Google AdSense Tips

By: Sharon Housley
Viewed: 248 Times
Approximate Word Count: 791

AdSense allows website publishers to display contextually relevant advertisements on their website. If a web visitor "clicks" on an advertisement, the web publisher will earn a percentage of the advertising revenue generated as a result of the click. Many webmasters have built content websites around the Google AdSense model. In many cases the specific intent of the webmaster is to profit from Google AdSense. Other webmasters use Google AdSense to supplement their revenue. Regardless of the webmaster's intent, the following tips will help webmasters looking to profit from AdSense.

Top AdSense Tips:

1. Niche Sites.

Targeted niche sites that have a clear theme, tend to generate more advertising revenue simply because it is easier to achieve decent search engine placement. Be warned though, you want to chose a niche where there is a sufficient number of advertisements available.

2. Target Keywords.

When determining the sites focus, consider how much the advertisers pay for the advertisements. If the site is focused on ringtones, like Ringtone Central http://www.ringtones-central.com the payout per click is going to be very small, as ringtones are not high ticket items, advertisers will not spend a lot on pay per click advertisements. With less obvious markets use Overture to determine how much advertisers pay per keyword, it is usually similar on Google. Search Overture for a keyword then click "View Advertisers' Max Bids" in the top right corner. This will show the Overture inventory and how much is paid per keyword. Because the market has become very competitive, it will be difficult to rank well in search engines with a new website that is optimized for the terms that have the highest payout. Consider targeting terms that are moderately priced.

3. Aged Sites / Time.

Over time as a website is spidered by Google, advertisements will generally increase in relevance. In general, older websites will rank better in search engines. The closer the advertisements relate to the webpage's content; the higher the "click-through" the publishers will see.

4. Coding.

In order to minimize a websites maintenance place the Google generated AdSense code in the website template or an include file. This will allow you to easily experiment with different advertisement sizes and ad placement, and keep the web maintenance to a minimum.

5. Tracking Channels.

In order to know how effective a specific website or ad placement is use distinct channels and subchannels within Google. This will allow you to discern what performs best on a specific website. Using channels will tell you what sites are making money, what advertisements are making money and what ad position is the most profitable on a specific website. Keep in mind that you should run an advertisement for a full week, in order to properly test its effectiveness, different days of the week will vary the web traffic so comparing one week to another will give the most accurate reflection of how effective a campaign performs.

When testing different advertisement sizes, placement or color schemes be sure to leave campaigns in place for one week, different days will often result in web traffic fluctuations. Comparing web traffic, week to week will give a clear indication of what ad formats perform the best.

6. Integrated Ad Placement.

Many webmasters have been successful at integrating advertisements into a website. The easiest way to integrate an advertisement into a website is to remove the advertisement border. This will allow the ads to better blend with the webpage. Google recommends contrasting the link colors with the website colors to increase click-throughs. It is also suggested that webmasters randomize the color of the advertisements, so that frequent users will not naturally "filter" the ads.

example of integrated ad placement: http://www.golf-clubhouse.net or http://www.security-protection.net

7. Number vs Value of Advertisements.

Up to three advertisements can be listed on each page. This decreases the value of the advertisements served, so publishers should cautiously add advertisement units, as it dilutes ad inventory. In other words you want to serve the most expensive ads at all times.

8. Hot Spots.

Like web copy above the fold holds true with AdSense as well. This means that advertisements that appear without having to scroll will be read more frequently. Hot Spots are areas on a web page that result in a higher percentage of click-throughs. According to Google the highest paying advertisements are located on the hot spots.

hot spots map - http://www.small-business-software.net/heat-map.htm

Google does not indicate if image advertisements or text ads perform better, so webmasters are encouraged to experiment with both.

9. Highest performing Ad Sizes.

According to Google the 336 x 280 rectangle, the 300 x250 rectangle and the 160 x 600 sky scraper result in the highest number of click-throughs. Depending on the website's design and layout, publishers may experience different results with different ad sizes, placements and color schemes. Expirement and track the results for each website to maximize the AdSense payout.

This article was posted at iReprint.info on 2006-03-23. Webmasters and publishers are free to reprint this article as long as the resource box and all the links remain intact.

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About the Author
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

$1 Million in Google AdSense Earnings

By: Scott Adams
Viewed: 612 Times
Approximate Word Count: 514

They are calling him the million dollar man. Jason Calacanis recently revealed in his blog that he is on track to earn a million dollars from AdSense over the year ahead.

And if that number doesn't wake you up and have you sitting on the edge of your seat, consider for a moment that he reached this level in less than a year. His company only started using AdSense in September 2004.

Calacanis runs Weblogs Inc., a network dedicated to creating trade weblogs across niche industries. And he's quickly proven that AdSense is a credible advertising partner.

As their network has grown, so has their AdSense revenue. In January 2005 they earned an average of $580 per day. In March it was $737. In May it was $1,585. One day in July, just before he made the blog entry referred to above, they earned $2,335. Remember that is just for one day. If they can take that daily average to $2,740 they'll be earning a rate of $1 million for a year. And Calacanis predicts that reaching daily earnings of $3,000 or even $5,000 is quite achievable.

That's quite an achievement. Keep in mind that Calacanis has 103 bloggers on the payroll and nine staffers. Even so, many webmasters would give an arm or a leg to have even a third of that.

Google's AdSense has been revolutionary. It has become firmly established as the darling of the online advertising industry. Although rumors are heard of major competitors launching a similar service, AdSense's premier position seems secure for now.

In essence, AdSense has made it possible for almost anyone with a web site or blog to earn some revenue from advertising, without having to employ sales people or spend precious time searching for advertisers.

AdSense works like this. Webmasters sign up for an account in just a few minutes. They receive a small snippet of code to include on their web pages. Google will then automatically serve advertisements that are relevant to the content on the webmaster's pages. When someone visits the webmaster's site and clicks on one of Google's AdSense advertisements, the webmaster earns a fee. Advertisers can pay anywhere from five cents to a hundred dollars per click, and the webmaster receives a percentage of that fee.

Many webmasters are content with earning five to ten dollars from AdSense to cover the cost of web hosting. But many, unsurprising, have higher ambitions. At a popular WebmasterWorld forum, participants share tips and encouragement on reaching a goal of $300 per day from AdSense. So it is no wonder that Calacanis created quite a buzz when he made his million dollar blog entry.

Google have proven once again that they excel at designing innovative Internet services. If you are in the web industry and have not yet used AdSense, then perhaps you should try it out. Or if you are already using it, perhaps Calacanis' impressive results will encourage you to track the performance of your AdSense units more closely, fine tune their positions and formats, and take your earnings to a new level.

Calacanis' million dollar blog entry can be viewed at: http://calacanis.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000403051129.

This article was posted at iReprint.info on 2003-12-27. Webmasters and publishers are free to reprint this article as long as the resource box and all the links remain intact.

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About the Author
Scott Adams is an internet entrepreneur, and earns a living by marketing affiliate programs on pay-per-click search engines, including Google's AdSense. He explains the remarkable system he uses in his book, Affiliate Adventure, which is available at http://www.AffiliateAdventure.com.

Search Engine Optimization - A Must

By: Alec Duncan
Viewed: 166 Times
Approximate Word Count: 1112

As you surf the web take a look around at many of the sites you see. Do you notice anything that seems strange? Well, let me point it out to you. There are hundreds of thousands of web sites that just don't get much traffic. Some of these sites house hundreds of articles, reviews, tutorials, tools, products, forums to mention a few things, yet still they do not receive large amounts of traffic. What is their problem? They have the content. What is left?

The problem is these sites aren't optimized for the search engines. SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SE Friendliness, however you refer to it doesn't matter, the fact is it works and I'm going to tell you what's involved.

Before we continue let me familiarize you with some relevant terminology in my own words.

Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization can be referred to as the addition and modification of all variables and extended variables of a web site in hopes of achieving a better position in the search engines. By variables I mean components of a website such as META tags and content. By extended variable I mean things such as links from other sites.

Different SEOs, search engine optimizers, may have different opinions on this but alas this is only my own.

What is a Search Engine Optimization Company?
A search engine optimization company is a company that offers the service of creating and adjusting all the variables involved in search engine optimization in order to get your web site the best ranking they can achieve, during the designated project period, for all the major search engines.

Search Engine Optimization Hurdles
Back to the question of why these sites rich with content aren't bringing in the numbers. There are several reasons why sites small and large aren't optimized for the search engines, fortunately these can be remedied.

1. Many webmasters/site owners believe in "If You Build It They Will Come". This attitude will get your web site no where fast. Sure if you build it you will get users maybe even a decent amount of users but you will not be unleashing the real potential of your web site.

2. Not feeling that your site can do better than it is. Websites can always be further optimized. Search engines change their algorithms all the time so what worked 2 months ago may not work as well or at all in present times. For any of you that fee you can get your site optimized better, think of the story of the Little Engine and don't think you can, KNOW YOU CAN.

3. Laziness is also a major contributing factor. Many webmasters feel it is just too hard or too time consuming to do search engine optimization.
This is partially true. Search engine optimization is not easy but then again, anyone can do it. It does take time though and time is a precious commodity. In situations where you just can't devote the time to search engine optimize your site I would recommend seeking the services of a professional search engine optimization company. You can choose one here http://www.lilengine.com/seo-companies.php

4. Time + cost = a deterrent. For a situation like this I would recommend optimizing little by little on your own. Eventually you will become better and better at it and be able to accomplish more in less time.

5. Another problem is many people think "Well my site is only a small site, there is no way I will be able to compete with the larger sites that have top spots in the search engines". If you think like this I'd like to say this to you. It is possible that that if you optimize your web site you may not be able to compete with the larger sites and may not be able to get a page 1 or 2 ranking in any of the search engines, BUT, what if you did. Always shoot for the stars so if you fall short you will at least hit the sky.

Now for those of you who plan to better your websites via Search Engine Optimization here are the stages you need to follow in order to have an efficient and effective SEO campaign.

Planning Your Search Engine Optimization Campaign
Planning is an essential factor in your SEO campaign. Knowing exactly what steps you are going to make and in what order and how you are going to go about achieving each of those steps will save you not only time but it will save you frustration as well. Planning is essential.

Researching the Most Effective SEO Strategies
What works and what does not. You will need to learn as many optimization strategies as you can that are currently effective with the search engines. This will be one of the most time consuming steps in your SEO campaign as you will have to sift through information as well as participate in SEO related forums to get additional information from professional. You can take this process in stages and apply your newly gained knowledge as you get it. There is also some useful software available both free and paid that will greatly help with this effort. WebPosition Gold is one of the more popular ones.

Search Engine Optimize Your Site
This should be done in stages so you can see the effectiveness of the applied strategies you are using. Don't change your entire site all at once, instead, change a few areas at a time and see what results they produce. If you are satisfied with this then move on and optimize another section.

Search engine optimization does not only deal with your site it also deals with the relationship other sites have with yours and yours with theirs. Keep this in mind when utilizing your link building strategies.

Monitor Your SEO Progress
There are many ways to do this you will have to find the best method for you. You will need to monitor your search engine ranking for the keywords you are targeting after each update. Changes should be recorded and used as references to monitor progress and for strategy adjustments. There are many tools for this process as well. I recommend SEOCount.com for monitoring your progress on the Google search engine as it is very easy to use and you can monitor several domains and keywords all from within the same account. It also gives you the option of viewing the number of backlinks.

These steps follow the Plan Do Review methodology which is a proven strategy for engaging in any task. It is again unfortunate that there are so many webmasters who overlook this entire process; hopefully this article will stop you from making this same mistake. For more information on search engine optimization visit http://www.lilengine.com.

This article was posted at iReprint.info on 2003-12-17. Webmasters and publishers are free to reprint this article as long as the resource box and all the links remain intact.

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About the Author
Alec Duncan is the founder of Li'l Engine a search engine optimization site. Get more great SEO tips at http://www.lilengine.com and visit their new Web Hosting Resource at http://webhosting.lilengine.com as well as http://www.grindinggears.com for Open Source Development information

How to Use Keywords to Improve Your Ranking in Search Engines

By: Kathy Joyce
Viewed: 230 Times
Approximate Word Count: 902

The importance of keywords
Keywords or key phrases you choose will determine how your site is positioned in the search engines. It is always better to have lots of pages each focusing on a small group of keywords. This will give them more relevance to each individual page.

For example if your site is about shoes you may have lots of different types of shoes.
Your index page should have a menu leading into each of the different categories of shoes.
You might have a page for sandals, one for platform shoes as well as stilettos, court shoes and flat heel shoes.

Choosing keywords
First you have to think like your customer. What would they type into a search engine if they wanted to find the products you are selling.
Use phrases as well as single words. Often someone looking for a product or service will type in several words. For example a customer may want to buy a shoe with stiletto heels. They may type in "stiletto heel shoe", "black stiletto" "stiletto heel","stiletto high heel" or "high heel shoe"

Brainstorming keywords.
Start by thinking of as many keywords associated with your site as you can. To make it easier there is a free tool for this which can be found at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. It will give you the number of times this word has been searched for in the last month. This will also give you a guide to the popularity of the keyword.

Try looking for similar sites to your own and viewing the source code. This will give you ideas for keywords that your competitors are using. Viewing the source code is easy, just right click the mouse somewhere on the page and click on view source.

A good idea is to open a file in wordpad or other text editor and call it "keywords" then if you find words or phrases relevant to your site copy and paste them into your file. You can then view them offline and even print the page out to study it. This can give you ideas for keywords you may not have thought of.

When you have made a list of keywords relevant to each page you will then need to check the supply and demand if you want an edge over your competitor.

You will already know the demand of each keyword the next thing you need to do is to take a sheet of paper or use a spreadsheet on the computer and make 3 columns naming them keyword, supply, and demand.

In the first column list the keywords that have the highest demand. Then in the supply column type how many times it has been searched for.
Lastly in http://www.Altavista.com or http://www.Google.com type in your keyword surrounded by quotation marks like this "stiletto shoes" and see how many sites come up. They will list the number of sites with that keyword in it.

Go through your list, and see how many have a large demand and lower supply. Of course the idea is to have as many large demand and low supply keywords as possible.

Optimise your site by creating theme based,keyword focused pages for each category of shoes or whatever it is that you are selling.
This will greatly increase your chances of getting a higher ranking in the search engines. Just concentrate on a couple of keywords in each page.

The title meta tag
The title tag is THE most important part of your webpage. It must appeal to the search engines and also the visitor to your site. The title of your page is used as the link to your site by the search engines and is visible to the reader.

Use your most important keywords in the title. Make the title between 15-20 words in length.
The title must be compelling for people to want to click through to your site.
Don't ever make the mistake of leaving the title tag blank.
Not a good idea if you want an edge over your competition!!
Every page on your site must have a keyword focused title.

The description meta tag
The description tag is also very important and some search engines display it as a summary of your site. Use some important keywords here but don't repeat them more than 3 or 4 times as it could be seen as spamming.

Keyword tag
This tag is not as important to search engines as it once was, but you should still use it to list your keywords.

The alt tag
This tag is used to describe images and is useful to the visually impaired.
If an image takes a long time to load the alt tag will appear first.
Add keywords to this tag as part of the description.

The main body of text
Place emphasis on your keywords in the first paragraph of the main text, and repeat them several times in the rest of the page. As each page is theme based the keywords will be relevant,and will appear naturally in the body of the text.

You will greatly increase your chances of getting your site in the top positions of search engines if you follow these ideas.

You must however regularly register all your pages with each of the main search engines to make sure the pages are still there as they can suddenly disappear, or drop down from a number 1 position to number 201!!
Normally about once a month is enough.

You can use a site submitter to make this a lot easier.
A good one that I use is http://selfpromotion.com or another one is http://www.submit-it.com

This article was posted at iReprint.info on 2003-12-17. Webmasters and publishers are free to reprint this article as long as the resource box and all the links remain intact.

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About the Author
Kathy is an artist and webdesigner for small businesses. She has designed sites for other artists to showcase their work, and has her own online business. Kathy has written several articles on promoting an online business. Visit her site at http://www.healthandbeautytowealth.co.uk.

How to Select Keywords for Search Engine Optimization

By: Evelyn Lim
Approximate Word Count: 291

Selecting the correct keywords can make or break your website. Potential customers search the web for desired sites, and if your website doesn't have the keywords they're looking for, they'll miss you.

Determining keywords is an art; it's best to work backwards. What would a customer search for if they were looking for your site? You literally have to put yourself in the consumer's place and let go of your preconceived notions about what you think your keywords are. You should remember when writing your site that you need to use words that are not only related to your content, but are popular search words as well. This is called keyword optimization, or choosing the most searched keywords related to your content.

Spend some time listing all of the words and phrases that are related to your website content. Get ideas from everyone you can think of and list them all. Visit competitors' sites and see what meta tags they use. After this research, you are ready to develop your own keyword phrases.

There are several sites designed to assist you in keyword optimization. Here are a few of the free ones:-

The Overture Keyword Tool (http://www.inventory.overture.com ) lists searches related to the keyword you provide. This took is great for expanding your list.

Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) helps identify keywords that will help your ranking on search engines. Wordtracker also gives you other keyword combinations that you may have overlooked.

The Keyword Tumbler (http://www.keywordtumbler.com) takes your existing keyword phrases and mixes it up to form new phrases and variations that you can include in your meta tags.

A great website is not so great if no one finds it. Remember to research your keywords carefully from the consumer's viewpoint and then sit back and watch the traffic roll in!

This article was posted at iReprint.info on 2005-12-15. Webmasters and publishers are free to reprint this article as long as the resource box and all the links remain intact.

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About the Author
Evelyn Lim is a publisher of the popular newsletter "Mapping You to Success" aimed at the aspiring home based internet business owner. She also hopes to educate her readers on acquiring multiple sources of online income. Please visit her site at http://www.e-BizMap.com for more information.

7 Steps of Mega Adsense Earners

By: Andrew Daum
Approximate Word Count: 765

The Google Adsense program is like finding money in the street. Kids in high school are making thousands of dollars a month with Adsense... Housewives, retiree's, Mom and Pop's who've never made a dime on the Internet have created full time incomes by simply placing AdSense Ads on their web site or blog.

Then you have the "Super AdSense" earners. We have all heard of them... the Elite few who are on track to make half a million dollars a year or more promoting AdSense sites.

Do not be mistaken though... these people are not building like your Mom and Pop's do. They have systems in place that create sites for them... people who build sites for them... they have outsourced and automated many of the tedious tasks such as posting to blogs and searching for keywords.

While most people cannot emulate everything these Super AdSense earners do... many of them you can.

Here are 7 Required Steps you can implement today to copy their success.

1) Starting today... treat your AdSense business like it is a REAL business and track what you do.
Begin tracking what you are doing that works... as well as what you are doing that does not work. This will keep you from making the same mistakes over and over, and you can repeat the steps that have worked in the past. As simple as this step seems... most people do not know the reason(s) to their success or failure.

2) Utilize the latest tools and software available.
The Super AdSense earners are not any smarter than your average person. I know many people think they are... but for the most part, they are regular non techie people.

They are smarter in one respect though... they use the latest tools available to them to automate most of the tasks involved with researching and creating sites. They use the latest keyword, site creation and search engine optimization tools available. The tools they use are their secret weapons.

3) Quit chasing the Mega Dollar keywords.
You cannot compete with the search engine experts who create sites for the $80 payout keywords. You may get lucky every now and then... but in the long run, you are better off building sites for the low to mid range payout keywords. The competition is less, and your chance of success is much higher over the long term.

4) Choose broad niches and break it down.
Choose a broad subject as your main theme (lets use computers for an example). From there... break it down into as many sub niches as possible.

Using Computers as the example... you could build sub niches/sites like laptop computers, computer hard drives, computer keyboards, etc, etc. You could literally build hundreds of sites around one major theme and stay totally focused. Once you have exhausted every possible sub niche of that major theme... choose another main theme and repeat the process.

5) KISS
Keep your sites easy to navigate and forget the fancy graphics that distract your visitors attention. Unless you are just building AdSense sites for the fun of it and to impress your friends... the purpose of having the site is to have people click on one of the ads, right? Then keep the site layout simple... dump the scrolling banners, dancing chickens and colored scroll bars... they are distractions.

6) What is the purpose of your web site?
Your web site cannot be everything to everybody. If you have a full fledged ecommerce site, with products for sale... links to other products, it is not a good site for AdSense. If the primary focus of the site is to sell products... let it do that.

Do not distract or confuse your visitor with to many options or choices. The best AdSense sites are AdSense only content sites that sell nothing. They are sites that "Tell"... not "Sell."

7) Be consistent.
This is not one of those deals where you build one site and you are done. Refer back to Step #4. You must continuously build in order to be successful.

Think of it as planting a crop that you will harvest in a month or two, and the sites you build are seeds. Once the seeds have grown and matured... you will reap the harvest. The more seeds you plant... the larger the harvest.

To sum it up... utilize the tools available to automate as much of the process of building sites - doing research and building keyword lists as you can. This alone will help keep you organized and on track. Be consistent in building... treat it like the business it is and you will reap the rewards of your harvest.

This article was posted at iReprint.info on 2005-12-15. Webmasters and publishers are free to reprint this article as long as the resource box and all the links remain intact.


About the Author
Andrew Daum is the Publisher of the New Traffic Tools Newsletter. You can subscribe by visiting his web site at http://www.newtraffictools.com and receive updates when the latest to be released traffic building software is available.

The Emerging New Retail Formats

In Malaysia, retail industry shows a rapid growth especially in contributing income for our economics trend. Thus, retail industry will be more develop by apply it to the latest savvy-technology besides it can enhance our income moreover to the organization who involved directly to retails. Nowadays, retail business has been changed with the emerging of new retail format which match to the technology such as e-tailing – using internet application.

Most of us often describe retailing as a retail store or mini market while definitely the retail itself define widely because of the activity which include all types of goods or services. Normally, retailing begins with small business and slowly transform to corporate business or big business. It offers a variety of things such as clothes, foods, accessories, services and so on.

Retailing plays as important elements in distribution system which distributes the goods or services among supplier or customer. Despite of retailing, consumer unable to benefits their goods or services, while the supplier will facing some problems to market the goods or services. However, in supply chain management the supplier could become a retailer to the customer if they do not have a supplier and retailer to market their goods and services.

Retailing system supplies vary of goods and services to satisfy their customer. It is all about desire and needs in social life. While customers need the utility in their life, they have to deal with the retailers because sometimes they do know what the customers needs. There are large numbers of retailers in Malaysia which we can see too many retail store with a various size. According to Euro monitor International, retailing sector has been contribute more than 13 percent of Gross Net Profit (GNP), employs to 730,000 people in 2003.

Although Malaysia is still dominated by small traditional convenience and neighborhood stores, the solid economic growth has encouraged local and international retailers to introduce Western-style convenience store, supermarkets, department stores, hypermarkets and warehouse clubs such as Tesco and Giant. In order to stay competitively in the retail markets, all the retailers have no choice by altering their formats with a retailing trend. The retailing sector in Malaysia continues to evolve in economics challenges in order to survive in retails competitive environments.

7 Tips to Improving Your Cash Flow

Copyright 2005 Pam Newman

Cash is King…That is what everyone tells us and it is true!
You cannot function successfully in any business without
proper cash flow. So if this Cash Principle is so well
known, then why is it that so many businesses struggle?
Sometimes the obvious is not always so obvious when you are
entrenched in running the day-to-day aspects of your
business. Here are 7 Tips to Improve Your Cash Flow!

1. Cash and Carry. Operate a cash and carry type business
versus worrying about receivables. The best business plan
is one where customers pay at the time of purchase so you
don’t have to worry about invoicing or collection
procedures. Invoicing and collections take up valuable
time, so you want to come up with creative ways to
incentivize payment immediately. Set the ground rules in
the beginning so your clients know what you expect.

2. Receivables Collection. Collect your receivables in a
prompt manner. Don’t let them hang out there forever until
your customers decide they want to pay you. Being a good
steward of your business is “good business”, so have a
process in place for invoicing and collections. The longer
your receivables are outstanding, the less likely you are
to collect. You don’t have to be mean and rough to collect
promptly from your clients. A good rule of thumb is that
you should always have a due date on the invoice and then
send out a follow-up statement within 10 to 30 days from
the due date. Each industry and business environment has
different insights as to what is the “ideal” time. I would
not send follow-up correspondence any sooner than 10 days
past due. Payment may just be delayed by the mail; however,
waiting longer than 30 days is too long. If you have not
received payment within 45 to 60 days of the due date, then
a phone call should be made to follow-up with your
customer. Accounts that go past due 90 or more days should
be taken to the next level of collections with an outside
agency, internal collection “ninja” or any other mode you
have established for collections. Find what works best for
your business and stick to it. Each day that you are
delayed in receiving payment is an additional cost of doing
business. Time is money.

3. Receivables Funding. Implement an accounts receivable
funding program. Factoring of accounts receivable has
become very popular and it can be a great way of keeping
the cash flowing. Businesses who deal with large businesses
or government agencies lend themselves to utilizing
factoring programs. If your clientele is made up of small
businesses or individuals, you may find it more difficult
to establish an accounts receivable funding program. Why?
Funding companies are monitoring risk. There is less risk
with larger companies or government agencies. Or so they
think!

4. Vendors. Negotiate terms with your vendors to help delay
the outflow of cash payments. Lots of vendors have payment
terms where you can delay the payment until end of the
month or maybe even up to 60 days. This allows you a little
float time to use their money while you are working on your
project. Then hopefully you’ll receive payment from your
customers prior to needing to pay for the products you
purchased. Some companies also go the route of consignment.
Then you are selling someone else’s goods and don’t have
your money wrapped up in inventory. This option can help
you increase your product offerings without having to
invest large amounts of money in inventory.

5. Customer Deposits. Have your customers pay a deposit
prior to the start of the job. This will help you cover
your upfront costs as you start the projects. It’s very
common to have a deposit with the signing of your contract.
It decreases the risk associated with nonpayment because
you’ve received a portion up front. You can also implement
periodic payments throughout the contract vs. a single
payment upon completion of the project so that cash is
flowing in consistently.

6. Revolving Credit Line. Establish a revolving line of
credit through a lender to help you with potential cash
flow crunches. Especially if the amount of savings from
prompt pay discounts are greater than the financing charge
from the lender or the lender’s financing charge is less
than what your vendors might charge for late payments. This
helps give your business a safety net so that you can
continue to operate during those times when you are offered
great specials if you buy today but may not have extra cash
available.

7. Savings Fund. Establish a savings fund to help you
operate through slow times. Most businesses have swings in
their business flow and managing cash effectively can be a
challenge. Store away extra during the good times to help
alleviate issues during the slow season. I know this sounds
easier than it is, but if you take out a percentage each
month and transfer it to a savings account then it will be
“out of sight and out of mind.”

You may find that each of these 7 tips is viable for your
business, or maybe only 1 or 2. Anything that you can do to
focus on better cash flow will provide benefits to your
business. The worst thing you can do is sit back and “hope”
that things go well. Look around! See those “CLOSED” signs
on the surrounding shop windows? They played the “hope”
game and lost. What are you going to do? Hope? No…implement
a plan for cash flow management starting now.


Pam Newman helps business owners keep money from slipping
through their fingers. Pam is a Certified Management
Accountant, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and Author of
Out of the Red and Unlocking the Secrets of QuickBooks. Pam
believes that it is important for you to understand the
financial picture of your business, so that you can make
informed decisions. For more information, please visit
http://www.rppc.net

Money Management

By: Max Hunter
There are a number of ways that people can use to manage money
to stay out of debt and even establish savings over time.

Establish a Budget

The first, and maybe the most important step, is to set a
budget for yourself and stick by it. Take a look at your
household income and outgo. Set the budget up to accommodate
your payday schedule. In other words, if you get paid once a
month, then you have to budget accordingly so that you won’t
run out of money before the end of the month. If you get paid
every two weeks, or every week, figure out which of your bills
have to be paid on each payday. It is absolutely essential to
set some money aside for emergencies. Even if it is only $20
per payday, having some cushion will keep you from having to
borrow money when something unforeseen occurs. There are all
kinds of budget sheets available to help you figure things out
and many of them are free on the Internet. However, it is not
hard to make your own. Just make a list of your income and when
it arrives, as well as a list of what has to be paid when. Check
each item off and date it when it is paid. Don’t forget to
budget adequate amounts for items like food, gas,
entertainment, etc. If you have those items in your budget,
it’s also a good way to track how much you are actually
spending on them each month.

Get Organized

A good way to begin the budgeting process is to sort out all of
your legal and financial papers and file them so you can find
what you need when you need it. For example put bills that are
due on the 10th of the month in one folder, and bills that are
due on the 25th in another folder. Once you have paid a
particular bill, shred it and dispose of it, in order to save
confusion. Any other financial information, like savings
accounts, mutual funds, etc. should also be stored in
appropriately labeled folders. At the first of the year, when
your tax documents start coming in, put them all in one folder
with the tax forms. When April 15 rolls around, you won’t have
to dig through piles of mail on your desk to come up with all
of the appropriate documents and forms. Items like insurance
policies should also be labeled and file so that you can
readily find them if and when you need them.

Find Ways to Save Money

Do some brainstorming about your expenses and how you could
possibly cut back on them. It is wise to write them down on
paper because it is less easy to dismiss them that way. For
example, can you cut down on the amount of gas you use by
taking public transportation? If you eat out often, consider
making more meals at home. Examine your buying habits. Do you
go shopping when you are depressed? Do you go grocery shopping
when you are hungry? Do you purchase items advertised on the
shopping channel without every leaving your easy chair? These
are all practices you can change. Find healthier activities for
when you are feeling down – go for a long walk instead of going
shopping. Make a grocery list and carefully plan what groceries
you need for the coming week, then go to the store and buy them.
Coupons can be advantageous if you buy name brand items, but
store brands are often cheaper in the long run. Watch the
weekly sales flyers in the local newspaper and buy items like
meat when they are on sale. It’s handy to have something in the
freezer to fix, and less costly in the long run than making a
quick trip to the store after work and picking up only what you
need for that night’s meal.

Find Ways to Make More Money

Get an extra part time job, or work overtime at your regular
job, if possible. Clear out your attic or your garage and have
a yard sale. You may be happily surprised at the amount of
money you can bring in. These days, many people make money
selling items through online auction sites like ebay, and don’t
have to sort and tag and have people running all over your yard
for a day. If there is a local farmer’s market, consider
something you can sell there. If you have extra produce from
your garden, or are a good baker, you will find that people are
readily willing to buy things that you can grow or make. If you
make extra money, don’t increase your expenses. Either use it
to pay off bills, or put it away for savings.

Choose Credit Carefully

If you have to have a credit card, shop around for the best
deal. Some credit cards have yearly fees that have to be paid
whether you ever use the card or not. Interest rates vary
widely. Make sure you know what the interest rate is and shop
around for the lowest. If you charge something, pay it off
before the end of the month, then it won’t cost you any
interest on the card. Don’t use more than one credit card. It’s
too easy to get into the cycle of living on the credit cards and
never really paying more than the interest on them. This is a
practice that will get you deeper into debt in the long run.

Payday Loans

If you have an emergency and need to get a payday loan, make
sure you investigate and find the one that is the best deal for
you. The amount of interest charged varies widely from company
to company and so does the repayment period. Find the loan that
gives you the most flexibility for the least fees. Try to never
roll your payday loan over, but pay it off in full by the due
date.

Max Hunter is the author of many credit
related articles. If you are looking for help with Payday loan
or any type of faxless loans please visit us at
http://www.PaydayLoanChoice.com

Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines

Copyright © 2005 Avril Harper


For the past few years I've been tearing up old books and
magazines, and selling them on eBay. Other people's "rubbish"
is earning me $20 a time - sometimes a great deal more - every
single day!

It's an easy business and items other people throw away can
attract fierce bidding and incredible profits for me and other
lucky sellers.

We're selling prints and advertisements, crochet and woodworking
patterns, recipe books and other niche market publications,
alongside hundreds more totally different items, all taken from
books, magazines and newspapers that are available in profusion
and cost very little.

Let's start with old prints, they're incredibly good sellers,
especially popular themes like: animals, sports (especially golf
and horse racing), royalty, music hall artists, topographical
(named locations) and children.

Very early magazines contained lots of prints, the best being
Illustrated London News, The Graphic, Sketch, Sphere, and all
you do is remove prints carefully, trim the rough edges,
package to protect and make them more attractive, then list
them on eBay. These tips will help you get started in this
hugely profitable business:

* Frame your prints for extra add-on value. Look for old
(antique and modern) picture frames at boot and garage sales,
flea markets and collectors' fairs, and make a point of
visiting auctions where boxes of frames can be bought at
a pittance.

* Have black and white prints and engravings hand colored and
mounted or framed to increase the value of even the most
common and cheapest print.

* Give a Certificate of Authenticity. This is simply a sheet
of paper, with or without decorative border, which testifies
that the print is original and taken from a specific source
published on a particular date. The certificate is always
taped lightly to the back of the print in the mount so that
it cannot be removed and added to another print obtained
elsewhere.

* Make your listing for the print descriptive and include
details that are likely to attract bidders and be sure to
include words they might use to find products like yours.

* Make sure your listings include age, theme, date and source
of your prints.

* If your original book is special, say a first edition, or a
limited edition, say so in your listing. To people viewing
your listings it might make the difference between a sale
and giving your product the miss.

* Take great care removing prints from publications. We tend
to open the book midway and fold it back on itself, making
it very easy to break or weaken the spine and therefore
loosen the pages.

* A great place to get quality mounts very inexpensively is
on eBay itself. Go to the search facility, request a search
for items locally (so many available it isn't worth looking
long distance), and use keywords like: "mounts", "photo
mounts", and wait for a nice selection of suppliers to
appear, some selling items by auction, others offering
"Buy It Now".

* When you find a good supplier stick to that person and even
buy their items outside of eBay without breaking eBay's
rules of course.

There's more to it than just prints, you have the pick of dozens
of different products to sell, all from old books and magazines,
and just a few minutes easy work. Did I say "work", this isn't
work, this is exciting stuff!


Avril Harper is the author of Make Money Tearing Up Old Books
and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay http://www.benbeau.com

How To Solve Debt Problems – 3 Tips To Lower Debts

By: Carrie Reeder

Being credit savvy is the best way to guarantee the best and
lowest rates on mortgages, auto loans, and personal loans.
Unfortunately, millions of Americans suffer from credit denial.
They acquire an enormous amount of debt, and instead of creating
a plan to reduce debts, they ignore the problem. However, your
debt will not miraculously disappear. Here are some tips to
help you reduce your debts and become financially free.

Unsecured Credit Cards: Get Rid of the Plastic

Credit cards account for a large portion of consumer debts. In
fact, most people with debt problems have several maxed-out
credit cards that total thousands of dollars. While the average
household has a credit card debt of approximately $6,000 to
$8,000, some consumers are carrying credit card balances over
$20,000.

First step to reducing credit card debt involves getting rid of
the card. Do not close credit card accounts. Instead, cut the
cards in half. This way, you no longer have the ability to shop
freely.

Next, outline a realistic plan for repaying debts. Individuals
who earn a sizable income may be able to allocate their
disposable income toward paying down balances. If not, consider
obtaining short-term second employment.

Take Advantage of a Home Equity Loan or Mortgage Refinancing

If you own a home, getting a home equity loan or refinancing
your current mortgage may provide you with enough funds to
eliminate your unnecessary consumer debts. Both loans are
protected by your home; thus, these loans are easy to qualify
for.

Common uses of home equity loans and cash-out refinancing
include debt consolidation, home improvements, education
expenses, weddings, etc. Furthermore, by using the funds to pay
credit cards, you will also boost your personal credit rating.

Debt Management and Credit Counseling Services

Using a debt management and credit counseling services to
reduce debts is very effective. Although these agencies accept
all types of credit, individuals with poor credit and
non-homeowners can greatly benefit from these services. Debt
management agencies will provide applicants with valuable
information to help them use credit responsibly. Moreover,
agencies will contact creditors and negotiate lower interest
rates, and attempt to get late fees waived. Through a debt
management agency, you can expect to be debt-free within a few
years.

About The Author: View our recommended companies for
http://www.abcloanguide.com/debtsolutions.shtml or view all of
our http://www.abcloanguide.com/debtconsolidation.shtml

How To Solve Debt Problems – 3 Tips To Lower Debts

By: Carrie Reeder

Being credit savvy is the best way to guarantee the best and
lowest rates on mortgages, auto loans, and personal loans.
Unfortunately, millions of Americans suffer from credit denial.
They acquire an enormous amount of debt, and instead of creating
a plan to reduce debts, they ignore the problem. However, your
debt will not miraculously disappear. Here are some tips to
help you reduce your debts and become financially free.

Unsecured Credit Cards: Get Rid of the Plastic

Credit cards account for a large portion of consumer debts. In
fact, most people with debt problems have several maxed-out
credit cards that total thousands of dollars. While the average
household has a credit card debt of approximately $6,000 to
$8,000, some consumers are carrying credit card balances over
$20,000.

First step to reducing credit card debt involves getting rid of
the card. Do not close credit card accounts. Instead, cut the
cards in half. This way, you no longer have the ability to shop
freely.

Next, outline a realistic plan for repaying debts. Individuals
who earn a sizable income may be able to allocate their
disposable income toward paying down balances. If not, consider
obtaining short-term second employment.

Take Advantage of a Home Equity Loan or Mortgage Refinancing

If you own a home, getting a home equity loan or refinancing
your current mortgage may provide you with enough funds to
eliminate your unnecessary consumer debts. Both loans are
protected by your home; thus, these loans are easy to qualify
for.

Common uses of home equity loans and cash-out refinancing
include debt consolidation, home improvements, education
expenses, weddings, etc. Furthermore, by using the funds to pay
credit cards, you will also boost your personal credit rating.

Debt Management and Credit Counseling Services

Using a debt management and credit counseling services to
reduce debts is very effective. Although these agencies accept
all types of credit, individuals with poor credit and
non-homeowners can greatly benefit from these services. Debt
management agencies will provide applicants with valuable
information to help them use credit responsibly. Moreover,
agencies will contact creditors and negotiate lower interest
rates, and attempt to get late fees waived. Through a debt
management agency, you can expect to be debt-free within a few
years.

About The Author: View our recommended companies for
http://www.abcloanguide.com/debtsolutions.shtml or view all of
our http://www.abcloanguide.com/debtconsolidation.shtml

Your Mind: The Ultimate Money Making Machine

By: Joel Teo

Have you ever wondered how some of the top internet marketers
make money online? The best way to make money online is to find
an expert and get that expert to write about his area of
interest. But where can I get an expert? To paraphrase a
popular song, “The Guru lies in you”. You are your own expert
in your area of interest be it classical weaving or oil
painting or any hobby or interest you have. This article
examines how you can use your hobby or area of interest and
make money from it online.

What if you just enjoy something but do not have a deep grasp
of your area of interest? Someone once wrote that if you spend
one hour a day reading on just one subject, within a year you
will become an expert on that area. The same can be applied to
any area of interest you may have. The library and the internet
represent a plethora of information and not knowing is not an
excuse today. So therefore your area of interest in your own
mind represents a means by which you can make money online.

Money making becomes fun when you write about your area of
interest and help others learn more about that area of interest
and make yourself some money online at the same time. Below are
some simple ways that people have used to make money online
from their hobbies and areas of interest.

1. Ebooks

The internet has opened up a new arena in the global flow of
information. People go online to find out information and are
willing to pay for information. Electronic books (ebooks)
therefore have arisen to meet the need for knowledge online. An
example of an ebook can range from a simple PDF file to the more
elaborate ebooks generated by ebook generation software. Some
people are making money with cooking recipes and others with
traditional herbal remedies. Do you have an area of interest?
Consider writing a simple ebook and then getting other people
to build your website and sales letter for you. So find an area
which people are interested in and you are knowledgeable about
and sell ebooks on that subject online.

2. Websites

Once you have ascertained your area of interest, you can in
addition to writing your ebook, start building a website around
your area of interest. Making money from websites is easy once
you have enough content and website traffic. Find an affiliate
program that is targeted to your website intended audience and
you receive a commission for each sale you introduce to that
company. Large affiliate networks are usually the best for this
and companies like Commission Junction and Linkshare are good
places to start. For example if your website deals with model
planes, you could have a link to a store that sells model
planes and a link to a shop that sells model plane supplies. So
in other words, the more referral sales you make, the more
commission you will rake in.

3. Newsletters

Starting a newsletter on your favourite topic is also a good
idea. A good newsletter would provide lots of tips and help to
subscribers this creates lots of trust in your recommendations
and would increase your chances of making a sale if you
recommend some product to your list. Always recommend good
products and test them yourself before sending a letter
recommending it to your newsletter readers. But when you
stumble across a good product that is in line with your
newsletter that you like yourself, send out the ad with your
affiliate link and make money from that posting.

4. Signature Lines leading to Affiliate sales

If you have a particular interest, why not add a short ad to a
product related to your interest in your signature line in your
emails to your friends. Something like “This is a good
restaurant I like” with a link would give you some commissions
while allow you to share your love for a particular item with
them.

In conclusion, find out what you love and you can use that love
to make money online. This love for any interest that you may
have would give you the drive to work on it and that will pay
off in the end and allow you to make money online.

About The Author: Joel Teo is a work at home business owner ,
the owner of several highly successful money making websites.

http://www.MakeThousandsToday.info

How To Motivate Your Self Towards Online Business Success

Author: Itsik Tzur

Building an online business demands a high level of self
discipline and persistence. Most of the new online
entrepreneurs (like me) are working daily jobs thinking about
financial freedom and ways in which to create it.

At the beginning I was extremely motivated to create a
successful online business. Thinking about all of those gurus
that make a lot of money online.

I found my self going back after a long day at work heading
straight to my computer. It wasn't easy and gradually my
motivation started to fade away. Eventually it became very
difficult to stay concentrated and focused until I have
realized that something is holding me back!

I decided to take a break from the computer realizing I have to
understand and reveal the source of the problem.

I started observing my inner world looking for the reason that
created this setback. looking at a success I had, losing 40
pounds a few years ago made me realized that the main reason
for my success was keeping my focus on why I want to lose
weight instead of how.

I was thinking all the time about the great feeling I will have
when I will lose this extra pounds-and that kept me going giving
me the power to deal with all the setbacks, doubts ,fear that
were coming all the time.

So when I found the reasons for building an online business my
motivation started to rise again and it is getting stronger by
the minute.

My message to you is:
Find the reasons for building an online business, write it
down and be as specific as you can.

Keep focusing on the reasons why you want to have an online
business constantly and this will give you the power to deal
with all setbacks, doubts or fears that may arise, and then you
made an important step towards creating a successful online
business.

About The Author: Itsik tzur is an online entrepreneur, sales
and marketing expert, and human potential student and teacher.
Create a successful online business by building multiple
streams of income: http://www.karma4success.com

You Quit Your Job and Started Up Your Own Business.

Copyright © 2005 Stephen James


Ok, so you’ve quit your job and started up your own business.

You’ve got passion, you’ve got drive and you have a great concept
that you think people will love.

But you say to yourself “Hang on a minute, there’s got to be
more to it than that”.

Well, you are right...and the scary thing is that if you don’t
learn the ropes fast, there is a high probability of failure.

Depending on which statistics you look at, it has been said that
within the first 5 years, 4 out of 5 new businesses go out of
business.....and within 10 years, only 1 in 10 businesses will
survive.

If you were a betting person, you probably wouldn’t like those
odds. And yet every day, many people lay it all on the line and
enter the business world with the hope of fulfilling their
dream...a dream of freedom, lifestyle and prosperity.


So what can you do to move the odds more in your favor and
improve your chances of success?

There are a wide range of strategies and processes for businesses
to address and there are a thousand books around to tell you
exactly how to do it. The problem is, where do you start?

To help simplify the process, I have made a list of 10 steps that
as a minimum, every business owner must follow.


1. Business Plan. A business plan is critical to achieving
consistent growth in any business. The benefits of a
business plan are realized immediately through the process
of just thinking clearly about your business for an extended
period of time, and through illuminating the areas of your
business that need fixing.


2. Customer Database. At the end of the day, your customers are
the most valuable asset you have in your business. You
should be taking every opportunity to collect the names and
contact details of your customers and communicating with
them on a regular basis.


3. Systems. Systems are essential for ensuring that you provide
a consistent level of service to your customers and so that
you understand the financial performance of your business.
They will also enable the business to run without you being
there every minute of the day.


4. Staff Incentives. You’ve probably heard the expression “If
you pay peanuts you get monkeys”. That expression directly
translates into bad people equal a bad company. To attract
great people, progressive companies are keenly aware that
they need to foster personal responsibility and provide
direct reward for measurable results.


5. Staff meetings. Meetings are an opportunity to inspire your
people and thereby your business. They also give your people
a sense of belonging through the process of sharing
information.


6. Marketing. Marketing is not just about getting more
customers, it’s also about retaining the customers you have,
generating ongoing sales from existing customers, increasing
your profit through value adding, creating a sense of loyalty
within your team and creating an image of your business in
the minds of the consumer. In fact marketing is the most
important of all success strategies in your business, because
if you can’t find a buyer for your product or service, nothing
else you do will matter!


7. Branding. Branding is about creating and communicating a set
of values to the consumer of your product or service. Your
aim should be to stamp your logo onto the brains of your
customers every time they are in the process of buying your
product or service.


8. Business Image. First impressions count for a lot.
Addressing your business image is all about paying attention
to the little things that will exceed your customers
expectations.


9. Guarantee. How does a customer truly believe they are going
to receive value from doing business with you? They will
only know this if you are prepared to take more risk in the
transaction than they are...and this promise is delivered
through your guarantee.


10. Customer care. Every business should have a follow up
system that extends sincere thanks to every new customer and
for their ongoing patronage. When was the last time you
received a “thankyou” from someone that you did business
with? Probably never...so how do you think your customers
will react when they receive a thank you from you?


If you take action in each of these 10 areas, you will not only
be 2 steps in front of your competition, but you may very well be
within touching distance of living your dream.

So go ahead, don’t wait a moment longer...take action today
because it is only massive action that will bring you massive
results!


Stephen James specializes in teaching small business owners
powerful sales and marketing systems that unlock large amounts
of untapped cash within their business for low or zero cost.
Be sure to sign up for your FREE access to The Business Club
at: http://www.thebusinessresultscentre.com/join_us.htm and
utilize the free articles, ebooks and other information that
can enhance your marketing!

10 Mind Altering Words That Make People Buy

Copyright 2005 Carlo Cabrera

1. Use the word "fast" in your ad. People want fast
results, fast delivery, fast ordering, etc. Nowadays, we
usually value our time more than our money.

2. Use the word "guaranteed" in your ad. People want to be
assured they are not risking their hard earned money buying
your product.

3. Use the word "limited" in your ad. People want to own or
receive things that are exclusive or rare because they are
considered to be more valuable.

4. Use the word "easy/simple" in your ad. People want easy
ordering, easy instructions, easy to use, easy payments,
etc.

5. Use the word "testimonial" in your ad. People want to
see believable proof before they buy your product. It
should be reputable and specific proof.

6. Use the word "discount/sale " in your ad. People want to
find bargains. They could be rebates, one time sales,
percentage offers, get one free offers, etc.

7. Use the word "free" in your ad. People want free
incentives before they do business with you. They could be
free books, accessories, services, etc.

8. Use the word "you/your" in your ad. People want to know
that you are talking them. This'll make them feel important
and attract them to read the whole ad.

9. Use the word "important" in your ad. People do not want
to miss important information that could effect their life.
People will stop and take notice.

10. Use the word "new" in your ad. People want new products
or services that will improve their life like new
information, tastes, technology, results, etc.


Discover 3 Easy Steps To Make Money Online at:
http://www.InstantAutomaticWealth.com/pips.html

Top Tips For Targeted Traffic Success

By: Jon Harrison

There I was with my brand new website. It was sparkling in the
morning dew just waiting for the world to see it! Why aren’t
people visiting? It’s been a whole hour already. I thought the
Internet was a highway with tons of traffic flying by every
nanosecond. What’s going on?

Does this sound like you? Do you have an excellent website
(amazing graphics, loads fast, great content), but are unsure how
to get targeted visitors to your website? Don’t worry. You are
amongst the millions of webmasters who are trying to find the
best ways to achieve targeted traffic success.

What is the quickest way to get the most targeted traffic to my
site?

Content…

Relevant. Up-To-Date. Content.

What is the number one thing that people are searching for on the
Internet? It is NOT to purchase something. It is not even nudity
(even though that is close).

The number one thing people are searching for on the Internet is
information.

- Answers to their problems - A leader to follow -
Other “regular” people’s opinions - Educational material -
Much much more…

And guess what?

Anybody can create content. If you can talk to a tape recorder,
type on a keyboard, or even know how to convince a relative to do
your work for you…

The point is that you can do it.

If you don’t have faith in your own writing abilities, then have
a friend or family member review what you wrote. Read your
article aloud to see if it makes sense. If you content doesn’t
make sense when you say it, then you probably need to reword it.

Sometimes, the easiest way to create a new article is to talk to
a tape recorder. The main objective when you create content is to
make it easy to read and understand. Try to write as you would
talk. Listen to the little voices in your head for once…

Now, once you do get the nerve to create your own content. How
are you going to distribute it to the world to read and enjoy?
Sure, if you have your own website that will get your article
SOME attention, but what about all those other millions of people
that should be reading your article?

What if you could submit your content to millions of people
almost instantly?

A “regular” person just like yourself came up with an idea. Wrote
it down and then decided to share it with the rest of the world.
Sure, this person could have easily been selfish and not shared
with the rest of the world, but this person didn’t.

Guess what?

This simple solution to get your content in front of millions is
also free!

Okay, I’ll stop boring you…

To check it out just go to: http://www.articlesender.com

Only the best articles, books, ebooks, software and services will
suffice for the professional web developer.

Visit: http://www.webmasterinvestments.com
View their website at: http://www.webmasterinvestments.com

Is Pay-Per-Click Advertising Still Profitable?

By: Robert Hartness

Not long ago it was very easy to profit from pay-per-click
advertising. In fact, I used to spend 99% of my advertising
budget on pay-per-click search engine advertising since it
was so easy just to post up an ad, add funds to one of the
popular pay-per-click providers and sit back and watch the
orders food in.

It was that easy.

Using simple tracking software the source for each sale
could be determined. It was then a simple calculation to
determine how much I could bid on popular keywords,
by dividing the gross amount in sales by the number of
visitors to my website.

It was scientific marketing that produced a real return
on my investment

However, over time my results began to change...
unfortunately for the worse! As more and more advertisers
took advantage of the fast and easy access to niche markets
by ppc advertising, the competition for those popular
keywords to gain pole position became more fierce. Everyone
wanted to be at the top to gain the most traffic. The
result was a bidding war!

The battle to reach the top became detrimental to the
advertiser. As the bids increased, these popular terms
which previously used to attract large chunks of profit
became too expensive. Instead of providing a return on
my investment, the campaign began to cost more than the
amount that was returned in sales. I tried lowering my bids
but the amount of traffic that was delivered rendered my
campaign ineffective.

Up until a few weeks ago, this was my position concerning
pay-per-click advertising and if you have been advertising
online using ppc methods then this story will probably
seem very familiar...

So when I released my new product I decided to 'err on the
side of caution' and test my advertising campaign with a
few different pay per click traffic providers before
committing my budget to just one popular source.

Instead, I decided to perform a comparison test between a
few providers to test the market. My starting budget was
$200 committed to 3 different traffic sources promoting my
latest ebook product 'Cash From Your Camera'
http://www.cashfromyourcamera.com

Firstly, I chose probably the most popular method of
pay-per-click advertising - Google Adwords

The second was another fairly popular source of
pay-per-click traffic - Kanoodle at http://www.kanoodle.com

Finally, I tested a new and different kind of traffic
source - Have Traffic at http://www.havetraffic.com.
Actually, this isn't a pay-per-click search engine but it
is a kind of PPC advertising. The traffic is achieved
through a network of related sites instead of a direct
result from a search engine query.

The results....

Google's traffic was the most expensive at 45 cents per
click for the list of targeted keywords that I chose.
They delivered a total of 449 visitors to my web site for
my $200 investment. I got one sale and 20 sign-ups to my
newsletter. So the sign-up conversion rate was 4.4% and my
return on investment was 43%

Kanoodle provided a lot more traffic for my money. I
actually received 1523 visitors at around 8 cents a
visitor. Unfortunately, the results were very disappointing.
The campaign did not achieve a single sale and I got only 2
confirmed sign-ups to my newsletter....very disappointing!

Have Traffic was the real surprise package.

They provide traffic at a flat rate of 20 cents a visitor
so I received 1000 visitors for my investment of $200.
The traffic returned a total of 3 sales and 46 subscribers
to my newsletter. The return on my investment was a 135%
plus I received 46 leads with which to follow-up

Just one of the campaigns broke even and that one only
earned 135% ROI. I'm sure that if I optimize everything
a little better then Google and Have traffic would provide
a profitable return on my investment. It really seems that
Kanoodle is a bust no matter what I do. Its a pity.
In the distant past I could count on decent traffic from
them

I guess that if I had used different keywords then it
may have been possible to achieve different results for
the campaigns

But overall, this test shows that it is still possible to
find cost effective pay-per-click advertising. You just have
to look harder (sometimes at unexpected sources) and
optimize your ad copy quite a bit more than was necessary
in the past for even solid known good sources of traffic
like Google.

One of a series of articles by Robert Hartness, successful
freelancer and author of Cash From Your Camera
which offers a step-by-step guide to those on the threshold
of freelance photography and is illustrated with 40+
published photographs. Acclaimed as a great reference
source for serious freelancers. Please visit
http://www.cashfromyourcamera.com for more information

Ecommerce Store Owners : Want Visitors? Here’s How

By: Robin Porter

Have you recently opened an online store, and waiting for those
customers to drop by and start shopping?

In cyberworld - unlike the real world - you just can’t pick a
good location and rely on passing trade. You’ve got to work
hard to get visitors to your virtual store.

Let’s take a look at how we can drum up a small stampede...

Are You Optimized?

To stand any chance of being ranked well in the free search
engines, your site must be optimized for the keyword phrases
you are targeting.

Research and develop a list of keywords related to your product
line, using the free downloadable software at
www.goodkeywords.com . From this list, you can find two or
three well targeted phrases, with decent visitor traffic, and
make sure your website is optimized for them. Include the
phrases in the title, and meta tags, in the body text (several
times) and “alt” mage tags.

Make sure your product listings are optimized too. The term
“horse saddle” is searched for over 1900 times a month on one
search engine alone, so make sure your product titles and
descriptions include the relevant search term, rather than just
the plain old product number, such as “Acme A35284”.

Are You Link Building?

Search engines are placing more and more importance on incoming
links to your website – in a way, ty consider them to be votes
for your site.

First, make sure you submit your site to the large list of
directories that are crawled and indexed by popular search
engine spiders. You can get the SEO friendly directory list
free at www.info.vibesilencer.com

Next, pursue an ongoing campaign of getting links from other
websites. Try to make sure the sites are on a related theme.
You can find sites that are linking to your competitors by
typing “link:www.yourcompetitorswebsite.com “ into Google, and
then approach them to request a link to your website.

One useful piece of software for researching and keeping track
of link requests is available at www.seoelite.com . (If
nothing else, the free search engine optimisation course is one
of the best free courses I have ever come across)

Are You Using Pay Per Click Advertising?

There’s nothing like Pay Per click (PPC) for a quick shot in
the arm! You can often have traffic within an hour of setting
up a campaign with Google Adwords (http://www.google.com/ads).
Overture is Google’s main Ppc competitor (www.overture.com) and
can take a few days to get up an running with, but they are now
part of Yahoo! – and therefore mustn’t be overlooked.

Ppc search engines can provide you with extremely well targeted
traffic that you can turn on and off like a tap. However, you
must get your strategy right or you will hemorrhage cash ;
develop a large list of targeted keywords, write a catchy text
advert and don’t get drawn into bidding wars.

Are You Overlooking Your Existing Customers?

Once your online store starts getting customers, make sure you
keep them. Develop a newsletter to keep in contact with them –
and regularly send them details of special offers and new
products. Repeat business is often overlooked – but it is a
vital part of some of the webs most successful ecommerce
operations.

And if you already have a “bricks and mortar” store, don’t
forget to publicise your new online shop – include it in all
your stationery and marketing materials.

The marketing and promotion of an online store is an ongoing
project. The most successful store owners know how important it
is to set aside time each week to attend to marketing - whether
it’s link building, writing a newsletter or keeping abreast of
the latest online marketing developments – success comes to
those who consistently put the work in.

© 2005 Robin Porter.
About The Author: Robin Porter has been CEO of London based web
designer Arpey Internet http://www.arpey.co.uk for over six
years.

Online Book Marketing: How to Market Your Book Even If

(c) 2005 Jeremy M. Hoover


What you do after you have written your book is as
much, if not more, important than the actual writing
of it. You can take a great book and poor marketing
and have very poor results. Conversely, I believe you
can take a mediocre book, market it well, and make
very good sales from it. The only limiting factor is
you. You probably think, “I’m a writer, not a
salesperson.” That’s true, but there are some very
simple things you can do to create a website that
sells your book.

1. Create a direct-response sales page for your book.

This doesn’t need to be an extra site, your home page,
or anything extravagant. Devote your home page to
information about you or your most recent work and a
subscription form for a newsletter for your fans.
Create a secondary page, linked to from your home
page, that sells your book. But instead of simply
stating a few sentences about your book, either put up
a full book review or a direct-response sales letter.
Either way, at the end of the review or the letter,
you must ask your readers to buy your book. Put a
direct order link at the bottom of your page. Simply
asking for your readers to buy your book will increase
your sales.

2. Create a “fan list” you can send messages to.

On your home page, and on every page of your website,
create a newsletter subscription form for your readers
to join. You don’t need to send something out every
day, or even every week. Once a month, send out a new
“flash fiction” or microfiction story, or a new essay.
Keep in touch with your readers. Send out a special
notice of a discount for your subscribers. But in
each communication with them, provide a link back to
your sales page and ask them to buy. Don’t worry…they
subscribed because they like your work and are open to
buying it!

3. Write some articles or short stories and give them
away.

You can give these away from your website as a gift
for joining your newsletter group, or you can give
them away from other people’s sites as a way to get
more awareness of your work. Do a search for “article
sites” and you’ll find many sites you can submit your
work to. These are great for two reasons—1) More
people will be exposed to your writing (which means
more potential buyers); and 2) Others may take your
article or story and run it in their newsletter,
giving you even more exposure. Writing and
distributing articles or stories is a great way to
build traffic to your site and confidence in your
writing.

Follow these three steps and you’ll notice an increase
in sales of your books.

Go to Jeremy's site --
http://jhooverwebcopy.com/bookmarketing.htm -- to see
how he can help you.

Advertising Internet Banners

By: Keith Hernandez

Do you have a business or service that needs advertisement?
Well advertising with banners on the internet has become more
and more popular. Partly because it saves companies more money
and it could reach a larger audience. That is if you use it to
your advantage.

The following steps will help you make your cheap internet
banner advertising priceless. With these simple instructions,
you will always have traffic on your website.

First, you should capture the attention of your target
audience, your title and topic should be something you must
consider carefully. You have to make people think that your
cheap internet banner is worthy their time. The advertisement
has to meet the audience's need.

You have to make them curious about your advertisement you must
get their attention. You should be able to deliver your products
or services with strong words.

You should be able to construct words on your advertisements
that might lead the target audience to think that you are
directly talking to them to give a sense of familiarity on your
services.
As you persuade the people and direct them to buy or entail
your services, they give importance to your business proposal.
Your cheap internet-based banner advertising will become one of
the ads everyone wants.

You should present your ads to the global community repeatedly
to get them familiar with you and your services.

But it is important to remember that having a website doesn't
mean that you could sell products just by itself. You must also
include marketing strategies. With having internet banners you
save time and money and achieve market sales. The internet
banners are cheap and it may lead your company to riches.
Go out and try them, there’s no harm. The only thing they’ll do
is attract more customers to you.

About The Author: Keith Hernandez is a successful freelance
author that writes regularly for
http://www.log-cabin-plans-n-kits.com/ . His articles have also
been featured on related sites such as
http://www.bannersmadeez.info/ and
http://www.bestpropertyguide.info/

Advertising in RSS Feeds

Copyright 2005 Sharon Housley

As publishers have moved towards monetizing RSS feeds,
their have been vibrant discussions as to whether
advertisements in feeds are viable or whether they will
drive subscribers away. At the end of the day while it
appears that many are discussing the philosophical
approaches to ads in RSS feeds few are taking the time to
examine the options available for inserting advertisements
in feeds. Ultimately the advertisements served are going to
determine the success of RSS as an advertising medium. The
ads served must be related to the content contained in the
feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content, the ads are
relevant, and the volume of ads is in balance with the
volume of content served, advertising in RSS feeds will
succeed. Take a closer look at some of the ad serving
options currently available for RSS feeds.

Review of Current Options

Google AdSense for Feeds

Google's AdSense for Feeds offers contextually targeted
advertisements, with a wide selection of advertisers.
Google chooses not to divulge the percentage of revenue
that is shared with the publisher, so it is difficult if
not impossible to predict monthly revenue. The current
Google AdSense system for feeds is tied to blogs and does
not appear to be overly flexible.
http://www.google.com/adsense

Pheedo

Pheedo displays categorized advertisements rather than
contextual advertisements. The upside to this is that
Pheedo's advertisements can be used in conjunction with
Google AdSense or AdSense for feeds without violating
Google's contract. Pheedo works with the publisher to serve
advertisements from similar or related categories
associated with the feeds contents.

Pheedo's system allows for advanced ad filtering, giving
publishers control over keyword ad filtering, specific ad
filtering or url filtering. Pheedo's system also allows
publishers to sell ads to existing advertisers whom they
already have a relationship. The revenue split is 50% and
feeds can be a sponsored flat rate advertisement or a
pay-per-click advertisement, where the publisher is only
paid if the advertisement is clicked. http://www.pheedo.com

Kanoodle for Feeds

Kanoodles systems for providing advertisements for feeds is
similar to Google's but they do not have the breadth of
advertisers that Google boasts. Advertisements are served
based on topics, not to keywords. Kanoodle shares 50% of
the revenue generated from the advertisements with the
publisher serving the ad. http://www.kanoodle.com

Evaluating Options

When evaluating feed ad serving solutions consider the
following:

1. Ad Relevance

In order to generate revenue from RSS advertisements or for
an advertising campaign to succeed using RSS as a channel.
It is absolutely critical that the advertisements served in
the feed contain related content, the more related the
content the higher the likelihood that the advertisements
will be of interest to the reader and clicked. Also the
closer the content relates to the feeds theme the higher
the likelihood the reader will have genuine interest in the
product or service being advertised.

2. Ad Ratio

Publishers need to retain control over the frequency of
advertisements. Readers will become frustrated with feeds
that are heavily laden with advertisements and genuine
content. The advertiser is happy as they are reaching a
targeted audience the publisher is happy because their
advertisement is being clicked and generating revenue.

3. Clearly Denoted as Ads

The debate over editorial control and advertisements rage
on. It is generally considered proper net etiquette for
publishers to clearly mark advertisements to distinguish
them from editorial web content. When selecting a RSS
advertising partner consider the context in which the
advertisements are displayed. Does it blend with the feed
or site, while still being clearly marked sponsored
material? Or does the content blend so well that it appear
as a product or service endorsement from the publisher?
Credibility and reputation online matter, and the
segregation of advertisements and ensuring they are
properly denoted as such will go a long way to enhance
credibility with readers.

Clearly as RSS increases in popularity publishers are
looking for ways to monetize their content. RSS in
advertising is a logical step, and striking a balance
between quality, consistent content and occasional related
advertisements will lead to the success of advertising in
RSS feeds. If the balance is not found, publishers may be
forced to move to a subscription RSS feed model.


About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for
FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating,
editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition
Sharon manages marketing for FeedForDev
http://www.feedfordev.com an RSS component for developers.

30 Different Ways To Promote And Advertise Your Web Site

By: Andrew Wroblewski


There are literally thousands of things you can do to promote and
advertise your website, here are just a few I have found to work
for me.

1- Tell your audience what kind of support they'll get after they
buy. It could be free consulting, tech support, free servicing,
etc. This may also answer some of their buying questions ahead of
time. People don't want to buy products without knowing you will
be there to help if they have problems.

2- Ask people at the end of your copy why they decided not to
buy. This will give you new ideas on how to produce ad copy
that’s more profitable. Have a web form or e-mail link in place
so they can answer you. You may find out they don't like your
guarantee or graphics. It could be anything.

3- Think of ways to get your site or business in the the news.
You could sponsor a fundraiser, break a world record, hold a
major event, etc. Simply write a press release about what you’ve
accomplished, then send it to media outlets that cater to your
target audience.

4- Hold a contest on your web site. Give other web sites the
option of offering it to their visitors. This'll multiply your
advertising all over the Internet. It would become a viral
contest. Of course the contest must either be ongoing or held
regularly so you could allow other online publishers to offer it
to their visitors or subscribers.

5- Tell your potential customers that your ordering system is
highly secure. Also reassure them that you take every effort to
protect them. People want to feel they are safe online. They want
to know that you care about their well-being. Tell them all about
what you currently do for them to make them feel more secure.

6- Carry business cards with you wherever you go. Have your web
address printed on them. You can hand them out to anyone you
meet. Just think of all the people you meet on a regular basis:
grocery clerks, post office workers, bag boys, family members,
friends, salesmen/women, etc.

7- Contact national radio stations to ask them if they are
looking for guest speakers. Tell them your area of expertise;
maybe they'll book you for a show. Of course you would want to
contact targeted stations and shows which would want to know more
about you and your area of expertise.

8- Join clubs related to your area of business. You could trade
leads with other businesses. Learn new ways to run your business
and sell your products. You could also create your own online
business club. You could provide private chat rooms, message
boards, articles, etc.

9- Think of a domain name for your web site that's easy to
remember. It should be related to what your business does, sells
or provides. If there aren’t any business names available, use
your actual birth name. You could at least brand yourself. Your
own name will give you credibility.

10- Position your web site at the top of pay-per-click search
engines. You will only pay your set amount for each click-through
you get to your web site. Just make sure your profits will pay
for your advertising cost. If they won't, maybe you could share a
web site with another related business and split the costs.

11- Allow your visitors or customers to increase your traffic or
sales. Ask them how you can improve your business, web site or
product. You can ask them at your web site, in your e-zine, on
your message board, in your chat room, in your guest book, in
your product packages, etc.

12- Team up with other e-zines that have the same target
audience. Combine subscriber bases and then publish one e-zine
together to increase subscribers. You could all include your ads
and announcements in the e-zine. You could also take turns for
the top advertising space.

13- Swap endorsement advertisements with other web sites.
Endorsement ads usually pull more sales and traffic than regular
advertisements. People have taught themselves to ignore
advertisements because they see hundreds of them every day.
Endorsements usually don't look or sound like normal ads.

14- Outsource part of your workload to save time and money. You
can spend more of your time and money promoting your business.
You'll save money on employee costs, space costs, training costs,
etc. Keep the work you enjoy doing to keep you motivated and ship
out the work you don't like.

15- Include a signature file on all the e-mails you send out.
Provide your business name, phone number, e-mail and web address,
etc. Also include a brief blurb for your business or the product
you're selling. For example, you could say, "How To Wash Your Car
In Two Minutes or Less!"

16- Use pictures or graphics on your web site that support the
product you're selling. They could give your visitors a clearer
vision of your product, the benefits of the product, people's
emotion when they own the product, etc. You could also use
‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures.

17- Create a friendly, long-term relationship with all your
customers. Practice good customer service and follow-up with them
on a regular basis. You could follow-up with gifts, greeting
cards, free things, coupons, special offers, reminders, your e-
zine, helpful advice, etc.

18- Create strategic alliances with other web sites. You could
exchange banner ads, sell each other's products as back-end
products, cross-promote, etc. You could also create a web site
together and promote it on your separate web sites. You would
both just split the costs and profits.

19- Increase the perceived value of your product to skyrocket
your sales. Add on free bonuses, after- sale services or an
affiliate program. Other factors that would help are: your own
domain name, a professional web design, a good-looking product
graphic and persuasive ad copy.

20- Give customers a discount on their total order to increase
sales. You could give them a discount for ordering over a set
dollar or product amount. For example, you could say, "Buy over
$39 worth of products and get a 20% discount on your order!"
Another example, "Get a 15% discount if you order 3 or more
products!"

21- Allow your visitors to reprint the content on your web site.
Just ask them to include your resource box and a link to your
site in exchange. This will turn your content into a traffic
machine and the external links will help increase your ranking in
some search engines.

22- Provide a free contest or sweepstake at your web site. It's a
fact, people like to win things. If you can fulfill that need,
people will visit. You can also attract them to revisit by
holding one every week or month. You could also start an opt-in
list for people who enter your contest or sweepstake so you can
follow-up with them regularly.

23- Save time and money by using ad submitters. You will reach a
larger part of your target audience far more quickly than by
manually submitting your ad. You should manually submit your ad
to the most popular web sites so you have a better chance of
being listed or placed in a good position.

24- Create a good first impression. You will not be able to sell
very many products if your visitors think your web site looks
unprofessional. Use crisp graphics, attractive color
combinations, a readable text size, even spacing, even margins,
bold headlines, indent benefits, etc.

25- Stop procrastinating and start finishing all your business
tasks. Do one at a time. Don’t get caught up thinking that you
can never get them all done. Make a list. Do the easiest or most
crucial one first and move down the list. Cross off each task as
you complete it.

26- Develop a relationship with all your visitors and customers.
Tell them how much you appreciate them visiting your web site or
buying your product. Invite them to online and offline events
like free chat room classes, parties, dinner gatherings, business
events, etc.

27- Hire a business coach to help improve you and your business.
That could help increase your sales, motivate you, balance your
workload, etc. It would be like renting an extra brain. You would
have double the thinking power.

28- Stay away from being too comfortable with your income or
life. You should always be making new goals for yourself and
developing new sales ideas. The world keeps changing and if you
pause too long, you might miss out. You only live once.

29- Make sure you don’t become a workaholic. Your mind needs time
away from your business life. This will help your brain think
clearly while working. The best time to get profitable ideas is
when you’re not thinking about them. They just pop into your
brain.

30- Create and follow short/long-term goals for your business.
The short-term goals can create early success and the long-term
goals can create future success. Design each goal so they all add
up to your ultimate goal. Don't make your goals too unrealistic
otherwise depression and frustration could move you farther away
from them.

Good Luck and get busy promoting!

When not on his soapbox, Andrew Wroblewski is doing battle with
the thousands of spyware programs that can affect you via his
ant-spyware and spyware removal website:
http://spyware.pcwash.com where you can get a free spyware scan
of your computer system.