How To Article Marketing Guide - Why is Article Marketing So Important
Simply put, article marketing is the strategy of creating articles about the solutions your business offers and using those article to gain customers and sales.
Article marketing works like this. First you need to research what you want to write about. And what you want to write about is what your customers are looking for. How do you know what your customers are looking for? If you're new to article marketing, I would recommend using a free keyword tool offered by Google Adwords or Good Keywords. Both of these tools show you exactly what words people are typing in that are related to your business. For a short demo, go ahead and click on my Google Adwords Tool Demo.
Next, you write a 450-750 word article around a keyword that you've chosen. You should use the keyword once in the title of the article, somewhere in the first paragraph, somewhere in the last paragraph and a few times in between. A ratio of about 3% is what is acceptable for the number of times you use the keyword. If you use it too often, it will be frowned upon by the search engines which pretty much defeats the whole purpose. At the end of the article, you will offer your website or blog link that your readers can click on for more information.
After you've written your article, submit it to as many article directories and submission websites as you possibly can. If you don't like writing or if you don't have the time to do so, you can outsource the writing. After a few days to a week, your article will be accepted and published into the article directories, allowing your content to be accessed by thousands of readers and websites in the process.
After your articles are submitted, search engines will begin to pick up on them, and you will begin to see new links to your website. This boosts your search engine ranking. Over time, other websites will pick up your articles and display them elsewhere on the internet. When you see other websites picking up your articles, you can contact them and offer to write unique content specifically for their website. This way, you will gain even more links to your site.
Using this method to build quality links for your website is one of the best ways to build traffic to your website. Keep in mind that in order to get the best results, your articles must provide top quality content! You don't have to be a fantastic writer. . .but what you write about needs to be something that your audience is looking for so the research phase of this is extremely important.
This serves as the How To Article Marketing Guide Introduction. My next articles will focus on the specific steps that were covered here briefly.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Your E Marketing Strategy - Have You Done Your Research?
Your E Marketing Strategy is what will determine how well you fair in your online business. One of the biggest challenges to overcome when you do business online is to make yourself stand out from the competition. Believe it or not, the product or service that you are selling is probably being sold by tens, hundreds or even thousands of other businesses.
So in order to to maximize your potential, you need to define an e marketing strategy that will provide the best service to your customers. You'll need to incorporate something that distinguishes you from the competition, that continuously brings in new customers and also retains existing ones.
This might go without saying but it is so important that I'll say it again. You need to
offer the highest quality in whatever it is that you are selling. The quality isn't what will drive people to you in the beginning - your e marketing strategy will do that - but in order to maintain a good image and build relationships with your customers, quality is the key.
So how do you develop an effective e marketing strategy? First off, you need to look at exactly what you are offering and determine first what audience it appeals to and second how you can reach that audience. Again, they won't come to you by themselves. This step requires a lot of research and in the beginning and even quite a bit of trail and error. A great place to find information about what people are looking for is on forums but if you keep your eyes and ears open, you can see and hear it everywhere. . .in magazines, at the grocery store, on blogs, twitter and FaceBook. . . just to name a few. Once you get the hang of it, you will come into contact constantly with information that is related to whatever it is you're selling and your target market.
So, how do you reach these people. The internet is a wonderland of free sites that you can "promote" your products and services. But when I say promote, I mean offer information that will solve your potential customer's problems. . .not straight out promotion. You can do this on FaceBook, Twitter, Squidoo, Blogger, US FreeAds and many, many more sites. Or you can pay for online advertising which is also very effective.
After you have determined what you have to offer and how you will be getting it to your target market, you next need to look at how you are going to set yourself apart from your competition. What can you offer that will make people come to you? Whether it’s free shipping, top-notch support, hundreds of testimonial, you need to identify these explicitly.
Finally, you need to continuously attract new customers as well as retaining your current clients in
order to remain viable in your business objectives. You should constantly be looking for new ways to reach additional shares of the marketplace. You may also need to continuously update your products and services in order to continue to appeal to your past clients.
Don't ever forget to go back to your existing clients and offer them new things while making them feel important. With diligent work and increasing skills, your e marketing strategy will take you to your business objectives.
So in order to to maximize your potential, you need to define an e marketing strategy that will provide the best service to your customers. You'll need to incorporate something that distinguishes you from the competition, that continuously brings in new customers and also retains existing ones.
This might go without saying but it is so important that I'll say it again. You need to
offer the highest quality in whatever it is that you are selling. The quality isn't what will drive people to you in the beginning - your e marketing strategy will do that - but in order to maintain a good image and build relationships with your customers, quality is the key.
So how do you develop an effective e marketing strategy? First off, you need to look at exactly what you are offering and determine first what audience it appeals to and second how you can reach that audience. Again, they won't come to you by themselves. This step requires a lot of research and in the beginning and even quite a bit of trail and error. A great place to find information about what people are looking for is on forums but if you keep your eyes and ears open, you can see and hear it everywhere. . .in magazines, at the grocery store, on blogs, twitter and FaceBook. . . just to name a few. Once you get the hang of it, you will come into contact constantly with information that is related to whatever it is you're selling and your target market.
So, how do you reach these people. The internet is a wonderland of free sites that you can "promote" your products and services. But when I say promote, I mean offer information that will solve your potential customer's problems. . .not straight out promotion. You can do this on FaceBook, Twitter, Squidoo, Blogger, US FreeAds and many, many more sites. Or you can pay for online advertising which is also very effective.
After you have determined what you have to offer and how you will be getting it to your target market, you next need to look at how you are going to set yourself apart from your competition. What can you offer that will make people come to you? Whether it’s free shipping, top-notch support, hundreds of testimonial, you need to identify these explicitly.
Finally, you need to continuously attract new customers as well as retaining your current clients in
order to remain viable in your business objectives. You should constantly be looking for new ways to reach additional shares of the marketplace. You may also need to continuously update your products and services in order to continue to appeal to your past clients.
Don't ever forget to go back to your existing clients and offer them new things while making them feel important. With diligent work and increasing skills, your e marketing strategy will take you to your business objectives.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Are You Making Money With Blogs? 6 Ways To Do It
Making money with blogs is one of the hottest topics around, especially with the struggling economy that's causing more and more people to search for extra sources of income or even replacements for lost revenue. Blogging is appealing because it is so easy to get started and it doesn't have to cost a dime. Even if you choose one of the blogging platforms that do require payment, the fee is comparitively minimal to other money making investments.
So how how can you earn money with blogs?
1. Offer your skills and expertise in the form of services. The general image of blogs is a place where you can offer your opinions, suggestions and other subjective informaiton. This is one way that blogs can be used, but blogs are also great at building relationships and creating happy visitors into customers or business partners as well.
If you make sure that your posts are original and informative and offer value to whoever will be reading them, you'll make your readers happy.
What kind of services can you offer? The list is endless. . .choose something that you like and do well like writing, graphic design, PPC, SEO, email campaigns, babysitting, coaching, anything goes. Write about it. Offer tips, suggestions, how-to and do-not lists, etc. This will establish you as an expert in whatever your service is and the blog is then referred to as an authority blog.
2. Sell advertising space on your blog. This is most likely the most common way to leverage your blog to generate income. If you create a well-known, value-packed blog, it's pretty easy to sell ad space. In fact, you won't even have to offer it. . .advertisers will seek you out!
For new or less-known blogs, services such as BlogAds or Google's AdSense enable you to earn income from advertisers.
BlogAds puts bloggers into contact with advertisers and takes a commission in return for any ad placements that result. AdSense is free and lets you select several ads that are consistent with the content of your blog. You get paid when readers click on the ads. These types of programs are the among the main reasons that making money with blogs is so easy nowadays!
3. Ask for contributions. The thought of this may bother you but if your small-business blog supports some kind of cause or issue, it doesn't hurt to ask for suport from your visitors. And readers who become loyal to your blog are especially willing to make little contributions. You can use an easy program such as PayPal to establish a simple on-site contribution collection button.
4. Help sell other people's products and/or services. Let your blog be the connection between readers and other sites that offer products and services. Just go to ClickBank or Commission Junction and pick out an affiliate product or service to sell - it should be something that goes along with the content of your blog. Or you can create a new blog specifically for the products you decide to promote. If you write articles about certain products that you would recommend, you can get paid a commission when someone takes you up on the offer. This is one of the most popular ways of making money with blogs because you don't need your own product or service.
5. Use your blog to keep your customers coming back for more.
Using a blog to regularly communicate with existing clients as well as other new readers is a way to fully inform them about everything your business does.
Your posts can enlighten your readers about the full scope of your products or services and even inspire them to refer you to others.
6. Remember that effective blogs are updated regularly and often with original and high-quality content. Make sure that you're giving your readers a reason to come back to your blog again and again.
More and more people are making money with blogs. Are you one of them?
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
So how how can you earn money with blogs?
1. Offer your skills and expertise in the form of services. The general image of blogs is a place where you can offer your opinions, suggestions and other subjective informaiton. This is one way that blogs can be used, but blogs are also great at building relationships and creating happy visitors into customers or business partners as well.
If you make sure that your posts are original and informative and offer value to whoever will be reading them, you'll make your readers happy.
What kind of services can you offer? The list is endless. . .choose something that you like and do well like writing, graphic design, PPC, SEO, email campaigns, babysitting, coaching, anything goes. Write about it. Offer tips, suggestions, how-to and do-not lists, etc. This will establish you as an expert in whatever your service is and the blog is then referred to as an authority blog.
2. Sell advertising space on your blog. This is most likely the most common way to leverage your blog to generate income. If you create a well-known, value-packed blog, it's pretty easy to sell ad space. In fact, you won't even have to offer it. . .advertisers will seek you out!
For new or less-known blogs, services such as BlogAds or Google's AdSense enable you to earn income from advertisers.
BlogAds puts bloggers into contact with advertisers and takes a commission in return for any ad placements that result. AdSense is free and lets you select several ads that are consistent with the content of your blog. You get paid when readers click on the ads. These types of programs are the among the main reasons that making money with blogs is so easy nowadays!
3. Ask for contributions. The thought of this may bother you but if your small-business blog supports some kind of cause or issue, it doesn't hurt to ask for suport from your visitors. And readers who become loyal to your blog are especially willing to make little contributions. You can use an easy program such as PayPal to establish a simple on-site contribution collection button.
4. Help sell other people's products and/or services. Let your blog be the connection between readers and other sites that offer products and services. Just go to ClickBank or Commission Junction and pick out an affiliate product or service to sell - it should be something that goes along with the content of your blog. Or you can create a new blog specifically for the products you decide to promote. If you write articles about certain products that you would recommend, you can get paid a commission when someone takes you up on the offer. This is one of the most popular ways of making money with blogs because you don't need your own product or service.
5. Use your blog to keep your customers coming back for more.
Using a blog to regularly communicate with existing clients as well as other new readers is a way to fully inform them about everything your business does.
Your posts can enlighten your readers about the full scope of your products or services and even inspire them to refer you to others.
6. Remember that effective blogs are updated regularly and often with original and high-quality content. Make sure that you're giving your readers a reason to come back to your blog again and again.
More and more people are making money with blogs. Are you one of them?
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Monday, October 19, 2009
What Does SEO Stand For and Other Search Engine Optimization Basics
You've probably heard the term SEO if you've done even the slightest bit of marketing online. What does SEO stand for? Search Engine Optimization. And what that basically means is the process of presenting your web content in a way that agrees with the search engines. And that helps in getting your content towards the front so that when someone types in a term that is relevant to your business, you will be seen!
So, SEO in a nutshell is a marketing technique to make your website more visible to search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN or others. Did you know that when people do a search on one of these search engines, they will only look at the results that come up in the first page? So if you want to be seen online, that's where you need to be!
Don't let the term SEO and Search Engine Optimization intimidate you… all it really translates to is more visitors, more traffic, and if you’ve got a product, more sales. SEO is integral to a good marketing campaign – there’s no two ways around it. But you don't need to be an expert in SEO to get it working for you right away. Start with the basics and move forward as you feel more comfortable.
So, your goal is to get your web content to appear on the very first page of any search engine’s results when someone types in the words that are relevant to your business. These words or phrases are known as keywords – they’re your best friends when it comes to search engine optimization.
There are a number of free resources you can find on the web that will teach you how to use keywords. For instance, some tools will tell you how often a certain keyword phrase is searched for, and show you other, similar keywords. These other keywords might allow you to expand the focus of your web page to attract more visitors. You can also use this information to target keywords that are less common on the Internet – this this is a way to avoid a huge amount of competition and to corner the market in all the terms that are particular to your business.
Keywords aren’t the only search engine optimization tool you can use. Probably the important aspect of SEO is linking. Search engines basically use links to a website as references, like when an employer calls up past employers to find out how good an applicant is. The more legitimate references or links that you have coming into your website from other sources (so, people who link from their site to your site in order to provide their visitors with more information), the higher that the site will be ranked in the search engines. Creating links within your pages is a great way to enhance SEO.
Keywords and linking are just the tip of the Search Engine Optimization iceberg. There are many more advanced techniques that can be used to bring a site to the top of the search page ranks and keep it there. This serves as just an introductory guide, but now you know the answer to the question; what does SEO stand for?
So, SEO in a nutshell is a marketing technique to make your website more visible to search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN or others. Did you know that when people do a search on one of these search engines, they will only look at the results that come up in the first page? So if you want to be seen online, that's where you need to be!
Don't let the term SEO and Search Engine Optimization intimidate you… all it really translates to is more visitors, more traffic, and if you’ve got a product, more sales. SEO is integral to a good marketing campaign – there’s no two ways around it. But you don't need to be an expert in SEO to get it working for you right away. Start with the basics and move forward as you feel more comfortable.
So, your goal is to get your web content to appear on the very first page of any search engine’s results when someone types in the words that are relevant to your business. These words or phrases are known as keywords – they’re your best friends when it comes to search engine optimization.
There are a number of free resources you can find on the web that will teach you how to use keywords. For instance, some tools will tell you how often a certain keyword phrase is searched for, and show you other, similar keywords. These other keywords might allow you to expand the focus of your web page to attract more visitors. You can also use this information to target keywords that are less common on the Internet – this this is a way to avoid a huge amount of competition and to corner the market in all the terms that are particular to your business.
Keywords aren’t the only search engine optimization tool you can use. Probably the important aspect of SEO is linking. Search engines basically use links to a website as references, like when an employer calls up past employers to find out how good an applicant is. The more legitimate references or links that you have coming into your website from other sources (so, people who link from their site to your site in order to provide their visitors with more information), the higher that the site will be ranked in the search engines. Creating links within your pages is a great way to enhance SEO.
Keywords and linking are just the tip of the Search Engine Optimization iceberg. There are many more advanced techniques that can be used to bring a site to the top of the search page ranks and keep it there. This serves as just an introductory guide, but now you know the answer to the question; what does SEO stand for?
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Internet Marketing for Dummies - 3 Simple Rules
Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide
Are you looking into starting an online business or have you decided to bring a primarily offline business to the web? This Internet Marketing for Dummies intro can get you started in the right direction. . .
With our ever-increasing dependence on the internet, you've definitely made the right choice to start promoting your business on the worldwide web. Anyone that has a computer nowadays turns to the Internet to get product reviews and information, commentary, tips and and testimonials from previous customers or other marketers.
If someone is interested in your type of business and they cannot find you online, they will turn to one of your competitors who is online.
This is not an immediate concern for established businesses as they rely more solidly on word of mouth reviews to help them. But it will be in the future. Even local businesses are going online to do local online promotions. And if you're just starting out with a new business, you'll definitely need the internet right from the get-go.
I know that many of you small business owners, even the more experienced ones, are intimidated by the idea of building and maintaining a website on your own.
So here is Internet Marketing for Dummies Rule number 1
Don't let your fear stop you from taking action!
Building a site is now extremely easy with the advent of networking sites and even online templates that will help you build your webpage step by step:
Here are some good ones:
Homestead Quick Sites is a powerful website building tool with Hosting included. Over 20 Million People use Homestead to host their website.
BlueHost is a popular web hosting company with a flexible and user-friendly Website builder. It's great for those new to developing websites
And I very highly recommend SBI SiteBuildIt. It is more time consuming to get your site up and running with SBI but you do it step by step with incredibly thorough step-by-step tutorials.
Internet Marketing for Dummies Rule number 2: After you build your website, all you need to do is post it on the various social networking sites like FaceBook or Twitter (or one of the many others). All of these social sites represent free ways for you to advertisge. See the post below for some other social networking sites. Be active in these sites and people will come to see who you are and what you and your business is all about.
The key to promoting your business in social sites is to be social!!
It seems like a simple concept to remember but so many people are on these sites to hype it up and blast their website links to everyone they know. Don't make this mistake! First of all, people do not respond to this and second of all, it can get you banned from these sites. Be friendly, meet people, comment on their pages, blogs, etc., and include your link if appropriate. Offer advice and suggestions. By doing this, you are establishing yourself as trustworthy, reliable and friendly and people will be more interested in what you have to offer.
Most Social Networking sites offer tutorials or step by step instructions of how to get set up.
Another great way to reach people on the internet is to find a site that is offering something similar to what your business does. A lot of these sites ave message boards or forums where people discuss things and ask questions about different topics. Get on these message boards and talk to people, answer their questions, and leave behind your business contact information. This is a great way to bring more visitors to your own business!
And Internet Marketing for Dummies Rule number 3, as you are going about your web marketing, remember not to be too pushy or flashy with your promotions or ads. Avoid big promises and loud graphics. Most people read "scam" into these types of techniques or they're just turned off by all the hype. Be simple, informative and truthful as you bring your business to the web!
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Are you looking into starting an online business or have you decided to bring a primarily offline business to the web? This Internet Marketing for Dummies intro can get you started in the right direction. . .
With our ever-increasing dependence on the internet, you've definitely made the right choice to start promoting your business on the worldwide web. Anyone that has a computer nowadays turns to the Internet to get product reviews and information, commentary, tips and and testimonials from previous customers or other marketers.
If someone is interested in your type of business and they cannot find you online, they will turn to one of your competitors who is online.
This is not an immediate concern for established businesses as they rely more solidly on word of mouth reviews to help them. But it will be in the future. Even local businesses are going online to do local online promotions. And if you're just starting out with a new business, you'll definitely need the internet right from the get-go.
I know that many of you small business owners, even the more experienced ones, are intimidated by the idea of building and maintaining a website on your own.
So here is Internet Marketing for Dummies Rule number 1
Don't let your fear stop you from taking action!
Building a site is now extremely easy with the advent of networking sites and even online templates that will help you build your webpage step by step:
Here are some good ones:
Homestead Quick Sites is a powerful website building tool with Hosting included. Over 20 Million People use Homestead to host their website.
BlueHost is a popular web hosting company with a flexible and user-friendly Website builder. It's great for those new to developing websites
And I very highly recommend SBI SiteBuildIt. It is more time consuming to get your site up and running with SBI but you do it step by step with incredibly thorough step-by-step tutorials.
Internet Marketing for Dummies Rule number 2: After you build your website, all you need to do is post it on the various social networking sites like FaceBook or Twitter (or one of the many others). All of these social sites represent free ways for you to advertisge. See the post below for some other social networking sites. Be active in these sites and people will come to see who you are and what you and your business is all about.
The key to promoting your business in social sites is to be social!!
It seems like a simple concept to remember but so many people are on these sites to hype it up and blast their website links to everyone they know. Don't make this mistake! First of all, people do not respond to this and second of all, it can get you banned from these sites. Be friendly, meet people, comment on their pages, blogs, etc., and include your link if appropriate. Offer advice and suggestions. By doing this, you are establishing yourself as trustworthy, reliable and friendly and people will be more interested in what you have to offer.
Most Social Networking sites offer tutorials or step by step instructions of how to get set up.
Another great way to reach people on the internet is to find a site that is offering something similar to what your business does. A lot of these sites ave message boards or forums where people discuss things and ask questions about different topics. Get on these message boards and talk to people, answer their questions, and leave behind your business contact information. This is a great way to bring more visitors to your own business!
And Internet Marketing for Dummies Rule number 3, as you are going about your web marketing, remember not to be too pushy or flashy with your promotions or ads. Avoid big promises and loud graphics. Most people read "scam" into these types of techniques or they're just turned off by all the hype. Be simple, informative and truthful as you bring your business to the web!
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Monday, September 28, 2009
Social Networking Solution: Finding All the Social Networking Sites
Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide
More and more online marketers are searching for the perfect social marketing solution. A big part of the solution is knowing how to find these sites. Most of us know about the "famous" social marketing sites like Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Wordpress. But you would be surprised to know that these represent just a drop in the bucket of what is out there:
Each one of the above social networking sites represent an opportunity to drive targeted traffic to your articles, blog or your website. Remember that the key to social marketing is to be social - no outright sales pitches are allowed.
So, now you have a huge list of sites! Where to start? First, start with the concept that you prefer and try the various sites in that list and pick one or two. Focus on that one for a while and see how it goes. Don't jump into all of them at once. Pick one, stick with it for a while, evaluate your results and see if you have the time to add another one or to just move on altogether. The power of social networking is incredible and growing continuously - an absolute must for online marketers.
What if you are not that social and you don't have the time to spend on these sites? If you understand the power of social marketing but don't have your heart in it enough to be consistent with them as a marketing tool? Then I suggest you take a look at this social networking solution that does the work for you on auto-pilot. It's saved me countless hours and all the stress that comes along with trying to squeeze everything in.
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
More and more online marketers are searching for the perfect social marketing solution. A big part of the solution is knowing how to find these sites. Most of us know about the "famous" social marketing sites like Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Wordpress. But you would be surprised to know that these represent just a drop in the bucket of what is out there:
These following social marketing solutions are what many would consided the core of the social networking concept:
- ClassMates, http://www.classmates.com
- Bebo, http://www.bebo.com
- Deviant Art, http://www.deviantart.com
- Facebook, http://www.facebook.com
- Flickr, http://www.flickr.com
- LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com
- Meetup, http://www.meetup.com
- MySpace, http://www.myspace.com
- YouTube, http://www.youtube.com
- Gather, http://www.gather.com
- imeem, http://www.imeem.com
- Itsmy, http://www.itsmy.com
- My Yearbook, http://www.myyearbook.com
- Webshots, http://www.webshots.com
The Blogging Social Networking solution is very popular - and if done well and consistantly, this might be all you need to do.
Here are some social networking sites that emphasize on blogging or micro-blogging (like Twitter):
- Blogger, http://www.blogger.com
- Livejournal, http://www.livejournal.com
- Twitter, http://www.twitter.com
- Windows Live Spaces, http://www.spaces.live.com/
- Wordpress, http://www.wordpress.com
- Vox, http://www.vox.com
- Xanga, http://www.xanga.com
Here are is social networking solution with sites that focus on certain interests like music, books, coffee or pop culture.
- Advogato, http://www.advogato.org/
- Amie Street, http://www.amiestreet.com/
- ANobii, http://www.anobii.com/
- CafeMom, http://www.cafemom.com
- Buzznet, http://www.buzznet.com
- Broadcaster, http://www.broadcaster.com
- Cake Financial, https://www.cakefinancial.com/
- Care2, http://www.care2.com/
- Eons, http://www.eons.com
- TravBuddy, http://www.travbuddy.com/
- Travellerspoint Travel Community, http://www.travellerspoint.com/
- BlackPlanet, http://www.blackplanet.com
- Elftown, http://www.elftown.com
- Flixster, http://www.flixster.com
- Geni, http://www.geni.com
- Goodreads, http://www.goodreads.com
- Gossip Report, http://www.gossipreport.com
- Guild Café, http://www.gamerDNA.com
- Hospitality club, http://www.hospitalityclub.org
- Last.fm, http://www.last.fm
- Library Thing, http://www.librarything.com/
- Lifeknot, http://www.lifeknot.com/
- Live Mocha, http://www.livemocha.com
- One World TV, http://tv.oneworld.net/
- Plaxo, http://www.plaxo.com
- Ravelry, http://www.ravelry.com
- Sci Space, http://www.scispace.net/
- WAYN, http://www.wayn.com/
International social marketing is more and more in demand.
They may be specific to one place (region or country) or cater to the worldwide population.
- Friendster, http://www.friendster.com
- Face Party, http://www.faceparty.com
- Friends Reunited, http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/
- Biip, http://www.biip.no/ (Norway)
- Cloob, http://www.cloob.com/
- Cyworld, http://us.cyworld.com/
- Fotolog, http://www.fotolog.com/
- Frühstückstreff, http://www.fruehstueckstreff.org/
- Grono, http://www.grono.net
- Habbo, http://www.habbo.com
- hi5, http://www.hi5.com
- Hyves, http://www.hyves.nl
- IRC Galleria, http://www.irc-galleria.net/index.php
- iWiW, http://www.iwiw.hu/
- Profile Heaven, http://www.profileheaven.com/
Social media sites specialize in sharing media and news with other members of the community. This is where bookmarking also comes into play.
- Digg, http://www.digg.com
- StumbleUpon, http://www.stumbleupon.com
- Del.icio.us, http://del.icio.us
- Reddit, http://www.reddit.com
- Fark, http://www.fark.com
And for the younger generation. . .
- College Tonight, http://thequad.com/
- Gaia Online, http://www.gaiaonline.com
- NeoPets, http://www.neopets.com
- Student.com, http://www.student.com
- Reunion, http://www.reunion.com
Each one of the above social networking sites represent an opportunity to drive targeted traffic to your articles, blog or your website. Remember that the key to social marketing is to be social - no outright sales pitches are allowed.
So, now you have a huge list of sites! Where to start? First, start with the concept that you prefer and try the various sites in that list and pick one or two. Focus on that one for a while and see how it goes. Don't jump into all of them at once. Pick one, stick with it for a while, evaluate your results and see if you have the time to add another one or to just move on altogether. The power of social networking is incredible and growing continuously - an absolute must for online marketers.
What if you are not that social and you don't have the time to spend on these sites? If you understand the power of social marketing but don't have your heart in it enough to be consistent with them as a marketing tool? Then I suggest you take a look at this social networking solution that does the work for you on auto-pilot. It's saved me countless hours and all the stress that comes along with trying to squeeze everything in.
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Friday, September 4, 2009
Free Marketing Leads - Where Should You Get Your Free Marketing Leads?
Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide
Where do free marketing leads come from? And how can you get them? Online, you can get many from social media sites like facebook and twitter or free blogs like blogger. You can get them from traffic exchanges like TrafficSwarm or some of the many safelists. You can get them through your participation in forums.
The first thing that many new online marketers try to do when just starting out is go to Free Marketing Leads services but here is why you want to avoid doing that.
If you type the words “free marketing leads” into google, yahoo, msn or whatever your search engine is, you'll get pages and pages of results. Most of these "free marketing leads" come from organizations which sell you these leads. Wait a minute. . .if they’re selling you leads, then the leads aren’t free, right. . .?
Another trick of “free marketing leads” to avoid comes in the form of email lists. Often the seller of the list claims that these emails are pre-filtered to be relevant to exactly what you are selling. Many of these providers sell the same list to every would-be marketer, regardless of the product or service you offer.
In other words, these leads have the proverbial snowball’s chance in a well-known, hot, unpleasant place of ever generating sales. It basically means that you will be cold calling the free marketing leads that you end up getting from these services. If you’ve always dreamed of becoming a spammer, this is the way to go. Be wary of these types of services and ask for proof and refund policies before signing up and spending your hard earned cash for these "free marketing leads".
Here is a very simple concept to keep in mind. . .
Contact information does not equal lead.
Contact information doesn’t become a free marketing lead unless the person behind the contact information has some specific reason why they’d be more interested in your product or service than someone else's.
Try to getting inside the head of the person behind the contact information and provide them with what they are really looking for. What do they like, and more importantly what do they want?
Another very important point to consider. . .
People rarely buy what they need. They buy what they want. So, your job is to sell them what they want and then you give them what they need.
This can take a while to get the hang of. . .but once you master it, you're on your way. . .
Sales leads are, as the name states, leads that can lead directly to sales. Marketing leads are slightly different. These are targeted leads that are brand-specific rather than product specific. What makes your brand special? Do people know what you do? How you do it? Who you are?
Think about who needs what you do. This is the first step in generating genuine marketing leads. If someone comes across what you are offering in a social media site like facebook or twitter, they are more apt to understand a little bit more about you. If they click on your advertisement on google, they have no idea who/what they are dealing with.
One of the most honest, most dignified and most trust-establishing sources of free marketing leads is your own website or blog. People who visit your website or blog do so for a reason. If they visit more than once, they’re genuinely interested in what you do, who you are, and how you do what you do. These are genuine free marketing leads, and about as precisely targeted as you could hope for.
More and more people are establishing their own websites and/or setting up blogs which are inexpensive and relatively easy.
But if you're not into that idea, social sites and forums are another way to get free marketing leads. Remember, you need to be social in these sites. They are not made for selfishly promoting your stuff. Put your profile up with a link to your website, blog or lead capture page and participate. Offer help to those who are asking for it. This is the way to get people to visit your profile and consequently, your more promotional web content.
If you want to take action right away and get step-by-step training on how to generate your very own free marketing leads, I highly suggest this free marketing leads training program which is already helping thousands of others like you set up their free lead generating web content. Even complete beginners and the technically challenged are benefiting from the step-by step, click-by-click instruction to bring free targeted leads into their businesses. It's a great way to cut through the learning curve and get yourself going on the web.
And the best part is that you have access to every aspect of business training that you can possibly imagine. Keep in mind this program was created with network marketers in mind but word has spread so quickly about its unmatched value and affordability that its attracting business owners from all walks of life.
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Where do free marketing leads come from? And how can you get them? Online, you can get many from social media sites like facebook and twitter or free blogs like blogger. You can get them from traffic exchanges like TrafficSwarm or some of the many safelists. You can get them through your participation in forums.
The first thing that many new online marketers try to do when just starting out is go to Free Marketing Leads services but here is why you want to avoid doing that.
If you type the words “free marketing leads” into google, yahoo, msn or whatever your search engine is, you'll get pages and pages of results. Most of these "free marketing leads" come from organizations which sell you these leads. Wait a minute. . .if they’re selling you leads, then the leads aren’t free, right. . .?
Another trick of “free marketing leads” to avoid comes in the form of email lists. Often the seller of the list claims that these emails are pre-filtered to be relevant to exactly what you are selling. Many of these providers sell the same list to every would-be marketer, regardless of the product or service you offer.
In other words, these leads have the proverbial snowball’s chance in a well-known, hot, unpleasant place of ever generating sales. It basically means that you will be cold calling the free marketing leads that you end up getting from these services. If you’ve always dreamed of becoming a spammer, this is the way to go. Be wary of these types of services and ask for proof and refund policies before signing up and spending your hard earned cash for these "free marketing leads".
Here is a very simple concept to keep in mind. . .
Contact information does not equal lead.
Contact information doesn’t become a free marketing lead unless the person behind the contact information has some specific reason why they’d be more interested in your product or service than someone else's.
Try to getting inside the head of the person behind the contact information and provide them with what they are really looking for. What do they like, and more importantly what do they want?
Another very important point to consider. . .
People rarely buy what they need. They buy what they want. So, your job is to sell them what they want and then you give them what they need.
This can take a while to get the hang of. . .but once you master it, you're on your way. . .
Sales leads are, as the name states, leads that can lead directly to sales. Marketing leads are slightly different. These are targeted leads that are brand-specific rather than product specific. What makes your brand special? Do people know what you do? How you do it? Who you are?
Think about who needs what you do. This is the first step in generating genuine marketing leads. If someone comes across what you are offering in a social media site like facebook or twitter, they are more apt to understand a little bit more about you. If they click on your advertisement on google, they have no idea who/what they are dealing with.
One of the most honest, most dignified and most trust-establishing sources of free marketing leads is your own website or blog. People who visit your website or blog do so for a reason. If they visit more than once, they’re genuinely interested in what you do, who you are, and how you do what you do. These are genuine free marketing leads, and about as precisely targeted as you could hope for.
More and more people are establishing their own websites and/or setting up blogs which are inexpensive and relatively easy.
But if you're not into that idea, social sites and forums are another way to get free marketing leads. Remember, you need to be social in these sites. They are not made for selfishly promoting your stuff. Put your profile up with a link to your website, blog or lead capture page and participate. Offer help to those who are asking for it. This is the way to get people to visit your profile and consequently, your more promotional web content.
If you want to take action right away and get step-by-step training on how to generate your very own free marketing leads, I highly suggest this free marketing leads training program which is already helping thousands of others like you set up their free lead generating web content. Even complete beginners and the technically challenged are benefiting from the step-by step, click-by-click instruction to bring free targeted leads into their businesses. It's a great way to cut through the learning curve and get yourself going on the web.
And the best part is that you have access to every aspect of business training that you can possibly imagine. Keep in mind this program was created with network marketers in mind but word has spread so quickly about its unmatched value and affordability that its attracting business owners from all walks of life.
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Common Negative Internet Marketing Issues and How To Deal with Them. . .
Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide
Common Negative Internet Marketing Issues and How To Deal with Them. . .
Some (many. . .) people believe that online marketing is the future of advertising, but there are some negative internet marketing issues that everyone has to deal with.
While online advertising is both a great way to reach a large number of people and a fairly cheap form of advertising, it’s important that you are aware of its limitations in order to help you target your online marketing campaigns better and get you more business.
One of the biggest negative internet marketing issues on the internet is that it is viewed kind of like the television—people only want to see what they want to see. . .with no disrupting ads or information.
So, unless your advertisement REALLY jumps out at them and offers them a solution to something they’ve been worrying about, it will most likely be ignored.
Of course, that all changes when the person goes online searching for what you are advertising. . .more about that later.
Some other possible internet marketing issues involve link exchanges where you get others to post links or graphics that connect to your site on their sites.
This link exchange works fairly well if you don’t mind having a part of your site dedicated to hosting reciprocal links. These other sites don’t want to link to you without you linking back, after all! The problem here is that a few links or graphics don’t look to bad, but when you start getting dozens of them, it can make your site look a little cluttered.
Another of these negative internet marketing issues concerns search engines. The way these sites work is that they rank your site according to how well it seems to match the user’s query (the words that the user types into google, yahoo, msn, etc). It’s not an exact science, but it has to do with what words you have in your title, metadata, and in the text on your site itself.
You might have heard about these keywords or about SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.
SEO one of the most popular buzz words on the internet today, and everyone seems to want their site optimized.
Basically, SEO is the practice of using the words that people are searching for in the right way (not too few times and not too many times) on your site so that search engines will consistently rank it very high and it will get more traffic to it.
The limit here is that writing for search engines means you’re not writing for the actual people visiting your site.
If your page is too heavy on keywords, it just won’t read naturally and may not be that informative. Readers are becoming more and more sensitive to poorly done SEO sites, and most click off the sites they find too keyword-heavy.
One of the most frustrating negative internet marketing issues is that sometimes people simply won’t sign up for your email list.
While in the store, you can often say something extra or give them more information about what you’ll email to them, it can be hard to really push your marketing list on your website. On the other hand, though, the people who do sign up for your email list online are generally customers who are very interested in what you offer and will purchase from you again.
These internet marketing issues are just a few of the negative aspects that you may run into when working on your online marketing strategy. But they can all be overcome with a little work and creativity. Plus, no matter how the internet marketing limitations seem, remember that your information is still reaching many, many people.
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Common Negative Internet Marketing Issues and How To Deal with Them. . .
Some (many. . .) people believe that online marketing is the future of advertising, but there are some negative internet marketing issues that everyone has to deal with.
While online advertising is both a great way to reach a large number of people and a fairly cheap form of advertising, it’s important that you are aware of its limitations in order to help you target your online marketing campaigns better and get you more business.
One of the biggest negative internet marketing issues on the internet is that it is viewed kind of like the television—people only want to see what they want to see. . .with no disrupting ads or information.
So, unless your advertisement REALLY jumps out at them and offers them a solution to something they’ve been worrying about, it will most likely be ignored.
Of course, that all changes when the person goes online searching for what you are advertising. . .more about that later.
Some other possible internet marketing issues involve link exchanges where you get others to post links or graphics that connect to your site on their sites.
This link exchange works fairly well if you don’t mind having a part of your site dedicated to hosting reciprocal links. These other sites don’t want to link to you without you linking back, after all! The problem here is that a few links or graphics don’t look to bad, but when you start getting dozens of them, it can make your site look a little cluttered.
Another of these negative internet marketing issues concerns search engines. The way these sites work is that they rank your site according to how well it seems to match the user’s query (the words that the user types into google, yahoo, msn, etc). It’s not an exact science, but it has to do with what words you have in your title, metadata, and in the text on your site itself.
You might have heard about these keywords or about SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.
SEO one of the most popular buzz words on the internet today, and everyone seems to want their site optimized.
Basically, SEO is the practice of using the words that people are searching for in the right way (not too few times and not too many times) on your site so that search engines will consistently rank it very high and it will get more traffic to it.
The limit here is that writing for search engines means you’re not writing for the actual people visiting your site.
If your page is too heavy on keywords, it just won’t read naturally and may not be that informative. Readers are becoming more and more sensitive to poorly done SEO sites, and most click off the sites they find too keyword-heavy.
One of the most frustrating negative internet marketing issues is that sometimes people simply won’t sign up for your email list.
While in the store, you can often say something extra or give them more information about what you’ll email to them, it can be hard to really push your marketing list on your website. On the other hand, though, the people who do sign up for your email list online are generally customers who are very interested in what you offer and will purchase from you again.
These internet marketing issues are just a few of the negative aspects that you may run into when working on your online marketing strategy. But they can all be overcome with a little work and creativity. Plus, no matter how the internet marketing limitations seem, remember that your information is still reaching many, many people.
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The Targeted Email List – And How to Get Your Targeted Email List
Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide
The Targeted Email List – And How to Get Yours
Once you’ve decided to embark on an email marketing campaign, it’s obvious that you need to already have or to build up a targeted email list. This is one of the most (some would argue THE most) important concept in your marketing plan. The bigger and more targeted your list, the more successful and profitable you will be.
Many people succumb to the pitfall of buying a “targeted” email list. There are many reasons that you don’t want to do that.
You’ve very likely seen the ads that offer you millions of email addresses for a relatively low cost. If you fall for one of these ads, you will end up labeled as a ‘spammer’ almost as quickly as you send the email. Likely the vast majority of the messages you send will end up in ‘junk’ boxes, and you’ll reap zero benefit from your efforts. A good 70% of the addresses you purchase are, in fact, bogus or have been duplicated and the remaining 30% have not requested to receive your message. . .so they won’t.
Some people elect to rent a “targeted” email list from varying submission services, but this can end up costing anywhere from 20 to 30 cents per email.
Again, there is no reason that you should have to go out and buy your targeted email list.
You can use next 8 suggestions to get the ideas flowing and build your own targeted email list. Remember, your primary goal should be to send emails to people who are actually expecting to hear from you.
How do you do that?
Your best bet is to start with diverse marketing methods and pay attention to your web traffic. Below you will find a list, contributed by an existing email marketing company, of things that will make sure your end up with a targeted email list.
1. Your Webpage/Blog – request that individuals sign up for your guestbook, your online electronic magazine, your newsletter, your offer for a free report or book and any contest that you have to offer. How do you do this? By making sure your website or blog is professional looking and offers good, valuable content which solves your visitors’ problems.
No one will ask for information from you if don’t have something that is of value to them.
Make sure that your contact information and your opt-in forms are easy to spot (no one should have to go looking for this – it should catch their eye immediately). Once your visitors have requested what they are interested in, you can start providing this information to them through your emails and that’s how you build your targeted email list. Of course, you’ll need to get lots of traffic to your website and blog to get the best results for this. There are several easy-to-implement ways to go about this.
2. Try Direct-Mail Marketing – mail out flyers or postcards to all potential customers. When you design your postcards, be sure to request that people visit your site and sign up to get valued information and relevant messages.
Most people are so tied up in their online marketing that they forget that offline marketing does work as well – give it a try.
3. Consider using telemarketers to build your targeted email list-- consider using a telemarketing service or telemarketing agent to make contact with your potential clients. Request that your telemarketers require e-mail addresses (it's a good idea to offer incentives for having clients give out their e-mail address (contest, free trials, etc.).
4. Consider using a broker to build your targeted email list -- request websites that reap heavy traffic and offer brokerage services to link to your service and offer sign up for information. Most brokers will provide this service for an average of $.10 to $.15 per email message.
5. Consider hosting an online contest to build your targeted email list -- open contests are extremely effective way to obtain a targeted email list. Just request e-mail addresses as method of approval for the contest entry.
There are many ways to build a targeted email list and these are just a few simple suggestions that you can start to implement right away. There are many good training programs available online where you can learn more.
And there is also a totally automated way to build your targeted email list if you are impatient to do the necessary training and interested in quick results. You can find more information about that at www.FreshLeadsForLife.com.
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .http://www.My-Home-Business-Guide.org.
The Targeted Email List – And How to Get Yours
Once you’ve decided to embark on an email marketing campaign, it’s obvious that you need to already have or to build up a targeted email list. This is one of the most (some would argue THE most) important concept in your marketing plan. The bigger and more targeted your list, the more successful and profitable you will be.
Many people succumb to the pitfall of buying a “targeted” email list. There are many reasons that you don’t want to do that.
You’ve very likely seen the ads that offer you millions of email addresses for a relatively low cost. If you fall for one of these ads, you will end up labeled as a ‘spammer’ almost as quickly as you send the email. Likely the vast majority of the messages you send will end up in ‘junk’ boxes, and you’ll reap zero benefit from your efforts. A good 70% of the addresses you purchase are, in fact, bogus or have been duplicated and the remaining 30% have not requested to receive your message. . .so they won’t.
Some people elect to rent a “targeted” email list from varying submission services, but this can end up costing anywhere from 20 to 30 cents per email.
Again, there is no reason that you should have to go out and buy your targeted email list.
You can use next 8 suggestions to get the ideas flowing and build your own targeted email list. Remember, your primary goal should be to send emails to people who are actually expecting to hear from you.
How do you do that?
Your best bet is to start with diverse marketing methods and pay attention to your web traffic. Below you will find a list, contributed by an existing email marketing company, of things that will make sure your end up with a targeted email list.
1. Your Webpage/Blog – request that individuals sign up for your guestbook, your online electronic magazine, your newsletter, your offer for a free report or book and any contest that you have to offer. How do you do this? By making sure your website or blog is professional looking and offers good, valuable content which solves your visitors’ problems.
No one will ask for information from you if don’t have something that is of value to them.
Make sure that your contact information and your opt-in forms are easy to spot (no one should have to go looking for this – it should catch their eye immediately). Once your visitors have requested what they are interested in, you can start providing this information to them through your emails and that’s how you build your targeted email list. Of course, you’ll need to get lots of traffic to your website and blog to get the best results for this. There are several easy-to-implement ways to go about this.
2. Try Direct-Mail Marketing – mail out flyers or postcards to all potential customers. When you design your postcards, be sure to request that people visit your site and sign up to get valued information and relevant messages.
Most people are so tied up in their online marketing that they forget that offline marketing does work as well – give it a try.
3. Consider using telemarketers to build your targeted email list-- consider using a telemarketing service or telemarketing agent to make contact with your potential clients. Request that your telemarketers require e-mail addresses (it's a good idea to offer incentives for having clients give out their e-mail address (contest, free trials, etc.).
4. Consider using a broker to build your targeted email list -- request websites that reap heavy traffic and offer brokerage services to link to your service and offer sign up for information. Most brokers will provide this service for an average of $.10 to $.15 per email message.
5. Consider hosting an online contest to build your targeted email list -- open contests are extremely effective way to obtain a targeted email list. Just request e-mail addresses as method of approval for the contest entry.
There are many ways to build a targeted email list and these are just a few simple suggestions that you can start to implement right away. There are many good training programs available online where you can learn more.
And there is also a totally automated way to build your targeted email list if you are impatient to do the necessary training and interested in quick results. You can find more information about that at www.FreshLeadsForLife.com.
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .http://www.My-Home-Business-Guide.org.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Internet Marketing Information – Article Marketing
Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide
Internet Marketing Information – Article Marketing
Internet marketing information is ALL OVER the web. Today I’m going to speak about 1 essential form of internet marketing information called article marketing.
Article marketing, as the name states, basically means using articles to promote whatever it is you are selling.
It is just one piece of the internet marketing puzzle. But no internet marketing campaign is complete without some form of article marketing.
Internet marketing information and article marketing go hand in hand because using articles to market yourself, your website or your affiliate products is absolutely vital in creating a complete internet marketing solution.
One of the many benefits of using article marketing in your internet marketing campaigns is that you can do it for free which is especially important to internet marketing newcomers.
And even better, this free form of advertising is often more effective than paid advertising. If you do it right.
This unique form of internet marketing information was popular long before e-commerce was a big thing. For as long as mass print methods have been available, businesses have been marketing themselves through article creation, by offering something of value to print medium such as widely read newspapers in exchange for a byline or a small advertisement. When it comes to e-commerce and internet marketing, article marketing is an excellent means for getting information out there and creating powerful links back to your website or affiliate products.
When it comes to article marketing, there are numerous benefits and features to consider.
- This form of marketing creates powerful links from popular websites back to your website or affiliate products. The more links you have coming to your website from other sources, the more powerful your website will be in search engine page listings like Google.
- By providing value in the articles that you create, you establish yourself as a trusted authority on the keywords, niches or subjects that you are writing about.
- By adding a byline or resource box to your content you will be giving potential customers a way to contact you after reading your valuable content. Not only will this create powerful links, but it will also help connect additional traffic to your website that you might not otherwise obtain.
- By creating articles optimized for search engines you will be improving your overall traffic and even your overall page rank by submitting to content sites with high page ranks and authority.
For these reasons, it is absolutely vital that article marketing be a facet of any internet marketing information plan that you put together.
While there may be a variety of different ways to market your internet site, one of the most powerful is to use valuable, easy to read article content with a call to action for readers who appreciate your work to visit your website for more information, products, a newsletter, and so on.
One of the best and completely free article marketing instruction sites that I have seen is http://www.bummarketingmethod.com. You do have to opt in but it’s free and the information is detailed, thorough and easy to follow and you can take action immediately.
Already seen the basics of how article marketing works and still convinced that you can't do it or just don't know what to write about? The Writing With Pull course within the Internet Marketing Information online business training has already helped thousands of "non-writers" like yourselves create their first articles, blog posts, squidoo lenses, etc.
Step-by-step videos show you exactly what to do. And the best part is that you have access to every aspect of business training that you can possibly imagine. Keep in mind this program was created with network marketers in mind but word has spread so quickly about its unmatched value and affordability that its attracting business owners from all walks of life.
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Successful Home Based Businesses - What Do Do All Successful Home Based Businesses Have in Common?
Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide
Successful Home Based Businesses – What do they have in common?
What makes successful home based businesses what they are? How do they become successful? What are their “secrets”? There are many variables that contribute to the success of home based businesses. But today I’m going to take a look at one of the most important aspects that you’ve probably never even considered up until now.
First, ask yourself a question. . .
What if you found out what was proven to make you successful?
In 1970, sociologist Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard University wrote a book titled The Unheavenly City. This book goes into detail about one of the most (if not “the most”) important discoveries about what determines how successful one is (or is not).
Banfield's goal in his study was to find out how and why some people became financially independent during the course of their working lifetimes.
It’s important to note that he started the study with a firm belief that the “answer” would be found in factors such as family background, education, intelligence, influential contacts, or some other concrete factor.
What he ended up discovering was a surprise to everyone, including himself . . . the major reason for success in life was a particular attitude of mind.
Banfield actually named this attitude - "long-time perspective" - and defined it by explaining that men and women who were the most successful in life and the most likely to move up economically were those who took the future in consideration with every decision they made in the present.
He found that the longer the period of time a person took into consideration, the more likely it was that he or she would be successful in his or her career.
Before I go on to reveal more of what Banfield discovered, let’s bring this back to the context of successful home based businesses. Did you start your business with the promise of quick profits and rewards? Or did you get into it with the mindset that you would do whatever it takes, no matter how long? (What does it actually take is another topic for another article). Keep your answer in mind and read on. . .
Banfield used “the family doctor” as an example. One reason for a family doctor being one of the most highly regarded in the US is because he or she invested many years of hard work and study to finally earn the right to practice medicine. After university courses, internship, residency and practical training, a doctor may be more than 30 years old before he or she earns a decent living. But from that point onward, these men and women are some of the most respected and most successful professional people in the United States. Why? They had long-time perspectives, an essential key to success.
Back to the context of our “successful home based businesses”. . .
Banfield explains that you can tell how important something is today by measuring its potential future impact on your life and then making the right sacrifices.
So, if you come home from work and choose to play with your children or spend time with your spouse, rather than watch TV or read the paper, you probably have a long-time perspective. You know that investing time in the health and happiness of your children and spouse is a very valuable, high-priority use of time.
If you take additional courses in the evening to upgrade your skills and make yourself more valuable, you're acting with a long-time perspective. Learning something practical and useful can have a long-term effect on your personal growth and career.
Setting priorities almost always equals sacrificing present enjoyment for future enjoyment. It requires giving up a short-term rewards in the present in order to benefit from much greater and more substantial pleasure in the future.
Economists say that the ”inability to delay gratification” is the primary cause of economic and personal failure in life while disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important in the long term (although usually more difficult in the short term) is the high road to success in all realms of life.
Food for thought. . .
In this day and age, it’s easy to get pulled into quick short term solutions for your personal and business activities. My next article will go into detail about how to tune into the “long-term perspective attitude”.
Until then, just try to keep in mind that long term perspective has been proven to be the most accurate single predictor of success. Make better decisions about your time. While doing your short-term activities, think about how they fit (or don’t) into your long-term goals and for your personal lives and successful home based businesses.
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Successful Home Based Businesses – What do they have in common?
What makes successful home based businesses what they are? How do they become successful? What are their “secrets”? There are many variables that contribute to the success of home based businesses. But today I’m going to take a look at one of the most important aspects that you’ve probably never even considered up until now.
First, ask yourself a question. . .
What if you found out what was proven to make you successful?
In 1970, sociologist Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard University wrote a book titled The Unheavenly City. This book goes into detail about one of the most (if not “the most”) important discoveries about what determines how successful one is (or is not).
Banfield's goal in his study was to find out how and why some people became financially independent during the course of their working lifetimes.
It’s important to note that he started the study with a firm belief that the “answer” would be found in factors such as family background, education, intelligence, influential contacts, or some other concrete factor.
What he ended up discovering was a surprise to everyone, including himself . . . the major reason for success in life was a particular attitude of mind.
Banfield actually named this attitude - "long-time perspective" - and defined it by explaining that men and women who were the most successful in life and the most likely to move up economically were those who took the future in consideration with every decision they made in the present.
He found that the longer the period of time a person took into consideration, the more likely it was that he or she would be successful in his or her career.
Before I go on to reveal more of what Banfield discovered, let’s bring this back to the context of successful home based businesses. Did you start your business with the promise of quick profits and rewards? Or did you get into it with the mindset that you would do whatever it takes, no matter how long? (What does it actually take is another topic for another article). Keep your answer in mind and read on. . .
Banfield used “the family doctor” as an example. One reason for a family doctor being one of the most highly regarded in the US is because he or she invested many years of hard work and study to finally earn the right to practice medicine. After university courses, internship, residency and practical training, a doctor may be more than 30 years old before he or she earns a decent living. But from that point onward, these men and women are some of the most respected and most successful professional people in the United States. Why? They had long-time perspectives, an essential key to success.
Back to the context of our “successful home based businesses”. . .
Banfield explains that you can tell how important something is today by measuring its potential future impact on your life and then making the right sacrifices.
So, if you come home from work and choose to play with your children or spend time with your spouse, rather than watch TV or read the paper, you probably have a long-time perspective. You know that investing time in the health and happiness of your children and spouse is a very valuable, high-priority use of time.
If you take additional courses in the evening to upgrade your skills and make yourself more valuable, you're acting with a long-time perspective. Learning something practical and useful can have a long-term effect on your personal growth and career.
Setting priorities almost always equals sacrificing present enjoyment for future enjoyment. It requires giving up a short-term rewards in the present in order to benefit from much greater and more substantial pleasure in the future.
Economists say that the ”inability to delay gratification” is the primary cause of economic and personal failure in life while disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important in the long term (although usually more difficult in the short term) is the high road to success in all realms of life.
Food for thought. . .
In this day and age, it’s easy to get pulled into quick short term solutions for your personal and business activities. My next article will go into detail about how to tune into the “long-term perspective attitude”.
Until then, just try to keep in mind that long term perspective has been proven to be the most accurate single predictor of success. Make better decisions about your time. While doing your short-term activities, think about how they fit (or don’t) into your long-term goals and for your personal lives and successful home based businesses.
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Internet Marketing Review - The Internet Marketing Success Formula
Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide
I will be doing an Internet Marketing Review every once in a while when I come across something good. . .and I have to tell you that Soren Jordansen's FREE 41-page E-Book, called the Internet Marketing Success Formula, really surprised me by how good it is.
It's bursting at the seams with useful information Soren gleamed from his own experience and, more importantly, from conducting scientific surveys of internet marketers. Basically, he’s been conducting his own ongoing internet marketing review.
The statistics revealed will astound you, trust me.
As most of us know, the average internet marketer is a newcomer to this online marketing world. And this newcomer desperately wants to make enough money to be able to quit his/her day job (or substitute the lost one) but has doesn't have the foggiest idea on how to actually go about doing so. Or is just so overwhelmed by all the possibilities, he/she just doesn't know where to start.
There is one startling finding that many seasoned marketers overlook, or just plain don't know, and it is from this fact that Soren lays out detailed proven tested step by step plan.
This e-book is written for the new marketer or for any other marketer who is stuck and hasn't yet experienced success online.
I decided to do this internet marketing review because what I also love about The Internet Marketing Success Formula is that it's a-roll-up-your-sleeves and get-your-hands-dirty how-to guide on starting a internet business from scratch. Not much “warming you up first ” – just right down to business.
Everything, AND I MEAN EVERYTHING, is covered from choosing a web host, building a squeeze page, monetizing the list building process, how to set up a profit pulling email series and what types of affiliate programs convert the best while creating the trust and creditability.
The traffic generation system starts with methods that generate tons of free traffic immediately and progresses through more advanced and time consuming tactics as well as using paid traffic to build your business.
The only thing I wished Soren would have spent more time on was the chapter where he shows you how to take it to the next level. However, it's really for internet marketers who need to get their basic hands free affiliate system set up and running first.
Now, what make Soren's report stand head and shoulders above every other basic how to guide are the real life examples Soren is currently using in own business. He doesn't waste your time with fictional dog training case studies or other such nonsense.
And the amazing thing is, Soren is letting people rebrand this e-book for a ridiculously low price.
I'm not kidding in this internet marketing review when I say using the methods revealed for FREE in The Internet Marketing Success Formula can really be the difference between you becoming one of the scant few percent making real money online or still spinning your wheels trying make sense of internet marketing and going nowhere fast!
My recommendation in this internet marketing review is to get a hold of this free e-book and follow the steps exactly as Soren says. Taking action is sometimes the hardest part. . .especially when there is money involved. This free report makes taking action easy!
How-To-Internet-Marketing
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
I will be doing an Internet Marketing Review every once in a while when I come across something good. . .and I have to tell you that Soren Jordansen's FREE 41-page E-Book, called the Internet Marketing Success Formula, really surprised me by how good it is.
It's bursting at the seams with useful information Soren gleamed from his own experience and, more importantly, from conducting scientific surveys of internet marketers. Basically, he’s been conducting his own ongoing internet marketing review.
The statistics revealed will astound you, trust me.
As most of us know, the average internet marketer is a newcomer to this online marketing world. And this newcomer desperately wants to make enough money to be able to quit his/her day job (or substitute the lost one) but has doesn't have the foggiest idea on how to actually go about doing so. Or is just so overwhelmed by all the possibilities, he/she just doesn't know where to start.
There is one startling finding that many seasoned marketers overlook, or just plain don't know, and it is from this fact that Soren lays out detailed proven tested step by step plan.
This e-book is written for the new marketer or for any other marketer who is stuck and hasn't yet experienced success online.
I decided to do this internet marketing review because what I also love about The Internet Marketing Success Formula is that it's a-roll-up-your-sleeves and get-your-hands-dirty how-to guide on starting a internet business from scratch. Not much “warming you up first ” – just right down to business.
Everything, AND I MEAN EVERYTHING, is covered from choosing a web host, building a squeeze page, monetizing the list building process, how to set up a profit pulling email series and what types of affiliate programs convert the best while creating the trust and creditability.
The traffic generation system starts with methods that generate tons of free traffic immediately and progresses through more advanced and time consuming tactics as well as using paid traffic to build your business.
The only thing I wished Soren would have spent more time on was the chapter where he shows you how to take it to the next level. However, it's really for internet marketers who need to get their basic hands free affiliate system set up and running first.
Now, what make Soren's report stand head and shoulders above every other basic how to guide are the real life examples Soren is currently using in own business. He doesn't waste your time with fictional dog training case studies or other such nonsense.
And the amazing thing is, Soren is letting people rebrand this e-book for a ridiculously low price.
I'm not kidding in this internet marketing review when I say using the methods revealed for FREE in The Internet Marketing Success Formula can really be the difference between you becoming one of the scant few percent making real money online or still spinning your wheels trying make sense of internet marketing and going nowhere fast!
My recommendation in this internet marketing review is to get a hold of this free e-book and follow the steps exactly as Soren says. Taking action is sometimes the hardest part. . .especially when there is money involved. This free report makes taking action easy!
How-To-Internet-Marketing
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Friday, July 24, 2009
What's Your Article Marketing Strategy?
Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide
What's Your Article Marketing Strategy?
Did you know the right Article Marketing Strategy can bring you leads, commissions and “relative fame” (which is mostly referred to “branding”) on the internet? And did you know that article marketing can be done for free?
There are some aspects of article marketing that still elude a lot of people (I know I was confused about it in the beginning) so I thought I would share some of the very simple-to-implement tips that I’ve learned - hopefully it will help you in your article marketing strategy.
Just to start at the very, very beginning,. . .article marketing basically means that you write articles to promote products/services and then you get commissions and/or generate leads off of the sales that are generated from these articles.
There is a “right way” to article marketing and it all starts with picking out the right keyword (one with enough demand and not too much competition).
But don’t worry. . .the right way is not complicated. In fact, the right way is the simple way. Don’t make this harder than it is – you do not need to over-analyze this to be able to come up first in the search engines. Here are the 3 easy steps to follow:
1. Decide what you want to market (if you haven’t done so already).
2. Find the people who are looking for what you’re selling.
To do this, use a free keyword tool and plug in the word or words that represent your product (kites,gymnastics equipment, herbal remedies, etc).
You can use https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
to get a general idea of the words people are typing in, how many people are typing in those words and how many people are providing information on those words (your competitors).
What you are looking for is a word with high demand (Global Monthly Search Volume Column) and not so high competition (Advertiser Competition Column).
3. Which brings us to point number 3 in your article marketing strategy. Evaluate the competition of the term you are going to be marketing. Pick a term that is not too competitive. The best way to get a feel of how much competition you will have is to type your keyword (make sure you type it with the parenthesis around it – so “herbal remedies” for example) into this free site:
http://www.seologs.com/keyword-difficulty.html
You want to be writing about something that has a difficulty ranking of 50% or less. The lower the number, the better, as long as it is still a term that is being searched for so always check out the demand for your term first.
You can also try typing in your term (again, with parenthesis around it) directly into google to see how many results for that term come up. You want the number to be less than 5,000.
4. Ok, now you have a optimal keyword or phrase! All you need to do is write the article! Again, keep it simple. . .Make sure that your keyword is in the title and that you include it several times within the article.
A general rule is to include the keyword or phrase 3-5% of the time. You do NOT want to overuse your keyword or you will be penalized by the search engines. They view it as sort of cheating. Write naturally while keeping your keyword phrase in mind. You want your article to be over 450 words long and but no longer than 900 words. The optimal range is between 550 and 800.
5. After you’ve done your article, you want to make sure you are submitting it to the right sites - not everyone knows what they are. Here are just a few that the search engines love - :
Ezine Articles, Goarticles.com, and Searchwarp. Believe it or not (I didn’t know this!), the search engines (google specifically) loves some classified ad sites and UsFreeAds has been favored for a couple of years now.
Other biggies are Wordpress.com, Squidoo.com and the somewhat newer HubPages . These sites are FREE...and anyone can get started here with NO cash!
If you post an ad, message or article on any of the above sites and if you do it the right way, you will be appearing on the first page of Google when someone types in the search terms you write about.
This is just the basic outline for a good, solid article marketing strategy. I'll be following this up with many more detailed article-writing tips that I've learned from other sources like this incredible Article Marketing Strategy System. Feel free to rush ahead and take a look at that if you're impatient to wait for my next post!!
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant (who started after 40!) in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Home Business Help: Learning Time Management
Copyright © Laura Shapiro, Your Home Business Guide
Feeling overwhelmed? Too much to do and never enough time to do it? You are not alone – in today’s fast paced world, I challenge you to find someone who manages to do it all. And as home business owners, many of us are “in the office” every day (and night).
Learning time management is crucial to our business and our well-being. Realizing that we will never be able to do it all and then having a plan to tackle what we can do helps cut out time-wasting activities and eliminates the stress and sense of overwhelm. There are many courses and lots of information about time management on the internet.
I recently got a very detailed overview of “Eat That Frog,” by Brian Tracy since I’ve heard that it has really made a difference in so many people’s lives. I haven’t read it yet but I wanted to share just a few simple concepts that already make a difference in my life and that this book also promotes.
Brian starts off by emphasizing what we already know but sometimes don’t want to admit. . .that there never is, or will be, enough time to do the things we have to do. In this modern world things come at us fast and furiously. He lays it out simply… “get over the notion that you somehow can get it all done… you can’t.”
The book’s title is a reflection of this quote by Mark Twain. . .
“If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.” -Mark Twain
Putting this into the perspective of learning time management, our frog is the hardest thing that we have to do –the one that we always tend to put off. So, as advised by Mark Twain, get it done first so that you don’t have to worry about it.
This advice will help you overcome procrastination and become much more productive. Always worrying about that thing that you keep putting off is a huge emotional drain. Getting it out of the way sets you free.
Which brings us to the second quote featured in the book, again from Mark Twain. . .
“If you have to eat a frog, don’t look at it for too long.” -Mark Twain
These concepts seem very simple but sometimes analogies like these help to bring the point home. I’ve always considered myself pretty good when it comes to learning time management, prioritizing, multi-tasking, etc. But I do catch myself sometimes putting off the hard things (my frogs) for later and do the easier, quicker (and often less effective or totally unecessary) things right away.
Brian has 21 points throughout the book to challenge you and help you with learning time management – I’ve basically just listed them here and added brief comments to any that don’t make sense on their own:
1. Set the table – figure out what you want to accomplish. This could be the most time consuming but makes the rest of the steps easier.
2. Plan every day in advance – make a to-do list.
3. Apply the 80/20 rule to everything. This principle says that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results, even when all your activities take the same amount of time to do. The activities that give you the most return on your investment are your frogs.
4. Consider the consequences.
5. Practice the ABCDE method continually – this is all about prioritizing.
6. Focus on key result areas.
7. Obey the Law of Forced Efficiency - "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing."
8. Prepare thoroughly before you begin.
9. Do you homework.
10. Leverage your key special talents.
11. Identify your key restraints.
12. Take it one oil barrel at a time.
13. Put the pressure on yourself.
14. Maximize your personal powers.
15. Motivate yourself into action.
16. Practice creative procrastination.
17. Do the most difficult task first.
18. Slice and dice the task.
19. Create large chunks of time.
20. Develop a sense of urgency.
21. Single-handle every task.
If anyone else out there is learning time management and comes across this "Eat That Frog" book, let me know what you think of it!
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
Feeling overwhelmed? Too much to do and never enough time to do it? You are not alone – in today’s fast paced world, I challenge you to find someone who manages to do it all. And as home business owners, many of us are “in the office” every day (and night).
Learning time management is crucial to our business and our well-being. Realizing that we will never be able to do it all and then having a plan to tackle what we can do helps cut out time-wasting activities and eliminates the stress and sense of overwhelm. There are many courses and lots of information about time management on the internet.
I recently got a very detailed overview of “Eat That Frog,” by Brian Tracy since I’ve heard that it has really made a difference in so many people’s lives. I haven’t read it yet but I wanted to share just a few simple concepts that already make a difference in my life and that this book also promotes.
Brian starts off by emphasizing what we already know but sometimes don’t want to admit. . .that there never is, or will be, enough time to do the things we have to do. In this modern world things come at us fast and furiously. He lays it out simply… “get over the notion that you somehow can get it all done… you can’t.”
The book’s title is a reflection of this quote by Mark Twain. . .
“If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.” -Mark Twain
Putting this into the perspective of learning time management, our frog is the hardest thing that we have to do –the one that we always tend to put off. So, as advised by Mark Twain, get it done first so that you don’t have to worry about it.
This advice will help you overcome procrastination and become much more productive. Always worrying about that thing that you keep putting off is a huge emotional drain. Getting it out of the way sets you free.
Which brings us to the second quote featured in the book, again from Mark Twain. . .
“If you have to eat a frog, don’t look at it for too long.” -Mark Twain
These concepts seem very simple but sometimes analogies like these help to bring the point home. I’ve always considered myself pretty good when it comes to learning time management, prioritizing, multi-tasking, etc. But I do catch myself sometimes putting off the hard things (my frogs) for later and do the easier, quicker (and often less effective or totally unecessary) things right away.
Brian has 21 points throughout the book to challenge you and help you with learning time management – I’ve basically just listed them here and added brief comments to any that don’t make sense on their own:
1. Set the table – figure out what you want to accomplish. This could be the most time consuming but makes the rest of the steps easier.
2. Plan every day in advance – make a to-do list.
3. Apply the 80/20 rule to everything. This principle says that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results, even when all your activities take the same amount of time to do. The activities that give you the most return on your investment are your frogs.
4. Consider the consequences.
5. Practice the ABCDE method continually – this is all about prioritizing.
6. Focus on key result areas.
7. Obey the Law of Forced Efficiency - "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing."
8. Prepare thoroughly before you begin.
9. Do you homework.
10. Leverage your key special talents.
11. Identify your key restraints.
12. Take it one oil barrel at a time.
13. Put the pressure on yourself.
14. Maximize your personal powers.
15. Motivate yourself into action.
16. Practice creative procrastination.
17. Do the most difficult task first.
18. Slice and dice the task.
19. Create large chunks of time.
20. Develop a sense of urgency.
21. Single-handle every task.
If anyone else out there is learning time management and comes across this "Eat That Frog" book, let me know what you think of it!
Laura Shapiro is a Home-Based Business Owner and Consultant in addition to being a full time Mom. Is a Home Business your Dream? It doesn't have to be - let me help you make it a reality. . .
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