Archive for category getting started
Increase web site traffic – 21 easy ways for $0…
Posted by admin in Sales, getting started, webiste visitors on July 30th, 2009
1. Write and submit articles to the article directories.
2. Leave comments on other people’s blogs with a backlink to your site.
3. Answer people’s questions on www.answers.yahoo.com.
4. Post in forums and have a link to your site in your signature.
5. Write a press release and submit it to www.PRWeb.com.
6. Advertise your website in the appropriate category on www.CraigsList.com.
7. Give an unbiased testimonial on a product/service that you have used in exchange for a backlink to your site.
8. Start a blog and submit it to the 100’s of free blog directories.
9. Manually submit your website to the major search engines.
10. Optimize each page of your website for a particular keyword or search phrase.
11. Add a link in your email signature to your website. It’s a free and easy way to get a little more traffic.
12. Make a custom 404 error page for your website redirecting people to your home page.
13. Use PPC search engine advertising.
14. Add a “bookmark this site” link to your webpages.
15. Have a tell-a-friend form on your site.
16. Send articles to ezine publishers that includes a link to your website.
17. Hold a crazy contest and make it go viral.
18. Give away a freebie (ebook, report, e-course) to keep people coming back to your site.
19. Add an RSS feed to your blog.
20. Submit your site to any related niche directories on the net.
21. Post information about any content you publish to social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon etc.
Hey, thanks for stopping by once again! But, why not let me make life easier for you by sending every update by RSS? Just click the link, and it shall be done...What happens in an economic depression – part 2
Posted by admin in Business Making Money Online, getting started on February 24th, 2009
In the first part of ‘what happens in an economic depression’, I tried to suggest that in these extremely difficult times, many people are going to start trying to earn a living from the internet, primarily because there is less work and therefore less money flying around.
Hence, the first question that people who are thinking of earning a living online are going to ask is, ‘how do I do so?’. The simple answer is, by blogging.
Traditionally, if you want to generate an income from a blog, you would do so in one of two different ways.
Either you would feature paid advertising on your site (generally using Google AdSense) or by promoting someone else’s products as an affiliate.
However, I would suggest that neither of these solutions is going to be effective or profitable in the future, for several reasons.
Firstly, there is less money available to the businesses who were previously spending lots of money with Google, and it therefore stands to reason that there are going to be less companies advertising with the ‘big G’ in the future. Furthermore, one of the big bugbears of anyone who has ever used AdSense is that Google has steadfastly refused to tell you how much you will get paid for featuring their advertising on the site, or indeed, what percentage of the money they are paid ends up in your bank account.
Am I wrong in thinking that the percentage is likely to come down when Google see less and less people advertising? And when that happens, will you be any the wiser?
I believe that the answer to these questions is ‘yes’ and ‘no’, in this order.
Thus, if you are going to feature advertising on your blog as a way of making money, you really need to look at other advertising companies apart from Google, companies who offer paid advertising that is an awful lot more transparent than AdSense.
But, why depend on advertising in the first place? After all, by doing so, you are relying on other people (Google et al) to place advertising materials on your website, and then you are relying on your visitors to click on those ads. Granted, that is the very basis of PPC advertising, but it is a fact that the average net user is becoming increasingly ‘ad blind’. AdSense is almost everywhere nowadays, even featuring on the websites of the quality broadsheet newspapers so the average net user is nowadays bombarded with online advertising. Thus, they are becoming increasingly adept at ignoring it.
Then, you have the affiliate product option.
In this situation, you find a product or service created by an individual or company which you promote in exchange for a commission. The problem here is that the product or service you are promoting does not belong to you and you did not create it, so you have no guarantee of the quality of the product unless you buy it yourself.
As 99.9% of affiliate marketers don’t do so (if you bought every product you are thinking of promoting, you would probably spend more money than you generate from sales), there could plenty of refund requests, and again, you are relying on other people for the success of your business.
Add this to the fact that you only ever going to earn a percentage of the overall customer spend as your commission, and you again have to ask is this the best way of earning money online?
As far as I can see, neither of these traditional solutions is going to be the answer for how to make money through your own blog site in the future.
So, is there a better option?
The answer is, of course there is.
More on this next time…
What happens in an economic depression – Pt 1
Posted by admin in Business Making Money Online, getting started on February 17th, 2009
Like me, I am guessing that most folks who are reading this are too young to remember the last great economic depression back at the end of the 1920’s which lasted pretty much throughout the 30s. But, it’s interesting that so many people are now searching online for information about what happens in an economic depression and how to survive a depression, although not perhaps that surprising.
There is little doubt that the world in general is in a financial mess, with big business shedding staff like there is no tomorrow (I suspect that for any companies, there won’t be!) and people all over who are really struggling.Whether what we are going through is truly a depression is open to debate, although if you accept the definition of the Great Depression as being an ‘economic crisis and period of low business activity in the U.S. and other countries’ from dictionary.com, it is hard to argue against it.
But, here’s the thing that I see.
As long as you have a computer and a net connection, there is no need to struggle. Indeed, rather than seeing this as bad times, I am certain that for many people out there, this is the point in their lives where they set off on a journey to true financial freedom.
What happens in an economic depression is that the go-getters get going.Rather than complaining about their lot, they start doing something to alter their position and situation, and unlike the 20s and 30s, your computer is all that you need in order to start doing something today.
Bloggers in particular are in a position to take the bull by the horns and really make a killing in these hard times. The thing is, even if times are as hard as they have ever been, it doesn’t take a great deal of money to get yourself set up your own internet business, and it is pretty much something that anyone can do.
So, rather than being a downer, I believe that for many people, what is happening in the world right now could represent a fantastic opportunity to do what they have always wanted to do. I guess that for most people, stepping away from the security of a job and a steady, guaranteed income is hard, but if your hand is forced and you need to look elsewhere to secure your future, starting your own online business is definitely one very good way of going about it.
But, having said all of this, I also believe that to make money in the future, bloggers are going to have to change their approach and tactics, because I am not sure that what has been working during the ‘good times’ is going to be quite so effective when money is a lot tighter. Nevertheless, that does not mean that you cannot start an online business, nor does it mean it cannot be successful either. And it still costs a lot less to get started online than it does in the real world.
Maybe you know all this already, and have been seriously thinking about starting your own online business for some time. If so, then all I can say is, stay tuned for the next installment…or even better, subscribe to my RSS feed, so I can send you the information as soon as it is available!
What happens in an economic depression and how do you survive a depression?
You finally launch yourself towards financial freedom, that’s what and how! More very soon….
New Years Giveaway – Take a look now!
Posted by admin in Business Making Money Online, Sales, getting started, reports, webiste visitors on January 6th, 2008
The number of seasonal “Giveaway” events was certainly up over the recent festive season, wasn’t it?
How many of them did you sign up for? Those that you did join, did you find much that you liked?
I must say that in the majority of cases, I was not overly impressed.
A lot of the products being given away were not particularly difficult to get hold of and I thought that a lot of the events themselves, especially the newer ones, were more ‘glitter and tinsel’ than substance.
One that I HAVE found worth looking at, however, is the excellent “New Years Giveaway” that is running from now until the end of January, and I would seriously recommend that you should take a look sooner rather than later.
There’s three hundred or so free gifts on offer and unlike most of the ‘festive season specials’ that I looked at, many of them are actually worth downloading. There are e-books, software programs, video and web authoring tools for everyone from the newest newbie to the most experienced, and (the thing that I most like),a lot of them are new to me too!
Now, you know and I know that the idea of these events is to allow the contributor to add your name to their mailing list, so I would recommend that you create a new gmail or yahoo email account for your sign-ups and that you only download that you can actually use. Downloading something that you ‘might’ use in the future is just cluttering up your disk space, trust me, because you will never use it!
Anyway, whatever your own experience of the recent glut of ‘givies’, you must take a peek at the New Years Giveaway now, if you have not already done so.
Improve Your Guarantee, Make More Sales!
Posted by admin in Articles, Business Making Money Online, Sales, ebooks, getting started, marketing sense, reports on December 27th, 2007
One of the simplest ways that I know of increasing sales is increasing your guarantee! Many marketers seem worried that by having a generous guarantee, people will take advantage of them, but in my experience that just does not happen, and, anyway, thinking like this is really missing the point.
Here’s an example. Everyone is doing a 30 day money back guarantee, so why don’t you do a 6 month guarantee?
A 6 month guarantee will almost certainly increase your conversions and your refunds will probably not increase a whole lot either.
I know that the longer and stronger the guarantee is, the more likely I am to pull out my wallet and let my credit card see the light of day, and I am fairly sure that I am not alone in this.
And in any event, we all know that there are many people who are serial refunders but they generally ask for their refund within the first few days anyway, and I think that most folks have better things to do with their lives than wait around 6 months to try and rip you off for a refund.
So, don’t be mean with your refunds policy. Be generous, and I am willing to bet that it will increase conversions and you will make much more money off of the extra conversions than you will lose in those handful of extra refunds.
$800k In One Week From Facebook?
Posted by admin in Business Making Money Online, PLR, Sales, ebooks, getting started, reports, webiste visitors on December 18th, 2007
A couple of days ago I was listening to an interview with some guys who run a leading PLR website and it struck me that the market for PLR products is now becoming a mature, grown up one!.
That is, whereas even six months ago, if you bought a PLR product that was what you got – the product alone. Now, you are far more likely to buy a ‘package’ in which you get everything that you need to start selling straight away, like ready made sales pages, graphics, squeeze pages and so on.
But, I guess that it is only sense that you would expect such quality to come at a price, so seeing these sites selling monthly memberships for $50-100 is not uncommon. It is good value, no doubt, but it is not cheap by any means.
So, here’s a deal that you should definitely be taking a look at.
Take a look at IM PLR Club or read on, and then look!
Now, I am going to begin the spiel with that dreadful ‘my good friend’ thing, but, in this case, it is actually true!
Anyway, one of the straightest guys I know in internet marketing, Ben Shaffer, has just launched his own PLR private members site, limited to only 250 people and (this is the kicker) the trial is only $1.00 and, if you decide to stick with it, then it’s a measly $20.00 a month (or only $12.00 per month if you pay in advance for a year)!
That is for a fully packaged, ready to sell product, the first one being all about Facebook, graphics, sales pages and squeeze page included. And it is good – like quality writing, obviously by someone who has more than a passing acquaintance with the English language and great graphics.
How do I know? Well, Ben told me!
No, seriously, I have read the book cover to cover, and it is well worth reading, because Facebook is not something I had even thought about marketing on or through before (which pretty much guarantees that no-one else has either) and it is very definitely not the same as MySpace.
But, if I told you that there is a worked example of how it is possible to earn $800k in one week with Facebook, then you’d be interested, right? Interested enough to spend $1.00 to find out more?
Now, there is no affiliate program (unless it’s a secret one) so I have nothing to gain here, but Ben is a friend and this is a top quality product at a ridiculous price, so get over there now and take a look.
And, if you like IM PLR Club, you can say thanks by leaving a comment here
10 More Simple Traffic Tips
Posted by admin in Business Making Money Online, getting started, marketing sense, webiste visitors on December 12th, 2007
11. Add a link in your email signature to your website. It’s a free and easy way to get a little more traffic.
12. Make a custom 404 error page for your website redirecting people to your home page.
13. Use PPC search engine advertising.
14. Add a “bookmark this site” link to your webpages.
15. Have a tell-a-friend form on your site.
16. Send articles to ezine publishers that includes a link to your website.
17. Hold a crazy content and make it go viral.
18. Give away a freebie (ebook, report, e-course) to keep people coming back to your site.
19. Add an RSS feed to your blog.
20. Submit your site to any related niche directories on the net.
And, in case you are wondering about what happened to #1-10, you will find them HERE
Creating An e-Book Without Writing A Word!
Many online marketers today make a living by selling their own products. Among the most popular digital products to sell are eBooks and special reports. These are files in written form where useful and desired information can be conveyed. Indeed, information is what fuels the internet. It’s not called the information superhighway for nothing, after all. People log online to search for information. If you have the information they need, then they will come to you. And if this information holds a lot of value, you could sell the same and make some wonderful profit. And since words are the primary tools of communication in the World Wide Web, information is often conveyed in written form, i.e. the aforementioned eBooks and special reports.
But preparing written works is not easy. For starters, not everyone could write. And those who could often don’t have the time to embark on such an undertaking.
Fortunately, there are some alternative routes you could take which would allow you to prepare your own eBook or special report without having to write down a single word. Let’s take a look at 5 of these options.
1. Gather some articles and compile them in a single volume. This would be the easiest way to prepare your own digital product. These articles can be PLR works which grant you the right to alter them and use their content anyway you please. Or they may be articles written by other people, which you have compiled from renowned websites like www.ezinearticles.com or www.goarticles.com . If you choose the latter set, just make sure that you respect the terms and conditions of their usage, primary of which is the inclusion of the original author’s resource box. You can’t just bundle up articles left and right, however. Make sure that one article would organically and logically flow to the next. You can ensure this by studying the articles you want to include.
2. Conduct an interview with an expert and record the same. Thereafter, hire someone from www.rentacoder.com , www.elance.com or www.guru.com to transcribe the conversation you had with the said expert. You’d be surprised how quickly you could jack up 50 to 200 pages worth of essential reading material using this method.
3. Buy an existing eBook or special report that comes with private label rights. This would enable you to alter the contents of the same, and even name yourself as the author of the work. You could add some materials as you feel are necessary, or better yet, you could combine two, three, or even ten of these PLR eBooks or special reports to come up with an encyclopedic tome of information worthy of some notice.
4. Hire a ghostwriter to prepare an eBook or a special report for you. There are many, many freelance writers looking for work at the websites we have mentioned in no. 2. It’s just a matter of selecting the best writer for the job at a price that will not be too daunting to your budget. Expect to pay $200 to $1,000 for a 50 page eBook, however.
5. Here’s a novel approach. Join an internet marketing forum, and ask a query. A good example would be “How Could You Profit From The Internet With A $0 Budget.” For certain, you’ll get some amazingly enlightening replies. Compile these replies until you’ll have enough materials to come up with an eBook or a special report. Ask the posters’ permission to avoid any copyright issues. Chances are, they’ll agree, provided that a link to their respective websites would be included in your work.
Lack of writing prowess, or the time to write at that, is never a bar for the production of your own digital products. All you need is a little imagination, and hopefully, the suggestions above have stirred up some concepts in your mind.
Making PLR Work Now..
Posted by admin in Articles, Business Making Money Online, PLR, getting started, marketing sense on October 30th, 2007
PLR Now
Using Private Label Rights materials is something that we are constantly told is a good thing, something that ‘works’ for internet marketers and online entrepreneurs.
But, did you ever wonder why?
Here’s the answer, and I’m willing to bet that you’ve never thought of it like this before.
PLR works, quite simply, because it leverages your time.
You’re no longer tied to researching, producing, editing, drafting, re-editing, redrafting, laying out, and then polishing the content you need in any niche, and even more importantly, you’re not even tied to niches you have more than a passing knowledge in.
Before, to credibly produce content for any site, you’d either need to BE an expert or HIRE an expert.
The ‘be or hire’ mentality soon pervaded every niche, simply because it was easy to spot who was putting up research and who had passion. To see just who was throwing up Adsense sites to make money, and who was monetizing their hobby.
Who was using Adsense to support their interest – and who were simply feigning interest?
And, on top of that, those that WERE experts were finding themselves being overlooked, ignored or even ripped off, and their content appearing on other sites. Things got ugly on the web, and to combat that, writers began charging more for their work.
Which, of course, was also a good thing because quality writing became harder to find as more and more people began to think that all it took to make money was to put up a couple of sites and wait.
PLR broke that mould very quickly. People could be instant experts – in fact, as long as you’ve got some editing skills, and can afford to spend a little time adding your own slant to the content, and understanding what the niche was, you could become the expert, and also make money.
The problem now?
People don’t use PLR properly.
They put it up, and follow the paths of gurus that barely understand what they are supposed to be doing with the content, without understanding the Google Slap, and then wonder why they aren’t even making pennies in Adsense.
Yet, it’s possible to make so much more with PLR, and we’re going to walk you through how, because when used properly the reason WHY PLR works is because it makes the author of the site, or the website itself a credible source of quality information, written well.
Using and editing PLR is essential because without making the content unique, you’ll actually lose standing as an expert – in the search engines AND with your readers.
The secret to making content unique is to edit it in your own style – its not simply about replacing a percentage of the words and tidying it up simply to make it fit – the best edited PLR uses the PLR as a starting point and converts it into something that speaks to your readers in a personality that’s all you, and still contains the information in the starter article.
Most people don’t do that though, and by and large, it’s why PLR ‘fails’.
They take no time out to fix the content up to make it unique. If you can make the content work for you, you’re less likely to get caught by Google’s rules.
Using Bidvertiser
Posted by admin in Business Making Money Online, Sales, getting started, marketing sense on October 28th, 2007
If you have a website or a blog that you are trying to make money from, then perhaps you use contextual advertising?
If so, I have news for you that is probably not news at all!
AdSense is not as effective as it used to be.
So, I’ve been looking at all of the viable alternatives (see the most recent posts) because I am getting a bit fed up of just watching my earnings fall.
Bidvertiser is one such service that I have heard great things about, and it is thus one that I am going to try on this site.
Here’s why:
Advertisers that use Bidvertiser bid against one another to appear on a publisher’s site. So, it stands to reason that if your site or blog is popular, then the bids to appear thereon will be higher, and so will your earnings.
You will always be showing the highest paid ads on your site, thus your earnings are maximized.
You only have to earn $10 before they pay out and it goes straight to PayPal – no waiting around for the check from ‘Big G’ to arrive!
So, I can see a lot of advantages to using Bidvertiser and, of course, it’s free to sign up. So, thats what I have done, and we’ll see how it goes…..
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