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October 31, 2006

Ad Copy – Making It Count

Ever find that some ads just don’t quite get the pull as well as others? Maybe some flounder while others even failed miserably. And you just seem to have a little difficulty figuring out what works and what doesn’t.

Well, start counting. Here are some pointers on what makes good ad copy work.

1. Compelling Headline – Look around. What grabs your attention in today’s newspaper or main ezine headlines? Check the New York Times and USA Today. Use buzzwords or whatever it takes. Reach out and grab your targeted industry reader.

2. Sub-Structure –Readers today have tired eyes. The Internet and email keep growing and cranking out more and more each day. So make your copy appealing. Chop up your copy by using sub-headings and bullet points. Don’t make people read endlessly to find major points.

3. Contact – People want to communicate and not just toss money away. Offer a phone number with a human on the other end. Skip the automated menus and elevator music. You don’t like it; your clients don’t either. You are busy; so are they. Tune into THEIR needs.

4. Order Options –Buyers want choices. So give them some. Set up ordering via as many ways as possible; email links, toll-free phone and fax number, online and postal forms. One size doesn’t fit all here.

5. Free-something – People want free samples, trials, bonuses or anything.

6. Price – Don’t shy away from sharing price – at least a range. Don’t irritate readers and make them search. How much? Make it clear.

7. More info – Offer a place for people to learn more. Make they reply email address a domain name with information, maybe a free ebook or report with photos, testimonials, etc. In other words, don’t have readers reply to info@yahoo.com; have them reply to free_report@MarketingTools.com. Be creative!

8. Ad Errors – Test your ad BEFORE it goes out. Do you links work that you mention? Does the phone number work? What does the voicemail recording say on the phone? Does your email address work that you’ve included? Make sure to check details and look for spelling and grammar errors.

9. Legibility – Can you read it? Is there so much content that your ad is too tiny to read? Make sure to see a proof beforehand. Then print it out and look it over.

10. Font – Don’t get fancy & use scripts that people can’t read. Keep it simple!

In summary, before you head to the press with your next ad copy, count and see how many good points you’ve covered. Put your copy to work and make it a return on your investment, not a write off


To Your Success,

Leon Edward

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

About the Author...

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income.
Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

Posted by homebusinessit at 03:04 PM |

Ace Your Ad Copy with These Tips

What percentage of prospects come your way as a result of your ad copy? What percentage of sales do you close because of your ads? Well, increase both percentages with some of our tips, tailored to your own ad campaigns.

1. ERRORS – It’s tough to have 100 percent perfect ad copy. Nearly impossible! So tell your readers that whoever spots five errors in your ad copy due to grammar issues or misspelled words, wins a reward. This way your readers will not only be reading your copy longer, increasing the likelihood of purchasing awhile they’re at it, you’ll get editing done at no charge for your revised printing or online publication.

2. YES – Lead your readers to the conclusion you want; that is to say, “Yes” to your offer, by asking them several yes and no questions in your ad copy that have affirmative answers. Have the questions be based on the main offer and focus on what will happen if they do not buy. But don’t set a negative tone by having them reply “No.” Or by the time they’re through reading, they might say, “No” to you!

3. CHARITY – Tie in a percentage of your sales with one of your favorite charities. And make mention of this in your ad copy. This is a win-win strategy because your company gives back to society plus your clients read about it; it improves your image in their eyes and shares your concerns. And they give, too. Everyone helps each other.

4. GUARANTEE – Include a good, solid guarantee in your offer. For examples, look at the last thing you purchased and check out the guarantee. In a nutshell, make it a lifetime offer and / or give them back MORE than they gave you.

5. PS – Since most people look for this feature, add it! Say something in your P.S. – like give them a Bonus offer if they reply by a certain deadline. Or focus on your best reason why the reader should buy – and NOW.

6. CONTACT – Do include complete contact information – that works! Test any email addresses and telephone numbers before going to press

So next time you need to ace your ad copy, go back over what you wrote and tweak it here and there for improvements. Better yet, have a contest and invite your readers to do it for you! How’s that for a win-win solution?!


To Your Success,

Leon Edward

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

About the Author...
Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website Internet Home Business Ideas and Opportunities

Posted by homebusinessit at 03:46 AM |

Benefits of E-mail Marketing

If you use e-mail marketing correct, which means no spamming or any unethical techniques this type of marketing for your Internet business can be very beneficial.

1. E-mail marketing is a faster method and less expensive to create than other media communications. When you use this method for your Internet marketing, you allow for a direct response from your prospects to either join or opt-out. When you send your marketing to your target audience, you can receive an almost immediate response. When you create your marketing campaign, you can personalize it according to the preferences of your prospects and this is not difficult to do. Tracking and measuring the success of your campaigns is immediate with the responses coming in. If you thought word-of-mouth is great using e-mail marketing is even better because the word-of-mouth becomes a click and your prospect (if they like your services) can immediately forward the marketing information you sent to their friends and families. With e-mail, marketing you can also reach specialty markets quicker.

2. Create e-mail marketing easily with a wide range of formats including, HTML, plain text, and rich media. Customize your e-mail presentation for a select target or create a campaign that addresses everyone. Software programs are available that let you determine when you want to send your information to your prospects, frequently or sporadically. You are not slowed down because you need postage or the delivery person to pick-up your mailings, or even driving to the post office personally. You can send your information with the press of a button, and immediately send it to your highly targeted prospects and the response is just as quick.

3. E-mail marketing supports different techniques to enhance your information to the consumer. A tool that you may not realize is at your disposal for your e-mail marketing is an “alert.” With this handy little word, you can send an announcement to your preferred customers about products that become available or newsworthy events and your established customers receive the e-mail before anyone else on your list does. Customers like to feel that they are important. When they feel that you, as a provider, value them, they will be more likely to spend their money with you and not your competitors. You can benefit from this technique with new lists also by using the terms “special announcement.” Your prospects are more likely to look at this e-mail than a “normal” e-mail describing the same information.

4. You can utilize e-zines to enhance your e-mail campaign. With this added to tool you would entice your consumers to your business with eye-catching designs and information that is more detailed. Advertising with e-mail newsletters or E-zine is a powerful marketing tool that reaches a large audience for a low cost. When you use e-mail as a form of advertising you will see the return of your advertising dollars climb especially if you use the double opt-in technique. When you use this method, your e-mail campaign is going to those prospects that are interested in your products and/or services and will eventually become customers.

5. Another benefit of using e-mail for your Internet marketing is to create a Signature File. You can attach this signature on everything you send over the Internet. This can be attached to not only your e-mails, but also your e-zines, when you post in forums, and every other electronic media. Not sure what this is? It is a small piece of biographical information attached to the end of an e-mail or other forms of electronic correspondence. It can be a sentence or longer. This is an excellent opportunity to let the public know who you are, what you have to offer, and then direct them to your business. If you attach the URL, they can click directly on your link and find out more about the products and/or services you offer.

When drawing in prospects to your business the easier it is for them to find what they are looking for the higher the chances they will stay with you. If your website if difficult for you leads to navigate through, they will go to your competitor and if your e-mail information is boring or long, they will ignore it. If your e-mail information is exciting with a link that takes them exactly to your site with no fuss, they will probably stay around and then eventually become customers generating income.



To Your Success,

Leon Edward

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

About the Author...

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

Posted by homebusinessit at 03:42 AM |

October 30, 2006

7 Tips for Writing Sales Letters That Work

Sales letters are the unpaid, untiring salesmen for your product. Make them effective and they will reward you. If they are ineffective you are leaving so much money on the table. Try the following tips to make the most of your salesmen-in-print.

Analyze other people's sales letters. If you receive a sales letter and you are tempted to buy file it away. When you next have to write a sales letter get the file out and look for inspiration. For each retained sales letter examine the wording, the layout, the offer and how it is presented. You can even make notes on the sales letters that did not persuade you to buy. What did they do wrong? How could they be improved?

Include testimonials in the letter. Comments from official sources outside your company or from satisfied customers will greatly add to the proof your prospect needs to become interested in your product or service.

One often-neglected part of the sales letter is the order or request form at the end of the letter. Make it clear, attractive and easy to complete. If possible restate the offer on the form so that the customer is in no doubt about what he is ordering.

Make it easy for the prospect to contact you. Include a contact address, email, and fax number as well as a contact phone number.

When they first see a sales page many people scan the headline, then go to the bottom of the page to read the PS. This is because the PS often summarizes the offer. Make sure your PS does this. If you feel you need more than one PS to fully give the benefits you are offering use three, not two. How do marketers know one or three P.S.'s work better than two? Testing.

If possible test everything in your sales letter. A change to your offer, the price, the typeface or how a customer is encouraged to respond can each make a difference to your response rates. If you do not have the time or resources to test everything then at least test different headlines. A change in headline can double the response or better.

After the sales page has been before your prospects for a while take some time to analyze the results. How many sales did you make? When you sat down to write the letter you should have had a clear outcome in mind. Take a look at the response to the sales letter. Did you get the outcome you wanted? If you did not, why was that? If you find your sales letter cannot sell your product or service then either it is too complicated for your customers to understand or you have not expressed the benefits well enough.


To Your Success,

Leon Edward

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

About the Author...

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://homebusinessit.com

 

 

Posted by homebusinessit at 08:49 PM |

October 29, 2006

Using Keywords and Keyword Phrases Effectively

For best search engine optimization, you must use your keywords
and keywords phrases effectively.

For optimal effectiveness, use different keywords and/or keyword
phrases on each page of your website. Optimize each page for
those keywords and/or keyword phrases that are relevant to the
content of that particular page.

Title Tag

-Use keywords and/or keyword phrases as a descriptive title for
each page.
-Use your most relevant keywords and/or keyword phrases in your
home page title.
-To be the most effective, title tags should contain only
keywords and/or keyword phrases.
-Repeat the keywords and/or keyword phrases 2-3 times but make
sure that the title makes sense. An example for this page would
be: Keyword Usage, Using Keywords and Keyword Phrases
Effectively.

Meta Tag Keywords

-Place all relevant keywords and keyword phrases in your meta
tag....
-If possible, avoid using single keywords as they may be too
competitive. Use keyword phrases instead.
-Don't repeat your keywords more than 2-3 times to avoid
offending some search engines.
-Separate keywords and keyword phrases with commas or spaces, not
both. Example: keyword,keyword phrase,keyword or keyword keyword
phrase keyword.
-Use common misspellings or miss keyings. Ex: keywrod or
keywird.
-Use different forms of keywords whenever possible. Ex: web site
and website.
-Use singular and plural versions of keywords. Ex: website and
websites.
-Use upper and lower case. Ex: Website and website

Meta Tag description

-Use your keywords and keyword phrases in your meta tag
description.....
-Repeat your most important keywords and/or keyword phrases a
minimum of 2-3 times.
-The total length of your description tag should be no more than
20-25 words.
-Your description should make sense as this is what often shows
up in the search engine results page. This is your opportunity
to persuade users to click through to your site so be sure your
description is enticing and contains keywords and/or keyword
phrases that will attract visitors.

Content

-Many search engines concentrate on the first 250 words of your
text when looking for keyword relevancy and density so
concentrate your keywords and/or keyword phrases there.
-Strive for 5-7% keyword density (5-7 keywords and/or keyword
phrases per 100 words of text). If your keyword density is much
higher than this, your copy may not make sense AND the search
engines may consider it keyword spamming.
-Use your most important keywords and/or keyword phrases
throughout your copy but without sounding repetitious.
-Use your most important keywords and/or keyword phrases in your
H1 tag. To give more weight to your H1 tag, use only one H1 tag
in your copy. (Your H1 tag should contain your most important
statement so you shouldn't need to use more than one H1 tag.)
-Use keywords and/or keyword phrases in your image ALT tags. For
example your logo ALT tag should say something such as:
ALT="keyword logo image".

META tags are not as important as they once were as most search
engines are now searching your copy when looking for keywords
and/or keyword phrases. Therefore, it's become increasingly
important to have the first 250 words of your copy be keyword
rich.

Sometimes, it may be better to write your content first, then
choose your keywords and/or keyword phrases from the content.
Rewrite your content as needed, adding keywords and/or keyword
phrases that pertain to the theme of the content. In this way,
you've chosen keywords and/or keyword phrases that are relevant
to your content, instead of trying to write content to fit your
keywords and/or keyword phrases.

To Your Success,

Leon Edward
http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

About the Author...
Leon Edward helps people start and grow your online business and writes on marketing, promotion,  home internet business residual income and provides FREE content for websites and ezines. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

Posted by homebusinessit at 09:39 AM |

FREE Content for Websites, Ezines, Ebooks...

FREE Content for Your Website

Articles by Leon Edward found on this blog below can be posted on your website, in your ezine simply by copying and pasting  but you must include the author's resource box either below or above the article.
The author's resource box appears between the lines
About the Author
Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business income and writes on marketing, promotion, residual income and provides FREE content for websites and ezines. Search ideas, reviews, case studies, articles, opportunities and an eBiz  Blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com
 Note the link on websites should be live, clickable.
Also, It's not required but please email me at freecontent@homebusinessit.com and let me know your website. I also may want to exchange links.

 

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Researching InformationTo Develop Your Unique Content

We live in a sea of information. And information overload is an increasingly common complaint. Part of the complaint arises because we get hit with different headlines that point to the same content. So we waste time on things that have no added value. Bummer.

When you email your list or put up content on your site, and assuming you want to generate loyalty, it's necessary that you have content others haven't seen a dozen times elsewhere.

If this makes sense to you, here are some ideas you can use to EASILY generate fresh content with a minimal amount of time and effort.

First of all, think about a subject in which you are interested. Let's say it's horticulture. Now if you're not aware of it, let me put you in the picture. Most people do web searches from Google's home page and stop there. Not at all creative. Not at all digging for information from which to develop original content.

So let's go exploring...

1 - Google has lots of tools besides just web searches. They let you check the news. (http://news.google.com) As of this writing, there are 1,680 news items listed by Google on the word horticulture. Bet you could easily do a summary of some of these articles and create your own content. But let's not stop there.

2 - Google also has "groups." (http://groups.google.com/) These are folks who like to discuss *your* subject. So now you can go even farther. Look up horticulture in their groups. Now this information is potentially gold. Why? Because you can see what it is about horticulture that lots of folks are interested in.

Think you might be able to do a little research and come up with a free or even a for-profit report that gives them what they want?

Check out Google's other tools, too. You can even get research info from universities through Google. Start here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/

3 - Next method: Do this search (keeping in the punctuation as written):

+horticulture +free +filetype:pdf

As of this writing, Google shows 196,000 hits for this query. What you get here are free downloads in pdf format about your subject.

Now you can't simply copy and use it as your own information. You have to create your writing in your own words. But there's no law that says you can't summarize what you find in other people's works. To make the point, you could even call your work something like: "Survey Report: Latest from the Horticulture Front!"

4 - Go to Alexa.com. Do a search on your subject, in this example, horticulture. It provides the exact same results as Google because it's powered by Google. So why bother, right? Wrong. Because Alexa *does* provide value added information.

When you do the search, you don't want to click the link that takes you to the listed site. Instead you want to follow the link that says "Site info." When you do this, you'll find a section called: "People who visit this page also visit." This can be very valuable because it potentially shows *what the marketplace is interested in.* This can enable you to tailor your information product to what people want.

These are just some of the easy ways to branch out your explorations and find gold to weave into golden braids.

Golden searching... :)

About the Author...

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com
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Writing Effective Emails

You have joined a great business and you want to create a downline to make it a success. Or you have found something that you believe will interest a good majority of the web users.

You make your decision to begin a mass emailing campaign. Have you got what it takes to write an email and get the replies flying in?

Most of us send out emails almost every day we do it so often with out even thinking about it, as a result they are often written and sent out less than perfect and fail to produce the desired result.

The purpose of sending out mass email is usually intended to attract visitors to view a website rather than make a sale, therefore it is important to take your time and define your aim precisely before writing the email.

Keep it simple and brief; avoid using long or technical words as some people may not understand them. Do not use three words where one will suffice. If the email is long and full of waffle boredom will set in and without a doubt it is likely to be deleted before reaching the end of it.

The opening paragraph is vital. If it does not click with the reader right away you have wasted your time sending it.

Even the best writers spend time editing and rewriting their article or email.

Start with an eye catching headline. It might be a question or statement. You must grab their attention right away. Look at it from your readers point of view, is it forceful enough or exciting to make you want to read on and discover the end result?

Headlines hook prospects and lead them to the next line. There you start to build their interest to ensure they read the next sentence... and each subsequent one.

You might even find it is worth offering a free gift or a monthly newsletter that would help their business. There are plenty of free e-books on the web that you can give away.

If the intention of your email is to make a sale then offer a guarantee or a full refund this should dispel any fears they may have.

A cheeky way to test out your email is to send it to a couple of friends who are interested in business, add a message at the end of it and ask them to email you.

If you don't receive a reply then you know your email was discarded before they reached your message, it is then a good idea to edit your email and remove any unneeded text.


About the Author...

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income.
Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://homebusinessit.com
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Using Forums to Boost Your Online Business

There are many ways to boost your business online - writing articles, search engine optimization, acquiring incoming links - the list goes on; but one of the best ways which is often overlooked is to find forums relating to your line of business and join in with them.

Being a frequent participant on forums can increase links back to your website, increase your chances of being seen as an expert, increase your mailing list, sell more of your product, get new affiliates to sign up, make you new friends - in fact there's not a lot to be said against joining a few forums. However, there are some things to think about before you get started:

DO:

1. Research each forum before you join. Make sure it's relevant to your business and see if the participants are in your target market. Look at how much traffic the forum gets. How busy is it? - there's no point in joining a dead forum with very few posts.

2. Check the forum rules before you post. Some forums will allow you to post adverts for your business while others will object. Check if you are allowed to add a signature at the end of your posts - adding a small biography with a web link to your business is a great way to increase incoming links to your site and to get more traffic.

3. Be polite and treat everyone the way you would like to be treated. Even though you don't meet people face to face you will build up some great relationships if you take the time to give good answers to questions, to be helpful and to respect other people's opinions. And every post you answer adds to your reputation. Use your posts to give genuine, useful advice, not just to plug your business and you'll soon be looked on as an expert.

4. Don't be afraid to ask for advice - no-one knows everything and sometimes you will need help.

5. To make the most of your time on the forums, allow yourself only a certain amount of time each day. Read only the posts that are relevant and that interest you and post answers quickly before moving on. It's very easy to spend the whole day on forums and not get anything else done.

DON'T:

1. Never, ever use a post to blatantly advertise your business, particularly if the forum rules don't allow it. Nothing will damage your reputation faster than spamming a forum.

2. Don't go through the list of forum members, collect email addresses and send them unsolicited mail. At best you'll be banned from the forum and at worst the owners might report you to your ISP.

3. Don't ever get involved in a flame war (this is when a heated conversation on a forum boils over and degenerates into nothing but an exchange of personal insults). It might be really satisfying to say what you think about someone, especially if they've been getting on your nerves, but just imagine what other people will think of you if you do.


In conclusion, treat people online like you treat people in real life. Think of it as a networking event that's taking place on your computer and don't forget that other posts on the forums are made by real people with real feelings.

You already know how to make friends and new contacts face to face. Apply what you already know to online networking and you could be enjoying great success with a global audience.
About the Author

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business income and writes on marketing, promotion, residual income and provides FREE content for websites and ezines. Search ideas, reviews, case studies, articles, opportunities and an eBiz  Blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

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10 Costly Search Engine Mistakes to Avoid

If you have a website then you already know the importance of traffic. Traffic is to Internet marketing as location is to real estate. It's the only thing that really matters. If you cannot generate targeted visitors to your site, you will not make any sales.

Usually the owner or designer of the website is the person designated to drive traffic to the site. The chief ingredient in generating traffic is the search engine. Of coarse, you can use advertising, but it's going to cost you. Using the search engines to generate targeted (interested in your product) traffic is the least expensive method known.

Unfortunately, many website owners do not understand the importance of search engine visibility, which leads to traffic. They place more importance on producing a "pretty" website. Not that this is bad, but it is really secondary to search engine placement. Hopefully, the following list of common mistakes, made by many website owners, will help you generate more targeted traffic to your site...after all, isn't that what you want.

1. Not using keywords effectively.
This is probably one of the most critical area of site design. Choose the right keywords and potential customers will find your site. Use the wrong ones and your site will see little, if any, traffic.

2. Repeating the same keywords.
When you use the same keywords over and over again (called keyword stacking) the search engines may downgrade (or skip) the page or site.

3. Robbing pages from other websites.
How many times have you heard or read that "this is the Internet and it's ok" to steal icons and text from websites to use on your site. Don't do it. Its one thing to learn from others who have been there and another to outright copy their work. The search engines are very smart and usually detect page duplication. They may even prevent you from ever being listed by them.

4. Using keywords that are not related to your website.
Many unethical website owners try to gain search engine visibility by using keywords that have nothing at all to do with their website. They place unrelated keywords in a page (such as "sex", the name of a known celebrity, the hot search topic of the day, etc.) inside a meta tag for a page. The keyword doesn't have anything to do with the page topic. However, since the keyword is popular, they think this will boost their visibility. This technique is considered spam by the search engines and may cause the page (or sometimes the whole site) to be removed from the search engine listing.

5. Keyword stuffing.
Somewhat like keyword stacking listed above, this means to assign multiple keywords to the description of a graphic or layer that appears on your website by using the "alt=" HTML parameter. If the search engines find that this text does not really describe the graphic or layer it will be considered spam.

6. Relying on hidden text.
You might be inclined to think that if you cannot see it, it doesn't hurt. Wrong.... Do not try to hide your keywords or keyword phrases by making them invisible. For example, some unethical designers my set the keywords to the same color as the background of the web page; thereby, making it invisible.

7. Relying on tiny text.
This is another version of the item above (relying on hidden text). Do not try to hide your keywords or keyword phrases by making them tiny. Setting the text size of the keywords so small that it can barely be seen does this.

8. Assuming all search engines are the same.
Many people assume that each search engine plays by the same rules. This is not so. Each has their own rule base and is subject to change anytime they so desire. Make it a point to learn what each major search engine requires for high visibility.

9. Using free web hosting.
Do not use free web hosting if you are really serious about increasing site traffic via search engine visibility. Many times the search engines will eliminate content from these free hosts.

10. Forgetting to check for missing web page elements.
Make sure to check every page in your website for completeness, like missing links, graphics, etc. There are sites on the web that will do this for free.

This is just a few of the methods and techniques that you should avoid. Do not give in to the temptation that these methods will work for you. They will do more harm than good for your website.

Not only will you spend weeks of wasted effort, you may have your site banned from the search engines forever. Invest a little time to learn the proper techniques for increasing search engine visibility and your net traffic will increase.


About the Author

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business income and writes on marketing, promotion, residual income and provides FREE content for websites and ezines. Search ideas, reviews, case studies, articles, opportunities and an eBiz  Blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

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Autoresponders - Your Number One Marketing Tool

One of the key tools for anyone wanting to do business on the World
Wide Web is an autoresponder. It also is one of the most misunderstood
tools among those new to the effort – and sometimes even for those who
have been online for many years.



In its simplest form, autoresponders allow you to create a fixed
message that will go back to anyone who e-mails a specific address. The
most common use for this is the “I’m away from my office until 29 May
and will not be checking my e-mail until I return” type of message.
Messages of this type can be created within the control panel of most
ISP e-mail servers.



Autoresponders are far more versatile, however. Even the basic
autoresponder that comes with your e-mail account can be set up to send
a document or photo, even an audio or video file to anyone contacting
that address. This is the most basic form of using an autoresponder for
delivering a product, but it is not recommended for products you are
selling because of the lack of control. Basically, whatever you are
selling will be delivered to anyone sending an e-mail to that address –
whether they paid for it or not.



Third party autoresponders provide the kind of control needed for a
marketing or sales application. The good news is there are a number of
excellent autoresponders that can be used at no charge. Those that do
have a fee – whether a one-time purchase fee for a system you set up on
your own server or a monthly/yearly fee for one you access online –
typically are well within the budgets of nearly anyone trying to do
business online.



Perhaps even better news is that autoresponders are not difficult to
set up, even those that offer several levels of capability across a
broad range of possible applications. The largest and most popular
autoresponders often come with tutorials – some of them video – that
walk you through the set-up process step-by-step. Many also have user
forums or support systems that will help you if you get stuck.



The possible uses for an autoresponder at this level are legion. For
example, you can set one up to send out a newsletter to your mailing
list on a regular basis, another to send e-mails advising your list of
special sales, upgrades, new releases or other such information. Still
another autoresponder can deliver your digital product, along with
future patches or upgrades.



These different tasks actually can be set up using a single
autoresponder, even a single account, depending on the capabilities of
the system you have selected. Many of the free autoresponders allow you
to upgrade to a fee-based version, with far more capabilities, without
losing anything you already have created.



Anyone who thinks they may someday want to have a mailing list or sell
any kind of product – especially digital, such as downloadable software
or e-books – should make investigating autoresponders one of their
first and most important tasks. The more you know about them in
advance, the more prepared you will be to quickly and efficiently get
your business online.
About the Author

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business income and writes on marketing, promotion, residual income and provides FREE content for websites and ezines. Search ideas, reviews, case studies, articles, opportunities and an eBiz  Blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

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Turn one quick article into a hundreds years of free advertising and marketing

In one moment, can you create a legacy that will outlast you? I can, in fact, I have. I've written articles that will be around after I'm gone. They'll be reprinted and reused by new publishers trying to reach the target audience interested in my topic.



 

When an author creates an article, it becomes a permanent fixture, driving traffic and enticing new customers all the time. So the question is frequently asked, "How long will an article be available to the target market?" It's a fair question and one that is both relatively easy, and almost impossible, to answer. What happens to your articles once they are distributed?

 



 

~Posted on Websites~

This is the first destination that matters. Websites always need content. Webmasters love having relevant articles on their sites that will help their visitors make better decisions. The more you write on your subject, the more of an expert you will become. If there's a widgets website and your articles are all over that site, the target market interested in widgets are going to come to know you as an expert.

 



 

So when will the webmaster take your articles off the page? Almost never. Why would they? It's an additional page on their site that the spiders and their visitors alike appreciate having access to. That means that your link in the resource box is going to be reaching new widget audiences for years to come.

 



 

~Sent in Newsletters~

Publishing a newsletter is very popular, but creating enough content by yourself is difficult. When newsletter editors publish your widget articles in this month's newsletter, it is sent out to a group of people who have demonstrated interest in the topic of widgets. How did they demonstrate interest? They signed up for the newsletter. You could pay for an ad, or you could write an article. Articles are more interesting to subscribers than ads are, and you can demonstrate your expertise more fully with a well written article.

 



 

~Archived on the Web~

Many newsletters, in addition to being sent directly to the inboxes of your target market, are also archived on the website of the newsletter publisher, giving your article double exposure. Talk about better bang for your buck!

 



 

~Linked at Sites~

Don't underestimate the power of links. Sure you get a link from your article to your page, but here's something that many people haven't considered: A link from the widgets home page to the widgets newsletter which contains your widgets article adds a tremendous weight to the relevance of the link from your article's resource box back to your home page. This is a very advanced linking strategy because these links are pure ambrosia for the Google Spider.

 



 

These heavily weighted links generally show up 3-6 months after the newsletter has been sent out - giving you an unexpected bonus boost with Google Page Rank and Search Engine Results Position.

 



 

~Constant and Never Ending Submission~

New publishers and editors are always joining Article Marketer Universe, so your articles are constantly being sent out to new content sites, new newsletters and new article repositories. Your words are always being delivered to a fresh set of prospective customers.

 



 

~Article Directories~

Your articles are posted on article directories, and they are available forever. These sites want content and they'll keep your article around forever.

 



 

~Used by Affiliates~

Your article might also be used by your affiliates as they try to create new business for you. That means your article will show up on your affiliate's sites, in their newsletters, targeting another fresh set of prospective customers - or even new affiliates for you.

 



 

~Included in e-Books~

E-book publishing is entering a new phase of popularity. Free reprint ebooks and rebrandable ebooks are used to introduce newcomers to a given product space. Remember when you were new at your thing? Didn't you do research, look things up on the web, and read the ebooks that were available? Don't you wish there had been more information easily available? When your article appears in an ebook, you have been introduced to yet another qualified prospect. You are being recognized as an expert in the space.

 



 

So what is the life span of an article? It can be years and years. I know that my articles have been picked up long after I've written them and all of a sudden I've got a bunch of new visitors I wasn't expecting. The cumulative effect of having several articles out there makes your article life span
almost as long as yours... maybe longer!
About the Author

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business income and writes on marketing, promotion, residual income and provides FREE content for websites and ezines. Search ideas, reviews, case studies, articles, opportunities and an eBiz  Blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

*******************************************************************************

Posted by homebusinessit at 09:20 AM |

October 28, 2006

The Importance of Opt-in E-mail Leads in Network Marketing

If anyone tells you that network marketing (NWM) is easy, you are not getting the whole truth. It is not and for that matter, starting any business venture is not easy. There are three primary ingredients to network marketing a success; time, effort, and you guessed it – money. Time is not difficult if you know how to reschedule your responsibilities. Effort is completely up to you. What are you willing to dedicate to your business? The more effort you put in the quicker the results will shine forth. Money is self-limiting and can affect your time and effort. You have to be able to look at your resources and find what method or combination of methods works best for you.

Remember that advertising for your business can take many forms and opt-in is an excellent way to generate leads for your network marketing business. There are three opt-in techniques. The first one is called “opt-in”. This is when an interested person or client signs up for your service or email list. Other people can add others to the list, so this may not always be accurate.

Another type of opt-in is called “confirmed opt-in”. This is a list of consumers that want to be included on your email and correspondence list. They may have signed up on your website, or contacted you directly. They are interested in your product or service and you will add them to your list. These people can unsubscribe at any time and is quite effective for many businesses.

The other type is called “double opt-in”.  This is when the prospective client or consumer must be the one to sign-up on the list and then confirm a second time through an e-mail that they want to be on your list. This step verifies that anyone who was added without his or her permission has the ability to unsubscribe. The added protection is that if they do nothing they will not be added to the list. The benefit is that they will no longer receive e-mails they do not wish to receive. You will not be wasting valuable time marketing to someone who is not interested.

The double opt-in is the best method if you want a highly targeted list of leads. With this method, your time is wisely spent and you will not constantly need to clean up your database. Yes, you will have to maintain it but not as often.

When you are sending your e-mail campaign for network marketing, remember your prospects are less likely to read an e-mail if it appears they are a number among thousands that receives your message. You can have the best opt-in technique available and if the prospective lead feels as if they are not important, they will delete your message without reading it. Another important aspect of network marketing is the tools you have in place to measure your success. Software programs are available that will help you automate your network marketing business and measure the success of the targeted lists that you are mailing to. Have you considered your objectives? This is very important before sending out e-mails with opt-in offers. If you receive back thousands of requests, yet have not established your goals, you will be spinning your wheels. The message is as important as the targeted list – is your message captivating or boring, long and dry or short and captivating? It is important that you work out these details before you begin your network marketing (NWM) business.

A network marketing business (NWM) takes dedication and a diligent effort on your part to make it grown and become a success. It may take you a little bit of time to find the right combination of advertising but if you combine the technique of opt-in with e-zines (e-newsletters), posting in various forums, and keeping your website enticing you will find that you have are a success in your business. Remember, to bring growth to a business you need more than one marketing plan. You want to cast your business net wide, so utilize the tools that are available to become a success. It takes time to find the right combination of advertising that brings in the business but with time and effort, you will be pleased with your results.

 To Your Success and Financial Freedom,

Leon Edward


http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

About the Author...

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

Posted by homebusinessit at 05:53 PM |

How E-Zine Advertising Can Increase your Opt-In E-mail Leads

Advertising with e-mail newsletters or E-zine is a powerful marketing tool that reaches a large audience for a low cost. When you begin creating your E-zine, you should begin with a questionnaire that will narrow down the reasons you want to use this tool:

• Who is your target audience

• What is your subject matter

• What do you want to convey to your audience

• What are your goals and objectives in using this tool

Once you have narrowed down your objects, it is time to look at your target list. Are you trying to reach men, women, or both? What is the average age of your audience? Where are they located? Do you want to create multiple E-zines to reach a variety of targeted lists? Do you know what the interests are of your audience and what they prefer to read? Do you have an idea of their educational level? Do they need the service you are providing? What is special about this target list? How is your target list like you and different from you? Taking an in-depth look at these questions will help you specifically to design your newsletter to reach your targeted list.

Another aspect to consider when you begin creating your E-zine is are you doing this by yourself or do you have a team working with you? How much time are you willing to devout to the development of the newsletter? What is your financial commitment in producing and distributing the newsletter to your target list?

To reach the maximum amount of people on your list you want to create your E-zine in “text-only” format. This will ensure that your audience will read the information you have sent to them in the format you started with. Do not worry about all the bells and whistles that you could add, you want maximum exposure for little cost and this is the way to accomplish that.

There are many components to sending an E-zine to your target audience and if you are doing this solo, you will find that you are the writer, editor, publisher, and list manager. This can be overwhelming for someone just beginning a home business in Internet marketing. Where can you come up with ideas for your newsletter? The answer may surprise you – right in your own home! Take a look at the snail mail you receive everyday – anything there you want to share with your audience? You can use the information that travels to your e-mail inbox – anything useful. Another area of interest is your own experiences. Let your mind travel outside your home or office, what is of interest in the world that you can incorporate into your newsletter? Coming up with ideas is not that difficult once you realize you have an enormous source all around you.

Another interesting way to come up with ideas is to post that very question to your audience and let them respond with what they would like to see in an upcoming newsletter. You can even make this a monthly feature within your newsletter. This will draw in more readers and of course, the more you have reading your E-zine the more profit you will be making.

There are many ways to publish your E-zine. Deciding the method you will use to deliver your newsletter is as important as the decision of what information you put in to it. Before we look at the methods available, we will look at what is required to publish your newsletter.

• New Subscriber request is received and you will need to add the e-mail address to your database and send a welcome reply message

• Receiving requests to be removed from your list will require you to remove the e-mail address from your database and send them an e-mail stating that you have received their request and that they have been removed.

• Mailing of your E-zine to each individual on your list, which may not seem that complicated if your list is small. Remember one of the purposes of developing an E-zine is to draw in consumers. If your list grows to hundreds or more you will not want to be doing this manually, you will be looking for some type of automation.

• Customer service will need attending to as well. You do not want to be late in responding to the questions or concerns your consumers have.

Now that you have looked at what is involved the three methods of delivering your E-zine to your target list is:

• Sending out manually yourself

• Use a ListServer that provides free service

• Hire a Professional List Host

You understand the basics; you know that this method of reaching your target list will bring in more leads than a simple e-mail message. Do not sit there any longer, start designing your E-zine today, and watch your business grow.




To Your Success,

Leon Edward

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

About the Author...

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

Posted by homebusinessit at 05:29 PM |

Set Goals to Achieve Success

Despite your best intentions, you will never achieve the success you are looking for if you never set goals for yourself and your business.

Ask yourself, "What goals have I written down for myself and my business?"

Most people never set goals for themselves or their business. One day leads to another and the days continue to disappear without success. How can you get to where you want to be if you never know where you are going?

The biggest roadblock to goal setting is YOU. Setting goals require you actually to write down your dreams and put a date of accomplishment to them. Do not get in the habit of working your business without goals. This leads to apathy and an empty checking account.

Goals are the lifeblood of your business. Statistics have proven over and over that small businesses fail within the first five years. You do not want to become a statistic, you want to become a success.

How do you become successful at setting goals?

The first step you should do is to write down your dreams. What dreams do you have for your life and your business? Write them down. When would you like to achieve these dreams? Put a date of accomplishment to your dreams. Get a pad of paper and start writing. Be bold and write them all down. Your dreams are now your goals.

You now have goals with deadlines. Your first step is accomplished.

Your goals will either be short term or long term. In order for your goals to become a reality you will be required to take steps that will ultimately lead to accomplishment. Look at your list. What actions will you need to take to reach your goals? Write those steps down on your pad of paper.

You now know what steps are required to achieve your goals.

Remember that steps are not huge, but small. Daily steps toward your goals will bring you to the accomplishment of your goals.

Armed with your list of goals and the steps required to achieve them, you can now start each day as a challenge to accomplish those goals. But wait, there is something else you need to be aware of.

"Where did my day go?"

Have you ever reached the end of the day exhausted and asked yourself that question? You look at your goals and realize that you did not accomplish one step toward them.

"Time Wasters" are everywhere. Time wasters have their own agenda: to stop you from achieving your goals. Do not let them win. To achieve your goals you must learn to recognize your "time wasters".

Keep a log for every hour of your day for an entire month. Write everything down that you do. It is easier if you break your day up into fifteen-minute increments. Do this for one month and you will be able to identify your "time wasters". Use the information to learn how to better use your time. The better you get at effectively using your time, the better you will become at achieving your goals.

Success doesn't happen to the uninvolved. Success happens to those who are persistent in reaching their goals. Review your goals daily and modify them as needed.

You should never be without goals. Dream and make goals to reach those dreams. Keep your goals before you. Continue to add goals to you life. Your passion will keep you focused as you accomplish each step toward your goals. Dare to be successful

 

 

To Your Success and Financial Freedom,

Leon Edward Wolinski

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

Internet Home Business Residual Income
Ideas and Opportunites...Marketing, Sales,
Success and Promotion Articles, News and Proven Tips

Posted by homebusinessit at 05:22 PM |

October 27, 2006

Making The Most of Public Domain and Private Label Content

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

What to Look Out For:

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Can You Do?

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

How about:

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

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

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

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

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

Time to start creating!

To Your Success,

Leon Edward

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

About the Author...
Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website Internet Home Business Ideas and Opportunities

 

Posted by homebusinessit at 04:47 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

How to Blog Like a Pro & Profit Like a Guru

How many times have you heard the words blog or web log or how about online diary? If you have been active online for the past few years, you’ve probably heard it thousands of times.

What you might not realize is that blogging is not only one of the fastest and easiest ways to get indexed in search engines but it is also a huge source of income that is just waiting for you to grab your share.

Blogging has actually been around for quite a while but only up until the past few years have online as well as offline marketers, become aware of how powerful this medium is.

You can find plenty of free to very inexpensive places to start a blog. A few of the top rated blog hosting services are Blogger, which is owned by Google, Wordpress and Moveable Type. If you already have a web hosting account somewhere, that runs cPanel & Fantastic, then you're in luck, because Wordpress blog software is just a couple of mouse clicks away from installing on one of your domains.

The easiest to get started and set up would have to be Blogger.com, since they are not only free, but they have a very simple step by step process for creating your blog. The only downside to Blogger is that the features that they offer are very limited. The upside to Blogger is that it's owned by Google, which is not a bad thing at all, if you know what I mean.

The most common ways that most Internet marketers are making a profit from blogs is by integrating Google Adsense into their blog. This is very simple to do and Blogger makes it even easier for you. You can also insert many other contextual advertisements into the blog such as Yahoo, Kanoodle, Chitika and many others as well as any other affiliate links you may have.

The other benefit to blogging is also the ability to add back links to your blog that point to your other websites. This is very important since the more back links that you have coming inbound to your websites, the better you will rank for the keywords you are promoting. You will also have to setup the proper keyword anchor links in your blog and on the pages of your websites that the links are pointing to.

Let's look at a summary of what needs to be done in order to take advantage of blogging.

First, you need to setup a blog either at Blogger or one of the other online services mentioned earlier or create a blog on your own domain name & web hosting account.

Once you have your blog setup, it's time to start monetizing it by adding in contextual advertising such as Google Adsense and or affiliate links. Now add in some targeted keyword anchor links that point back to your other websites.

All you have to do now is post to your blog a couple times per week and make sure that you are pinging after you make your new post. Sending out a ping is a way to let the search engines know that you have new content on your blog. The search engines will come to crawl your blog and start indexing your new content and follow all those targeted links that point back to your other websites. Are you starting to see how powerful this is?

Now just keep posting to your blogs and if you keep up with it and continue to add new content on a regular basis, you'll start reaping the rewards of blogging.

To Your Success,

Leon Edward

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

About the Author...
Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website Internet Home Business Ideas and Opportunities

Posted by homebusinessit at 04:38 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

The Very Basics of Ebay - Getting Started

So you want to sell stuff on eBay, but you have two minor problems: you
don't know how and you don't have stuff. Not a problem. Keep reading
for some tips to get you pointed in the right direction.



Before you begin you’ll need some basic equipment: Computer, Internet
access, digital camera, and some space to put your stuff. That’s really
all you’ll need to get started. You’ll also need shipping and packing
supplies but that is addressed later.



Next you’ll need to learn how to list auctions. Go to the eBay sellers
overview: http://pages.ebay.com/education/sellingtips/index.html.
This will be your lifeline. There is a plethora of information there on
everything you always wanted to know and more. Don’t be overwhelmed;
just take it one step at a time. You’ll see there is information on
listings, on bidding, on photos, on feedback – it’s all there.



Next you’ll need to figure out what to sell. Before you zero in on a
particular niche you need some experience and some feedback. Buyers are
generally leery of buying from someone who is brand new and has a
feedback rating of less than 10 evaluations. While you are getting your
feet wet, look around your own house first. You’d be amazed at what
people buy. You could list outgrown clothing, magazines, candle
holders, CD, books, flannel sheets, recipes, the ugly old lamp that was
Aunt Mildred’s, all those goofy Christmas gifts sitting in your
basement, that old baby gate with a stain on it. Get the idea? You
never know what someone will want.



Although you need experience, you don’t want to list something that
isn’t likely to sell. Do your research first before you invest the time
in putting together a listing. An easy method to use is do a “search”
on eBay, then look up COMPLETED ITEMS, then sort by HIGHEST price. Then
you’ll see if your Tommy Bahama shirt is really worth anything. Or
you’ll see that your old baseball cards had 23 listings and not one of
them sold.



Pricing is another challenge. Again, you’ll need to do your research.
See what they’re going for. Don’t have overly high expectations. You
know how you feel when you go to a garage sale and you see a pair of
jeans for $15 or books for $4 each. Many people come to eBay to look
for a bargain. Consider how much you have into the item. If you have an
item from around the house, you may consider that something is better
than nothing, so you may be inclined to start the bidding quite low. If
you bought it with the specific intention to resell, you will, at the
very minimum, want to break even, so take the price you paid for it and
consider other costs, i.e. listing fees, final value fees (all
explained in your lifeline – eBay seller overview above). People are
much more apt to bid if the bidding starts LOW. Sometimes though, you
will have collectibles that are worth a chunk of money. Don’t give away
that vintage postcard that is worth $56! Do your homework.



The next big question is how do you get paid? You determine what you
would accept. Online payments such as PayPal (paypal.com) are very
convenient. You can also decide that you’ll accept money orders or
personal checks. The more options you leave your buyers, the more
likelihood you’ll get more bids.



You also need to decide how you want to ship your items to the winners.
Many sellers use USPS, others prefer UPS. If you use USPS and ship via
Priority Mail, you can get your envelopes and boxes free from USPS. If
you ship First Class or Parcel Post or UPS, you’ll have to shop around
for deals on boxes or envelopes and bubble wrap or packing peanuts.



Overwhelmed yet? Yes there is a lot to learn, but it’s not nuclear
science. Just take it one step at a time. It’s a learning process. Some
yahoo groups (or MSN or AOL, or whatever your preference) are great
sources for support and camaraderie with others who are doing the same.




So in summary, if you want to just “start pushing buttons” and learn on
your own, YOU CAN DO IT. If you do better chatting with others, those
resources are available too. Use what is available





Success !



Leon Edward



Home Busines IT



P.S. SUCCESS UNIVERSITY FREE TRIAL

Posted by homebusinessit at 04:33 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

October 26, 2006

Business Expansion with Ebooks

of all sizes are expanding with ebooks. An ebook is a
paperless book in digital format that you can download to your
computer, handheld or other reader device. It can be read by
using a software program like Adobe (for .pdf formats) or
Microsoft Word.

Here are several ways to expand your own business operations with
ebooks.

Marketing – An ebook offers an inexpensive means of producing
full-color marketing materials complete with graphics and audio
components. Find good software or hire someone to help create
your ebooks. Grab a digital camera and start snapping shots of
your products, people using your products and services, your
workers, etc. Then show off your shots, your products and
describe your services with awesome power-packed presentations;
web pages with interactive links for sound, visual presentations,
communications (emails or forum posts) and more.

Education – When your products or services need explained,
educate your prospects and clients with ebooks. Have sample or
short versions available for trial offers or free downloads. Then
include full-fledged detailed editions with product / service
purchases. Educate with visual, sound and interactive
point-and-click methods. Invite questions and feedback from
recipients for improvements on future product and service
development.

Communications – How many times do you get an email you with a
question - the same question over and over gain it seems – that
requires a book-length answer? Maybe questions like, “How do you
create a basic website?” or “How can you market on a tight
budget?” inspire lengthy replies. Well, now you can write one
long reply, turn it into an ebook and send it out – over and over
again and free up more time for other things. AND include your
own marketing information inside so that readers can look you up
on the Internet, pass your information along and give others the
opportunity to find you, too.

New Product – Use surveys and take polls for new product
creation. Include a link to a web page with a questionnaire and
free download for recipients upon completion.

Sales Reps – Arm your sales representatives with professional,
top-notch full-color media / product / service information kits
presented via your ebooks to share with local newspaper, radio,
television and other media reps, visitors and potential clients
at trade shows and other events. Set up an introductory page in
your ebook, then an index where people can click and quickly find
your History, Mission Statement, product and service descriptions
and images, Contact information, Testimonials, etc. Then copy the
ebooks to disks and CDs to distribute at events. This gives
people the opportunity to learn much more about you when they
have more time afterwards.

So grab your cyber-pencil or keypad and start writing! Ebooks can
definitely enlarge your operations.

A shortcut to Success here is acquiring rights to ebooks or using public domain material. You can find an unbelievable Niche Set of eBooks with master rights at
http://www.ebizhomebiz.com


To Your Success and Financal Freedom,

Leon Wolinski

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com


About the Author...

Leon Wolinski helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

Posted by homebusinessit at 11:46 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

Are You Ready To Become Self-Employed?

If you are interested in starting a business, or taking over one, you face a daunting task that carries a level of risk and excitement not possible in the 'employee' world.

If the financial independence of self-employment appeals to you - no boss, no income limits as to time and wage, and the ability to let your personal drive determine your compensation - then you will no doubt be eagerly going over the many options available to release you from your current job.

However, the rush of financial excitement must be tempered by the necessary cost of time, money and effort in properly setting yourself up independently.

Despite income claims made by business opportunity companies, or competing businesses, you must be ready to accept the reality of not seeing personal income for several months - or even years.

Starting a self-employed business on the side, while keeping regular employment as your financial security, is a wise method of ensuring your income.

Another option is to have substantial savings that permit you the freedom to pursue your dreams unencumbered with other employment. However, the savings must also be capable of carrying the costs of developing a business along with providing for your material needs.

Do you also recognize the time that is required in starting your own business? In some ways it is almost unnecessary to bring up the point since your passion will likely drive you to spend many hours in your pursuits. If you have other obligations; family, job, social etc. then you will have to consider if you CAN devote the time needed to get your business off the ground.

Having discussed both money and time, you must recognize that there is much more effort extended BEFORE a business is profitable than at any other time in your business. Yes, once you are getting work and are satisfied with the income level you may be very busy indeed but you will then be compensated for it. When you are still cultivating your business - marketing, doing free jobs, searching for clients and customers - you may not be seeing any income, or a very meager one, which makes your EFFORTS seem immense.

Do not falter! If you come to the point when you are working your hardest and doing everything your business requires but still not seeing monetary results, you may hit a psychological wall. This is where truly entrepreneurial individuals see an obstacle to overcome as opposed to a dead-end to their hard work. Passion for their work and the strong desire to work for themselves overcomes any perceived barriers and moves them to keep going and ultimately becoming very successful.

By persevering you will certainly see the fine fruits of your labors and prove to yourself and others that the benefits of self-employment far outweigh the mediocre status quo of the typical worker's daily grind.



To Your Success,

Leon Edward

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

About the Author...

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income.
Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

FREE Content for Your Website

Articles by Leon Edward found on this blog or blog search can be posted on your website but you must include the text about the author located between the lines above and link back to http://www.homebusinessit.com as written. Also, email me at freecontent@homebusinessit.com and let me know your website and contact info.

Posted by homebusinessit at 04:38 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

October 25, 2006

Opt-In Email Leads Explained

Opt-in leads drive your business forward without them your business will slowly churn bringing in bits and pieces of business or become stagnant and die. It is always a good idea to call your acquaintances, friends, and family they are a good start but they cannot hold your business together. The leads you acquire through permission based opt-in is what will propel you forward in the Internet marketing business. What are the different types of opt-in techniques?

• Opt-In – Consumers actively sign up for your services. The downside to opt-in is that many third parties can also add others to the list. When this happens, you may not know if you have a list of consumers who are truly interested in your product and/or services.

• Confirmed Opt-In – This is also known as, “Closed-loop opt-in” and is an effective means to having a list of consumers who want to be there. As soon as a name is added to your list, an e-mail is generated to inform the subscriber they have been added and allows them the option to unsubscribe immediately. This form of verification has become standard in the Internet marketing business.

• Double Opt-In – The consumer must add himself/herself to the list and then confirm a second time through an e-mail that they want to be on your list. Anyone who is added without permission can, in this step, unsubscribe. The added protection is that if they do nothing, their name is not be added to the list. The benefit is that they will not receive any more e-mail they do not wish to receive. You will not be wasting valuable time marketing to someone who is not interested.

By definition e-mail sent to prospects without their consent is considered “unsolicited bulk mailings” and is against all Internet Service Providers (ISP) Terms of Service. This is when consumers have no knowledge that their names and e-mail addresses were placed on a list and did not give their permission. These types of lists have a very low success rate and the complaints are enormous. When a consumer chooses to opt-out, they expect their name removed and that they will not receive any more correspondence from the service provider. They do not expect their name added to another list and continue to be solicited. When a consumer spends their time, actively stopping an action they never wanted in the first place they would not be interested in the product marketed. They will not buy simply from being annoyed and the suffering they have experienced in trying to stop the unsolicited e-mails. They may even like the product and it would not matter. This type of e-mail marketing technique is illegal (and unethical).

When you are sending out your e-mail marketing campaign, you want to remain focused on what your target audience needs. You want to convince them that they need your products and/or services. You want to grab their attention. You do not want to put them to sleep with a long, boring e-mail. You do not want to send a generic message to thousands of prospects. As you are looking for your leads, you want those who will eventually be long-term customers that make you a profit. The use of opt-in can weed out those potential leads that are not interested in your products they are only looking for something free and will leave you as fast as they joined. When you are able to have a select list of leads, you will not be spending the majority of your time weeding out uninterested targets.

Maintaining your opt-in leads is crucial to success you do not want hundreds of e-mail addresses that are incorrect or continue to send information to those individuals who have opted-out. Nor do you want your Internet Marketing list overflowing with e-mail addresses that are no longer useful for you. Look at a few ways to keep your opt-in lead list clean thereby increasing your potential for profit.

Customers will be more apt at accepting your e-mails if you have treated them with respect by asking them first and the information you are imparting to them is relevant to their needs and you are not sending several e-mails during the day that they become overloaded and want to simply get rid of your annoying e-mails.




To Your Success,

Leon Edward

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

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About the Author...

Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://homebusinessit.com

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Posted by homebusinessit at 08:17 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

Writing Articles - Grammar and Punctuation Basics

Some would-be writers think they can dash off an article without
bothering to learn the basic rules of grammar. But just as any
craftsperson spends time honing his skills to make the perfect
piece of craft, so must a writer work hard to present an article
that will be a pleasure to read and not shame him for its sloppy
grammar and punctuation. True, some errors are typos, but doesn’t
that reflect a certain laziness on the author’s part? An article
should be closely examined for typos before it is sent off or
uploaded.

Don’t trust your spell checker. No automated spell-checker can
alert you to every error. Whose and who’s, lose and loose, quiet
and quite, its and it’s are all legitimate words, so there will
be no red line under them. Spell-checkers are not clever enough
yet to tell which one you meant to use. And if the error is not
due to a typo, it means you need to keep a dictionary on hand to
check anything you are uncertain of.

Remember that when a word ends in “ ‘s” it means there is a
letter missing. “It’s” means “it is”. If you are unsure which one
you should be using, try saying the sentence both ways.

For instance…

“ It’s a good day today/ It is a good day today”. The latter
example makes perfect sense, so it is okay to use “it’s”.

But….

“Here is a rabbit. Its burrow is over there.”

Does, “It is burrow is over there”, make sense? No.

Of course if you said, “The rabbit’s burrow is over there,” then
the apostrophe denotes possession (and only one rabbit), not a
missing letter.

“The rabbits burrow is over there,” (with no apostrophe) means
there are several rabbits.

And just for the record, “loose” means not tight, while “lose”
means you’ve lost it.
“Who’s” is short for “who is”, but “whose” is the possessive form
of “who” (as in “Whose is that car?”)
“Quiet” means “hush”, while “quite” is an adverb (which should
usually be left out).

“I felt quite silly,” sounds better as, “I felt silly”.

“I felt like an idiot,” may be even better.

Sometimes rules of grammar get in the way of good writing. If
this is the case they can and should be broken, otherwise your
writing will become pedantic and even mechanical. One such rule
is that a sentence should not begin with a conjunction. Both
“and” and “but” can certainly be used to begin a sentence, or
even a paragraph, but not to end one. Using either of these
conjunctions to start a sentence can be a natural transition to
carry the reader forward.

A rule of style tells us to never use the same word twice in a
sentence, but if you have to search for several other clumsy
substitutes to do the job, then please repeat. Repetition of
someone’s name is a little different. It can easily be replaced
with “he” or “she” as the sentence progresses.

A persistent myth masquerading as a rule tells us not to end a
sentence with a preposition. Winston Churchill is supposed to
have made fun of this by stating, “This is the sort of English up
with which I will not put.” Of course a sentence may end with a
preposition. A good rule is to write the way you speak. But
unless you have grown up speaking English, ignore this rule too.

A few more pointers…

· When writing an article, watch that you don’t repeat
information unnecessarily. Even if you use different wording, it
still gives the reader the impression that you think he was too
dumb to get it the first time.

· Use short sentences more than long ones, but do vary the
length.

· Break up the text by using bullet points, or asking a question.
Why? It will add interest and prevent your reader falling asleep
– or simply turning the page.

· Use short paragraphs too. This will make the job of reading it
all seem much easier. In this fast-paced world readers are mostly
in a hurry. If they come to a huge block of text with no white
space, they’ll usually skip most of it.

If you keep these tips in mind, your articles will keep both
editors and readers happy


To Your Success,

Leon Edward

http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

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    • About the Author...

    Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://homebusinessit.com

    Posted by homebusinessit at 08:12 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

    Top Internet Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business

    The Internet offers many means of affordable marketing, often
    with full-color imagery to go along with text. And multimedia
    components add some spice to the mix and increase online visitors
    and purchases. Here are some top Internet marketing techniques to
    help increase your sales and income.

    1. DIRECTORY - Create your own directory on a specific industry
    topic, placing your own ad or banner along the top. Then invite
    others to add their website links via a link exchange program,
    listing themselves in your directory. This will result in lots of
    free advertising for you as your directory expands with links
    across the World Wide Web. Enter “link exchange software” into
    your favorite search engine for help with setup.

    2. TEACH A COURSE – Write out a simple step-by-step instructional
    class in your area of expertise. Then break it up into smaller
    segments and set them up in an autoresponder as email messages
    with your ads included at the top and / or bottom of each
    message. Invite website visitors to sign up through on online
    form or email subscription address offered through the
    autoresponder service. Then as people sign up, they will learn
    more about you and your products and services.

    3. EZINE EBOOK – Forget about small daily or weekly ezines. Try
    publishing one large monthly e-zine as an e-book format,
    preferably an Adobe .pdf file. Include a large number of articles
    with each issue and regularly featured areas like inspirational
    quotes, industry tips, favorite sites and advice from the pros.
    Also insert full-color graphics, multimedia components like audio
    file links, if you like, and ads. Then you can charge a monthly
    rate, with an annual discounted package purchase, and sell
    advertising spots.

    4. TIP OF THE DAY – Set up your own Tip of the Day targeting your
    own area of expertise, relating to your own products and
    services. You can set it up on your website in a targeted box,
    via autoresponder, a blog, an RSS feed, an audio file or others
    means of communication. Add your own ad along with your tip for
    whichever product or service you want to target or maybe even
    your own online store for all. This will gently remind your
    target audience where to go to learn more.

    In summary, by using Internet Marketing techniques customized to
    fit your own products and services, you can reach out and
    increase your website traffic and purchase opportunities.
    Internet marketing can mean a more affordable way to grow your
    business.



    To Your Success,

    Leon Edward

    http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    About the Author...

    Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    FREE Content for Your Website

    Articles by Leon Edward found on this blog or blog search can be posted on your website but you must include the text about the author located between the lines and link back to http://www.homebusinessit.com as written. Also, email me at freecontent@homebusinessit.com and let me know your website

    Posted by homebusinessit at 07:56 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

    Attention Getting Marketing

    Every business owner knows that the key to success is how well you market your business. Your business is not any different. Success depends on your marketing strategies.

    There are many different marketing techniques with many different price tags attached to them. Depending on your type of business, you will need to develop a marketing plan that generates sufficient customers to reach your goals.

    Using many different marketing techniques will quickly drain your bank account. Your first goal will be to determine how you can reach the most people for the least amount of money.

    Here is one marketing technique that is cost efficient and a little more adventurous for you the "Business Owner."

    Become an Expert

    What is your business? Look around at your competition. How do they present themselves to the general public? How can you present yourself differently?

    Go buy a local newspaper, local magazine, listen to your local radio station; watch your local TV station. Are any of your competitors currently marketing themselves as an expert in your field?

    Contact your local media and discuss the various ways that you could work with them. Local newspapers and magazines will have opportunities to write "Advice" articles. Local radio and TV stations may have talk shows that could host you weekly or monthly.

    Contact the various local organizations that are looking for speakers for their monthly luncheons. Your Chamber of Commerce is an ideal place to start. Join your Chamber and get an article about you and your business published in their monthly magazine.

    Study your customers and choose the type of media that would reach them. Talk to your current customers and ask them to give you their opinion about which area you should market in. Find out what they listen to and what they read, and what organizations they belong to.

    What type of personality do you have?

    Make sure that your personality matches your marketing strategy. Radio and TV would be a perfect match for you if you enjoy speaking in front of people, have an outgoing personality and a voice that carries well. Newspaper and magazine article writing will be perfect for you if you do not enjoy speaking in front of groups.

    Becoming an expert in your area of business will not take years to achieve. Stay on top of the latest news about your business. Subscribe to trade publications to keep informed about new trends. The Internet offers many ways to stay informed on any topic.

    The key to becoming an expert is to take the knowledge you have and the new information received and decide how your customers can benefit from this information. Not all news is beneficial to your customers.

    Your goal is to cause your customers to look at you as the one to come to when they need what you are selling. You want them to refer their family and friends to you.

    Don't be shy. Go out there and market yourself as the expert that you are. The more exposure that you receive, the more exposure your business will receive.


    To Your Success,

    Leon Edward

    http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

    About the Author...

    Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%FREE Content for Your Website
    Articles by Leon Edward found on this blog or blog search can be posted on your website but you must include the text about the author located between the lines of '%%%' and link back to http://www.homebusinessit.com as written. Also, email me at freecontent@homebusinessit.com and let me know your website

    Posted by homebusinessit at 07:52 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

    Why Did My Prospect Not Join?

    Have you ever had a prospect, who you thought was ready to become a member of your team, only to find out they changed their mind or worse yet, joined with someone else? Nothing can be more disheartening than to have a prospect you thought was ready to join your organization turn cold.

    Why did the prospect turn cold?

    Simply, you did not understand what motivated your prospect. A good network marketer understands that there are several reasons that motivate prospects. Think back to when you got into the business. What was your motivation? How did that marketer find out what your "hot points" were? We all know that building a rapport is a basic prospecting principle. However, until you master the skills of how to approach and involve your prospect to learn what motivates them, you will continue to have trouble keeping a prospect "hot".

    What is the prospects motivation?

    It is important to understand when approaching a prospect - "Prospects will make a decision based on their reasons and NOT yours!" Whether it is security, extra income, more free time, business ownership, whatever the need is that motivates your prospects, you will have to uncover what that need is in order for them to do business with you. When talking to a prospect assume nothing, but search for a fit between what the prospect needs and what solution you have to offer.

    The simple formula to approaching and involving your prospect is to ask questions, the right questions. Asking questions promotes prospect involvement and you maintain an interest in the presentation. The next thing you need to do is LISTEN to what your prospect says - it is vital! If you do not hear what your prospect said, you will never learn what motivates them. If you are talking more than 20% of the time, you are talking too much and need to start listening more. Once you know your prospects motivation, you will be able to sell your business opportunity by showing them that your product or service meets their need.

    Keep your prospect hot!

    If you are viewed by your prospect as a credible person, someone they would be comfortable doing business with, have a good understanding of your products or services, develop the skills to understand what motivates your prospect and can deliver a solution to their needs. You will be well on your way to keeping the prospect "hot" and doing business with you.


    To Your Success,

    Leon Edward

    http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    About the Author...

    Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    FREE Content for Your Website

    Articles by Leon Edward found on this blog or blog search can be posted on your website but you must include the text about the author located between the lines and link back to http://www.homebusinessit.com as written. Also, email me at freecontent@homebusinessit.com and let me know your website

    Posted by homebusinessit at 05:00 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

    October 24, 2006

    Do YOU Have a Master Plan? Setting Goals ?

    There is so much written on planning these days that it's hard for nearly anyone to argue against the value of planning.



    Some people like to live by the "seat of their pants," and no one would argue that a little spontaneity is great to have in your life. But you do need to plan something at some point, or your life will simply be one reaction after another. The non-planner will end up taking no proactive action to improve his or her life. The most successful people plan their goals and are motivated to accomplish them.



    Everyone needs a master plan. Do you have one? A master plan should include long term goals, short term goals, and objectives. You may want to build in some rewards to motivate you to accomplish them as well. Let's look at each item that should appear in your master plan:



    Lifetime goals: The first things you should include in your master plan are your lifetime, or dream goals. These are goals that you want to do at some point in your life and they shouldn't be dependent on money, time, or skill. If you're afraid of heights but have the goal of someday being a professional pilot, write it down! Create a long list by finishing this sentence: "If I had unlimited money, time and skill, I would want to..."



    Short term and Long term goals: Once you have your lifetime goals list, you should break it down into things that you can realistically do in the short term and in the long term. Short term goals might be anywhere from the present to the next five or ten years. Long term goals are likely anything five or ten years and beyond. (Don't worry yet about how you'll accomplish them; we'll get to that in a moment). Put them in order from the things you want to do sooner to the things you want to do later.



    Objectives: Once you have developed your goals, now you need to create objectives for each one. Objectives are the steps that you need to take to reach your goals. If you're afraid of heights but want to be a professional pilot some day, your objectives might be to...



    1. Overcome your fear of heights,

    2. Ride in an airplane,

    3. Take flying lessons,

    4. Get your commercial pilot's license, and

    5. Buy an airplane.



    You might look at this list and say "easier said than done!" but by breaking down all of your goals into smaller objectives; it does become easier to do. You now have some small steps to work on to get you to the next level.



    What does all this have to do with e-business? Simple: For many entrepreneurs, a long term goal might be financial freedom. Building your e-business might be one of the objectives to reach that goal.



    And within that "main" objective of building your business will be the smaller objectives that must be reached to do the building. The more you break down the steps that need to be taken, the easier it will be to reach your goal.




    To Your Success,



    Leon Edward



    http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com


    Internet Home Business Residual Income
    Ideas and Opportunites...Marketing, Sales,
    Success and Promotion Articles, News and Proven Tips

    Posted by homebusinessit at 05:54 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

    Maximum Impact Media Advertising

    If you sell a product or service, and want to be successful
    quickly, you must tell people about it through advertising and
    marketing.

    TV, radio and newspaper are still considered the major media for
    effective marketing off-line.

    However, a lot has changed with these top three marketing
    vehicles in the past 15 years.

    In this article some critical changes are revealed that have
    occurred and how you can get the maximum impact for your
    advertising dollar.

    Television is primarily an entertainment medium. Research shows
    the average person spends more time with television than with
    radio and newspaper combined. For many years, TV was considered
    the most powerful advertising choice because of the huge audience
    it provided. Even today, nearly everyone watches some TV every
    day.

    There are three things you must consider before spending money on
    TV advertising - limited lifespan of your ad, audience
    fragmentation, and ad avoidance.

    Keep in mind that once your ad has aired, it is gone for good.
    There is no way your potential customer can refer back to it.
    This fact makes it imperative that you run your ad many times to
    embed your message in the mind of the viewer. Frequency is
    important with any advertising, but especially broadcast.

    Audience fragmentation is one of the major problems local
    broadcast television faces today.

    At one time, a huge TV audience was split over only a few local
    channels. Community businesses could reach a large majority of
    their potential customers very quickly. Large national companies,
    such as Coke, only had to choose from the three major networks -
    ABC, CBS or NBC - to reach over 80% of the population.

    Today, with cable and satellite TV, this same audience is now
    fragmented over 200 or more channels. The percentage of viewers
    on local TV has dropped dramatically. Yes you can run ads on
    cable and they will spread them out over ten or more channels.
    This shotgun advertising has not worked well for small businesses
    because many of these stations have only a half percent or less
    of the total viewers. And, what are the odds that they will be
    watching during the 15 or 30 seconds that your ad is presented?

    Ad avoidance is also a very rapidly growing problem for TV today.


    Because the public watches TV primarily for entertainment, they
    see advertising as an unwelcome interruption - not unlike the
    hated telemarketing. This was true 30 years ago but there was
    nothing a person could do about it except channel surf or leave
    the room. As you know this was, and still is, often done. Today,
    with TIVO, pay-per-view, public broadcast stations, and the
    multitude of satellite and cable channels, the public has shown a
    willingness to pay for reduced interruption from advertising.

    Radio has similar problems. It is also primarily an entertainment
    medium. As such, advertising is also considered an interruption.
    Satellite radio is one of the fastest growing industries today
    primarily because people, again, are willing to pay to avoid
    commercials. In fact, most new cars have satellite radio built
    in.

    Additionally, radio has evolved into an entertainment source for
    primarily driving, and background noise at work. If you buy any
    radio advertising, it should only be aired during drive time.

    At home, radio use drops off. People can play CD's or listen to
    satellite radio. This way they can choose exactly the music or
    programming they prefer without commercial interruption. The
    radio industry understands that folks do not want to be
    interrupted with advertising. Many times radio stations promote
    themselves by offering "more music, less commercials".

    Newspaperes have had their ups and downs, but have steadily
    maintained their local readership base and strength for local
    marketing. Even when radio, then TV, came on the scene, people
    still were loyal in reading their local newspaper.

    Unlike TV and radio, advertising in a newspaper is not viewed as
    an interruption. In fact, one of the reasons people buy
    newspapers is for the advertisement content. Surveys have shown
    among 15% and 23% of those buying a newspaper do so primarily for
    the advertising.

    You see, people do want to see and read advertisements. They do
    want to - and need to - buy products and services. They just want
    the ads on their terms.

    TV's best day of the year is Superbowl Sunday, delivering nearly
    40% of U.S. households. In striking contrast, newspapers
    consistently deliver well over 50% of your community households.
    They do it every day, 365 days a year. Now that is some serious
    marketing power.

    Another advantage over broadcast that only newspapers can deliver
    is engagement of the consumer at the moment they are making a
    buying decision. When a person is reading your ad, it is because
    they choose to. At that time you have their full and focused
    attention. And the working life of your newspaper ad is enormous
    because it is physical and static. Your potential customer can
    refer back to it anytime they wish, or even cut it out.

    You may have heard on TV or radio that newspaper subscriptions
    and readership are dropping. This is true. But it is not to the
    degree they would like you to believe.

    What they do not tell you is newspaper on line versions are
    growing much faster than the 7% or so losses in subscriptions. In
    fact, you will find newspaper web sites are usually the busiest
    web sites in any community. Be sure you take advantage of this.

    Now you can see why today's trend among business people who are
    in-the-know is away from broadcast and back into the old,
    reliable newspaper. Most all the major stores are getting back to
    the basics and finding the print advertising to be the best
    return on investment. So will you.

    Newspapers, of course, should not be your only advertising
    medium, but it is the solid foundation on which you build an
    effective marketing plan in today's environment.


    To Your Success,

    Leon Edward

    http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    About the Author...

    Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    FREE Content for Your Website

    Articles by Leon Edward found on this blog or blog search can be posted on your website but you must include the text about the author located between the lines and link back to http://www.homebusinessit.com as written. Also, email me at freecontent@homebusinessit.com and let me know your website

    Posted by homebusinessit at 05:52 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

    Your Online Business and Free Advertising

    You have finished building your own website. You have introduced
    your company and presented your products and services. You have
    added propositions and promos to catch your target audience’s
    attention. You think you are doing everything "right", but all
    your promotions have failed to produce growth in your new
    internet business.

    There are many ways for your web site to be promoted, but maybe
    you’re missing the "key" to the "best" promotion. Here are some
    things to consider:

    - If you have started to promote your web site, keep it constant.
    If you promote your site with persistence, it will catch your
    audience’s attention.

    - Be patient. Try each different promotion until you find the
    best.

    - Free promotions such as search engines and directories would
    give your web site the deserved traffic you always wanted. Make
    sure to check your web site’s ranking to know whether or not this
    type of free promotion is right for you.

    - Make a deal with other web sites on trading links which could
    help both web sites. Make sure to use words that could easily
    interest the audience.

    - Find free classified ads web sites that could boost the
    promotion of your web site. Most of these classified ads web
    sites provide powerful marketing features and are an extremely
    fast way of getting your products or services on line.

    - Free and low-cost internet banners are spread all through out
    the World Wide Web. Banners that pop-up at the top of a page or
    in a separate window would automatically catch your target
    audience’s attention.

    Free internet advertising is a perfect way to make your products
    or services known to millions of prospective Internet customers.
    The probability of someone needing your services or wanting to
    buy your products is very high. There are free services out there
    that may suit your services, products and web site...you just
    need to find them! Go to work - Browse the internet for the best
    free internet advertising and learn how to take advantage of what
    you are able to find.

    If at first you don't succeed...try, try again! Analyze your
    techniques, keep track of your customers and learn what works.
    Then be ready to try new methods and repeat those methods that
    are already working.

    It has been said that the best things in life are free and this
    saying also applies to the many forms of free advertising that
    are available on the internet. Give this form of advertising a
    try and you also may become a true believer in the power of free
    internet advertising.

    To Your Success,

    Leon Edward

    http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com


    About the Author...

    Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income.
    Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    FREE Content for Your Website

    Articles by Leon Edward found on this blog or blog search can be posted on your website but you must include the text about the author located between the lines above and link back to http://www.homebusinessit.com as written. Also, email me at freecontent@homebusinessit.com and let me know your website and contact info.

    Posted by homebusinessit at 05:40 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

    What Happens When You Submit Articles To Ezines?

    What's an article anyway, and why would I want to submit one to
    an ezine? That was a two-fold question and will require two
    answers.

    An ezine article is usually composed of approximately 500 words
    on a single subject that would be of interest to your target
    market. At the end of the article, you should include a "resource
    box." This box should provide such things as your name, the name
    of your company, your web site address, email address, and a
    small blurb about your product/service.

    Writing an article is not hard work. All it requires is some
    research and note taking. Use any of multiple sources to find
    information about the topic that you choose to write about. Then
    write your article in your own words using the notes that you
    took during your research. It's not difficult and it's something
    that you learned to do early in school (grade school probably).
    Write in a conversational tone. Write like you are talking to
    your best friend.

    Now, I'll answer the second question. The reasons to submit this
    article to an ezine are varied, but not difficult to understand.
    They all boost your bottom line.

    1. The submission of the article will help identify your business
    (web site) in the Internet marketplace. This is normally called
    "branding."

    2. Article submission provides publicity, virtually free.

    3. Someone may like your writing style and hire you to write
    articles or ebooks for them.

    4. The published article will drive traffic to your web site.

    5. If the publisher of the ezine that you submit your article to
    maintains an archive, your article may be read many months later.
    Traffic may still be driven to your site this way.

    6. People will come to know you as an expert on your subject.

    7. You might get your article published in free ebooks that are
    distributed all over the web. This will drive more traffic to
    your web site.

    8. This will help you become a trusted vendor of information.

    9. If you allow anyone to publish your article or email it to a
    friend, you will gain further exposure for free.

    10. Webmasters may read your article and display it on their web
    site. You get additional free exposure.

    11. If you send out an ezine, you could offer to swap articles
    with other ezine publishers for free. This provides more
    publicity without expense.

    So, there are quite a few benefits that you could receive from
    publishing small articles like this one. If that isn't enough
    reasons for publishing your own articles, I don't know what else
    you'd need. Don't forget to provide enough valuable information.
    The more knowledge you supply, the more valuable you become.
    Provide real value and you will always have people clamoring for
    more.

    To Your Success,

    Leon Edward

    http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com


    About the Author...

    Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income.
    Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    FREE Content for Your Website

    Articles by Leon Edward found on this blog or blog search can be posted on your website but you must include the text about the author located between the lines above and link back to http://www.homebusinessit.com as written. Also, email me at freecontent@homebusinessit.com and let me know your website and contact info

    Posted by homebusinessit at 05:33 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

    Ad Tracking for Success

    In order to create the most effective ad for your business, you
    will need to test different versions of your copy and track the
    effectiveness of where you advertise. Experiment by changing the
    copy, tweaking the looks, rearranging the layout and testing
    where you place your ad.

    Changing The Copy

    Try several different headings for your ad. Just a one word
    change may have a significant effect on the response rate. Test
    different versions of your copy to find the most effective
    wording.

    Tweaking The Looks

    Change the font style, font sizes, and font colors. Emphasize
    important words and phrases by placing them in italics, making
    them bold, changing their color, and highlighting them. Add a
    border, a different border color and/ or a different border
    style. Try different combinations of these and find out which
    combination works best.

    Rearranging The Layout

    Rearrange the components of your ad to see if it affects the
    response rate. Add a short testimonial or two to see if that has
    any effect. Try adding more than one call to action link.

    Testing The Placement

    Track and test the response rate for your ad. An ad in one
    e-zine may result in 100 clicks while an ad in another may only
    result in 50. You will want to know where you get the best
    response for your advertising dollars.

    You will want to track your ads for these four reasons:

    1. To save money.

    If you know where you get the best response from, you won't waste
    money by advertising on places where you get a poor return.

    2. To maximize your profit.

    While advertising on one place may bring you a better response
    than advertising on another, you need to take into account the
    cost of each ad. If you get 200 responses from one advertising
    source but each response costs you $4.00, it may be better to
    advertise on a place where you get 100 responses that only cost
    $1.00 each.

    3. To improve your ads.

    By testing different versions of your ad, you will find the most
    effective one. To obtain a true test of a particular ad, you
    will need to know how may people were shown your ad, how many
    people acted on your ad, and the result of that action. (For
    example, your ad was shown to 1000 people of which 100 clicked on
    your ad link and 2 bought your product.)

    4. To find out what works and what doesn't.

    You will want to know what components of your ad work and which
    don't. You can only find this out by tracking different versions
    of your ad.

    While knowing how many people click on your ad and how many sales
    you make is important, you will want to know how much each click
    and sale actually costs you. In order to maximize your Return On
    Investment (ROI) you should monitor the following:

    1. How many unique visitors each ad or promotion generates.

    2. The number of sales each ad or promotion generates.

    3. Which ad or promotion generates the most traffic to your
    website.

    4. The Cost Per Click and Cost Per Sale of each ad or
    promotion.

    5. The Click to Sales Ratio which will show you the quality of
    the traffic you're getting.

    6. The ROI for each ad or promotion.

    You will also want to track where your traffic is coming from.
    You may get traffic from an e-zine ad, from a forum post and from
    a banner ad. One of these sources may bring you a significant
    amount of traffic while another brings you little or no traffic
    at all. By tracking every ad and promotion you place, you will
    find out where to direct your advertising efforts, thereby saving
    you both time and money.

    Only about 1% of your competitors track their traffic sources.
    By tracking your ads, you will gain an advantage over 99% of your
    competitors. At the same time, you will boost your bottom line
    as you will no longer be wasting money on useless
    advertising.

    Here’s to success!


    To Your Success,

    Leon Edward

    http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    Internet Home Business Residual Income
    Ideas and Opportunites...Marketing, Sales,
    Success and Promotion Articles, News and Proven Tips

    Posted by homebusinessit at 04:21 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

    Your Online Business and Free Advertising

    You have finished building your own website. You have introduced
    your company and presented your products and services. You have
    added propositions and promos to catch your target audience’s
    attention. You think you are doing everything "right", but all
    your promotions have failed to produce growth in your new
    internet business.

    There are many ways for your web site to be promoted, but maybe
    you’re missing the "key" to the "best" promotion. Here are some
    things to consider:

    - If you have started to promote your web site, keep it constant.
    If you promote your site with persistence, it will catch your
    audience’s attention.

    - Be patient. Try each different promotion until you find the
    best.

    - Free promotions such as search engines and directories would
    give your web site the deserved traffic you always wanted. Make
    sure to check your web site’s ranking to know whether or not this
    type of free promotion is right for you.

    - Make a deal with other web sites on trading links which could
    help both web sites. Make sure to use words that could easily
    interest the audience.

    - Find free classified ads web sites that could boost the
    promotion of your web site. Most of these classified ads web
    sites provide powerful marketing features and are an extremely
    fast way of getting your products or services on line.

    - Free and low-cost internet banners are spread all through out
    the World Wide Web. Banners that pop-up at the top of a page or
    in a separate window would automatically catch your target
    audience’s attention.

    Free internet advertising is a perfect way to make your products
    or services known to millions of prospective Internet customers.
    The probability of someone needing your services or wanting to
    buy your products is very high. There are free services out there
    that may suit your services, products and web site...you just
    need to find them! Go to work - Browse the internet for the best
    free internet advertising and learn how to take advantage of what
    you are able to find.

    If at first you don't succeed...try, try again! Analyze your
    techniques, keep track of your customers and learn what works.
    Then be ready to try new methods and repeat those methods that
    are already working.

    It has been said that the best things in life are free and this
    saying also applies to the many forms of free advertising that
    are available on the internet. Give this form of advertising a
    try and you also may become a true believer in the power of free
    internet advertising.

    To Your Success,

    Leon Edward

    http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com


    About the Author...

    Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income.
    Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    FREE Content for Your Website

    Articles by Leon Edward found on this blog or blog search can be posted on your website but you must include the text about the author located between the lines above and link back to http://www.homebusinessit.com as written. Also, email me at freecontent@homebusinessit.com and let me know your website and contact info

    Posted by homebusinessit at 11:53 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

    Ad Copy Secrets for Online and Off

    Who couldn’t use some great ad copy tips once in awhile?! Here are secrets shared by ad pros to use in your promotions online and off.

    1. DIGITAL IMAGES – Add images with your ad copy. Rule of thumb here is NOT “the more the merrier.” So choose one or two of your best images. Don’t have a camera or not great with it yet? Don’t worry. Surf the Internet or check software packages for images that grant you permission for use. Simply type “free images to use” into your favorite search engine. Or check places like Amazon.com or Ebay.com for affordable image packages that fit your industry needs.

    2. PRICE – List your price and don’t irritate people by playing games and hiding it or leaving it out. People are bombarded with sales commercials, postal mail, email, radio and television ads, etc. They don’t and won’t waste time on hunting for your price. Plus whenever you offer rewards or free bonus items in your ad copy, make sure to include the dollar value beside each so that people know they’re getting a god deal and your package holds more value overall.

    3. TESTIMONIALS – Continually gather testimonials of all lengths from your clients and sprinkle them throughout your ad copy. Group some inside a yellow or blue (or other color that coordinates with your marketing piece) box. List some in individual boxes along with a photo of the person sharing comments and his or her company name to add credibility. No need to be book-length comments, either.
    “Those 1-liners stand out and pull readers!”
    4. HAND WRITTEN NOTE – Include a hand written notation or actual letter with your ad copy. Write the note on the edge of the ad so that it stands out, or write it on a small different colored sheet of paper. For online use, scan it and publish it on the web page or visit your favorite search engine and find a third party solution under “website handwritten notes” for companies like 3M Worldwide at www.3m.com . The addition of a personal touch can always help increase sales. Note: If your handwriting is difficult to decipher, maybe ask a friend or colleague to re-write your copy first before it going to press.

    When you’re finished, with your ad copy, go back and check for areas of improvement. Even tiny changes can make huge differences in response rates. So go take a peek!




    To Your Success,

    Leon Edward

    http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    About the Author...

    Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income.
    Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    FREE Content for Your Website

    Articles by Leon Edward found on this blog or blog search can be posted on your website but you must include the text about the author located between the lines above and link back to http://www.homebusinessit.com as written. Also, email me at freecontent@homebusinessit.com and let me know your website and contact info

    Posted by homebusinessit at 11:44 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

    October 23, 2006

    What is the simplest Web Business You Can Create ?

    If you really want to start a Web-based business, but really
    don't know where to start, then listen up. If you have no product
    of your own, the best thing that you can do is investigate
    affiliate programs.

    What is an affiliate program? It's basically a commission-only
    sales arrangement. Someone with a product or service will offer
    to let you sell it for them in exchange for a cut of the selling
    price. Typically with a hard product you'll be lucky to get 10%
    commission on sales. The good news is that downloadable products
    such as ebooks and software will often pay you 50% of the sales
    price as an affiliate - you can even find deals where you get
    75%.

    If you're just starting out you are certainly advised to begin
    your affiliate selling career by selling downloadable products
    because they are the ideal in our 'instant gratification'
    society. Your customers don't have to wait around after paying
    their money they can immediately download their purchase over the
    Internet. If you go to www.clickbank.com, you'll find they have
    several thousand different downloadable products you can sell as
    an affiliate, and the majority offer you at least 50% commission.
    Signing up is a simple one-time process and you'll then be able
    to use your Clickbank ID to sell any of the products in their
    online catalogue.

    You can browse the Clickbank catalogue by subject area to find
    something that interests you. In any given subject area you will
    usually find that there are several related products that you
    could sell from a tightly-focused Website where you could set up
    pages to pre-sell the products you have selected and then place a
    link that your customers can click on which will take them to the
    affiliate site to place their order - and if they do that, you
    get your commission.

    One of the best types of site you can build using the above ideas
    is a review site. Set up some simple pages on your Website
    comparing and contrasting the features of several related
    products that you've picked out to sell. All you really need to
    do is go along to the vendors Website which will basically be a
    sales page for their product. Here they'll list the features and
    benefits of their product. You can adapt this information to
    highlight the similarities and differences between two or more of
    the products to help your customers to choose which product would
    be the most suitable for their own particular circumstances.

    What is the easiest type of Website you can set up to achieve the
    above? You've probably heard the buzz by now surrounding blogs
    and blogging. One of the main reasons blogs are recommended for
    setting up tightly-focused niche topic Websites is that they are
    usually easier to get traffic to from a standing start than
    conventional Websites.

    Another good reason for choosing a blog as your site-builder of
    choice is that they are comparatively easy to set up if you're a
    Website building novice. Once you've carried out some pretty
    basic setting up, the software behind the blog handles most of
    the major house-keeping chores, like making sure all of your
    pages are properly linked together. All you have to do is to keep
    adding on-topic content regularly.

    Two good choices if you want to experiment with blogs for your
    niche affiliate review sites following the above model are
    WordPress and Blogger. WordPress is free open source software
    that resides on your own Web server - so you'll need some hosting
    of your own if you want to go this route. This is certainly the
    preferred way to go because if you've got your own domain name
    and hosting you'll present a more professional image to your
    customers. You will also have more control over the look and feel
    of your site.

    If you are a complete novice and you just want to test the waters
    to see if this niche marketing with affiliate sites thing is for
    you, then the cheapest (free) way to get involved is to go to
    www.blogger.com, sign up for a free account and make use of the
    free Blogspot hosting.

    Whichever blogging route you choose, once you have your blog set
    up, just put your review articles on it comparing and contrasting
    the affiliate products you've chosen, as detailed above. To bulk
    out the content on your blog, just look around the Net for news
    items and information on the subject area you've chosen and write
    some articles based around these.

    Once you have one blog set up with a decent amount of content on
    it, just rinse and repeat. Find some more subject areas that
    interest you and put more blogs together on these subjects, based
    around more good affiliate products that you can promote.

    There are people out there right now who are making very good
    money using nothing more than these, and similar, ideas. How will
    you know whether you could join them if you don't give it a try?


    To Your Success,

    Leon Edward

    http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    About the Author...

    Leon Edward helps people start and grow an online business and writes on marketing, promotion, joint ventures and home internet business residual income. Search ideas, best of web articles, opportunities and an internet business blog at his website http://www.HomeBusinessIT.com

    FREE Content for Your Website

    Articles by Leon Edward found on this blog or blog search can be posted on your website but you must include the text about the author located between the lines and link back to http://www.homebusinessit.com as written. Also, email me at freecontent@homebusinessit.com and let me know your website.

    Posted by homebusinessit at 10:10 PM | | TrackBacks (0)


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