who have many products to explain online marketing step-by-step. It is best to spend some money and take the time to learn the ins and outs of online selling at the outset of your business. You will be glad you did when the profits start rolling in.
About the Author
Dr. J. Elisha Burke, an educator and entrepreneur, has been involved in various business enterprises via Burke Publications. He is an educator, writer and motivational speaker on a variety of topics. Many resources to get your business from idea to profit can be found at Burke Publications websites: http://burkepublications.com
Marketing your Online Business Effective Search Engine Optimization
Copyright 2005 Jon Peckham
It is a fact that few web search surfers will click beyond the first two to three pages of search results looking for what they need. If they do not find it within the first few pages of search results they will either search again using a different search engine or they will search on slightly different search terms.
The goal of search engine optimization is about creating a web site that reaches the first page of the search results for the particular keywords or keyword phrases you are targeting. Search engine optimization or SEO is becoming more and more important as the competition increases for top placement among on the search engines. Hundreds, if not thousands, of new web sites are being added to the World Wide Web on a daily basis and they are all competing for top placement.
Search engine optimization does not have to be complicated or elusive. In fact, you are probably better off staying away from some of the more questionable search engine optimization strategies and sticking to the basics. The foundation of basic search engine optimization is to weave relevant keywords into your web site throughout your internal and external links, the URL addresses of each individual page, and most importantly, content.
You can significantly increase the effectiveness of your search engine optimization efforts by carefully choosing the right keywords.
The most important part of search engine optimization is choosing the right keywords and keyword phrases to use in optimizing your web site. You need to know what keywords web search surfers are searching for when searching for your products or services. Once you have a list of popular search terms you then need to determine how much competition there is for each particular term and possible choose keywords where you have a realistic chance of being competitive.
For example, let us assume your keyword is "search engine optimization" You may find that this term is very competitive. In fact, at the time of this article, there were 83,600,000 search results returned on a search using "search engine optimization." While you certainly want to optimize your site for this keyword you should also seek less competitive keywords. For example, at the time of this article, if you were you to search Google on the phrase "search engine optimization strategies" you would return approximately 29,600,000 results. This is certainly going to be less competitive. There are likely going to be hundreds more keyword alternatives using the phrase search engine optimization. The question you may have is how do you do research on what keyword phrases are best to use.
There are some good tools available on the Internet for doing keyword research for your search engine optimization purposes.
Yahoo Search Marketing is an excellent tool that is available for free. This particular search engine optimization tool s located at the following URL address.
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srch/index.php
To get started simply go to the box near the middle of the page and Enter a keyword to see how many searches were done on that keyword within the last month. Not only will you receive the number of searches for that particular search term but also all of the possible alternatives. Simply by paying attention to the number of searches done on a particular term you can have a pretty good idea of what kind of competition exists for each term. It is generally a good idea to target keywords or keyword phrases that have less than 50,000 searches.
Another excellent tool for doing keyword research is available at Wordtracker.com Wordtracker is not free but is probably one of the best keyword analysis tools available on the Internet. If you are serious about search engine optimization you will want to check out Wordtracker.
Choosing the right keywords is the foundation of effective search engine optimization and will be the key to getting your site to the top.
How To Get Free Website Traffic
Copyright 2005 East Tech LLC
A free traffic exchange is one of the best ways for webmasters to get free website traffic to their sites or affiliate marketing campaigns. Free Traffic Exchanges allow you to surf other members websites, and for each viewing, you get so many of your own URLs and banners added into the rotation for other members to view. There are hundreds, if not thousands of free traffic exchanges online today, and each traffic exchange has thousands of members surfing each and every day. That's a lot of potential traffic you can get for little or no cost for your advertising efforts. All you need to do is spend some time surfing the exchanges to get credits for your websites to be viewed by thousands of potential customers.
You do need to find which traffic exchanges work best for your website and/or promotions. No two free traffic exchanges are created equal and the most active ones are not necessarily the best ones for your needs.
Free traffic exchanges are a great marketing tool for a variety of reasons. The most obvious reason is that you get lots of people looking, and hopefully clicking on your website or promotional pages. But there are hidden benefits to free traffic exchanges you may not have even considered.
Search engines love free traffic exchanges because of all the incoming and outgoing links they generate. Plus the rapidly changing content is another reason the search bots love these things. Exchanges that have more content also generate a higher page rank, and therefore more traffic, and increased memberships. The key is to find exchanges that are very active and have lots of members. The more members they have, the more potential customers you get looking at your offer and your chances for sales conversions are that much better. But bigger isn't always better.
Some free traffic exchanges may convert sales like crazy for one person, and be a complete waste of time for another. If everyone promoted the same website or affiliate program in the same traffic exchange for example, then your chances of making sales would not be very good. Even if you were promoting the #1 best product or service on the internet, the fact is if everyone promoted the same program, your chances are much lower that someone will purchase through your website or link to make you any money. Also, when people see the same ad over and over again, they get desensitized to it. Don't fall into this trap. It's one thing to try and sell a very popular product/service/ebook etc, but it's another thing when a thousands of other people are doing the same thing. Competition is a good thing, because it validates your market, but too much competition is tough and it's time to move on to something else.
We all know clicking on ads in a free traffic exchange can be very boring, monotonous and can take a lot of time. That's why you need to make the best of your opportunity or you will just be wasting a lot of your time and effort on something that just isn't working. If you have your own niche website, then you already differentiated yourself from the pack. If you are an affiliate marketer, then you need to find products/services that everyone else isn't promoting, especially within that particular traffic exchange.
One way to use free traffic exchanges to your advantage is to join a few at first, and see if your sales pick up. If your sales aren't doing well, then test out a few more. When you do find a few traffic exchanges that appear to be generating sales for you, then narrow those down until you find the one, or two that are working best for you. Now concentrate your efforts on those because they're the ones you want. At least for now anyway. Things may change, so keep an eye on your campaigns and if sales seem to be falling off, then it might be time to change your offer or find another traffic exchange that could pick your profits up again.
As I mentioned, your individual promotions are key to your success. If you're trying to promote something everyone else is, I don't care what traffic exchange service you're using, your sales conversions are going to be very low, or nothing at all. You cannot always blame the exchange. Sometimes you have to look at yourself and think if you're doing all you can to make sales. The same goes for any advertising methods such as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) services like Google AdWords.
If you're going to be using multiple free traffic exchanges, and I recommend that you do, your first priority should be to pick up a multi-tab web browser. Many of these browsers are free and run on PCs and MACs. The tabs feature allows you to have one web browser open with multiple tabs each going to a separate website. You could easily put a half dozen of your free exchange sites in these tabs, and earn credits for all of them at the same time. So instead of surfing for 1/2 an hour or an hour earning 200 hits for one exchange, you could earn 200 hits for 5 or 6 exchanges in the same amount of time. This is a huge time saver and multiplies your earned hits by 5X or 6X and increase your sales conversions.
Getting free traffic to your website is a lot of work. If you don't have the money to spend on full blown PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns like Google AdWords, free traffic exchanges are a great way to get the free website traffic you need.
About the Author
Andrew Daigle is owner and creator of TrumpTraffic.com, a Free Traffic Exchange http://www.trumptraffic.com , Free DXInOne E-Currency Exchange Training Site and Forum http://www.dxout.com and Free Google AdWords Training http://www.adwording.com
Ways to Earn Income Using Email
Copyright 2005 Chris Stirling
It's all too easy to get distracted when running your business and forget to do those basic things that create real results for your online home based business.
Before you lose track of where you are headed take the time to focus your marketing plan and ensure that you are using every tool to it's maximum advantage.
One of those tools, perhaps the most powerful, is of course, email.
Here is a short checklist to help you take full advantage of the power of email and, by so doing, making time your ally, not your adversary.
Fast, easy, and free, the consistent use of email in the follow six areas will yield powerful results for you.
1. CUSTOMER LEARNING
Do you offer a product that takes a bit of learning to use? Teach your customers how to get the benefits they deserve from your product or service via email.
Keep messages on topic and separate your follow up series into bite-size learning pieces. These follow up messages can bring your refund rate to near zero ... a good thing indeed.
2. SPECIAL PRICING AND OFFERS
Use email to deliver insider information on special bargains, limited time pricing, and more. Much like a coupon sheet in your local newspaper, selling advertising in this type of email is a breeze.
3. PRE-SALES SERIES
Most people never buy the first thing they see? Do you? Comparison shopping is the way of the Internet, and getting prospective customers to return to your site is the challenge.
A pre-sale series is the answer!
This is actually very easy to do. Just write down the top ten reasons why someone should buy from you, then put each in a follow up message. Send one a day until they are all delivered.
Offer the series to everyone who visits your site and let time do the selling work for you!
4. HARD TO FIND NEWS
Want to know THE secret to building a loyal mailing list? Give the people what they want!
People love offbeat news, especially when it has a connection to their lives. If you provide this you will get people to subscribe to your newsletter. Then let the autoresponder do the selling.
5. CUSTOMER FOLLOW UP
When someone does make a purchase from your business set up a follow up system. You know these customers like your product so they are more likely to purchase again from you.
Whether it's a simple as a one-time 'thank you' or as elaborate as a 50 message follow up system, customers love to know you care. At a minimum, send one message thanking customers for every order.
This just scratches the surface of ways to use email to increase your home based business online income. Email is everywhere and tremendously effective. Be creative and use email to take your business to the next level, I am sure you will see increased results with less effort!
And THAT is a beautiful thing!
About the Author
Chris Stirling's website is geared for people who are interested in finding an online work at home opportunity or starting a low cost or free Home Based Business. If you would like to learn more visit his website at: http://www.stirls.com
For his Top Picks Home Business Newsletter visit
http://www.stirls.com/bizopps-newsletter.htm
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