How to Choose Affiliate Programs

One of the easiest and most lucrative ways of making money online is to promote other peoples products by becoming their affiliates. The word affiliate is defined as a website that directs traffic to another website in exchange for a pre-determined fee. Most successful online merchants use affiliate programs to promote their sites.

Affiliate programs can be very profitable, but you must be careful, as there are a lot of scams. Considering the overwhelming number of affiliate programs available (just do an online search for *affiliate programs*), how can you choose legitimate ones that will work for you?

If you set some basic criteria, it will make it easier to find programs that suit your needs. Some helpful tips for setting those criteria are listed below.

COST FOR JOINING: Any affiliate program that you are interested in joining should have no start up fee. There are thousands of affiliate programs out there to choose from that are free.

COMMISSION PERCENTAGE: The affiliate program should have a generous payment structure, no less than 25% commission. Since you are doing the hard work of promoting someone elses product, your commission should be a substantial one.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT: You must feel comfortable and satisfied with the service and support you get from the program. A high-quality affiliate program appreciates its affiliates and the importance of its customers. Since you are sending prospective buyers to their site, you should be particular about the quality of their customer service.

TRACKING SYSTEM: Make sure you can access your sales statistics and are comfortable with the information presented. The system that is used should be well organized and provide up-to-the-minute tracking information.

BELIEVE IN THE PRODUCT: One of the fundamental rules of selling is that you must have confidence in the product you are selling. Do not waste your time trying to promote something that you are not interested in or have no knowledge of.

PRODUCT RELEVANCE: Before you join an affiliate program, identify who your customers are and what products they might buy. Once you identify your niche market, it will be much easier to find products and services to match it. For instance, if your site is all about arts and crafts, you should promote products and services related to arts and crafts.

When you have chosen the affiliate program you want to join, go to their website and fill out the online application to become a member. The application will ask you for personal information (name, address, phone, email address, payment method, etc.). It will also ask you for information about your website (URL, site name, description of content, etc.). Additionally, there will be a service agreement that you must agree to.

Once the affiliate network approves your application, you can start choosing the programs that you are interested in. After you have made your choices, the merchants in charge of the programs will review your site. If your site is approved, you will be shown how to post the appropriate links.

Once this is all set up, you can get to work on setting up your site, marketing it, and waiting for the money to come in. Remember, the key to start actually making money from your affiliate programs is to promote, promote, promote!

Chris Chenoweth writes articles pertaining to health and nutrition, budgeting, and online business. If you would like additional information on making money as an affiliate, the revolutionary new program, MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME, shows you how to start earning thousands of dollars from affiliate programs: http://www.ezniche.com/data/article.php?l=175Marielle Blog56652
Muriel Blog40030

Does Bad Credit Hinder Your Business? Small Business Loans Can Help

If at any point of time, your business requires more funds or you want to start a new business but unable to do so because of your bad credit records, you are definitely in need of a bad credit small business loan.

A bad credit record includes cases of County Court Judgments, arrears, defaults, bankruptcy etc., which hampers your business and results in poor credit score. In this case it becomes difficult to get a loan. But in these hard times, there are lenders available who are ready to offer bad credit business loans.

When your credit account is not so impressive and you find borrowing loan difficult, you can apply for a bad credit small business loan to get a suitable amount of loan that you can easily repay and run your business well. Bad credit business loans provide you with small funds that you need for your business. Borrowing a small amount of money will help you repay it easily and also improve your credit history for future borrowings.

Bad credit small loans business fulfills your every requirement that you will expect from any other loan. The major advantage of this loan is that it is available to bad credit holders with the interest rate that will go with their financial conditions. The repayment period is also very easy and flexible. You also have the option to choose the repayment on your own and according to your convenience. The average bad credit business loan lasts for 5 to 30 years.

People with bad credit can avail small business loans for their various business purposes. They can borrow loans for starting a new business, purchasing of business assets, making payments to the creditors etc.

You can avail bad credit small business loans in both secured and unsecured forms. If you wish to take a secured loan, you will have to put collateral as a security against the loan amount. The advantage with this loan is that here lenders feel themselves secured that their money wont be at risk. So they will offer you more money than an unsecured loan where you might not get as much amount as in secured loan. But if you take an unsecured loan, you will be free from any collateral or security.

Before signing the loan agreement, it is always beneficial to have prior knowledge about the loan as well as the lender you have chosen. This you can do easily by simply surfing the net and going through the rates and terms and conditions of different lenders. After a sharp comparison of rates, you will find a lender that will suit you from both financial and personal conditions.

Now you can run your business without any hurdle. Bad credit small loans will help your business flourish and form a strong financial ground.

Tim Kelly is an expert in finance having completed his LLM in Finance (Master of Laws in Finance) from Institute for Law and Finance at Frankfurt University.He is currently working with Bad Debt Business Loans as a financial advisor.To find bad debt business loans,small business loans, online business loans, bad credit business loans, secured business loans that best suits your need visit http://www.baddebtbusinessloans.co.ukMarlyn Blog90579
Melania Blog51825

Introduction to Affiliate Marketing - Part 1/2

This is Part 1 of 2

Affiliate Program History

Invented by CDNow.com at the end of 1994 and pioneered by Amazon.com in 1996, "affiliate programs", also known as Associate Programs or Partner Programs, are a simple way for Web sites to generate revenue by directing traffic toward other sites and a great way for the operating site to increase its traffic and revenue.

Because affiliate programs are so convenient and work so well, they have become the industry's dominant method of online Marketing.

There are 4 different kinds of affiliate programs to compensate "Affiliates" (or referring sites) for generating traffic to the Affiliate Program operating Website: Pay-Per-Impression, Pay-Per-Click, Pay-Per-Lead and Pay-Per-Sale.

Pay-Per-Impression (CPM)

Cost-Per-Mil (Mil = 1000) Impressions. Publisher gets from Advertiser $x.xx Amount of money for every 1000 Impressions (Page Views/Displays) of the Ad. The Ad can be Text (AdSense), Banner Image or Rich Media.

The Pay-Per-Impression and Pay-Per-Click Model are not common to be used in Affiliate Marketing anymore. They were used in the Past, but were mostly abandoned due to Fraud and lack of Results.

The CPM (cost-per-impression) compensation Model was revived by Google for Google AdWords in summer 2005. The feature is called "Site-Targeting" in AdWords and allows you to display your Adsense Ad on a specific Website that runs AdSense Ads.

Pay-Per-Click (CPC) Model

Cost-Per-Click. Advertiser pays Publisher $x.xx amount of money, every time a visitor (potential prospect) clicks on the advertiser's Ad. It is irrelevant (for the compensation) how often an Ad is displayed. Commission is only due when the Ad is clicked.

Like the Pay-per-Impression model was the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Model popular during the dot com boom at the end of the 1990th but was mostly abbandoned by Advertisers for Advertisements on other Websites due to rampart problems with click fraud.

The PPC Model was kept alive by the PPC Search Engine GoTo.com which became later Overture.com and is now owned by Yahoo! and renamed from "Yahoo Sponsored Search" to Yahoo Search Marketing.

Google launched their PPC Service AdWords in 2000. Ask Jeeves, now simply Ask.com followed with their PPC Service in 2005 called Ask Sponsored Listings and MSN.com in 2006 with AdCenter. Other PPC Services are Miva/FindWhat.com and 7Search.com.

Contextual Advertising

The big come-back of PPC came when Google launched AdSense in 2003, the birth of contextual Advertising. What is Google AdSense? Here is a quote from Google's History at Google's corporate Website.

Google AdSense: "... offering web sites of all sizes a way to easily generate revenue through placement of highly targeted ads adjacent to their content. Google AdSense technology analyzes the text on any given page and delivers ads that are appropriate and relevant, increasing the usefulness of the page and the likelihood that those viewing it will actually click on the advertising presented there."

Yahoo's Version of AdSense called Yahoo! Publisher Network was launched (beta) in 2005. Microsoft is also working on their own Version of AdSense which is expected to be launched (beta) in 2006.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Classic PPC Search Engine Marketing (Cost-Per-Click (CPC) advertising) is not Affiliate Marketing. It is an entirely different type of Internet Marketing and only has some technical details in common with old PPC/CPC Affiliate Marketing.

Ads are primarily displayed at the Search Engine Search Results Pages (SERPs) next to organic, free, Search Results. Contextual Advertising introduced with Google AdSense is also not Affiliate Marketing since no direct Partnership between the Advertiser who creates and pays for the Ads and the Publisher who displays the Ads on his Website.

This type of Marketing is generally referred to as Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and is often and wrongly mixed up and confused with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which is about improving the ranking of a Site in the organic, free, SERPs at major Search Engines via technical means and deep understanding of the complicated ranking algorithms used by modern Search Engines.

Pay-Per-Call

This is a new compensation model. No official abbreviation exist yet. Advertiser pays publisher a flat $x.xx amount in commission for phone calls received from potential prospects as response to a specific publisher Ad. Recently developed call-tracking technology allows to create a bridge between online and offline Advertising. Pay-Per-Call Advertising is still new and in it's infancy.

Pay-Per-Call Advertising is neither Search Engine Marketing (SEM) nor Affiliate Marketing. It is expected to become the 4th major type of Internet Marketing next to Affiliate Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization within the next years.

The Affiliate Marketing shifted almost entirely to the Pay-Per-Lead (CPA or CPL) and Pay-Per-Sale Model (CPS) which is also known as Performance Marketing. The paid commission is usually a percentage of the referred sales or a flat dollar amount.

The Pay-Per-Lead (CPA or CPL) Model

Cost-Per-Action or Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA), Cost-per-Lead (CPL). The Advertiser pays the Publisher a flat $x.xx amount in commission if a referred visitor performs a specific action on the Advertisers Site. It could be Actions like filling out a Form, Signing up for a Newsletter or Creating an Account.

The CPA Model is very popular with Online Services like Credit Card Providers, Insurance Services, DVD and Video Game Rental Services and Loans and Mortgages. Due to the usual high flat commission amount is the CPA very attractive for PPC Affiliates that do not have a permanent Website and an established User Base.

Before you consider the CPA Model for you problem, make sure to have mechanisms in place to validate the quality of referred leads. Your program will be vulnerable to become a victim of fraud, affiliates that generate tons of "fake" leads if you do not have anything in place to verify the quality of the produced leads.

The Pay-Per-Sale (CPS) Model

Cost-Per-Sale (CPS). Advertiser pays the publisher a percentage (%) of the Order Amount (Sale) that was created by a customer who was referred by the publisher.

This Model is used by most Online Merchants today.

Here are same basic tips for Advertisers that consider starting an Affiliate Program with CPS Compensation Model:

Do not pay commissions that you end up loosing money on an order. You will gain new customers because of the Affiliate Program, but you will also pay commissions for returning customers.

Shoppers on the internet are more savvy today. Comparison Shopping Sites, Coupon Sites, Cash-Back Shopping and Charity Sites, that make up a large percentage of successful affiliates, are often visited by Shoppers first. See the Affiliate Program also as a Customer Retention Tool.

CPA or CPS?

If your competitors have affiliate programs and you don't, chances are good, that you are loosing a considerable amount of business to them, because the lag of an affiliate program for your site.

If you want to use an Affiliate Program as an Online Merchant for the whole purpose of customer acquisition, consider the CPA Model and pay a flat commission for new customers referrer by affiliates.

Do the math to come up with a Flat Commission that makes it worthwhile for affiliates to promote you. Affiliates are not waiting for you, the next Merchant that has a Program is only one click away.

What you do and what commission you pay is up to you. You can also mix compensation models. The best thing to do is always to check first what your competitors are doing and use their compensation model as reference.

Pay-Per-Sale is by far the most common compensation model. 2/3 to 3/4 of all Affiliate Programs today are Pay-per-Sale Programs. The operating Site only pays "Commission" to their Affiliates for actual Results (a Sale, Sign-up etc.) and not just for promises (Clickthroughs, Banner Impressions).

Carsten Cumbrowski operateds the Internet Marketing and Web Development Resources Portal http://Cumbrowski.com. For Affiliate Marketing Resources visit http://www.cumbrowski.com/CarstenC/affiliatemarketing.asp . If you are new to Affiliate Marketing viist http://www.cumbrowski.com/CarstenC/affiliatemarketing_training-courses.asp first.Marla Blog69452
Mayda Blog59347

Marketing Your First Business Part 2 - Marketing Your Site

Now that you have built your site it is time to market it. However before you do this you will need to collect keywords and key phrases for it.

You can do this by using the free download at http://goodkeywords.com This tool will give you lots of good methods for collecting basic key words and key phrases for your site. For more keywords and phrases including niche ones you can go to http://wordtracker.com there is a nominal subscription fee. Here are a few ways to promote your website:

1. Search engines-this will be your 1st step in promoting your new website. It can take 4-12 weeks to be included in the Search engines so it is best to do this early. You can get pages of your website included sooner in Google by blogging at http://blogger.com and linking back to your website content. Optimize your website or get some help to do this. Use one of your keywords and key phrases and build a page of content around it.

2. Next start a Google Adwords campaign. This is especially useful if you have a niche or specialized market. Read all the information and tutorials that Google has before you make an account. Start with low bids and work up. When done correctly Google Adwords will bring you a good stream of highly targeted visitors. This promotion will bring traffic and often sales within hours to your site.

3. Linking is becoming more important than ever to get a good position in the search engines but there is a right way to do this and a wrong way. Always be sure you are linking to quality relevant sites and never partner with link farms. There are a few different types of linking. These are the most common.

o Exchanging links: Always remember to exchange links with quality websites that are complimentary to your business. o Back links, or sites that are linking in to your website. Encourage others to link to your site by having lots of good content and resources. Do blogs and article distribution to build back links. o Remember to interlink your website pages with anchor links using keywords or phrases.

4. Article distribution. Write or have written articles about your products services and industry and distribute them among online libraries, article banks and publications etc. you can do this manually, which is free but very time consuming. Or by software which will give you a limited range. Or by a good service which will give you more exposure.

This will give you a good start on building and marketing your lead generation site and you will over time gather an increasing number of leads. As you build more traffic to your site and improve your search engine position you will see more leads and gain customers. By this means you will have a solid base to build and develop your business.

Copyright (c) 2006 Christopher T Robinson

Christopher T Robinson is a renowned online marketing author. He is the author of his free ebook "Effectively Marketing Your Home Business 2006", Free Home Business Ebook, and also highly recommends these best selling online tools and software best internet marketing tools http://www.hype-factor.com.Marlee Blog33791
Morgan Blog66645

Can You Really Make Money Using Harvey Segal's Ultimate Super Tip?

This is a review of Harvey Segal's latest ebook, "The Ultimate SuperTip", a copy of which I read recently.

Having read thousands of articles, blogs and ebooks about Internet marketing since first going online in 1997, I've seen and heard it all. But I still keep my eye out for the rare gems that appear every so often. Such a rare gem appeared for me yesterday when I stumbled across "The Ultimate SuperTip". It's changed my marketing approach forever.

The Ultimate SuperTip is free to download and has only 28 pages. However, the content is nothing short of incredible. Yes, all of the accepted best practice elements of Internet marketing are discussed ie, having a product to sell, using an affiliate program, using viral marketing, rebranding downloadable files for affiliates, capturing email addresses, and so on. It's notable however, that Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is not recommended in this model, quite a difference from the usual advice.

As you read the 28 page document, it quickly becomes clear that not only are you reading about a new super model for Internet marketing that promises to increase targeted traffic, increase conversion rates, sales, and income, but that the free ebook is part of the model ... a live demonstration if you will. This is indeed ingenious and is light years ahead of any other model I have read about.

Essentially the model exposed uses article distribution to promote an ebook which promotes products and includes affiliates using copies of the rebranded ebook that are rebranded automatically on download (overcoming the problem of affiliates having to use complex procedures to rebrand manually). And there are a few additional twists that make this model a winner for everyone; original seller, affiliates and buyer alike.

I was surprised to find that I had generated an income stream with a steady trickle within hours of putting into effect Harvey's methodology. I've been selling online for years and haven't experienced this type of "speed" before. The truth is, you can make money with Harvey's Ultimate SuperTip if you put it work immediately.

If, like me you rely on Internet marketing to generate some of your income, you need to read about this new model that promises to play a leading role at least for the next few years until some crafty fellow designs something even better.

You can read more about it and see the table of contents at my site here: http://www.dwave.com.au/ultimate_supertip.html

Copyright 2006 Robin Henry

Robin Henry is a human resources specialist and Internet entrepreneur. He runs his home based business from Central Australia and his main site is at Desert Wave Enterprises. He helps businesses improve performance through working smarter.Merle Blog69660
Marney Blog19091

MLMs, Affiliates, Pyramids Oh My!

In this article I want to give the readers a quick breakdown in the differences between an MLM, an Affiliate Program, and a Pyramid Scheme.

To put it simply, and Affiliate Program is basically a way for you to make money by referring people to a website where they can buy some type of product or service. If they buy, the company gives you a percentage. Thats how Amazon took off.

A Pyramid Scheme is illegal. Generally there is no product involved and it costs an x amount of money to start. All of the money that you paid to start goes directly to your sponsor. Then, when you sign up your own people you receive 100% of their startup costs as welldont get involved with these, they are illegal and eventually fall apart because they are not based on a product.

An MLM stands for multilevel marketing and is another way to create an additional stream of income. Let me use an example.

Lets say you go to a new store and you really like the product they sell. You buy it and it was even better than you thought. The next day you tell your friend about it and they go and buy some as well. The owner of the store is so happy that he gives you $10 for referring your friend and tells you that he will give you an additional $10 for every person that buys the product based off of your recommendation. You refer 10 friends and you get $100. Now you tell your friends to do the same thing and they go refer the product to other people just like you did. For every person they refer they get $10 as well, though the owner of the store also gives you a small percentage for your friends recommendations. (Ex. 5% or $0.50) Now your friends tell other friends how to refer people to the restaurant and eventually all those percentage slivers add up.

I hope this helps to clear things up.

Andrew Leone

Andrew Leone is an active network-marketer training and developing the skills of entrepreneurs all over the net. Find out how to take charge of your own financial freedom by taking his FREE tour. => http://www.LeoneGroupMarketing.com.Mirabelle Blog915
Malinde Blog35214

Search Engine Strategies - The Importance of Links

The most important aspect of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the links pointing to your site. Here, as with most things, quality is more important than quality. If you have a single link to your site from a high-traffic, popular site, it will be worth many times more than hundreds of links from Free For All (FFA) sites.

Trust me when I say this: DON'T waste your time with FFA submission. The people who market FFA submission make it sound really tempting I know. Who wouldn't want hundreds of links pointing to their site? In my early days, I went on a campaign to get as many FFA links to my site as possible. The only thing it achieved was the vast quantity of utterly useless emails I got each day. In fact, it was so bad that I had to close down that email account.

I have found out subsequently from some of the masters of SEO (like say John Reese or Brad Fallon) that it may even be likely that some of the major search engines actually penalise a site that has many FFA incoming links. What I do know is that even though I had possibly 1,000 incoming FFA links, not one of them appeared as a link in the major search engines. It seems reasonable to conclude that even if the search engine doesn't penalize you for having FFA links incoming, at least all that work to get the links is wasted. In case you were wondering, I didn't go out and manually submit to heaps of FFA pages: it was all done through submission software. Even so, it's just not worth it.

Let me say this again ... get good incoming links to your site. Without them, you will never be high on the search engine rankings. How do you know they are good? Get the Google Toolbar and enable PageRank viewer. While it is not a 100% accurate reflection of a site's search engine ranking, at least you can see whether a page has a high page rank.

Another indication of the quality of a site is where it ranks in the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. There is a lot of software out there (most of it free) that will allow you to find out the ranking of a page for a particular keyword.

In summary, stay away from FFA and link farms. They will not do you any good and may actually hurt you in the long term. Build your quality links and your search engine rankings will soar in no time.

Mike Haydon has been involved in online marketing since mid 2005 and has become proficient in affiliate marketing, adwords, virtual real estate, SEO and website building.Malinde Blog35214
Myna Blog69815

Why So Many People Fail In Affiliate Marketing

More and More people are lured into affiliate marketing and you might be one of them. Indeed, affiliate marketing is one of the most effective means of generating a full-time income through the Internet. Its a fair deal between the merchandiser and his affiliates as both benefit from each sale materialized. Like in other kinds of business, a great deal of the profits in affiliate marketing depends on the affiliates advertising, promoting and selling strategies. Everyday, as affiliate marketing industry expands, competition heightens as well so an affiliate marketer must be creative enough to employ unique and effective ways to convince potential buyers to purchase or avail of the products and services offered.

Compared to traditional advertising practices, affiliate programs are more effective, risk-free and cost-efficient. But why do many people still fail in affiliate marketing? There are a lot of reasons and a lot of areas in the program to look into. The most critical aspect in the affiliate program is advertising. Many affiliate marketers fail in this aspect because they lack hard work, which is the most important thing in affiliate marketing and in all other kinds of business as well. Although it pays to be lucky, you cannot merely rely on it. Affiliate marketing isnt as simple as directing customers to the business site. If you want to earn big, of course, you have to invest time and great amount of hard work in promoting the products. As earlier mentioned, the competition is very high and customers nowadays are very wise, too. After all, who doesnt want to get the best purchasethat is, to pay less and get more in terms of quantity and quality.

Lack of preparation is also a reason why one fails in affiliate marketing, whether he is a merchandiser or an affiliate. Part of the preparation is researching. On the part of the merchant, he has to be highly selective in choosing the right affiliate websites for his affiliate program. In order to be sure he has the best choices, he must have exhausted his means in looking for highly interested affiliates whose sites are sure fit to his products and services. The affiliate sites visitors must match his targeted customers. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer must likewise research on the good-paying merchandisers before he signs up for an affiliate program. He must ensure that the merchants products and services match his interests so he can give his full attention and dedication to the program. He can get valuable information by joining affiliate forums, comparing different affiliate programs and reading articles on affiliate marketing where he can get tips from experienced affiliate marketers on how to choose the best merchants and products with high conversion rate.

The website is a very important tool in the whole affiliate program. As an affiliate marketer, you should plan how your site is going to be, from domain name to the design, the lay-out, the content, and ads. Some users are particular about what they see at first glance and thus when they find your site ugly, they wont read through the content even if your site has many things to say and offer. On the other hand, there those who want information more than anything else. Affiliate marketers with rich-content web sites are usually the ones who prosper in this business because the content improves traffic to the site. Websites with high quality contentswith relevant keywords and more importantly, right information about the product and not empty hyped-up advertisementsallow you to earn big in affiliate marketing even when youre asleep. If you wont be able to sustain the interest of your site visitor, you wont be able to lead him to the merchants site. No click-through means no sale and thus, no income on your part.

Selecting a top level domain name is also crucial to the success of the affiliate program. Lots of affiliate sites dont appear in the search engine results because they are deemed by affiliate managers as personal sites. Major search engines and directories would think of your site as transient ones and thus, they wont list it in the directory. Before you decide on the domain name, know first what you are going to promote. Many fail because their sites are not appropriately named, so even when they feature the exact products the customer is looking for, the customer might think the site is not relevant and thus, wont enter the site.

Above all, an affiliate marketer must be willing to learn more. Certainly, there are still a lot of things to learn and so an affiliate marketer must continue to educate himself so he can improve his marketing strategies. Many fail because they dont grow in the business and they are merely concerned about earning big quickly. If you want long-term and highly satisfactory results, take time to learn the ins and outs of the business. Continue to improve your knowledge especially with the basics in affiliate marketing ranging from advertising to programming, web page development, and search engine optimization techniques. Likewise, study the needs and wants of your site users and how different merchandisers compete with each other.

Keep on trying

Shaun Weaver is an active affiliate marketer who loves to teach others how to make money online. Learn how YOU can make a living as an affiliate marketer when you visit: http://tinyurl.com/l2y8pMara Blog96393
Melva Blog6093

Are Hidden Beliefs Creating a Lackluster Career?

How close are you at creating your dream career? What is holding you back? Are you afraid of success or failure? Have you lost your career passion and dont know why?

Laura is self-employed real estate investor. She recalled that she once felt passionate about her work, but she lost it. She feels bored, apathetic, uninspired and unable to take any action. After working together on her limiting beliefs and stuck energy patterns, Laura learned that she needs to remind herself that she is grateful for the life she created.

Michael, an employee in a high tech company, and enjoys what he does in his marketing communications position. However, a recent merger has had a negative impact on the company culture. The changes are so dramatic he doesnt feel as though he can be himself at work any more. The impact hes feeling, both emotionally and physically, is so intense, hes not sure how much longer he can stay in his job. After helping Michael release his own fears and those of others, he feels stronger and clearer about his own goals. He is more focused and committed to his work and adjusting to the changes.

Rachel is self-employed and thoroughly enjoys her work as a realtor. Her recent engagement, however, has made her more and more aware that her seven day a week schedule is taking its toll on her personal life. Shes torn between the work she loves and the life she sees in front of her. While working on her own limiting beliefs, Rachel is reminded to connect with her inner self and ask, what is most important right now?

Although each person enjoys parts of her work and her lifestyle, they are each missing something significant when it comes to their work/life.

Change Your Energy Change Your Life

Laura learned that by changing her thoughts about herself, she shifted the energy she radiated into the world. Because everything is connected, she noticed the world around her shifting.

Here are some guidelines regarding career actions you could take to explore your next steps. They are supportive actions to accept yourself no matter where you are in your career.

1. Stay focused on your body. Notice your feelings rather than just being tuned into what everyone else is saying you should do for your career. Release other peoples expectations, beliefs or limitations that might be impeding your progress.

2. Be willing to take 100% responsibility for behaving in a way that makes you feel worthy, safe and powerful. Be willing to be who you really are rather than trying to impress. Make a conscious decision that being in integrity with who you really are, is more important than getting someone elses approval.

3. When doubts creep into your mind about being confused and unclear remind yourself that you will know exactly what, when and how to do what you need to do. Remember to maintain your balance and stay in alignment with your true self.

4. Connect with your emotion of gratitude. Daily upon rising and going to bed, remind yourself of everything you are grateful for having, experienced or felt.

Theres so much around you that you are not acknowledging. Consider all the things youve created. If you are ready to create something new in your life, be grateful for what you have already created. This opens the flow to attracting more of what you desire.

As you increase your awareness and start to connect with the vibration of gratitude, you become clear on what you want to create. Dont worry about how to achieve your dream career. Let go of fears of not being successful or not liking it after all.

5. Keep asking your inner wisdom, What is my highest good for right now?

Learn to validate yourself for being YOU. You are awesome! Be authentic! You are powerful and create your thoughts --- You will manifest your dream career.

Remember: Unconscious thoughts hiding in the shadows of your subconscious mind are creating the world around you. Do NOT disregard the little voice that says, What if I cant do it? What if I cant measure up? What if I fail?

Release the unwanted programs and limiting beliefs to create an inspired life and dream career.

Amirah © 2006 All Rights Reserved.

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication is appreciated.

Amirah Hall, Intuitive Life Coach, Author, Speaker helps individuals gain insight, clarity and understanding in their own lives making positive life changes. Get your FRe.e Stress Buster Audio Download http://www.soulmystic.com/contact2.php FRE.e monthly newsletter http://www.soulmystic.com/newsletters.html eMail:Amirah@soulmystic.comMarji Blog98275
Manya Blog27769

Why on Earth are You STILL Cold Calling?

Think back to the last time you received a phone call at home just as you started into something important to you such as a meal with the family, watching a highly anticipated television show or sporting event, or reading an article or book. Chances are you probably werent too thrilled with the person on the other end regardless of who it was. If it happened to be a telemarketer, you were likely less than cordial with the person on the other end. Why, then, do many salespeople insist on cold-calling when there are so many alternatives to prospecting and uncovering legitimate prospects and potential customers?

Sales managers frequently utter the over-used clich of youve got to increase your activityits a numbers game. Their intent, increasing your sales, is well serving, but their methodology for accomplishment couldnt be worse. The key to increasing your prospect base without cold calling is marketing yourself as if you were your own company and presenting yourself as an expert in your chosen industry. The moment you quit thinking like yesterdays employee and start thinking like todays entrepreneur, your career will take on a new direction that will finally reward you in proportion to the effort you invest. Stop spinning your wheels cold-calling and allow your customers find you for a change. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Do you publish your own newsletter separate from your company? If not, this is a great way to stay connected with your best customers and nurture relationships. Its also a good prospecting tool to gain valuable exposure since it takes roughly six impressions for a prospect to become a customer. Tips and advice which relate to your product or service are common topics to include in a newsletter. Make sure the information is relevant and useful to your customer base, or youll lose their interest almost as quickly as you signed them up. A newsletter can be distributed in print or e-mail format so consider offering your prospects and customers a choice. Perhaps your company doesnt produce a newsletter; think of how that could distinguish you from your peers and shine in your managements eyes.

Advertise in someone elses newsletter or cross advertise. If you know of current newsletters which target prospects youd like to reach, consider paying to advertise in that newsletter for awhile. If you dont have the money to invest in newsletter advertising right away, consider swapping ads in your newsletter with the publisher of other targeted newsletters. This is a great way to gain name recognition with prospects you may never meet.

Creating your own website will go a long way towards distinguishing you from many of your competitors provided the website is targeted, contains useful information that solves common industry customer problems, and provides your contact information.

If you are unable to create your own site or dont believe you have the time to maintain one, a blog might be another alternative worth considering. There are many free blog sites available (Google the term free blog site), and a blog gives you the freedom to express yourself in a more engaging and conversational manner.

Conducting or participating in seminars may give your reputation a big boost especially if you are able to deliver a great presentation on an interesting and industry related topic. People who attend seminars will remember you as an authority long after the seminar even if you dont necessarily remember them provided you dont put them to sleep or offend in any way.

Generate a prospecting e-mail instead of calling with a link to a case study or relevant set of statistics to generate interest and/or recognition. Dont make your prospecting e-mails about youmake them all about the customer and how you might be able to help them. If they have an interest, theyll research you and your company when appropriate. Remember: you can only make one cold-call at a time, but you can send out one e-mail to many people at once which increases your number of dials and impressions.

Produce a podcast or downloadable audio seminar on a popular industry topic. This could even be done in an interview format, but be sure to include some tips and tricks that prospects can use rather quickly. Youre merely looking to increase awareness of you and your company.

Create a video or webinar that can be downloaded which addresses common customer questions and problems and shows them how to resolve the problems. Again, this needs to focus on the customer and their issues instead of you and your company. Avoid the temptation to talk about features and benefits of a product or service.

Write an article to be published in an industry publication. This will provide publicity and further differentiate you as an expert in your chosen field. Be sure to include a byline at the end of the article so people know how to contact you should they choose.

Write a book. This will provide the same benefits as an article but on a much grander scale. Authors regularly are asked to be guests on radio and television shows which, if you score a spot on one, will skyrocket your career.

While its likely impossible to implement each of these ideas today, you can begin by implementing a couple at a time to gauge their effectiveness. The more ideas you implement, the less reliant youll become on cold-calling and yesteryears prospecting methods. Your career will shift gears as well.

Roger Bauer is Founder and CEO of SMB Consulting, Inc., a Louisville, Kentucky based small business consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, web presence, internet marketing, SEO, technology, and business analysis. To learn more, point your browser to http://smbconsultinginc.com.Merla Blog15898
Nanci Blog26153

Networking - The Route To Unadvertised Jobs

Networking, or Informational Interviewing is one of the most valuable strategies for gathering information and establishing contacts. It can enable you to: Gain a firsthand impression of a particular employer or industry; get practical ideas and insider advice about how to enter that field; get contacts with other people in your area of interest; develop and maintain friendly relationships with your contacts; enlarge the list of people who can alert you to job opportunities.

"Networking" entered everyday business language in the mid 1990's, and acquired a degree of mystique that it didn't deserve. It is widely recognised now as an essential in business life and in progressing a career. To see how people understand the importance of networking, notice how many dedicated groups and networking clubs that have sprung up.

In this article we take away that mystique and explain why you should network as a key part of any career search. And how you should do it. Let's get to the "Why" first. Think about hiring from the employer's point of view for a moment. It is quite costly in time and in money, and it is risky and uncertain. The costs will come through in fees to professional recruiters or headhunters if the organisation choses to outsource the work. If they do it in-house, the cost come in the time of the people who have to write and place ads, deal with responses, arrange interviews, write to candidates, and so on.

So what would employers prefer in an ideal world? Just what you and I would prefer. Someone we know, or who is recommended to us by someone we trust. That way they come with a sponsor who knows how they work and what they can do. And that counts for a lot. That's why a lot of companies pay bounties to staff who introduce new staff members (provided they join and prove capable.) There's no real mystique to networking. Nor is there any special difficulty. Let's take a look at: what it is, what it isn't, and how to do it.

What is Networking? First off, it is not pushing yourself onto people who don't want to talk to you. It is not like 'cold call' selling or telemarketing. Networking in the job search context, is simply talking to people you know, and to people they know, to get useful information and advice. Hopefully (as is the case so often) it will in time, uncover an opportunity that the rest of Joe Public does not yet know about.

It's a process through which you build up your contacts. And it is reciprocal, not a one-way street. You have to give to receive. But the great part about it is that other people are pleased to enlarge their network too and by speaking with them, you have joined it. At some point in the future, assuming you stay in touch, you may well be in a position to help them with some information.

Here's a real example of how networking works. Naturally, we have changed the names of those involved. Susan wanted to improve the amount of time she spends with her kids by leaving her hectic finance job and getting into school teaching. Through asking around the people she knows, she found a piano teacher who takes individual pupils and teaches at her home. They chat and it turns out the piano teacher has a friend whose daughter teaches school. Susan and the daughter get together on the phone a few times. (in person would be better, but they live too far apart).

Susan finds out about what is involved, where to get the training, the upsides and the downsides to the job and so on. A year or two later, Susan is more than willing to advise someone else about "mature entry" into teaching....or for that matter, about her previous job in financial services.

Anybody can network effectively. You don't have to be an especially out-going person. The key skills are: listening; asking open questions without making it an interrogation; and most important of all - taking a genuine interest in the other person. Never treat the other person just as a doorway to a "more useful" contact. We'd all resent being treated like that. Here are the main principles of networking: Most people you know will help you if they can. Most people are happy to give information, opinion and advice. Everybody knows somebody. We all know that one day we may be glad of a returned favor. Most of us like to consider we are knowledgeable about certain things and enjoy showing that expertise. Most people will be willing to suggest others to talk to, provided they found talking to you was an ok experience and didn't take up too much of their time or put them in an awkward spot.

Getting started - Make a list of everyone you know and start with people you know quite well. That way you get practice with friends before you try the process with strangers. Explain you are NOT coming to them because you think they know of a job for you (that makes them feel put on the spot) but you would value their thoughts and advice on (your plans or whatever.) For some, you may be in touch for specific information. "John told me you have been in the pharmaceutical industry for some years.I wonder if I may pick your brains.".

It is good to have something to kick off the conversation. For instance: " I am thinking about doing (---) what do you think of the idea?". You can ask for an opinion on the marketability of your skills. Be careful not to give the impression this is code for "know of any jobs?". You must build some rapport, it must not turn into an interrogation or an episode of a quiz show. Give something to the other person. Now or later. We are not talking about commercially sensitive or confidential information here. But something of use to them. Maybe "Here's an interesting article you may not have seen..." Ask for other contacts. Obviously not early in the meeting. But you can ask if "there is anyone else you know who might not mind giving me twenty minutes". Do thank people who gave you their time. At the time, and with a note later. Keep them informed when you make your career move. Express gratitude for their help "which greatly contributed to." .

A few things NOT to do with your networking contacts:

Take up too much of their time; interpreting polite interest as "please talk more";

Ask for a job - unnecessary and puts people in an awkward spot;

Overtly only wanting their contacts, not their views or ideas;

All about "me" and what I want.

It is never too late to develop a network, and it is a big mistake to let one decay when that new job comes along. Developing and maintaining good contacts does take some time and effort, but you can expect to see increasing returns from doing it.

Robin Nicholson has worked in business for over 25 years and for ten of them has been a business and career coach. He has worked in the IT and banking sectors and in leading consulting firms. He is the author of "How to Succeed at Any Interview" which is available for immediate downIoad at the website http://www.allaboutinterviews.com, an invaluable guide to finding that perfect job.Marsiella Blog9998
Morganica Blog36488

Adsense Tips That Double Affiliate Earnings

Most of us would love to double our Adsense earnings. It doesnt take long to learn that Google uses a sliding scale, so a $10 keyword that promised to pay $1 to the affiliate only pays $.05.

Many affiliate marketers, especially work at home professionals, assume that affiliate marketing is a scam and quit. Unfortunately, affiliate marketing through Google or Yahoo is not a scam. It is the marketers ignorance that is costing them money.

No matter what type of internet business a person operates, most will include affiliate marketing to a greater or lesser degree. Many businesses consider affiliate income as passive income, but they remain frustrated by the lack of success.

How Earnings are Calculated

Many factors are involved when calculating the affiliates earnings. Page rank, hits, inbound links, and Page Rank are all important. However, the search engines also track how many people click and compare it to how many people remain at the site for more than 30 seconds.

Ad Appearance

The effectiveness of an ad depends on its appearance. Adds that mimic a link bar on a webpage will do better than ones that appear to be advertisements.

This is why Google allows web publishers a wide variety of layouts and color combinations.

Many affiliate marketers tell small business owners to post three, four, or even five bars of Affiliate links. This rarely works. Instead, it can make the visitor feel like theyve hit a MFA (Made For AdSense) spam site. In most cases, visitors just leave.

Content

Youve all heard it Content is King. Many people mistake this to mean that content attracts search engines not true.
Content, and meta tags, determine what ads appear on a site. A web page that is not doing well can be improved, dramatically, by altering the keywords to attract sites which have good products to sell at an affordable price.

The keywords in an article rarely effects search engine rank in todays SEO world. However, they are 100% effective in controlling the ads that appear on a web page.

Know the Ads

NEVER click an ad on your website. However, you can read the URL and go visit the site. What are they selling? Is it a good product? Do you know how to write an article that can pre sell the product? Can your article ad value to the product? All of these questions will play a vital roll in the difference between the number of the click through from your site and the number of decisions to buy.

There is nothing wrong with manipulating the ads that appear on your web page. If too many of those ads lead to Hard Sell pages then change the keywords and topic of the page to attract something more user friendly.

AdSense Analytics

All business owners need to familiarize themselves with web analytics. AdSense has its own analytics program. Keep an eye on the pages, which ones work, which ones dont, and which ads pay best. When you target an ad that earns a high affiliate payout then create more pages that attract that ad.

It is easy to track hits and traffic by creating channels in the AdSense program.

Reversed AdSense

Dont forget to improve your PPC campaigns success by using this advice in reverse. One thing that many small businesses often overlook in their Pay Per Click programs is the websites where their ads appear. If the ad appears on too many Made For AdSense pages, or the Return On Investment is low. Take a look at the sites where you want the ads to appear.

Use your browsers view button and look at the pages source code. The meta information may give a few insights to how the ads are placed. Sometimes a PPC campaigns success can be increased simply by changing one keyword, or a single word in the ad.

Mark Walters is a third generation entrepreneur and author. He offers free training and investing videos designed to speed you towards financial independence at http://www.cashflowinstitute1.com/Articles.htmlMona Blog20200
Marlena Blog29848

Starting A Business? When You Go Into Business - Go In To Win

Working in a business you enjoy can be a fun and rewarding experience, whether you're 8 or 80. But the fun soon wears off if your business doesn't yield an early profit. Certainly, there are some businesses like affiliate sales, in which your profit will be delayed based on the commission payout cycle. In such a business, you can expect profits to begin a little later than in a quick turnover business like selling your own digital products.

The bottom line of any business is the income it produces. Business longevity is tied to the profits received at the end of the financial period. Spending more money than you take in may be necessary in the beginning stages of a business. However, operating at a loss must be reversed as quickly as possible. Mounting debts can spell disaster.

Your business safety net is strengthened when you have strict control over expenditures, seize genuine opportunities, undertake well-calculated risks, and have an overall strategy to generate ongoing income. Also, you will need to finance opportunities and gather the necessary marketing resources to exploit them.

A lot of small businesses fail because of limited resources. If you lack the necessary capital to develop an idea, you will need to call on others for help. Make sure that your product, service, or idea is innovative, has a ready market, and is within your expertise to develop.

In order for your business to succeed, you must provide a REAL and a DISTINCT value to your customers. Do more than your customers expect and more than your competitors do and your company will succeed. Add a feature to your product or service that your competitors don't have.

We're currently living in a marketplace where doing something well isn't good enough anymore. You must do it better. You must do it better than your competitors do it. And you must do it better than you probably did it before.

How can you accomplish this? By continuously improving your knowledge of your business and your customers. By reinvesting your profits to acquire new tools, by employing new techniques used in your industry, and by constantly adding value to your product or service. Implementing these practices will help you keep good customers for a long time.

The essential ingredients to winning in business revolve around your marketing skills, product or service presentation, decision-making, problem- solving ability, and the determination to achieve carefully planned goals. A strong belief in your organizing ability and effectiveness as a businessperson is also required.

Your objective is to minimize the chance of failure while maximizing the chance of success. Developing the aforementioned skills will help you to reach that objective.

Whenever you choose a new business, keep profits foremost in your mind. With a mature, reliable approach to your business, you can easily build a big income within a few years. Aim for huge profits in your business. Don't settle for a dime when you can earn a dollar instead. By aiming for big profits, you prepare yourself for periods of reduced income caused by conditions you cannot control.

Adopt an attitude of seeking out the best in every deal, and you'll start a big and steady flow of income into your business. Always keep in mind this important fact: In business, profit is your goal.

Diamonique Fortune has been operating a successful home business for more than ten years. She is the author of several ebooks and reports, and the owner of http://www.business-tools-for-success.com and Fortune Capital Publishing Co., LLC.Myriam Blog50589
Moira Blog39532

E-currency Trading Is Sweeping Across the Internet in 2006

Many people have never heard of e-currency trading before and most people are wondering what it is. E-currency trading is a relatively new, yet lucrative opportunity that allows individuals to trade e-currencies such as E-gold, Netpay and E-bullion just to name a few.

Unlike the Forex arena where 95% of traders lose money, e-currency trading is exactly the opposite. Because many people need real cash to move money in and out of e-currencies, it creates an opportunity for people to capitalize on the transaction making it possible to earn a percentage of that transaction for assisting with the transfer.

E-currency trading is a growing industry as more and more people are purchasing items online in the form of e-currency. As long as people continue to purchase items online, there will always be a need for people to exchange funds from hard cash to online currencies and vise versa.

Many people are skeptical when getting into the home based business industry, so how do you know which one is right for you? For starters, it requires choosing an opportunity that meets your needs. Sure there are many scams out there and with so many offers out there today, who wouldnt be skeptical? The truth is, many people are making money and if they are, they dont really want you to be a part of it because it only creates more competition for them. However, e-currency trading takes away all the competition and skepticism creating a way for everyone to succeed.

There are many programs available online that teach e-currency trading. Some are better than others and it all depends on the quality of training your looking for. Ive personally spent countless hours trying to learn how to do this business by reading forums and searching in Google, but it only seemed to be a waste of time since there was no free formal training available. After sometime I finally gave in and picked up a course that helped me understand the business in a big way. It took approximately 3 weeks before I really had a handle on things and I was off and running.

When deciding on e-currency trading as a business opportunity, it does require a bit of work, but nothing more than a few hours a week if you can believe it. Theres an old saying, you only get out what you put in. This applies to any type of home business.

Copyright 2006 Timothy Rohrer

Timothy Rohrer is an established writer and home business owner. To learn more information about a profitable home business, visit http://www.profitplusonline.comMarleen Blog16589
Marje Blog30420

How To Make Money Using The Internet ... Research, research, research

A lot of people teach those new to the Internet marketing arena that the best way to launch your career is to promote something that you are interested, be it your job of work, hobby or even a special talent.

This will get you off to a good start, they insist.

Actually, they are quite wrong and this is why so many, would be, Internet marketers fail within just a few months or even weeks.

You see, the thing is, although YOU may be interested in your chosen subject, it's simply no good building a super web site and promoting it for all you're worth if people don't buy what you're selling.

You can't earn a living running a web site that doesn't sell.

If you'd like to build a web site about your hobby, that's fair enough but if you'd like to earn money from sales with it, you'll need to use a different strategy.

The trick is to find out what people are buying and then start selling that. You may not like the product or service but, after it makes you large stacks of cash each day, you'll soon learn to live with it, I'm sure.

In order to find out what is popular at the moment, you'll need to do a little research. Firstly, visit ClickBank (www.clickbank.com) and see what's going on there.

ClickBank is an Internet service where people selling information and software over the Internet allow others to promote their business for a piece of the action. So, for example, if I am selling a home business course on 'How to produce your own eBook' I can let other people sell it from their web sites or wherever and they get to have say 50% of the takings.

If the price is 100 they get 50 and I get the other 50. It's just a way of shifting your product. Eventually, scores of people are selling your stuff all over the Internet.

ClickBank have tens of thousands of these so called 'Affiliate' schemes and anyone can join for free and start selling other people's wares while keeping some of the profit.

ClickBank allow you to view what is selling the best at the current time. It's THIS list that will guide you to know just what you should be making available from your own web site. After all, if the whole world are buying this type of product then why shouldn't they buy from you to?

More research is needed, however. You'll need to know more about what's going on before committing yourself to a web site that is going to work for you 24/7.

Firstly, how do you find out the top 10 selling information products? This is when you visit ClickBank and see. Choose one of the top 10, affiliate to it and build a web site to promote it. Some affiliate schemes make the web site for you whereby you just enter your details and affiliate number then upload it to your web space.

At the time of writing I was able to look at the popular listings: Business to business, Education, Publishing, New products, Promotion, Web design, Industrial, Reports, Home and family, Marketing, Money and employment, Computing and Internet, Fun and entertainment, Sports and recreation, society and culture and so on.

By clicking on any category ClickBank will list separate sub categories where they are listed in order of popularity and sales. Simply pick the one that suits you and start promoting. It is free to join and you can earn plenty.

Once you are up and running you'll need to promote your site to those that search for your subject. This is where 'keywords' come in to play.

You'll need to find which words people are typing into the search engines when they are looking for something. If you are selling publications on 'Ice cream' for example, you'll find that simply setting up Ice and Cream as keywords won't enable people to find your site over anybody else's who are also promoting the same thing as you.

To get people to your site you'll need to use Google's AdWords. By opening an account with Google AdWords you'll be able to insert your listing automatically on the customers search results page. There is a charge for this but it is based on how much you want to Pay Per Click. See www.google.com and click on 'Advertising Programmes' to visit the 'how to' pages.

To find out what people are typing into the search engines to find your product visit: www.overture.com and it will give the top keywords to use in Google AdWords.

Once in your account in Google, you simply bid on the words you want in your promotion. Careful selection will bring up your web site advertising high on the results page so that the customer will visit your site and buy your product.

You also need to join Google's AdSense programme whereby you have other people's advertising on your site. This way, all ads will be on the same subject as yours and you will be paid each time somebody clicks through on your page. So you earn money per click and also money for selling your affiliated product. Watch your account grow.

By researching the keywords used on a regular basis you can stay at the top of the results page list on the Google search engine site.

There are marketers earning thousands of pounds each week using this method. Once all is up and running you can start on your next web site with another top 10 affiliate programme.

Full details are on the ClickBank web site, the Google web site and, of course, Overture.com

This is yet another way to actually earn money by using the Internet.

(c)2006 Martyn Brown: 20+ years involved in the home business industry.Marje Blog89980
Moselle Blog82885

The Incredible Power of FREE in Internet and Affiliate Marketing!

Free Membership, Free Submission, Free eBooks, Free Websites, Free Downloads, Free Classifieds, Free to Join, yes anything Free has an incredible pulling power in both Internet and Affiliate Marketing.

It is simply amazing how this four letter word FREE can capture the imagination of not only the newbies but also the most seasoned and experienced Internet Marketers and Affiliate Marketers.

The Success of your Internet Marketing or Affiliate Marketing Business depends to a great extent on several inputs such as Determination, Dedication and Motivation among others. In spite of possessing these qualities, financial limitations can be a dampening factor in your endeavor to succeed. So an offer of free tools, free eBooks, free classifieds etc. can be just the thing you have been longing for to boost your confidence and help you succeed in your business.

Even if you are not short of funds to operate your Internet or Affiliate Marketing businesses the offer of free items that could be helpful to develop your Internet business is something no sensible entrepreneur wants to ignore. Why pay for something when you can get it for free!

It is important to note that in spite of the prominent display of the word Free, some items are not always Free and some are quite useless; nevertheless the urge and desire to try them out persists.

Capitalizing on this are many scammers who want to make a quick buck. This is where the newbie has to be watchful and not fall prey to scammers.

Many genuine smart Marketers do take advantage of this inherent weakness of both man and woman and offer free items to promote their businesses.

There are of course several great free webmaster tools that are extremely popular with Internet marketers, Affiliate marketers, Internet home based business entrepreneurs and other online entrepreneurs.

Similarly Free eBooks and Articles written sincerely with the sole purpose of educating the audience are also very popular and sought after by webmasters.

There are websites dealing exclusively with Free items that are very popular in the Internet.

Another Free item extremely popular with low budget business entrepreneurs are Free classifieds.

There are also several very much sought after Free to join affiliate programs that are long standing, safe and secure and global in nature, who provide you with free tools, free web sites and a great support systems.

Thus the Internet abounds with all kinds of free items. Some have hidden charges, Some lead you to scams, Some have both free and paid versions, Some are totally free with no strings attached.

Regular visits to the Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Altavista and studying these various free items will help you to weed out the Good from the Bad and the Ugly.

Great people do exist out there in the Internet World who are prepared to share their knowledge and expertise with the rest of the Internet fraternity for Free. Webmasters and Online Entrepreneurs should indeed be grateful to these Individuals and Organizations who are constantly making the Internet experience much easier, cheaper, pleasant and enjoyable for millions of Internet users.

The Incredible Power of the word FREE will without doubt continue to captivate the hearts and minds of the Internet Marketing and Affiliate Marketing world till a a more powerful substitute is discovered.

Copyright © 2006 Kanaga SivaMaryjo Blog355
Maryrose Blog42231

Why Everybody Should Be Making Money Online

When you tell people stories of making money while you sleep with no effort, a vast majority look at you with extreme scepticism and even contempt for wasting their time and trying to “con” them. Factually most people also know that it is true that you can make online with no effort while you sleep say by trading the markets, selling goods on eBay or even making money from various means on your own website. However, this is generally dismissed or explained by these same people as for only the super intelligent, the overly technical, crazy or just plain lucky people.

I am here to tell you that not only is most of this downright lies but you would be severely short changing yourself and your family if you did not invest a significant portion of your endeavours online and I am not necessarily talking about money. Currently approximately 10% of all sales of goods and services occur online and that number is growing fast. Now you may say well that is great but what does that mean for me and those figures are spouted by people all the time and they sort of become a blur after a while. That is true statistics these days can be manipulated to tell any story you like but I will give you some real examples to put this into context.

In terms of goods and services sales there is more happening at eBay than anywhere else on the planet even if you combine store groups together like Wal-Mart and its subsidiaries in the US or the Coles Myer or Woolworths groups here in Australia. It equates to about $1,640US sales every second which is about US$14.2 million in sales every day. If you break this down further just for Australia, a car is old every 1 minutes, a DVD every 30 seconds and an item of women’s clothing every 14 seconds. Can you imagine if Big W store sold 2,880 DVDs a day or about 6,000 items of clothing. If they could manage that many sales they wouldn’t need to sell anything else! Currently about 53,000 Australia have eBay as either their primary or secondary form of income and about 35,000 businesses use it as their secondary stream of revenue. In total 20% of the entire adult population of Australia is a member of eBay which is about 3 million people.

I hope that put things into context for you and made it is easier to visualise in your head. Contrary to what you may be thinking this is not an article to laud eBay or even too necessarily to convince you to start selling there. Given those massive figure, eBay sales still fits into that 10% of all sales I mentioned earlier. Remember there are huge sites like Amazon and search engine giants like Google and Yahoo who also fit within that 10%, let alone all the other larger, medium and smaller players. If nothing else this should illustrate for you how massive an opportunity it is out there and that we are really still only in its infancy even with all those impressive numbers. Cast your mind back just 10 years ago and most of these companies I mentioned didn’t even exist let alone the market itself.

Unfortunately I don’t have enough space here to go into extreme detail about what you can do step by step but I will give you a brief overview and if you want more information go to http://www.jiveguide.com. Did you know that you can get an entire book written for you for less than a $100 which you have full rights to sell? Did you know that you can get companies like Google, eBay and Amazon to send you cheques? Did you know with an Australian site like http://LayBy.com not only can you offer items for sale on LayBy with someone else managing the process for you for free but you can make money when other people list items for sale and also when you buy items? Did you know you can make more money online with no stock or payment handling of your own just selling other peoples great products? The list goes on and on and as I mentioned about all these things are that it takes little time, little money and requires no technical knowledge at all. The truth is that unlike real estate, share trading and business, this requires a lot less knowledge and far less money to get started and is easier and requires less time and effort to do anything.

TILL NEXT TIME.......

Chris JacobMarieann Blog77870
Mildrid Blog43275

Starting an Online Business - Affiliate Programs Make it Easy

If you have been longing to start a business online you may be coming across terms you've never heard before. You may also have found the opportunities available are overwhelming. Where do you begin?

AFFILIATE PROGRAMS - EASY START

Affiliate programs may be the easiest online business to start running. Why?

With any online business you must have a product or service to sell. First you must create this product or service and then you must be able to fill orders.

Selling your own product or service also means creating a website, learning how to write ad copy, setting up a marketing plan, being able to accept payments online and obviously doing the work. If you're selling a physical product then you will need to make or buy the item, package it and pay for shipping costs. If you provide a service than you will likely have to start by doing free jobs to build your credibility and then when you are charging for your service you are still limited by how much work you can actually handle.

THE MAGIC OF AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

Affiliate programs are a great way to get started in an online business. In fact there are even some 'Super Affiliates' who are making fabulous incomes from affiliate programs. So, what ARE affiliate programs?

Affiliate programs allow you to sell another company's service or product and make a commission on every sale or lead. You do not even need to build a website or handle the transaction. Your job is to drive traffic (customers) to your affiliate link.

An affiliate link is a special URL code that will identify customers coming to the company's site from your advertising. It will likely be the website address with a code attached to the end.

Some affiliate programs also have tiers. That means if someone who is interested in SELLING the product comes through your link and signs up you will also get a small percentage of THEIR earnings.

HOW DO I CHOOSE A PROGRAM?

You should research the popularity of some of your interests. Try to determine if people are buying that product or service online. There are many sources for finding that information including free ones such as the Overture keyword tool.

When you have found an area that is popular then type the subject along with 'affiliate program' into your search engine and see which programs have services or products for that area. You can also use an affiliate program directory.

When you have found a program that looks interesting you should read the terms of the program. Make sure that payouts are not based on a high commission earning or you may never see your money. Also try to choose programs with high commission rates. Often you will find ebooks and downloadable software has the highest rates as there is no physical product to make or ship. If you are satisfied with the terms then you need to sign up - usually a simple process.

START MARKETING

The reason affiliate programs are so great for beginners is that you only need to focus on marketing - not making - your product.

Many affiliate programs have information on how to market and give you tools such as banners, product feeds and more. You can also look for other information on marketing including writing articles, creating pay-per-click campaigns, commenting in online forums etc. As you gain experience marketing you will make adjustments to your selling and start creating a wonderful income!

Paulina JenkinsMufi Blog27739
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Web Business Basics - The First Stumbling Block Every New Webmaster Encounters

Set a new, green website owner up with a domain name, some web hosting and a piece of web design software and you'll likely find the following situation occurs...

The new owner spends days or even weeks putting together the world's most attractive site.

They spend days making it "theirs". Stamping their personality on it. Making it so it's somthing they're proud of. Something to show to their friends.

It's a piece of art.

No denying - the thing is beautiful.

But there's also a big problem.

As the weeks and months go by the newbie webmaster finds that nobody is turning up to their website, except maybe a few friends and family members.

And there's no point in a website that nobody visits.

And of the tiny handful of people who do visit, of course none of them buy anything or click an affiliate link or an Adsense ad.

So soon enough the newbie webmaster is complaining that the Internet is all a pipe-dream. That the only people making any money are the people selling the domain names and hosting to suckers like them.

The website sits there lonely and unloved in hyperspace until the time the webhosting needs to be renewed, at which point the site vanishes into the ether - just a distant memory - and another page on Archive.org.

But it needn't be that way.

You see, the first stumbling block every new webmaster encounters is this...

They design a site from the point of view of a web designer, not a marketer.

These sites tend to be difficult to rank highly in the search engines, so free traffic is unlikely, and don't tend to convert visitors to buyers.

It tends to be a case of "style over substance".

Highly attractive yes, but with little useful content. And little or no decent sales copy.

And the most common cause is generally a lack of suitable, proven information.

But it needn't be that way.

You don't need to spend weeks building your first site then months wondering why you're not getting any more than a handful of visitors and why the few that do arrive don't buy anything.

What you need is education.

You need to start at the *end* not the beginning.

Do your research first - what target market are you trying to enter? What keywords do they search for? What do they like to see? How are you going to get visitors to your site? Once someone arrives at your site what do you want them to do (be specific)?

Once you know the answers to all these questions you start working backwards working out what your site needs to succeed. You'll be able to work out how to lay it out. What features to include.

Consult books, courses and videos to link these plans to an actual, proven, actionable plan to build the site best suited to what you're trying to achieve.

And whilst you'll likely spend as long (if not longer) planning your site than actually building it, you'll end up with a site that whilst is no doubt not quite as attractive as your first attempt is perfectly suited to what you're trying to do.

Indeed, many of my friends are thoroughly disappointed when I show them my websites and there's no "wow factor" in how they look. Then I show them the results they're generating and they rapidly come round to my way of thinking!

So let me ask you - which type of site would you rather build?

Copyright 2006 Richard Adams

Richard Adams is a seasoned web master and online business builder and will show you how to build your own website in record time on a budget you won't believe. Visit him today at: http://www.easyecommercewebsitedesign.comMarquita Blog55297
Maryjo Blog355

Saving For Auto Mechanic School

Time has passed, and the same old crumby job greets you each day as it has for the past several years. When will life change its fortunes towards you? The answer to this question is when you decide to save money, and go to auto mechanic school. Attending school is not an easy task for one that has a family, with bills to pay, and therefore it is necessary for one to save enough money before attending auto mechanic school.

While creating a budget might not be a strong point for the family, it is one way to save for auto mechanic school, and catapult your career to the next level. Unfortunately for most, no one will simply provide for one to go to auto mechanic school, it is one of those things that requires cash, and free cash for most Americans requires saving money. This is why creating a budget is so important. With a fixed budget and some discipline, a small fortune can be saved in a less than a year for most working professionals.

Creating a budget won't be easy, and takes a focused effort and strategic planning to make happen. Attending auto mechanic school most likely will depend on your personal ability to create and abide by a budget. Attending a training program is something that takes work, and must be made a priority. When creating a budget for your auto mechanic school fund, simply look at what costs can be cut. Treat your auto mechanic school budget as a business with a bill each month that must be paid. This will help put the concept of saving into perspective, and allow you to look at the auto mechanic school savings as a third party.

For example, you love doughnuts and coffee, and have decided that you can save nearly $10 a week by not eating at the doughnut shop for breakfast every morning. You should look at this cut back as one step closer to achieving your goal to attend auto mechanic school. Thinking about the new budget in a positive light will greatly enhance the experience, and help you to keep going towards your goal of attending auto mechanic school.

Creative budgeting is another way to save for auto mechanic school. Utilizing creative budgeting will make it easier, and more feasible to attend auto mechanic school sooner than one would think possible. Creative budgets are ones that are created around unique ideas that will allow for the saving of money through the replacement of paid activities with free ones. An example of creative budgeting would be to stop spending $10 at the video store each week, and rent movies from the library for free, and put that $40 a month towards auto mechanic school tuition instead. By doing this, one will save the money needed for attending school.

While most people look at budgeting as a negative, or repressive act that is not fun to engage in, others that love to save money look at it as a way of life. If you stop thinking like the former, and start to believe in the latter, auto mechanic school is not but a few months of saving away. Even for those that don't earn a substantial income, it is all about saving. Whatever is saved, can be used towards auto mechanic school, which often offers a tuition payment plan for those that need it.

Andy West is a freelance writer for VC Tech, The Automotive School. VC Tech is a world-class auto mechanic school offering many exciting automotive programs. Please visit http://www.vctechnical.com to learn more.Melva Blog45496
Margaretha Blog53421

Online College Degree : Formula To Become a Success Virtual Student (Part I)

Introduction

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the numbers of students taking distance or online education classes are continue growing at a phenomenal rate. And online courses have become an excellent way for busy professionals to gain advanced training and earning degrees for switching their career paths. However, not all can be succeed as a virtual student and complete their online degree program.

Success as a Virtual Student depends upon a few factors outlined in the process of becoming a successful virtual student below. These factors are importance to be considered for those who are considering an online degree program.

Is Distance Learning Right for You?

This is the first question to ask yourself in your decision to earn your degree online. Although anyone can be succeed as Virtual Student with hard work, determination and the ability to do the work. While successful & happy Virtual Students find earning a degree online is an enjoyable and rewarding experience, others find themselves regretting their decision and wishing they had enrolled at a traditional school instead.

In general, successful & happy virtual students have a few characteristics in common:

-Self-motivated & Independence Virtual student able to motivate themselves and on-task with all assignments given to them and no need others to encourage them to proceed in other study and ability to set their own goal is the key of success.

-Good reading comprehension skills In traditional class-based lecture session, student learn by listening to the lectures and taking notes. Instead, Virtual Students learning environment is slightly difference, the students are expected to master the learning materials through reading alone. Although, there are a few online courses offer online audio and video classes but comparatively the majority of learning materials are still in text reading based.

-Missing of socialization element of traditional school can be tolerated. The virtual students feel alright in missing of students activities conducted at colleges. They feel comfortable with the current social situation and treat the earning a degree is a process of learning and not an importance factor in their socialization lifestyle.

-Likes to stay online and search for information from internet. Most of online learning materials are delivered through electronic media such as internet & email. A success virtual student should feel comfortable with these types of digital media and able to accept these as the major learning channel.

Determine Your Purpose for Undertaking Online Education

Once you have made up your decision to proceed as Virtual Student (either your personality characteristics indicate you can be succeed as a Virtual Student or your just decide to proceed anyway!), the next step is to determine your purpose for undertaking the online education and decide the type of degree to earn for.

The common motivations among the Virtual Student are:

-Your Company pressuring you to get a degree so that you are eligible for promotion.

-You want to change your career.

-Earn the degree to fulfill your personal goals.

-Self improvement by adding new knowledge and skills.

No matter which group you occupy, spending some time to think about your purpose of enrolling an online degree program. Clearly understand your purpose will help to sustain you whenever you face any road blocks or difficult times during your online degree program.

Determine Your Status

Before your apply for admission to an online college or university, gathering the information from those universities or colleges on their admission requirement and whether any credits transfer can be made on your existing credits. Ask them to send you a transcript and your can use this handy document as your reference point from which to negotiate with your chosen school about the transfer hours.

Be aware that, your existing credits might not be able to be transferred due to completely different field of study or it may due to the school Policy. Some school may have awarded credits for work or life experience, check it out.

Takes A Rest!

This article is published in 3 parts. In this part, we talk about the common characteristics to become a success virtual student, decide your purpose of undertaking online education and check out your current credit transfer ability.

In the Part II & III of this article, we will talk about the "school selection", admission requirement until finishing your degree. See you soon.

Jullie Harvard is the site owner of http://www.studykiosk.com. www.StudyKiosk.com list the best Distance Learning Programs available to date, It is much more than a directory: it explains the many ins and outs of attending a "Virtual Classroom" to help you succeed in realizing your educational goals.Nanci Blog28828
Melicent Blog77206

Do I Have To Pay To Become An Affiliate?

As you browse through an affiliate directory you will see that each affiliate program has something different to offer you. Generally you will find that affiliate programs are free to join assuming that your website is suitable to the merchant. Every now and then you may find an affiliate program that requires you to invest something to get started. If you are considering joining an affiliate that requires you to invest you need to really stop and think about how successful you think you could really be with this program. If there are no guarantees and the affiliate program doesnt seem to be any more worthy than any other you might want to pass on it and find a comparable program that doesnt require an investment.

You Dont Have To Pay!

Its important to remember that you do not have to pay to become a member of an affiliate program. A good number of affiliate programs that you will find in any given directory are free to join and can earn you quite a bit of money. While affiliate programs of the past would often require an investment times have changed and you must be aware that you do not have to invest anything, other than time, to get started with legit programs.

Does the Program Warrant a Monetary Investment?

You may believe that you have found the perfect affiliate program for you after browsing through an affiliate directory until you see that you have to make a financial investment to get started. This should stop you in your tracks, at least until you can determine if the affiliate program is worthy of your investment. Some of the affiliate programs are worth an investment, for instant some can guarantee you earnings within the first 30 days or they have certain incentives that make it worth small investments on your part. Before you pay one cent to be a part of an affiliate program you need to determine why you should have to pay to be a part of this program and what makes it more special than all of the others.

Read the Fine Print

Before you become an affiliate for any program that requires you to pay to be a part of the program you should read all of the fine print. The fine print will often tell you the reasons for monetary investment as well as if there are any circumstances in which you can get your money back. This will likely be the place that will tell you all about any guarantees for payment, if there are any. Its important that you read all of the information you can get on the affiliate program to make sure that you understand what you are investing in and whether or not it is worth it.

Affiliate programs, whether you have to pay for them or not, can be a great way to make extra money. In fact, many people who are very determined are able to make them their sole source of income without ever investing anything more than their time. Its important for all interested parties to realize that there are no investments necessary, though you shouldnt dismiss a program just because it does require payment. The worthiness of the investment is all in the details, so be sure you get them all!

Jonathan White has been involved in affiliate and other online marketing for over 4 years. He is the owner of http://www.affiliateseeking.com & http://articles.simplysearch4it.comMarlena Blog29848
Mmarianne Blog23076

Education In Third World

With the daily challenges posed by economic difficulty and other threats, governments in developing countries are working very hard to ensure that their educational institutions continue to provide a standard of education that can make its citizens at part with the educated people in more economically sound countries. To a certain extent, these Third World countries have succeeded in their crusade for quality education. The problem is that a good education comes with a price and it is often a price that many people in Third World countries are not able to pay. So, although quality education is available, it is still unreachable for a large segment of a developing countrys population.

Certainly, it is impressive to see that developing countries have educational institutions that are world-class and which offer education that can rival that provided by wealthier nations around the world. There is a clear recognition of the role that education plays in overcoming hardship and poverty. However elusive it may be, a good education is still viewed as the best way to a better life.

Among the developing countries that have superb educational systems are such emerging markets as Mexico, India, Brazil, Turkey, the Philippines, Egypt, South Africa, Malaysia, Thailand, much of South America and several of the Persian Gulf Arab States.

Obviously, the poorest of the poor in these countries will have a hard time getting into the best schools in their vicinity. Of course, there are always scholarship programs available but these are few. Besides, people at the lowest spectrum of the economic scale are more concerned with more pressing issues related to their mere survival such as where to find food and money for clothing and shelter. After these basic needs are met, that is the only time that parents can really focus on their childrens schooling. In fact, studies indicate that once their basic economic needs are met, the first priority of most poor families is how to send their children to a good school.

India recently launched EDUSAT, an educational program aimed at giving quality education to even its poorest citizens. Among the groups first initiatives is the development of a $100 laptop which the government hopes to distribute by 2007 to public schools all over the country.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles for http://4educationinformation.com/ - In addition, Jonathon also writes articles for http://4kidsandteens.com/ and http://iweatherworld.com/.Mechelle Blog68587
Marianna Blog53027

Google's 8 Specific Quality Guidelines Revisited

Being removed from Google's index and falling traffic are probably the two worst SEO nightmares. And as they say "ignorance is not an excuse" since Google have publicly stated their guidelines for websites. The article aims to inform the SEO newbies and remind the experienced SEO experts of the 8 Specific Quality Guidelines set by Google.

1.Avoid hidden text or hidden links

Hidden text are textual contents that cant be seen by the site's visitor, keywords or keyword phrases are added for the search engine, SERP and rankings. The simplest form of hidden text is creating invisible text by making the font color similar to the background color but it is also the easy to detect because simple highlighting can cause the hidden text to appear. Cascading Style Sheets(CSS) are also used to create hidden text using it's built in features that can hide your text.

Instead of using hidden text, SEO practitioners should focus on adding relevant keyword phrases throughout the text but be careful to maintain the copy should be read as normal text.

2. Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects.

Cloaking is delivering pages designed for the search engines while providing people with different results. It is a technique where in the content presented to the search engine spider is different from what is presented on the user. The legitimate use of cloaking is for the contents that cannot be parsed like those pages made from Macromedia Flash. Today, cloaking is abused because it is used to trick search engine users. For example, a user made a search about "web design company" but the page was redirected into another site. On the other hand an example of sneaky redirection, is when a user click on a page in SERP and he got redirected to another page.

3. Don't send automatic queries to Google.

Using unauthorized programs to check rankings,submit pages, etc violates Google's terms of service, so if you really have to use such, use it with common sense or don't use it at all.

4. Don't load pages with irrelevant words.

Web pages should be made for the users, not for the search engines. SEO practitioners should focus on making sites rich in information and content. Loading your page with irrelevant words can attract traffic but doesn't improve sales because you do not provide the vital information needed by the visitor.

5.Don't create multiple pages, sub domains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.

In addition to that, don't make multiple domains that are only established to increase site traffic. Don't use pages on other domains to redirect traffic to your site, don't use mirror sites, those with exact content but different domains and too many pages in SERP that redirects to your site. These techniques gives instant results but expect to be banned when you get caught.

6. Don't create pages that install viruses, Trojans, or other bad ware.

Everything that can cause harm to the Internet community should be avoided.

7. Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

Doorway pages are pages designed for driving traffic to another page and usually focusing on specific keywords. Generally, doorway pages are designed for search engines only and this should be avoided because the visitors do not benefit from this practice.

8. If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value.

You should not participate on link schemes designed to merely increase your Page Rank, don't exchange links with sites that are run by spammers, link farms, free for all directories, adult sites and gambling sites. Avoid establishing partnership with sites with no or little content and exclusively made to boost rankings.

In the end, you should aim to provide clear, unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit and return. The best thing to do is to avoid dirty tricks intended to gain instant engine rankings. Aim for long term plan of success, using organic search engine optimization is an option. It will enable you to make pages for the user and at the same time friendly to the search engines.

Mei Rose Galang is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist for WebWorksFirst, a Web Design and Offshore Outsourcing Company. For more details of her work please visit, http://www.webworksfirst.com.Nadiya Blog80387
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