10 Commandments To Maximizing Your Time In Forum Participation author:Nelson Tan source_url:http://www.articlecity.com/articles/online_business/article_2430.shtml date_saved:2007-07-25 12:30:15 category:online_business article:

1) Gain an idea/keep in touch of what is happening in the Internet Marketing scene (strategies, product, news).

2) Help others as well as yourself to solve a 'how to' problem whenever it crops up. This applies to the universal law of "Give before you can receive".

3) Promote your product or other products with your affiliate links when you recommend solutions.

4) Create a sense of trust and bonding among fellow marketers in which real friendship can be establish over time (a sense of belonging).

5) Share and learn from others through a mutual exchange of experience.

6) Get a word-of-mouth recommendation to a proven product or service from people who have tried it instead of spending time to analyze various products on the Internet.

7) Give and receive encouragement and motivation to/from fellow marketers.

8) Participate in Joint Ventures to expand your business.

9) Give special offers (discounts, giveaways etc.) that are only available in the forum.

10) Give free products only to members of the forum.

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“Must Haves” for ANY Business – The 2005 List author:Scott Jason source_url:http://www.articlecity.com/articles/online_business/article_1733.shtml date_saved:2007-07-25 12:30:15 category:online_business article:

As a business consultant I get the opportunity meet hundreds of professionals in every imaginable business each year. And time and experience have taught me one thing – there are a few “Must Haves” for any modern business. My clients hire me to ensure their business does well so the first thing I do is provide them with a list of “must haves”. Here it is for 2005…

# 1 Computer and Information Security

Whether for small business, huge corporations or home-based start-ups, this is the place where the most damage can happen in the shortest amount of time. I can’t stress this enough but still most people don’t listen until it’s too late. This year I’ve made it easier than ever. Consider this… Imagine a computer security solution that addresses the root of the problem, costs under $10 and can be implemented in about an hour. Computer Security in the Workplace is a book that does just that. It was written by two IT pros from Harvard but with none of the techno-babble you might expect. It only takes about an hour to read and is becoming THE guide of choice by a lot of savvy companies. You can get it at www.ComputerSecurityBook.com. It goes quickly so don’t miss this one. I bought a copy for each of my clients as a holiday gift and the “thank you” messages continue to roll in each time a disaster is averted, which is more than you might imagine.

# 2 Proof of PR

If your name shows up in the media – intentionally or otherwise – you NEED to know about it. Knowing about this can give you the competitive edge to use fast-breaking positive media coverage for publicity (much better than paid advertising) or help you track who is printing your press releases. More than this however, I began recommending “media clipping” services to clients years ago as a way to make sure competitors are not taking liberties with company or trademarked names or, worse yet, running a slander campaign. There are a lot of services out there today. Many of my clients use www.CyberAlert.com or www.CustomScoop.com, which both offer free trials. If this is not right for you, try entering the term in question in quotes in Google.com and running an Internet search. The “quotes around term” will isolate that phrase and return only exact matches, greatly reducing your investigative efforts.

# 3 A Clear Plan

Times have changed. The “napkin plans” just don’t cut it anymore and neither do the overly complex ones created by executives who belong in a “Dilbert” comic strip. And by “plan” I mean ANY plan, be it a Business Plan, Marketing Plan, Financial Plan or even a Project Plan. If this final tip does not apply to you, count yourself among the lucky. If you feel like you could benefit from a better plan, whether it is to obtain a bank loan, investors or just for your own sanity, there are plenty of reasonably priced software products out there that can do a great job for you. Stop by your local office supply superstore or start online with www.PaloAlto.com or www.PlanMagic.com.

Good luck. I hope this list helps.

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10 Costly Search Engine Mistakes to Avoid author:Jeff Casmer source_url:http://www.articlecity.com/articles/online_business/article_3113.shtml date_saved:2007-07-25 12:30:15 category:online_business article:

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

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

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

1. Not using keywords effectively.

This is probably one of the most critical area of site design. Choose the right keywords and potential customers will find your site. Use the wrong ones and your site will see little, if any, traffic.

2. Repeating the same keywords.

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

3. Robbing pages from other websites.

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

4. Using keywords that are not related to your website.

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

5. Keyword stuffing.

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

6. Relying on hidden text.

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

7. Relying on tiny text.

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

8. Assuming all search engines are the same.

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

9. Using free web hosting.

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

10. Forgetting to check for missing web page elements.

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

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

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

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"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash"- Surprising Lessons for Work at Home Moms author:Carrie Lauth source_url:http://www.articlecity.com/articles/online_business/article_3616.shtml date_saved:2007-07-25 12:30:15 category:online_business article:

I've unearthed some surprising bits of wisdom for new

wahms by listening to Johnny Cash lately. I thought I

would share some of these tidbits from the Rockabilly legend.

1) Understand Your Man ...er, target market!

That's right. Do you understand your target market?

Are you aware of her needs, desires and driving ambitions?

Does your website speak to your target audience? If not,

perhaps you should make some changes or your website visitor

or customer will be "as gone as a wild goose in winter" too!

2) A Boy Named Sue

Life ain't easy for a boy named Sue...and life ain't easy for

a wahm either. In your business you will have those

confidence killers, dream stealers, fun suckers...whatever you

want to call them. You will have people who try to tell you that

you can't achieve your goals, that what you try won't work.

Don't let them get you down!

Sue's father told him, "This world is rough, and if you're

gonna make it, you've gotta be tough."

How can you get tough in your business?

3) Man In Black- or Branding 101

J.R. Cash didn't don the all black suit because he didn't have

anything else to wear. It was his trademark. He wore all black

for a reason.

What about you? Are you working on your brand?

In a world full of Elvis Presleys and Jerry Lee Lewises, how

will you stand apart? And remember, your target market doesn't

have to be just like you- Johnny Cash wrote Folsom Prison Blues

and connected with inmates when he had never yet step foot in jail!

4) The Legend of John Henry's Hammer

This song has two bits of wisdom:

a) Learn your business and you will succeed

John Henry's Daddy told him to: "Learn to a turn a jack, learn to lay a track,

learn to pick and shovel too." Are you learning all you can about Internet

Marketing so that you can succeed in your business? Do you reinvest in ebooks,

coaching and mentoring, and software like John Henry's hammer?

b) Technology has its place but it can't take the place of humans.

When the steam engine threatened to take the place of men, Johnny proved that

in the end, humans are more valuable.

Learn to use technology (like autoresponders) but remember that your website

visitor is a human and inject some of yourself into your marketing efforts.

5) One Piece at a Time

This ballad is about a man who decides to build a Cadillac. He steals one

piece at a time from the assembly line "and it didn't cost him a dime".

But in the end, it didn't work out exactly like he planned!

Does your website look like a pieced together jalopy?

Are you unwilling to spend any money on your own domain and hosting,

content with a free site cluttered up with ads?

6) In The Jailhouse Now

Please don't throw away your hard work by doing one of the

following things:

Spamming

Copying other people's articles or content

Stealing graphics

Clicking on your Adsense ads

Not keeping records and neglecting to pay taxes

It just isn't worth it, and you may find yourself in the jailhouse.

Much better to Walk the Line so you can sleep at night.

7) Ring of Fire

Maybe you've made a bad choice... entered into a shotgun romance

with a business that's not right for you. Don't be afraid to realize this,

chuck everything and start over! Don't beat your head against the wall if,

after working hard on a project, you decide it's just not profitable.

Better to find your match and pour your energies into that.

In this song, June Carter Cash chronicles her growing attraction to John.

Though they were both involved with other people, they were obviously soul mates

and ended up making music and growing old together for the next 40 years.

May you make beautiful music with your business!

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"Know Thy Enemy" and Then Thrash Them at Their Own Game author:Mal Keenan source_url:http://www.articlecity.com/articles/online_business/article_3015.shtml date_saved:2007-07-25 12:30:15 category:online_business article:

Much as I would love to say that your success solely depends on how you build your business, I cannot. You see, much like in real life, you will need to compete to attain success. In Internet marketing, you will have to compete against the greatest and most innovative competition anywhere online.

The fact that Internet Marketing is so competitive is the reason for the massive growth in niche marketing where the competition is less fierce. In such a competitive market and even in the smaller markets you need to adopt a particular strategy to make sure you stand a good chance of getting your message seen at all by interested prospects.

The trick? You must beat your competition at their own game, of course. And the only way to do that is to "know thy enemy".

There are a number of ways to do this and resources to make your job a lot easier. Time is the most valuable commodity you have and if there is a way to save time by investing a little cash then I suggest you do this.

Run a search of your more popular keywords in any search engine. The results will reveal the number of websites targeting your market. Each and everyone of them is your competition. The ones at the top 10 in the first page of the results should be your targets. Your goal is to topple them from their position.

And you WILL be able to accomplish this by first knowing what they’re doing right.

Try to visit their website and observe the way of how they do things. How are their keywords positioned? How are their pages designed? How is their content laid out? How is their information presented?

At the top of your browser click "view" then "source" this will show you the inner html workings of the page you are on. Have a look at the alt tags in the page, are they laden with keyword phrases?

What keywords are your competitors targeting in the meta tags?

One of the most important things you need to know about your competition is which, and how many websites are linking to them. I use Brad Callen's SEO Elite to find out this info( http://www.malkeenan.com/offers/seoelite.html ).

With this info in hand your task then would be to get the same linkbacks and more. It is unlikely that the top rankings in your determined keyword phrase are all linking to the same websites. So take the top 10, find out all their link partners and beat their link popularity by swapping links with a greater number.

Especially target those link partners with high Google ranking. The aforementioned tool will give you all the required info. Google rankings of 0 PR should be ignored.

The golden rule in beating your competition is by copying what works for them and improving on the same.

Retain what works and discard what doesn’t.

I hope you found this article helpful.

Copyright 2005 Mal Keenan

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Lucrative & Relaxed Living With Passive Profits author:Nicholas Drake source_url:http://www.articlecity.com/articles/online_business/article_2310.shtml date_saved:2007-07-25 12:30:15 category:online_business article:

Learn about the millions of savvy people quietly tapping away at home right now, building themselves millionaire lifestyles.

Of all the ways people have invented in which to make money, I can’t help thinking that those who can make money while sleeping or being on holiday takes some beating. In the pre-internet age, the lucky ones would have been famous film or pop stars, successful writers and inventors and some who were just born into super rich families. This group of people having made their films, sung their songs and written their books could afford to sit back and enjoy their repeat fees however they wished.

But what opportunities were there for the rest of us, not blessed with super good looks, angelic voices or effortless talents? The great majority had to go out to work, many with the added privilege of spending hours in traffic jams, on overcrowded trains and buses or struggling in all weathers. Many with boring jobs they hated, overbearing bosses they couldn’t stand and nothing to look forward to except the small respite at the weekend and perhaps a couple of weeks abroad each year if they were lucky. Okay, it’s not really as black and white as that as we know. Many of us have it better than that but I bet not one of you readers have not at some time thought, ‘What if?’

Well that ‘What if?’ arrived some years ago with the invention of the internet. The opportunity is right here, right now, for pretty much any sane person with a bit of get up and go and the vision to make it happen. It’s here, right now, in front of your eyes and you don’t even have to move an inch, you can just sit there, and let your fingers do the tapping!

Okay, we have all heard of the so called, ‘Internet Millionaires’ but what did they actually do? Well, many got on the band wagon early and set up their Dot Com travel sites, search engines and so forth but what do we know about travel, search engines or even so forths, (what is a so forth?) Well, not necessarily very much, but it doesn’t matter because there are literally millions of savvy people, quietly tapping away at home right now, building themselves millionaire lifestyles without owning travel sites, search engines and with not a so forth in sight!

How do they do it?

Well not like you might be thinking. Some may enjoy it but I would rather not have to spend my time stuck behind a computer screen all day, dealing with orders and getting bogged down in administration, sounds like work all over again. There are literally thousands of ways people make money on the internet; if you really want to build yourself a serious passive income so you can take the time to do what you really want, then the answer is don’t sell anything!

Now before you think I’m crazy I’ll explain. By far one of the easiest and simplest ways to make money is to simply promote something. All you have to do is point people at a website that is selling a good product, then let the owners of that website take over. They will deal with the payments, the stocking of the goods, the shipping, the queries etc. And of course, they are really happy to pay you handsomely for your part. Now the greatest part of all this is, although you have to be prepared to put in some time at the beginning, once you have done the work, the system takes over and no matter what you do, it’s there, quietly making money for you, all over the world, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Once the system has started up and the passive profits are rolling in, you can choose to just keep a weather eye on things now and again and whenever you feel like it, switch on and create a few more income streams to build an even bigger passive profit. You have got the same chance as those internet millionaires to start right now and make a Lucrative & Relaxed Living With Passive Profits.

How Can I Get Started?

Visit my website in the resource below for more information. Once you are there, I suggest you start at the top and follow your nose. It’s stacked with tons of free information and tips on everything you need to know get started in this incredible business. I’ll see you there!

Copyright 2005 Nicholas Drake

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