Best Job Today Might Be In The Comfort Of Your Home!

Everyone wants to make money living in the comfort of their home, but the question that seems to come up the most is how do I get started.
While you sit there and ponder about how to get started, many people write now are making a full stream of income on the Internet. So my answer to that question is simple.

Start!!!


Are you tired of waking up for the normal 9-5 job, that you seem to complain about every day when you come home from a hard days of work? Well starting your home business might be the right solution for you. You can work when you want at your own speed.


I’m not saying quit your day job today and dive right in; take your time as a seed and blossom to a beautiful flower. When you become accustom to the whole concept.

Make sure that you get the free business newsletter that is offered; this newsletter will coach you into how to start your online business career. You may not realize it yet, but you are about to begin an exciting new lifestyle.


Opportunity


Freedom was a big part into making my home-based decision. The fact that sitting at home taking care of my online business and all family needs was excellent. Where else can you find that kind of job? Work on your own time, and at your own speed. You control the size of your paychecks.

In fact, you control everything.




Don’t Be Afraid
(Success is Spelled W-O-R-K)

Take the leap of faith and trust your judgment. A home business might be the solution to your work problems. Stay true to your goals and fight for the prize.


Prize

SUCCESS

Search Engine Optimization: Why Is Seo Web Promotion Important?

Search engine optimization is a long term that confused many internet marketers so they usually dismiss it and focus on some other area of internet marketing or the newest fad whether it is blogging, My Space, or podcasting.

While it is good to diversity your marketing efforts and to pay attention to new methods, search engine marketing has been around for a long time and it is not going anywhere. The simple fact is that some estimates report 85 percent of internet users utilize search engines to find what they want on the internet. That is why you cannot ignore search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization gets your site and its contents noticed by the search engines then ranked well for the keywords your target audience uses to search. The more visitors then the higher your revenue. That is a pretty simple formula for success.

So what is search engine optimization? Also known as SEO, search engine optimization simply means including recommended design and content elements to your web site, blog, and/or RSS feed to make it more attractive to search engines.

While the exact formulas that the top search engines use to calculate rankings are usually a closely guarded secret, there are search engine optimization experts who can point out some easy ways to optimize your site. And in fact, this optimization will only take a few minutes of your time and can achieve dramatic results after the next search engine spiders your site.

However before you can really begin to work on SEO then you need to determine the most effective keywords for your target audience. Once you have those keywords then you can incorporate them into your page title, headlines, content, and alt tags.

Search engine optimization is important because it is free, it is easy, it is targeted marketing, and it keeps on working even when you do not. You do not need to constantly monitor or fund SEO campaigns as they are self-sustaining once you set them into motion.

2007 And Content Is Still King

Now that you have created your website, there is still one very important element that has to be added. To put it simply, the visitors to your website are looking for one thing - information. There may be some people on this Information Superhighway that are strictly shoppers. However, for the most part, people are seeking information.

If you happen to be selling a certain product, you need to have content that is relevant to it. You need to concentrate on building a large audience for your articles. This will translate into more sales, which means more profit for you. However, if your content is not written correctly or really has no meaning, then your potential customer will simply try to find another site that meets his or her needs.

If you have a flair for writing, then writing your own content may be something for you to think about. It will definitely save you money but probably not time. It takes time to write a very good and convincing article. If you find that you are not cut out for writing your own content or that you just do not have the time, you may want to think about hiring a freelance writer to work for you. You may also want to think about purchasing speech recognition software. This will greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to complete an article.

You may also want to consider purchasing Private Label Rights' or PLR articles. They can greatly enhance your website with excellent content. You can purchase these articles and then change them around to suit you and put your name to it. This is becoming a very hot selling item today.

You must also know that the content on your website has to be updated on a regular basis. You can write many articles all at once, but you just have to make sure that they are released on a regular basis. No one likes to see a website with stale content.

You must have good content to keep your visitors coming back to your website. Whether you write the content yourself or outsource the task fresh content is very important. As you can see, content is still King!

Top 10 FREE Traffic Generation Tips

The reason that most people fail online is that they simply can not attract enough traffic to their web site and as we all know, No Traffic = No Sales.

So just how can you get more traffic to your web site and how much is it going to cost you? The answer is zero, zilch, nada, nothing, also known as “Free”. So here they are, my Top 10 FREE Traffic Generation Tips:

1. Write and submit articles. Write quality unique new articles, not articles that are rehashed or provide no insight to readers.

2. Write and submit press releases. This is nearly as good as publishing articles.

3. Write and ping blogs. Always link back to your website with your blog posts. Make multiple blogs and have them all link back to one primary site.

4. Make sure that your web site is listed in DMOZ: http://dmoz.org

5. Advertise your web site in the appropriate categories on http://craigslist.org. Post your ads in the largest most populated cities in the world.

6. Use your signature (with your web site URL) in niche related discussion boards and forums that you frequently visit if they allow signatures.

7. Review related products on http://Amazon.com. You can try and direct some customers to your web site from your competitors by providing your own web site URL if the product is similar.

8. Review websites in your niche on http://Alexa.com to try to direct some of their traffic to your web site by including a reference back to your site.

9. Review some related products on http://epinion.com

10. If you buy a product that you actually like, then leave a testimonial (with your web site URL). You should get some traffic from that web site if your testimonial is left with a URL.

These traffic generation tips are provided to you courtesy of John Spohr, M.S.M. of The Wealth Formula and EDC Gold.

Also see “8 Ways to Promote Your Business or Website”.

This upcoming article will additional offer tips on the best way to promote your site free or very inexpensively.

Why Article Marketing Establishes A Continuous Stream Of Prospects And Web Traffic

Writing articles and using them to promote your website is one of the most effective strategies in internet marketing today. Here are the reasons why.

1) You’ll attract visitors immediately

Publishing your articles on websites and directories can instantly attract thousands of visitors to your website. These people click through links in your author signature – the space provided after your article to promote your business. It is not uncommon for articles to exceed one thousand views in one directory alone. When submitted to multiple directories, the result is even more remarkable.

2) You’ll exponentially increase your reach

Submitting your articles to directories and ezine resource sites increases the chances that your article will be reprinted by hundreds of website and ezine owners. Each of these publishers could have audiences of thousands of readers, exposing you to many more people than you would have reached alone.

3) You’ll position yourself as an expert in your field

Writing articles establishes you and your company as knowledgeable about your industry. By educating prospects, you’ll earn their trust as a professional that knows what you’re doing. People buy from people they trust.

4) You’ll improve your search engine position

Search engines such as Google place great importance on the number and quality of links pointing to the websites they list. By creating quality, educational content and syndicating it across hundreds of websites, you’ll notice an improvement in your search engine ranking within weeks of publishing your first articles.

5) You’ll earn long-term traffic

When you run an ad campaign, you only receive visitors during the time your ads are running. By writing and promoting articles, you place permanent links on dozens of websites that will refer visitors to you for years in the future. Article writing is a long-term investment in the success of your company.

Adding Music Adds Flair To Your Myspace Profile

Have you ever visited a MySpace profile where a cool song is playing, and wondered how to do the same with your MySpace profile? The next articles will discuss and also instruct you on how to simply add music to your MySpace profile. You have to be logged into your MySpace account when you are adding music to your MySpace profile. If you forget this, you can only listen and view the artist profiles but cannot add songs to your profile. Therefore, the first thing to remember in adding music to you MySpace profile is to make sure that are really logged on to your account. Once you’re in, you should look for the link marked with “Music”. It is positioned at the top of the profile page of your home page. It’s between the “Videos” and “Comedy” link. Click this link to add music on your MySpace account. After clicking the “Music” link, you will go to a page which allows you to look for a particular band or artist. The page has broad features that will allow you to search by: • band names • band members • musical influences • musical genre • geographical locations It has an “Advanced” search option, but you can also do it in a simple way using keyword terms. After you completed your search, this will produced a list of bands and artist in MySpace profile that matches your criteria. From here, you can rapidly find the band or artist of your choice. Click your chosen link to view their MySpace profile. When your preferred profile loads, a will notice a list of artist’s selected songs. You will have an option to: • listening to the songs • rating the songs • reading the songs lyrics • downloading the songs • adding the songs to your own profile Click the “Add” button next to the song you wish to add to your MySpace profile. A confirmation will be requested then you need to click “Add Son To Profile” if you desire to add to your profile. You’re done! There will be music in the background every time you or anybody visits your profile.

RSS Basics- Basics Of Using RSS

RSS Tips- Important Issues For Setting Up RSS Feeds Here are six tips for creating successful RSS or Rich Site Summary. It is also called Real Simple Syndication. RSS allows internet users to receive current updates from your site without having to log in. Incorporating these tips into your RSS strategy will lead to increased profits now and in the future. 1. Profitable RSS feeds require extensive planning. You will need to plan not just for one feed, but for each feed that follows. Subscribers depend upon you to be consistent with quality information one a regular basis. 2. To consistently produce reliable RSS feeds, it is imperative that your technological assets are suitable for the task. 3. It is imperative that you have constant access to the appropriate technical support systems at all times. Your RSS system needs to be properly maintained in order to assure continuous feed functions. If the RSS feed system goes down, you risk loosing clients. 4. Continuous promotion of your RSS feeds is necessary to sustain success. Placing your feeds in every location possible is sure to increase subscribership and draw readers to your site. Maximizing your coverage is essential to increasing profitable RSS feeds. 5. When developing your RSS feed it is important to consult with the experts. When deciding whom to depend upon, it is necessary to consider their availability as well as their expertise. The most brilliant of experts is of little help to you if their availability is extremely limited; just as the most readily available expert is of little help if they lack the knowledge or ability to consistently meet your needs. 6. While putting your RSS feed into action, it is also necessary to have a plan to assess the success of the program. Because the Internet is a fluid environment, constantly evolving and recreating itself, it is necessary to keep a close watch on your feed and make sure that you are keeping up with the changes.

Using Content To Increase Website Exposure

Numerous websites all over the world depend on their contents to attract attention from their potential customers. However, the process entails a number of key steps to make sure that you succeed in your article marketing: Autoresponders are a nifty tool. It's quite easy for you to download an autoresponder, list your articles there, and thus send copies to your subscribers. Another good idea is to compile all of your articles into a single ebook, so that individuals who would like to read them all can store them in PDAs and read them at their convenience. By giving your articles to valued customers, you can better attract future traffic to your site. Send your article to free article directories, hundreds of which will gladly accept and publish copies for free. Since these directories have many thousands of subscribers, your exposure will be greatly increased. A well-written and informative resource box with a link to your website will make the article better, by making it much easier for interested readers to go directly to your website. That is, after all, the point of this exercise. Ensure that you use research to obtain the most up-to-date information. Use the vast amounts of rare data that can be found on the Internet as references in your articles. To maintain a professional appearance, proofread your articles. Avoid even the smallest of grammar and spelling errors. These errors can easily be avoided by proofreading an article before you submit it. An excellent way to increase traffic to your own website is to network with similar online businesses. Businesses with similar interests as your own may want to use the articles you publish on their sites. While you should avoid businesses that are in direct competition with you, it is worthwhile to contact others by e-mail or by telephone to offer your content. If they publish the articles, the increased web presence generating traffic on your own website.

How To Have A Quick Start In Network Marketing

The first thing that we to understand when starting our own network marketing business is that this is not going to be something that will net us two million dollars in two weeks. We have to treat it like any business and put in both our time and money. With that said, let us look at some ways to explode our business in the shortest time possible and the least amount of dollars spent. The first thing that we need to do is register a domain and forward it to our affiliate site. This will help make our business more professional looking which will help drive more cash into our pockets. This can be done through many sites; just do a search for domains and you will find a ton of companies selling them. I personally use Godaddy for all my domain needs. Then next thing that we can do to explode our business is advertise via signature files. All we need to do is simply search for forums we would like to participate in and set up a signature file (also known as a resource box) with our domain in it. The goal is to add one post everyday to each forum, keeping in mind people only want to read legitimate posts. This may take some time to generate results but it is well worth the effort. The next thing that we need to look at is using pay per click tools such as Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing to drive traffic to our site. This is easy to set up and can bring in a lot of site hits. The biggest thing here is not spending too much for each click. Take a look at what other people are paying for the same type of services and what the return on the investment would be. Finally, another way that we can we can open our business with a bang is through the use of ezines. Ezines are essentially online magazines where you can pay to have an advertisement placed. This is a fairly cheap method of marketing and can generate wonderful results. It’s time to get off to a great start.

PPC Advertising- Considerations Before You Begin With Pay Per Click Advertising

Important Pay Per Click Considerations For Business Promotion Pay Per Click publishing holds unlimited potential for increasing your profits. The format of PPC publishing is quick and simple. However, to use pay per click effectively you need to be aware of several issues. If you fail to plan ahead, you may not only not reach your target goals but you could also waste a great deal of money in the process. There are few key points one must keep in mind in order to reap its maximum benefits. First of all, it is imperative that you have a comprehensive marketing plan and strategy. This will give you a better understanding of your goals and allow you to create the most appropriate plan of action. The plan must encompass all aspects of your project. Second, it is essential that you keep in mind the fast pace of Pay Per Click publishing. It may be in your best interest to engage the services of a professional. Today, there are many people whose focus is exclusively PPC publishing. Their services are usually most equitable. Otherwise you definitely need to educate yourself on pay per click strategies before you start spending money. Another key point to remember is that the fast pace of PPC publishing demands your consistent attention. Close monitoring of your set-up alerts you to potential situations which could require changes to maintain optimum benefit from your project. The quicker you are aware of what is happening, the more quickly you are able to respond. Finally, keep an eye on the other guys. While you do not want to copy their work, you can benefit from their experiences, both good and bad. Not only is it acceptable to adapt successful ideas from others to benefit your own endeavors it is the key to being competitive. It is also prudent to use their misfortunes to prevent your own by making changes to your plans to prevent following in their misfortunes.

The Next Big Thing In Web Development

How To Make Your Site ‘Mobile’ Compatible

According to GSM Association there were over 2.4 billion mobile devices that were Internet compatible circulating the mobile networks by mid 2006. This means that cell phones are in the process of becoming one of the most used ways to not only communicate but to receive information. While sitting in traffic, waiting for the train, or at a meeting, one can check their email, sports stats, stocks, order products, and even get directions to a restaurant in seconds. To top it off, it all comes from your mobile device no bigger than your palm.

How It Came To Be

The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) granted .mobi as the suffix to Web sites designed for mobile phones, PDA’s, Blackberry’s and Sidekicks. Then 13 of the leading mobile and Internet organizations registered with Mobile Top Level Domain (mTLD) to begin access in May 2006. In no particular order five of the leading organizations are: Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Telecom and T-Mobile.

The idea boomed throughout other organizations and by March 2007 the .mobi domain names has increased to 400,000.

Before You Get Started, Keep In Mind

Before you get started keep in mind that these hand-held devices are decreasingly smaller than any PC or Mac screen. Therefore, less information will be available to be read on your mobile device. Web developers must choose and format the most important web information.

Getting Started

Check out the Worldwide Web Consortium’s Mobile Web Initiative and its “Mobile Web Best Practices” document. Additionally if you have compatible mobile phone contact your service provider find out how their .mobi site works.

Once you’re ready to test your mobile site try it out for analysis at http://ready.mobi/index.html

This is a great, new and exciting way to stay ahead of your competition. Open up to the new technologies of tomorrow for better business success.

Automatic Responder- The Power Of Autoresponders

An individual business owner and trying your best to get by in the e-commerce world? Surely you get tired of answering the same repetitive questions every day, but you must remember that customer service is a key factor of running a successful business. If you have a designated e-mail address to answer customer service inquiries, you might want to look into autoresponders as a tool to make your life easier, or even replace an employee!

Autoresponders are one of the most underused and useful technologies available to business owners today. They can be used for everything from automated replies to common questions to a carefully scripted series of sales letters to your customer base for an ongoing stream of income. The power of this technology can turn the corner for a business looking for profit.

Autoresponders are so economical, you might think to yourself, “Why didn’t I do this earlier?” Just as any other software or computer application, there are free and cheap ways of getting by. Autoresponders are great for answering frequently asked questions, and advertising. What’s better than free or cheap advertising? Nothing… A few ways that an autoresponder will positively revolutionize your business:

1. You can distribute what’s known as a newsletter or e-article to all of your customers. This can include specials, news, and other positive things to keep your customers coming back.

2. Update your customers with information which other business don’t do, and make your business-customer relationship feel more personal.

3. You can distribute your mass e-mails to clients with autoresponders, vs. sending e-mails one by one.

4. Update clients with information on new products that you have when they have completed their courses.

5. Have fun with your customers! Create contests, and even interactive games like puzzles. Make an incentive like a discount on their next purchase.

Rethinking Website Content: Content That Entertains

In case you've missed it, the Web has changed; it seems like just yesterday it was good enough to take all your brochures and advertising collaterals and convert them to digital format, add a little search engine optimization, throw-in a little PHP programming and bingo, you've got a website. And if you wanted to show how cutting edge your company was, maybe you'd add a little dash of Flash animation, or some royalty free music. Well here's a bulletin from the frontlines, that isn't going to cut-it in the new multimedia Web-business environment.

Almost daily I receive emails from people asking me to review their websites and tell them why they can't convert visitors to customers even when they are attracting significant numbers of visitors on a regular basis to their sites.

The answer is both simple and complex: simple, because these websites fail to communicate the company's message in a meaningful manner to their visitors, which means no dialog is opened, and without a dialog, no business can be done; and complex, because the implementation of the solution requires a new way of thinking about communicating with your audience using sophisticated presentation techniques that put a higher premium on creativity than they do on facts, figures and old-school direct marketing tactics.

If you are looking for a mantra to begin any new website initiative or to correct an existing website disaster: Think Audience Not Customers.

New Words For A New Web-Business Environment

In the past while I've run across three newly coined words or phrases (Communitainment, Branded Entertainment, and Snack-o-tainment) that attempt to capture the fundamental change that has taken place among Web-user expectations.

All of the new terms have two things in common: one, they require the marketer to think of website visitors as an audience and not as customers; and two, they all require the marketer to use entertainment techniques as the basis for delivering content.

Communication + Entertainment + Community

The Piper Jaffray Internet Media and Marketing research team recently released a report entitled 'The User Revolution' in which Safa Rashtchy coined the concept of 'Communitainment,' a blending of the words communication and entertainment. Rashtchy uses the term to denote the "melding of communication, community, and entertainment," as a new formula for implementing the delivery of marketing content.

The report points out that "Video ads will be the driver of the next major growth in brand advertising …" with the Web being "the leading medium at work and the second leading medium at home behind television."

For any business that thought they could conduct business as usual, this should be a wake-up call. The Web has changed: the market is no longer content to be informed, they must be seduced, and you are not going to seduce them with key-word density and biz-speak.

Contrary to popular belief you can deliver a marketing message faster, more powerfully, and with better recall using creative video presentations than you can with a page of text. Now no one is saying you shouldn't have text on your site, but your copy better be damn interesting and well written if you expect anyone to actually read it.

Meaning + Sharing + Experience

The idea of 'Communitainment' provides a conceptual framework for creating Web-video presentations that work: your business communication must convey meaning through a focused presentation that uses all the various techniques available to the savvy Web-producer; your audience must see enough value in the presentation that they are willing to contact others in their colleague-community and share it; and lastly, the delivery of the message must create a memorable entertaining experience associated with the product or service provided.

Branded Entertainment

Leta Baker writes in her 'Adobe Magazine' article 'Creative Persuasion: The Rise of Branded Entertainment' about her concept of using entertaining online video presentations as a means of effectively creating brand awareness.

What Baker is talking about is video that doesn't hit you over the head with a hard-sell sales pitch or bore you to death with meaningless platitudes, but rather presents entertaining short programs that companies can attach their brand to so viewers gain a memorable positive impression of your company. This is a long-term strategy that takes into account the reality that not every genuine prospect that comes to your website is ready to buy your product at that moment but might, when and if they remember who you are, when they are ready to buy.

There are many ways to implement this 'branded entertainment' concept and they all don't have to be completely devoid of salesmanship. The Apple iPod commercials are an example of what I would call 'branded entertainment,' even if Leta Baker would object. Unlike most commercials that people race to avoid, the iPod commercials are actually anticipated: people want to know what Apple is going to come up with next, and the result: iPod has the lion's share of the MP3 player market.

The Apple Macintosh commercials are another form of 'branded entertainment' that involves a sales pitch. Here we have an ongoing campaign with well-developed characters that the audience has gotten to know over the length of the campaign. The audience looks forward to what these characters are going to do next. This does not mean that every PC owner is going to run out and buy a Mac, but over time Apple is getting people to recognize their product as an alternative.

Because the commercials are entertaining, people are listening and waiting for the next installment of the campaign. Audiences are getting the message and that is all any good marketing campaign can achieve.

And here is the big hurdle for many small businesses: good marketing requires patience and should be aimed at opening a dialog, not just making a quick sale.

Most website sales pitches are like bad 'pick-up' lines: crude and ineffective; an audience needs to be wooed with tender loving care before you can expect to see any results. If you're not willing to invest the time and creativity in opening a dialog with your audience, you can forget about using the Internet as a marketing tool.

Snack-o-tainment: Fast Food Entertainment

The term 'Snack-o-tainment' was used by Nancy Miller in her 'Wired' magazine article 'Manifesto for a New Age" in which she equates consumption of new media to societies addiction to fast food. If the audience is addicted to entertaining media, we as marketers must feed that addiction.

It wasn't that long ago that the biggest objection to online video was it took too long to load; now we see it compared to fast food. The fact is video can deliver a meaningful message in the quickest possible way because it conveys content using the full arsenal of communication tools.

We can look to television for a blueprint of how to deliver these bite-sized morsels of corporately nutritious, entertaining, marketing manna.

The thirty-second commercial is an example of just how much memorable content can be crammed into a short period of time if a little entertaining creativity is added to the mix. And unlike television, there is no costly premium associated with time on the Internet, so content can be as long or short as the message requires.

A campaign based on this formula can come complete with plot-lines, character development, and signature music all designed to deliver your marketing message in an entertaining way that will not only get stuck in your audience's memory, but will be anticipated by that same audience. The famous 'Taster's Choice' soap opera style campaign of years ago was one of the best examples of combining entertainment with a commercial message.

Even the lowly jingle can be resurrected to provide some 'sit-up and take notice' to an otherwise mundane presentation. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't know the recipe for MacDonald's Big Mac, based on their fabulously successful commercials, even though they haven't been aired in years. In fact MacDonald's current roster of commercials are so forgettable that you wonder why they haven't brought the old standby back to life.

Another bit of delicious marketing entertainment was the series of Chili's Restaurant commercials featuring various singers interpreting their 'Baby Back Ribs' jingle, which provided far more entertainment in thirty seconds than a full CD of Britney Spears. More importantly that infectious 'baby back ribs' song has become deeply rooted in the public's subconscious, and when the inevitable questions comes up, 'where are we going to eat?' that jingle starts playing in our heads. If you want to be successful, learn from what works.

Can You Afford To Wait

If your business is expanding as fast as it can with an ever-growing list of customers and continuously increasing profits, then perhaps you can afford to ignore the changes taking place, and the expectations of your audience. But if things could be better, and if you yearn to improve your Web-marketing, then you have to adjust to new ways of delivering content.

You can't let out-dated thinking get in your way. There is a difference between twenty year's experience, and one year's experience repeated twenty times. There is no point in continuing to repeat old methods that no longer work.

You know things have changed so get ready to deliver your content in a way that will allow your company to become the next great Web success story.

Internet Merchant Certifications For Small And Home Based Businesses

How do you distinguish your website from all the other ones out there? And how do you get your customers to believe that you operate a serious business where they can feel comfortable shopping? Well the standard is increasingly turning to various forms of merchant certifications and seals of approvals for websites. But which one is right for you?

There are plenty of organizations out there that offer all kinds of certifications. Most of them are however very expensive or they only certify security of transactions or verify actual incorporation. In other words for most home based or new businesses there are not a lot of certification options out there. There are some exceptions of services though that focuses on giving a Seal of Approval to websites based on a good service history and other qualifications geared to the small and home based internet business rather than the large corporation.

An example of this type of certification is IBCIM.ORG, The International Bureau of Certified Internet Merchants. They operate the Merchant Certified Seal of Approval program where internet businesses from any country or industry can obtain a Seal of Approval to display on their website. The Seal is linked to an Instant Verification Page where the website’s customers can instantly go and verify membership and the certification status of the business. A seal such as this one is a powerful tool to enable businesses to compete online.

The bottom line for small businesses is to find way to stand out from the crowd and initiate that first sale which is precious when you are starting out. And the only way to do that is to make sure that your visitor is comfortable shopping on our site. In other words they have to trust you.

To learn more about an internet merchant certification visit www.ibcim.org.

Are They Wearing White Hats?

Time was when you could tell the good guys from the bad just by taking note of the color of the hat that they wore in the movies. A white one always meant that they were good and could be trusted to do the right and honorable thing.

Those who were in black hats were the bad guys and were to be avoided like the plague. They could not be trusted. They were always the villians who did all of the bad things.

You can't really tell the good guys from the bad online today by just viewing a website or reading an email. If you do business with the bad guys, you are unlikely to know that there is a problem until it is too late.

Fortunately, I have had very few negative experiences online which kind of reinforces my personal philosophy that most people online or off are going to do the right thing and can be trusted.

Still, we all need to keep our guard up when surfing around the internet.

How can you identify the good guys and bad guys these days? Well here are a few suggestions that may help you avoid some problems.

1) Have you done business with them before?
2) Do they have a virtual domain name or a freebie site?
3) How long have they been online?

A quick check at:

networksolutions.com/whois Can provide you with lots of information the holder of the domain name including how long it has been registered and contact info.

4) Do they provide good, complete contact information? A phone number & email address is a minimum here. A physical mailing address is even better.

This is certainly not a complete list of things to check out about a business site online, but it will give you a good starting place.

Hopefully, it will save you some time, money and other problems when trying to determine which ones are wearing the white hats?

(This article may be reprinted in your publication or posted to your site by including the resource box below)

How Often Should You Contact Your List?

One question that people have once they have a list whether that be past customers, newsletter subscribers, or leads is how often they should be contacting them.

There’s really no hard and fast answer to this question, but I can tell you that most people are so afraid of contacting their subscribers too often and annoying them that their err on the side of caution and don’t contact their people often enough.

You need to remember that if you’re not constantly reminding people that you’re still there, that someone else will, and that person will likely forget about you.

For example, if you’re not contacting your subscribers at least once a month, you’re just not contacting your customers often enough. A lot of people think that contacting subscribers everyday is way too often, but there are certainly areas where it works. I am on a list right now where every weekday I’m sent a short little email, and I read it everyday. However, these aren’t marketing and sales pitches, but rather little motivational blurbs – they’re short and take me less than a minute to read.

A good rule of thumb that works for a lot of people is to contact your subscribers once every 2-5 days. That’s often enough that they’ll remember who you are but not so often that they’re going to think they’re being bombarded with messages. Feel free to play around with this number and see what works best for you and your subscribers.

Also remember that not every contact that you make with your customers needs to be an advertisement for something. While sending free content to your subscribers or past customers may seem like a bad financial move, it can be a way to build up good will with your past customers or current subscribers, and when it comes time to buy, they’re going to remember you, and will be far more likely to do business with you.

Business Domain Name Success - Choosing A Domain Name

Choosing a business domain name can be one of the most important decisions you make. You can even sell domain names if you buy them as an investment.

Domain names are important to all businesses. Why? It’s as important to any e-commerce business as it is to a retail business. Your name means a lot, and you want something to stick when people hear it. If your domain name is concise, you are more likely to sell it for more, and profit more than long ones.

There are more ways to earn more with the sale of domain names, doesn’t that make you happy? Many people have made fortunes with the sale of domain names, and you can too! Many people like you and me have bought popular domain names as soon as the original owner forgets to renew it. If you buy a domain name, and the owner wants it back, you can ask for whatever price you want! You can easily make money if you’re smart about your domain buying.

There are tons of domain investors who check the availability of domain names. Many can sell these domain names and even lease the domain names so they can earn extra money. If you ever tried to find that perfect domain name for your business then you know it can be expensive if someone else already owns it for an investment.

You can also buy domain names that are generic, then sell the domain name to people in the industry involved with that name. For example, you can buy http://www.hamburger.com, and sell it to http://www.McDonalds.com. Why is that? Because McDonalds might want to take the traffic from http://hamburger.com, and use it to their advantage! Of course something like that example is long gone, but there are always other opportunities on a smaller scale. Just like any other business, making money in this is going to take practice, trial, and error. Nothing is easy, so if you make mistakes or lose money in the beginning, don’t give up!

Countless "Biz Ops" Everywhere, Are They All Scams?

For months, I have been researching numerous biz ops, ebooks, schemes, network marketing websites as well as just about every other thing you can think of that is in any way related to making a decent income on the internet. Wherever you look, there is somebody else promising to give you "the secret" for making a fortune online. With countless people calling themselves gurus, who can tell which ones are for real? One good rule of thumb is to always diligently study every opportunity that you run into before making a commitment.

I like to "Google" a brief descriptive phrase in quotation marks about whatever offer I'm researching followed by the word fraud or scam and see if there's a lot of negative feedback in the results pages. There'll always be some angry customers, but I measure the positive versus the negative and come to my own conclusion. As you've heard before, if it sounds too good to be true, it ALWAYS is! Don't be tempted to buy into some "turnkey system" or "cash machine".

If you are looking for some way to make a living online, you'll find more of these types of "products" than anything else. I have looked into COUNTLESS offerings and the vast majority are based on the same lie. That you can get rich quickly with little or no effort.

Believe me, it ain't gonna happen. What most newbies need most is a DETAILED "road map" on WHAT needs to be done, HOW to get started and IN WHAT ORDER to take on each task. What's wrong with most how-to products is that they lack enough detail or are not geared for those just starting out, or both. The best advice is to meticulously choose a well known marketing course and then get ready to APPLY what you've learned. There really aren't any substantial shortcuts, but education plus work and a little time will result in success.

About Getting Started In Online Business

Beginning a business which operates over the Internet or on-line will require you think carefully about everything which is involved. Not only do you have to spend money for startup costs, you also need to carefully think about what you want to accomplish, what you are going to do, and what alternatives you need to consider in case some of the things you have planned don't work out. This is where others who have tried to set up internet businesses have utterly failed; you need to think differently. Consider the following suggestions.

You need to be clear exactly what your online company is going to sell and how you intend to sell it. First, is your business offering services or products? Once you have answered this question, your business now has a sense of direction, which you can refine with further plans on how to develop your company and make it profitable in the long run.

Determine who your targeted clients will be. This is one crucial stage in your online business because you need to clearly identify your targeted clients first before you can begin to develop your marketing plan and the strategies you are going to use in the implementation of your marketing plan. Miss this step at your own peril.

Preparing your marketing plans is critical in selling your goods or services. Without any marketing, your items will remain unknown and useless. To create your online business, you need to market your goods or services to the customers who will want or need them and make it known to them. By doing this you will create an effective marketing strategy. You'll know who your customers are and where they will likely be, and be able to market your goods and services to them, by making it appealing to them. These are the basis of creating your online business.

8 Ways To Promote Your Business Or Website

The top 8 ways to promote your website free or at next to no cost:

1. Post links on other web sites. In addition to trading links, you can also trade banner ads.

2. Include your web site URL in your e-zine. When people read each issue you can remind them to visit your web site.

3. Share your web site on message boards, e-mail discussion lists and chat rooms. When people know about your web site, they will regularly and search and look for new products to buy.

4. Write articles and submit them to e-zines, web sites and magazines that accept article submissions. Include your web site address at the end of the article.

5. Give away an electronic freebie with your web site address in it. Allow your friends to also give the freebie away. This will help increase your web site's exposure.

6. Participate in message boards and forums. Post answers to other people's questions, ask questions and post appropriate information. Include a predefined signature file (with your web site URL) at the end of all your postings.

7. Post your ad on free advertising sites. You can post it on free classified ad sites, free for all link sites, newsgroups that allow ads, free yellow page directories, and more...

8. Include your web site address in your email signature. You may be sending a lot of emails already each day, so take a minute and add your web site address to your signature file so people know about your web site.

Also see “EDC Gold and How to Make Money Online”

If you are looking to join the EDC Gold or Easy Daily Cash program, read this valuable article first! To succeed in any business opportunity you need a mentor - someone that is willing to take the time out of his or her life, and John can help you.