Get Return Visitors

Having a lot of traffic on your website is great, but having repeat traffic is even better. Return visitors already know you and your product and are interested enough to take a second (or third or fourth) look. These visitors are far more likely to buy your product or service than a first time visitor who is still checking you out.

So, how do you get people to come back to your site, time and time again? There are several methods that have been successfully used in the internet marketing world. Some are more effective than others, but a combination of all is recommended so that you can ensure the maximum amount of return visitors.

By far the best and most popular way to capture those visitors and keep them coming back is an opt in list. Having a place on your website where people can give you their emails in order to receive an informative newsletter or updates is vital. If you want to earn money, you really need to have a list.

Your opt in list will regularly receive information from you. By letting readers know when you make an update to the website or if you have a new product coming out, you can encourage them to check back to the site. Also, a list can be used to advertise your products, along with good, solid information in order to make even more off-site sales.

Even if you have an opt in list, it is possible that some people won't want to sign up for it. You can encourage them by offering a free e-report or other incentive that they have to exchange their information for. Or you can try a different method of getting them to come back.

By offering fresh content on a regular basis, you will draw people back. Blogs are excellent for promoting return visitors because of their frequent updates. Anyone looking for information in the area that you are focusing on will be interested when you come up with new articles or posts. They might even subscribe to your RSS feed and you have regular exposure to these people.

Another way to keep visitors checking back is to hold a contest. In fact, a daily or weekly contest is even better. This can be a draw or any other sort of contest that you can dream up. People will enter and return to see what is happening. By offering multiple entries (one per day, for example) you can make sure that most of your visitors check back frequently. While looking at your contest, they will also be exposed to your website's other offers.

Some content draws repeat visitors more than others. For example, quizzes and daily trivia questions. You don't even need to write them yourself, there are plenty of websites that offer feeds you can place on your website. These will automatically send you daily sayings, quizzes, word games, etc. Visitors will check back to your site daily or weekly to see what else is new and to participate in the games that you feature. They will also be looking at your ads or products while enjoying the freebies!

Getting return visitors is an important part of marketing your website. It is far easier to draw and sell to a second time visitor than a first timer and you need to take advantage of that fact. Start implementing the ideas given above today to expand your sales base.

Bum Marketing Method - Bum Marketing Method Exposed Part I

The bum marketing method is the latest round of new ways
of doing an old trick.

With the bum marketing method, you can make money online without spending any money on advertising which in return
will make your profit margins larger.The bum marketing method is set up so even the most
inexperienced person can put it to use and start seeing
a jump in sales.

One thing you will notice from the start with the bum
marketing method is that it will take some patience to
see the results. The bum marketing method is a long term investment that
can and will pay off in the long run.

Here is how you can start using the bum marketing method
within a couple of hours and start making some profits.

First, you will want to find a product to sell. The best products to use for the bum marketing method are information products.

You can find thousands of different information products
to use with the bum marketing method at http://clickbank.com

You can sign up as an affiliate for free and get paid
every two weeks for any sales you make using the bum
marketing method.

Once you have found a few products and joined the affiliate
program, you will want to search out some solid, little
used key words.

To do this, you simply think up key words that people
might use to find the product.

Use http://google.com

Then add quotes around the key word as this will give you
the exact match results.

More to come with the bum marketing method in part two.

How Much Time Should You Spend On Marketing?

As a solo-professional or small business owner, you have many responsibilities. Not only do you have to run your business and manage all the tasks associated with that, you also have to market that business.

But just how should you divvy up your day?

How much time should you spend on marketing?

I believe you need to spend at least half of your time on marketing. In fact, as a business owner, I believe you really only have two main responsibilities:

1) Spending your time on revenue-producing activities

2) Marketing your business

Your time is valuable, so you shouldn't waste it on mundane tasks that someone else could easily do.

You should be spending half your time generating income for your business. This might include things like servicing your clients and creating products.

The other half of your time should be spent on marketing to grow your business. That might include activities like writing articles and press releases, doing speaking engagements, writing and publishing an ezine or newsletter, advertising, relationship marketing, networking or Internet marketing. Any activity that is designed to bring you more clients or more sales.

But what about "all those other things" that have to get done?

All those administrative business tasks like paying bills, invoicing clients, going to the bank, picking up office supplies, fulfilling orders, monthly bookkeeping and clerical tasks like filing?

Or all of those household tasks like grocery shopping, cleaning your house, and doing laundry?

Find a way to delegate "all those other things"

...so you can focus your time on your top two priorities. If your time is worth $50 an hour or $150 an hour and you are spending it on $10 an hour tasks, it just doesn't make sense.

What if you can't afford to hire help?

I was in this boat for a long time myself. My mentors kept telling me to create a team and delegate. But I thought I couldn't afford to. When I finally took the leap of faith and began assembling a team, my entire business and life changed.

I went from being a lone ranger doing everything in my businesses (yes, it was very tiring!) to a team that includes a bookkeeper, CPA, attorney, virtual assistant, writer, art director and production artist, media buyer, web developer, product manufacturer, fulfillment house, computer technician, real estate partners, property management company and others I'm sure I'm forgetting about right now.

No, I don't have an office with all these people on staff.

I am still a "company of one." These people are partners that I pay for specific services when I need them.

And I've enlisted the help of my family with the household tasks and hired housekeepers so I don't have to spend my valuable work hours or my precious free time on these activities.

Yes, I still do some things I probably shouldn't.

But the point is, over the past two years, I've learned to find experts and utilize their services to help me grow my business.

And even though I thought I couldn't afford to hire a team...

Now I can't imagine running my business (or my life) any other way. And paying for this help has never been an issue. Because the time they have freed up allows me to focus on my top two priorities, which has grown my businesses.

Your Marketing Step

Look around. Are you trying to do it all yourself? Are you running your business as a lone ranger? Are you spending time on activities that someone else could be doing?

If you are, I encourage you to step back and re-evaluate how your business is structured. And create a structure and a team that will allow you to spend your time on marketing and revenue-producing activities. And then watch your business grow!

Want to see how I spend my time? Visit my blog to find out!

Earn Income Online, Through Affiliate Marketing

Waitress, Janitor, Cab Driver, Dish Washer, Maid, Fast Food Worker, what do they have in common? Low pay and many time's long hours. They fight every week to week to stretch every dollars, and many answer this by taking on a part time job, along with their regular job to make ends meet. Do this sound like you?

Is their any solution or options? The Answer is Yes! If you have a computer and a Internet connection. From this you can start-up your own home based business. The Internet make this possible and easy to set-up.

There are many ways to make money online, but one effective method I am recommending is affiliate marketing. It is a business that can be run part time as you work your regular job, and it takes little or no start-up money.

You may be asking, what is Affiliate Marketing? It is a process when a person receive a commission for generating a sale for a product or service of a merchant.

It is an Ideal home based business to make money online. No inventory to keep, and no shipping, and no money transaction to handle, and no customer service, this is all for the merchant to worry about. All you have to do is choose the products and services and promote them to earn a commission.

Where do you look for product to promote? I recommend three sources for you. Click Bank, Commission Junction, Link Share, no need to search all over the Internet for products or services to promote, you would have thousands of products . Click Bank alone have 10,000 products.

All you have to do to become an affiliate is to sign-up, the process is free and easy to join, and in the process you are given and affiliate id to use. It is through this affiliate id, that you earn commission when the affiliate link is click on, and a sale is made.

Now all you have to do is advertise or promote the products or services of your choice. One method is through the search engine, like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. It is call paid per click, when your ad is run, you only pay when the ad is click on.

Another method of advertising, is writing article. You write and article, usually the topic is related to the product or service you are promoting, then you summit it. When it goes through the network, your article will have your affiliate id embedded in the article, this will generate traffic for the the website of the product you are promoting, because it get pick up by people who enjoy the subject, and website owner who is looking for content to post.

Start this easy approach and earn money online through affiliate marketing.

Working Internet Insurance Leads For Maximum Sales

Internet leads are a very available and cost effective way to increase your insurance sales, but many agents don't like them. I have had success with leads which are developed when potential clients fill out forms from internet sites in order to gather competitive price quotes for life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, or other products. After all, my potential client has already taken the time to fill out a detailed form, and that indicates interest! Secondly, I should have enough information from the form in order to develop a proposal before I ever speak to them!

Internet Insurance Leads Like the Internet!

I think the reason that many insurance agents don't like this type of lead is because they try to work them as if they came from more traditional sources like newspaper ads or the yellow pages. Even though I would advise an agent to contact the customer over the phone, I would also tell them not to be put off if the customer is not that interested in having a phone conversation at the time I call. The reason they filled out a form on the internet is because they probably expected to get information the same way!

If the customer does not want to talk, I make sure I have an email address and ask them if they'd like a proposal delivered that way. They almost always prefer this. And they may be shopping around, but that's o.k., because I have done my homework, understand my competition, and know how to make my presentation. If possible, I direct them to my website (sort of a super - business card!), and other online resources which back up my products. Then I give them a short summary of the products I sell, along with ballpark price quotes, and a short introduction.

A week or two may pass, but a lot of them do call me back. After all, they were shopping for insurance, and now they've found an attractive product which they are ready to discuss. When they call me back, it's great, and almost always a quick sale. If I don't hear back in a week, I do follow up with a phone call. But this time, I get a better reception because - after all - we're old email buddies now!

To summarize, do not be afraid to email internet lead clients. This type of client tends to be better educated and more affluent so they are great prospects, but they also tend to do more research. I need to be aware of the competition and be able to present my solutions in a positive light. I don't pressure them, and am happy to provide information online. Obviously this type of prospect is happy with online information!

Affiliate Marketing Mistake 7- Launching Unfocused Affiliate Campaign

This article will touch on the mistake number 7 which is launching unfocused affiliate campaign. You will be able to find 6 other mistakes from my other articles. The launching of unfocused affiliate campaign is a mistake that most new affiliate marketer will make. This article will explain what the real problem behind this mistake is and what you can do to solve this problem.

Some affiliates will fail because there is no purpose in their campaigns. They will just want to promote as many products as possible to earn the fastest cash. They feel that they will be able to kill many birds with one stone. When you do that, the problems that you will cause to your target audience is that they will be confused on what is the real purpose of your campaign.

Firstly, they will not know what is being marketed. Secondly, the customer will get frustrated with you because they will have the mindset that you only want to sell them things to earn money without thinking of giving values to them. Hence the response rates experienced by such unfocused campaigns are usually very low.

So what are the solutions? The solution is to jus tackle things one at a time. This will make sure that your marketing is focused on one products and your customer will know what you are trying to offer. Give them the reasons why they should buy the products that you are offering and give them the honest preview of the product that your are promoting. This will add credibility to your business.

Launching a unfocused affiliate campaign will be the mistake that you should and never commit it. If you know this mistake and you avoid, you will be able to save a lot of your time, effort and money. Time, effort and money that is sacrificed from you should be able to help you become more successful and not causing you to become more broke.

Affiliates, Do You Have An Affiliate Marketing Business Or Not?

The following article is one of a series of articles which focus on Affiliate, Article and Internet Marketing. All of the articles are based on real experiences and research done over twenty years as a personal and business coach. They are also written in response to questions which I have been asked as well as address common challenges that people have with affiliate marketing, article marketing, internet marketing or running an online business in general. I sincerely hope that you find the following information of value. One idea, one tip, one clue can make all the difference.

Affiliates, Do You Have An Affiliate Marketing Business Or Not?

When we get rid of all the hype and over inflated promises, affiliate marketing can still be a sound proposition. It is feasible to make as much money with affiliate marketing as it is through a conventional online business that sells products or services.

However, people who approach affiliate marketing as an opportunity to make some quick cash cannot truly regard themselves as running a business. Long term sustained profitability will be realized when the same due care and attention is paid to an affiliate marketing business as it would be paid to an offline business.

What does this due care and attention consist of?

Planning and Goal Setting

Have you ever been employed? Have you ever managed other people? Imagine not being able to discuss their roles, what their key objectives were, when those objectives had to be met, what their key success indicators (measures) were.

Imagine if your boss couldn't do the same with you. The company would be a complete shambles. Now, just because you may be at home running an affiliate marketing enterprise from your P.C. doesn't mean that planning goes out the window.

What are your goals for the next six months, year, five years? How will you know you are on track to meet those goals? What financial plans (other than luck) have you put in place to support your goals? What are your contingency plans if a) your are not successful and b) if you are a lot more successful than you had planned for?

It is imperative that you take the time to prepare your business plan. It doesn't have to be complicated, it doesn't have to be 100 pages in length but it must enable you to focus every day. It must enable you to focus on the priorities without getting distracted with non value-added activities.

A key part of beginning any business planning process is to do your research.

Research

I doubt very much if you were about to embark on an offline business venture, you would just go ahead without conducting any research. I am pretty sure you would try and find out as much as you could about the business you chose, the product or service you were going to provide, who your targeted customers were going to be, what your marketing strategies were going to be. Anything to ensure your offline business stood every chance of being successful.

O.K. setting up an online affiliate marketing business may not be quite as involved but that doesn't mean that we don't conduct the necessary research.

You certainly should have a good idea of what your website's main theme is going to be, how you will produce the customer focused content for that site and what related affiliate programs will provide the "solution" to the problem or challenge you have described in the content.

It is absolutely vital that credibility and reputation is built from the outset. This will only come from conducting research into the affiliate programs and products you wish to promote. How else can you pre-sell these solutions to your potential customers?

Give yourself a fighting chance by researching the marketplace. Having decided your theme, main topic or niche, who are your competitors? How are they marketing their site(s)? How are they attracting customers and what are those customers buying?

Now, what can you do to be unique, to attract the same potential customers, what value can you add? You need to give your affiliate marketing program a real chance to work so stick with it for a while, track what pages are working or not, what products are selling or not, and ultimately if you are making a profit or not.

Get The Basics Right

Your content needs to be compelling, interesting, informative and pre-sell all at the same time. Difficult? It doesn't need to be. If you have done any of the research suggested above, you will have noticed how others do it. Learn from them. Check other affiliate marketing sites and note their headlines, sub headlines, opening paragraphs, and above all, how they place and write their "call to action" – what they want their visitors to do.

If you are new to setting up or even designing websites, there are a number of free and low cost solutions available. Guess what, yes do some research online and offline. You may even decide to learn basic skills such as html and design your own site.

Whichever way you decide to go, the important thing to remember always is to keep your readers engaged. The last thing you want is to have site visitors clicking off as soon as they have clicked on. Believe me you won't keep your visitors on your site with a whole bunch of fancy animated graphics and little or no real value-added content. However, you will stand a great chance of holding your visitors with a relatively plain site and great, informative content.

Experienced and successful affiliate marketers know that it takes time to do it properly. Throwing up a website with a few affiliate programs, flash banners and next to no content won't cut it any more. Your site visitors have become far too discerning for that.

Take the time and do it right and you'll see the results in your bank account.

Finding help and resources for making money online or by affiliate marketing are some of the most sought after subjects on the internet. Our Independent Affiliate Review Site gives that much needed help and resources for ordinary people who want to run extraordinary businesses.

Ebay Business Opportunity - Home Internet Business Without The Hassle

It seems like more and more people these days are turning to the internet to make a living. The stresses and strains of commuting, meetings, bosses and deadlines doesn't qualify as a quality life for the majority of people stuck in the rat race. Starting your own home business has many obvious advantages, but none more fulfilling than having the ability to determine your own level of income and your own lifestyle. If you are looking for a highly lucrative business opportunity, a home internet business might just be what you are looking for.

Although there are many home business opportunities out there, Ebay probably has the lowest entry level and arguably the greatest profit potential. If you think that you have to buy and sell stuff to make money on Ebay – think again! Things have moved on and Ebay offers so many business opportunities that you are bound to find your place on Ebay. But why Ebay? Why not just start any old internet business? Here are some convincing reasons why Ebay is such a good platform from which to launch your own internet based home business.

-:- Ebay is the biggest marketplace in the world and has more than 135 million users in 35 countries. The biggest problem that most online businesses face is customers and Ebay pretty much takes care of that for you on a global scale, unrivalled by any other marketplace.

-:- Ebay provides you with a reputable platform with a tried and tested system that you simply have to 'plug in to'. Payment and secure online transactions is the main stumbling block with online business and with Ebay's trusted payment system it takes away a lot of the worry and even red tape in doing business online.

-:- Ebay is easy to use and both shoppers and store owners have very little trouble using Ebay. Setting up and running your own store can be extremely complicated, but with the Ebay platform this is as easy as pie and even a newbie can easily set up their very own store

Starting your very own Ebay store can be incredibly profitable and regardless of what you have to sell, you are likely to find customers from somewhere in the world. But you don't have to sell your own products either. There are many wholesalers from where you can buy cheap products to sell and directories like SaleHoo literally list thousands of great resources covering products from fireworks to workshops.

If running your own shop and dealing with products, shipping and inventories sounds like too much hassle for you, there is an alternative. You can still run your own Ebay store, but instead of selling your own products, you can sell someone else's products and get paid a commission. Although the profit margins are smaller, you will have a lot less hassle as all the actual product fulfilment will be done and run by the actual reseller. You are merely an affiliate who earns commission.

So, if you are looking for a business opportunity, a home internet business with Ebay can be your answer. Whether you want to sell your own products, sell wholesale products or even just open an affiliate store, there is a lot of money to be made in the world's biggest marketplace.

Do You Really Need A Website?

I see many "expert" internet marketers telling people that it's not necessary to have a website in order to make money on the internet. While that's true to some extent, not having your own website can severely limit your options.

It's difficult to sell your own product without a website - With no website, you'd have no place to put your salesletter. And without a salesletter, how can you sell your product? You could sell thru email to your list, but then again, without a website to capture names and email addresses, you wouldn't even have a list, would you?

It's hard to sell affiliate products without a website nowadays - One of the big ideas the gurus preach to new marketers is that you don't need a website because you can just advertise affiliate products using Google's AdWords Pay-Per-Click ads. That was indeed possible in the past and many people did it, but it's not something that works anymore. You see, Google has made some policy changes that prohibit multiple advertisers from using the same destination URL in AdWords ads. What this means is that if someone else already is advertising the particular affiliate product you want to promote, you're out of luck.

The bottom line is that if you want to make money selling on the internet, you really do need a website.

A website opens up so many possibilities for you - Obviously, with your own website, you can host and display salesletters for your own products. If your products are downloadable, the website also provides you with a place to store those products and make them available to customers for downloading.

If you want to promote affiliate products, your own website allows you to use AdWords without having to worry about someone else already promoting that same affiliate URL. You simply use a page of your own website as the destination URL for the AdWords ad. The page on your website can be either a "pre-sell" letter or just a simple redirect to your affiliate link URL.

In most cases, you'll want to have a pre-sell page, rather than a simple redirect to your affiliate link. The reason is that with a pre-sell page, you'll get a chance to explain the product in terms that will be meaningful to your prospects before passing them on to the affiliate URL. That way, when they arrive at the actual product salesletter, they already have made a tentative decision that they're interested in the product.

A pre-sell page also gives you an opportunity to offer a bonus to anyone that buys thru your affiliate link. For example, if the product you're promoting is a complicated piece of software, you might want to make up a short instructional video that you can give to purchasers. This is usually perceived as a good value, since it will help them to be productive with the product much quicker. Many affiliate marketers have seen increased sales using this technique.

My Inspiration To Start In Internet Marketing

When I was a child I had the habit to walk in the streets of quarters where they had wonderful houses and this opened the appetite of my dreams in wanting my proper house.

Through all this years of my ordinary lifetime, I come feeding this dream to have my proper house, plenty of rooms; a full library of books and computers connected to the Internet; ample bedrooms, drawing and dining rooms to warmly receive my children and friends; one barbecue with wooden tables between gazebo and garden rooms; an enormous bedroom for my wife and me; a kitchen in the molds of the kitchens of families of the interior of the State of Goias, in Brazil, where all family to congregate to eat and to talk.

We know that to have the proper house is one of the five bigger dreams of any person. Is not it the American dream? So I have got this personal proposal that I am going to build a house someday, and it is going to be a roomy house. A lot of other women and men seem to feel the same way.

The question that I make myself today is how am I go to construct my proper house? How to make this dream to turn reality? Can I actually make my own house? Absolutely, and I believe the rewards are huge.

So I must take action. I wrote down three options: the first one would be to save all month a certain amount in money and to apply in the financial market. In the truth, I do not have enough budget for these economies, in view of the desire to construct this house in the maximum in 5 years.

The second option would be to take loaned money and to finance the house. I particularly not taste of this type of debt. I would take 25 years to pay the house.

Those two first options had discouraged me at a first moment. I almost gave up continuing feeding my dream of the proper house.

However, something that we do not know to explain what it is, It left me uneasy and infuriated with the possibility to give up my dream. My basic attitude was not to give up construct my proper house. By the opposite I saw that my dream was nonnegotiable.

This took me to search other chances to make money. Perhaps my meeting with the Internet marketing can be explained of this form: I never give up my dreams. The chance to have the proper business online came to renew my dream of child.

I really think I am doing my way at Internet marketing. It runs a time to begin making money online, after start an affiliate program, or a work at home based business opportunity. A business at the Internet marketing is like any sort of offline business. And as it has said before, all newbie would pass for an initial learning.

I do think Internet marketing is all about mindset. All top home based business requires our mind resistance. There are some essentials steps to make money online. The best way to stay with focused attention is to remember, write and read everyday our target. It makes us alive at a small business resource.

Never give up of your dream, it is what I can say.

Lead Generation Secrets From a Lead Generation Coach

Why do people get poor results from their marketing?

4 Common reasons…

Verbal Programming

Modelling

Specific Incidents

Working with Symptoms

Any of these sound familiar?

Verbal Programming

They suffer from negative conditioning by family, friends, peers, associates, and suppliers who have all tried some form of marketing and communicated their poor results. We remember them. We don't forget them. We dwell on them. These negative memories leave long lasting impressions and affect our "Marketing Blueprint"…they contribute to our negative conditioning, they shape our attitude towards marketing and lead generation, and prevent us from trying new approaches.

Modelling

Many business owners actually model their management style on a particular individual. Many life coaches recommend you model yourself on someone successful in your industry who has created a successful business, or has found a unique and proven approach….why not apply that concept of modelling to your lead generation and marketing.

Find a proven system or process that you see others implementing and working, and apply it to your business.

Specific Incidents

Remember that one off, last minute ad that cost you £600 that didn't generate a single lead? The networking event where you gave out 30 cards…and not yet had one phone call….The marketing seminar you paid £5K on, and by the time you got home, you'd forgotten half of it, and they showed you no real world examples, and you didnt put any of it into practice. Remember the mailing list you bought, with 38% goneaways? Remember the ebook marketing system you bought off of ebay for £5 that was a complete and utter waste of time.

We remember these negative experiences. We dwell on them. We replay them over in our minds, time and time again. These negative experiences leave long last impressions that mould our thinking and affect our "Marketing Blueprint" and our attitude towards marketing and lead generation and how others market themselves. (we don't want to be compared to them, do we?)

Working with Symptoms

Successful marketing starts with addressing the real marketing issues that are holding our businesses back now. No matter what concepts, techniques, principles or strategies that many people apply (even if they are the right ones), they usually fail because they're not addressing the real marketing issues that are holding them back, or have gotten to the root of their marketing problems that preventing good results and good conversions- they're only dealing with the symptoms.

The same 4 reasons above are probably preventing your prospects
from doing business with you….

What if…they may have received verbal conditioning about you, your products, your brand from a 3rd party who had never tried your services., (it happens) What if they have received verbal conditioning for years about a negative experience someone else had with product or service similar to yours...( and they incorrectly compared you with them. )

What if... your prospects are searching for a mentor, or someone to model their business, their process, their systems, their service, even their life, on - and you and your solution might be the one they're looking for, they just haven't found you yet.

What if... your prospects have had a bad experience personally with one of your competitors, would you know? Do you know? This could have quite an impact on their "blue print" and perceptions of others - i.e.; you, in the same industry.

What if ...they simply can't see the wood for the trees, are bogged down in dealing with the symptoms of the problems that you can highlight, bring to their attention, quickly and easily or address head on, but they just don't realise it yet.

One, some or all of the reasons may apply to your business and your prospects

Your Prospects need to know that you recognise their problems, and more importantly, you need to present your case and articulate your message in such a way that it differentiates you from your competitors. (Afterall, there's no-one else like you, offering what you do, you are unique - aren't you? )

If the majority of businesses knew the best methods to identify new prospects, reach those prospects, communicate the benefit of what they have to offer those prospects, gain commitment and meet the expectations of those very same prospects, it would result in more leads, more sales, more revenue and more than likely…….more profit.

Many new start and seasoned business professionals simply can't afford to rely on referrals alone.

Many just need a real competitive advantage and by applying simple, proven, methods, their Marketing really wouldn't be a struggle

Granted, you will find it far more rewarding if your marketing activities result in prospective clients calling you ready to work with you. You'll be a lot more motivated and enthusiastic if most of those prospective clients turn into real clients that pay you what you're worth - every single time.

Sounds too good to be true, believe me it's not. (It can and does happen for many)

Successful marketing starts by identifying what you need to do and analysing why people are attracted to you. It's simple. You need to identify what's wrong with your marketing now.

You need to analyse exactly...

Who your prospective clients are, where you can find them

the problems your prospects have,

the solutions you offer your prospects

The best way to articulate your marketing message,

and then think of the best ways of getting your message out to your target audience.

...so, in short..

...It starts with a marketing audit.

Regards

Fraser

Fraser J. Hay

Stake Your Claim

A few short years ago the power of the Internet was unimaginable. Now it penetrates every corner of our economy. It is the quintessential selling arena for any type of merchandise or service. It makes the process of buying and selling to your market easier, less expensive, more effective, and more profitable. Most are now familiar with the process, but few understand its potential for sweeping change.

Consider the facts about these companies rebuilding their business models:

78% of small businesses now use the Internet regularly, spending more than $43 billion in online purchases in 2006, Jupiter Research says in a recent report. "Business-to-business transactions are also contributing mightily to Internet growth.

Federated Department Stores Inc. reports that it will spend $100 million this year and next to support growth in its direct-to-consumer businesses, including Macys.com, Bloomingdales.com, Bloomingdale`s By Mail, MacysWeddingChannel.com and BloomingdalesWeddingChannel.com. The amount is part of Federated`s capital spending plans of $1.2 billion in 2007 and $1.1 billion in 2008.
"Our online sales continue to grow at a rapid pace as the national expansion of Macy`s and Bloomingdale`s attracts new customers to our stores, web sites and catalog," says Terry J. Lundgren, Federated`s chairman, president and CEO. CNN.com

The 2006 fiscal year was a tough one for Circuit City Stores Inc. capped by the announcement that the chain retailer will lay off as many as 3,500 higher paid associates. But the web is a bright spot--Circuit City says web sales in fiscal 2006 reached $1 billion and it expects e-commerce to grow by 35% in the same year. Circuit City.com

The web is now the main direct sales channel for Foot Locker Inc. In 2006, the retailer posted web sales of $270 million, an increase of 11.1% from web sales of $243 million in 2005. Footlocker.com

Perfume.com's parent Communicate.com Inc. reported record e-commerce revenue of $7.4 million for the year ending Dec. 31, 2006, an increase of 55% from the prior year. Perfume.com

Ecommerce is the new way business is being done. Those who have embraced the technology are finding new rivers of income, less stress, and a bright future. Those that haven't are struggling to survive.

The tools are there. Pick them up and use them. Your future depends on it.

Marketing Your Online Business Ventures by Using Blogs

A Blog is a single web page that can be updated with fresh content on a regular basis. This has an advantage over a traditional web page in that by having constant fresh content the search engine spiders will regularly visit seeking to index that fresh content. Blogger is perhaps one of the most popular blogging sites on the net. It is free and gives you the ability to chose a domain name which ends in .blogspot.com, saving the cost of buying a domain name. Of course being so popular many of the domain names you want for your topic or business have already been taken which means you have to get creative to get a domain name that has some relation to your business or topic.

Blogs are often used as online diaries, or for an ongoing discussion on a topic - like politics or sport. Many people used them to comment on up to date current events, or to post the latest humorous story or video.

A Blog's main disadvantage is that it is a single page. As such eventually even on a very long blog material will need to be archived. The average web surfer will not go into the archives to retrieve older information. As such a web site is superior to display information and act as a main portal for your online business. However by linking your blog to your main site you can get extra traffic that you would not get from one approach alone.

If you do any marketing online, any venture can be further by creating a linking blog. It is a particularly good place to update the latest news about your business opportunity or a great way to share ideas, successful approaches or motivational material with your down lines. As such if you are involved in any online multi-level marketing or network marketing venture you need a blog.

Business Opportunities - Work From Home As An Affiliate Marketer

Are you sick and tired of working every day from 9 to 6, getting up early in the morning, enduring traffic jams, spending little time with your loved ones and dealing with the stress of stupid coworkers and irritating bosses? If you are, then affiliate marketing provides the perfect solution for you to work from home and earn more than you would at a regular job! This guide will teach you how you can leverage your Internet connection into a massive money-making empire that will earn you hundreds ever day!

When it comes to business opportunities, work from home can be very well paid. Affiliate marketers are people who work online and make a living by promoting other products. It is very similar to selling a product of your own, except that you don't need one - you simply choose an existing product to work with and gain a hefty commission for every buying customer you refer. Most products pay you $10-$30 for every sale you make, so the opportunities for massive financial gain are quite high.

As an affiliate marketer, you don't have to deal with any issues arising from product refunds or even have an inventory of the product - normally, all of these issues are handled by the owner of the affiliate program. In fact, all you will need to do is visit Clickbank and choose the right product for you, then set up a site and start promoting it! In short, pick a good product to promote and take advantage of your online business opportunities; work from home afterwards to bring more visitors and reach a high position on Google.

Once you have a steady stream of visitors to your site, you will start making sales. Better still, since all the sales are handled automatically, you won't have to get involved in managing your site - once it's up and running, you can forget about it and it will make you money every day with no effort from your side! This is why affiliate marketing is one of the most popular online business opportunities - work from home will create passive income for you, so you can expand your online empire without having to maintain it!

What this means for you is that you will be able to spend more time with your loved ones, take a vacation, have a few beers with your mates - all while your business continues to make money for you. When it comes to business opportunities, work from home can bring enormous rewards and free up more time than you ever thought possible!

The Best Internet Marketing Strategies

It seems to me that there are more internet strategies today than ever, you would think they would slowly evolve over the years and the worst of the bunch would die, and the best internet marketing strategies would thrive and grow. That would leave us with an elite group of strategies that were honed to perfection and could reap the kind of results we all dream of. Instead we have thousands of ill thought out and some, utterly useless, strategies being proliferated all over the web by people who only make money by selling the strategy to other people… Of course in amongst all of those are the true gems that are hiding in shame from the rest of the internet marketing community.

The internet is always in flux as it adapts to the growing needs of the online users, and with that will come fresh ideas that usually do work for a while. The problem is that as more and more people start to use (and abuse) those strategies then they lose their effectiveness. However there are a selection of the best internet marketing strategies that are sadly overlooked by most new marketers, and which remain as effective today as ever, it is these that I will now discuss:

Search Engine Optimisation: 4 out of 5 stars

SEO is the art of creating websites or webpages that rank well when people search for certain terms on search engines. Now the natural, free, and best of all, targeted traffic that you receive from SEO is the reason why it is one of the best internet marketing strategies. If done correctly then you can drive hordes of traffic to your site and reap the benefits that brings. The only issue that I have with this technique is the constant fear you have of dropping down the rankings, and the constant work that is needed to maintain your position. I would give it a 4/5 as if you put in the work then you can get fantastic results.

Pay Per Click: 3 out of 5 stars

PPC is still the quickest way to get traffic to your site for testing etc. For those of you that don't know then PPC is where you pay for an advert to appear when somebody types certain words into a search engine. If they click on your advert and go through to your site then you pay a set amount. The fact that you only pay when someone visits, and the fact that you can get traffic flowing in minutes, makes this one of the best internet marketing strategies for testing ideas and products. I would give this a 3/5 as you need to pay for every click so mistakes are costly, but it definitely gives results, use it most effectively to test the conversion rate of your sales page before using SEO.

Article Marketing: 5 out of 5 stars

This has to be my favourite strategy. Well established article directories are usually optimised very well in the search engines, and you can leverage this to your advantage. If you write quality articles, put a link to your site at the bottom and submit these to an article directory then you will get traffic to your site through the link. If you target relevant keywords with your article you may also appear in the search engines and get targeted traffic to your article that way. Articles are also taken by websites that need content and that will help with SEO as you will get links to your site from all over the internet (a key component of SEO), so you get the best of both worlds! The ease of use and the fact you can leverage the SEO of the directories themselves make this one of the best internet marketing strategies without a doubt. I would have to give article marketing 5/5 as the best possible strategy you can use to get traffic.

So to get the most traffic possible then my advice is to stick to these three strategies and forget about the 'latest thing' that is coming out. The more you use the three best internet marketing strategies then the better you will become at them and the more your traffic, and your profits, will increase.

Internet Home Business Idea That Is 100% Sure

When you have decided to start your very own internet home business, you`ll need a special strategy to pick your internet home business idea. I`ll present it in this article. The strategy is a must ( and safe ), because there are so huge competition and simply too many internet home business – offers, mostly hype and scams.

Without a simple strategy for finding internet home business idea, the possibility to fail is close to 100 %.

Many people from all over the world with different backgrounds are making a lot of money with their online businesses. If you are looking for a profitable internet home business idea, then you have to realize the criterias of the right procedure.

You Need 2 Things To Find Out A Profitable Internet Home Business Idea

First you have to find an internet home business idea, that matches you and that you feel will offer good opportunities for starting your very own home business.

Secondly you have to understand that you`ll have the comfort of working in your own home, at your own time and mostly deciding your own income level.Working successfully in the Internet, you need a community ( who promote the same program ), that will support you through the forum discussions.

Pick the program online from a well-known guru, who has already succeeded with his own internet home business idea. On the top of the great programs, he must be appreciated in the internet home business community and must have at least 5 years experience with the same program. Then he is a real support, when you`ll run your internet home business ideas.

Then concerning the affiliate programs, make sure that he`ll pay at least 40 % commissions, so it`s worth trying. A good affiliate program offers online income from multiple sourches, maybe even from 20 different sourches. Make sure that he`ll up-date the offering online constantly and that the affiliate program has a wide internet home business community, with which you can discuss on the internet marketing forum.

It is clear that the affiliate program must be free to join and free to start. Thinking your internet income, make sure that you`ll earn multilevel, residual commissions.

Before you`ll start working with your own internet home business ideas, make sure that the guru-program offers training and wide selection of advertising material for all kind of web site, blog, ezine etc. promotions.

Once you have decided your internet home business idea, you can start your own web site, blog, newsletter or internet marketing forum posts, where you`ll link people looking the opportunity of your specific affiliate program.

You`ll get paid an affiliate commission for every sale that is made through your affiliate links ( from your blogs or web site ). A good affiliate program will pay as promised.

This is one of the best ways to pick the internet home business idea, to follow the guru-strategy.
It is sure that the affiliate program, which will be selected with this strategy works, so it`s up to you to learn to run it.

Not only does this internet home business idea allow you to work on something that will match you, it will give you the opportunity to help people with your internet home business knowledge. The internet is full of internet home business ideas, which do not fullfill the criterias above. Most often they`ll promise too much too soon, which will kill the motivation ( and income ) of the new web site owner.

This strategy for starting your own internet home business is the one, which has been tested by many new home business owners during six years. It really ads to the total value of the internet as a whole and your success depends on the quality of your own work including the quality of the service you`ll give.

This strategy to pick the right internet home business idea did not handle the issue of building web site, which really is a minor issue these days. The best feature of this strategy to pick an internet home business idea is, that the internet income will be residual. You`ll keep earning money day after day ( even when you are on a holiday ).

When your web site is ready, it will be almost on auto-pilot and earning you money by itself.

When And How To Use A Joint Venture Broker

Forming successful joint ventures is not always an easy task and you may want to hire a joint venture broker instead.

There are many joint venture brokers you will want to look for one with

1. A good reputation

2. Contacts in your niche

3. Experience with your type of product.

If your broker doesn't have all three of those then I wouldn't be that interested in working with them and you shouldn't either.

When hiring a joint venture broker stay away from people who charge you on an hourly basis or charge you on a per JV partner basis. You are looking to pay someone a commission on the sales the partners they bring in. You may end up paying more this way but its well worth it.

Are you wondering how it works?

Let's say you are selling a $100 product and you offer a 50% commission to your partners. Your joint venture broker might charge an additional 25% on those sales. You'll be paying out $75 to affiliates ($50 goes to the affiliate and $25 goes to the joint venture broker on each sale) and keeping $25 for yourself, you will also be building a list of clients that you would not have had otherwise, you will have new contacts in your market, possibly testimonials, credibility and now you have the time to work on making follow-up products and more promotional materials to maximize your revenue.

The Facts About Credit Based Safelists

Safelist advertising is still one of the cheapest ways to promote your business on the Internet. It can also be one of the biggest wastes of time if you bother with safelists that don't bring results. This article is going to focus on credit based safelists and why, in the long run, they are probably your best choice as far as what kind of safelist to sign up with.

Most safelists revolve around the principal of allowing the member decide whether or not to read their safelist emails, while at the same time allowing them to email to other members as often as the safelist itself allows, whether it be daily, weekly or whatever. The problem with this concept is that most people don't read their emails and yet expect others to read the emails that they send out. Of course nobody does, and in essence, this makes normal safelist advertising close to worthless. It is because of this reason that credit based safelists were created.

The basic credit based safelist works as follows. The person signs up, whether it be free or paid, and upon signup gets a certain number of credits. The number is usually in the thousands, but greatly varies from safelist to safelist. With these credits, the member is allowed to then send to as many members as he has credits. So if he is given 30,000 credits in his first month, then he is able to send his email ad to 30,000 members total for that time period, whether it be for the day, month or whatever. Once his credits are used up, he can no longer email to anymore members until he earns more credits. And therein lies the beauty of credit based safelists.

There are usually two ways for the member to earn credits. He can either buy credits at whatever the going rate is per credit, or, and this is the more popular option with members, he reads emails from the other members in order to get those credits. The number of credits you earn from each email you get will vary depending on the safelist, but it's usually a good number of credits so that you don't have to read anymore than 10 to 20 emails in order to send out your ad to another 1000 members, more or less. This gives people the incentive to read other ads because they know that if they do, they'll get to send their ads out to more people.

While safelist advertising is not the most effective form of advertising on the Internet, credit based safelists at least give you a decent chance of making a few sales, as my own experience has shown me.

If you want to learn more about safelist advertising and other forms of advertising as well, check out the link in my signature. You'll learn about safelists and a whole lot more.