Instead of giving you advice on how to make a million bucks, and pretending to be famous and wealthy, I would like to talk about all the net-prenuers who aren’t making a living on the information superhighway.
Everytime you turn around, someone is trying to sell you the next sliced bread, or the answer to your prayers. Who’s buying these dreams? I’ll tell you who, people like me, people that still have a full-time job and are getting griped out by their spouses for spending to much time on the net when they get home! People who are hoping one day they can make a better life for themselves. But the sad truth is that most of the people who are buying these products never see any residual income at all. Meanwhile, the big dogs are getting richer and richer. No need to prove my point on this, just look at all the Wal-Mart stores in the United States.
But there is hope for struggling net warriors, in the form of Stone Evans! Yes, this guy is everywhere. It’s hard to do any type of home business search and not see his face. Stone has almost blasted through the stratosphere with his Plug-in Profit website, while helping net newbies develop some type of structure and business plan for lifetime residual income. Like thousands of other people, I to have a Plug-in Profit website that has been a breeze to setup. With only minor stumbles here and there, I have navigated my way through the site to it’s completion. If you can read the directions on a box of Hamburger Helper, you can start an online business with Stone’s website. (All your work is in the promotion.)
I hope to make some type of profit at the end of my first full month, while it will probably be trivial, it’s a start! Giving me and thousands of others enough inspiration to not give up on their dreams. From what I’ve experienced so far, It’s definitely worth the time and effort to promote one yourself. Go to homebiz365.com and sign up for your free newsletter, and see if Plug-in Profits is right for you.
The Top 10 Ways to Market Any Business to Thousands by Leading Teleclasses
As business owners, we all know that the key to fantastic sales is to let your customers have a personal experience of you. The difficulty, of course is that to give every customer that experience personally requires a tremendous time commitment of ourselves and our staff. So what do we do?
One solution is to leverage our time by doing the “wooing” once and then let that effort live on forever in a virtual format. It is about creating multiple products, programs, or streams of income from the core of our business that can sell and propagate without our direct intervention!
But how do we do that?
By using the up and coming medium of teleclasses!
By leading teleclasses (classes by telephone) you can leverage your classes in a way which will increase your productivity and the profitability of your business while becoming highly visible in your field or profession. You can become the expert in your field — the “go to” person! This article will provide you with ten ways to leverage your teleclasses for maximum visibility and for driving thousands of customers to your door.
If you would like to know more about what a telelcass is and how it can support your business, download this audio “What is a Teleclass?”:
blipstudios.com/bea/teleclass_audio/teleclass_streaming.rm
(1) Create audio recordings of your teleclasses.
Using a digital recording device such as the DM-1 Recorder by Olympus or a recording service such as Maklitel.com, you can capture your teleclasses on audio, which can be leveraged in multiple ways. This recording can be used as:
A free download on your website (people love added value and a way to get to know you when they visit your site)
A fee-based download (The going rate for a one hour download is approximately $19.00)
A recording transferred to a CD and used as a business card (people love to have great content to listen to as they drive or walk)
(2) Combine several teleclasses, including recordings and written content, and create an online digital library.
An online digital library is a wonderful way to allow people the opportunity to buy a lifetime, annual, or month to month membership to your teleclass programs. Many people are unable to attend the teleclasses due to time constraints, so an online library will allow people the ability to experience your teleclasses in a self-study format. I recommend that you develop 20 solid teleclasses, record each teleclass, and combine the recordings with written content converted to PDF form, before opening your library. From here you will want to continue adding new content to the library each month to keep people interested and jazzed enough about what you are offering that they re-subscribe from year to year or month to month.
(3) Turn your teleclasses into an article(s) for online and hard copy publications.
Teleclasses are a wonderful opportunity to build written content which you can share with your target audience in the form of an article or press release. By writing articles, you can take the content from your teleclasses and put it into a format which positions you as an expert in the media. This article you are reading is taken from a telelcass by the title of “Leveraging Your Teleclasses for Long-Term Sustainability”, and I am submitting this in multiple locations on the internet and to several hard copy magazines. The great thing about article writing is that your written word is then disseminated to thousands of people around the globe who are in the market for the products and services you are offering.
(4) Take the content from your teleclass, and develop a 7-10 week e-course.
Marketing studies show that it takes 7-10 touches with a client before he or she will buy from you. By writing a 7-10 week e-course (a weekly lesson delivered by e-mail) you can drop valuable tips which are related to your teleclasses into the inboxes of your target market. Make sure to include information on your upcoming teleclasses in your e-course, and create an active link in the course so that folks know how they can purchase a product or a program from you in the future.
(5) Develop and sell assessments based on the content from your teleclasses.
People LOVE assessments, because they provide valuable insight into their needs, wants, strengths and shortcomings. A well-designed assessment can give you an instant connection to your target market and can position you as an expert in the marketplace. I highly recommend Assessment Generator for a professional looking template that is user friendly and very attractive. To learn more, take the assessment Are You Ready to Lead Teleclasses by visiting this assessment: “Are You Born to Lead Teleclassses?” The link is here:
fivestarleader.com/AreYouBornToLeadTeleclasses.htm
(6) Use a teleclass as the basis of a workshop.
A well written teleclass can provide a great outline for a workshop, and with very little effort, you will have a live presentation you can market to your target audience. You can customize the teleclass to integrate the language and address the needs of your audience. The core of your teleclass will not change…just the way it is packaged and presented.
(7) Use your teleclasses as a basis for a radio or television interview.
Many radio and television talk show hosts are always on the lookout for guest experts for their shows who can provide them with valuable content for their listening audience. A great way to proceed is to transfer your teleclass to a CD and send this to as many radio and television talk show hosts as possible.
(8) Create a strategic alliance/fusion marketing alliance.
The strategic alliance is one of the most economically feasible and effective ways to reach your target audience and to make a big impact with your teleclasses. By forming a strategic alliance with businesses who are working with your target audience, you will be able to disseminate your teleclsses to a wider audience at a much lower cost. This approach will increase your visibility and will make you appear stronger to your market. An example might be:
You align yourself with a group of attorneys who provide legal services to your target market. You ask them to give your teleclass information to others, and in return, you send them business when a client needs legal services. It is that simple.
(9) Use your teleclasses to create a voice mail “Tip of the Day”.
Make the most of voice mail and answering machines by posting a message that says “WOW!” Take the information from your teleclasses, turn the content into quick tips, and add a “tip of the day” on your message tape. This approach can prove to be highly entertaining and educational to callers, as well as a credibility and rapport builder for you. Tie this message back into your teleclasses as a way to generate interest by announcing upcoming calls or offerings on your website.
(10) Combine your teleclasses with those of your clients, colleagues, and prospects.
Combined programs are usually much more robust and interesting than programs offered by a single individual. By collaborating with your clients, colleagues, and prospects, you have the opportunity to strengthen relationships with others and create something incredible that you can leverage later.
Do I Really Need To Write Articles For E-Zines?
When I was first advised to start writing articles, this was the first question I asked. As I was totally freaked out at the thought of me writing for others to read.
Many people subscribe to e-zines and the readers often trust the recommendation of their editors. By sending articles to e-zines you will get valued visitors to your web-site. For each article you get published by them, the traffic to your website is increased.
What is there to gain from publishing e-zine articles?
At the end of your article you can add a resource box. With this you can brand your web site, business and yourself. In it you could include your name, business name, web site address, e-mail address, anything really that brands your business.
Become a GURU! By publishing regularly you will become known as an expert on the topics you write about. This gives you an advantage that helps you compete by giving you and your business extra credibility.
Some articles are placed on a publisher’s home page. If each issue is placed on their home page you can gain extra exposure.
If your publisher archives their e-zine, in other words stores back copies. This again gives you greater exposure; it is good for the sceptics in that they can read previous articles before making the decision to subscribe.
Free advertising!! It costs you nothing to have that resource box displayed on each article you publish. You can then spend your profits on other forms of advertising.
You never know, your articles may well inspire others to hire you to write articles, e-books. What a great way to multiply your income.
By allowing e-zine publishers to publish your articles in their free e-books, your advertising could multiply all over the internet. Simply because people give them away. We all like something for free.
Using an e-zine publisher that has a free content directory on their web site gets your article published all over the web. They’ll allow their visitors to republish your article. Remember you will still have your resource box at the end of your article. That’s branding!!
You’ll gain people’s trust, particularly if you area regular publisher. Like most people if they like they’ll read it. They won’t be as hesitant to buy your product or service.
Now you can see the benefits, it’s time to write that article. In fact write one a month and submit it to e-zine directories. You’ll be glad you did.
Why You Should Market Your Website
One of the great advantages of advertising and marketing on the web is it’s cheaper than traditional print based promotions. No printing or photocopying fees. No postage costs.
And with email you can communicate to your prospect almost instantaneously.
So why bother with promoting your site offline?
The biggest reason is that most people are getting overwhelmed by the amount of email they receive, especially spam.
They may delete your message thinking it’s unsolicited email even though they have given you permission to contact them.
Also, the increasing use of anti-spam software to filter out unwanted mail is unfortunately targeting legitimate email as well.
I’ve been hearing a lot from other online publishers about the decreasing response to their email offers and how many of their customers and prospects aren’t getting their ezines anymore.
That’s why I suggest you supplement your online marketing with a bit offline promotion.
One of the cheapest forms of print advertising is postcards. (No, not the ones you send to Grandma while you’re on your Hawaiian vacation.)
The ones I’m referring to are blank. You feed them through your desktop printer as a full size sheet and then separate them along a perforated edge — usually there’s four postcards on one sheet.
First, you need to write the headline and body copy for the postcard.
You don’t have a lot of room for your message. So you need to be succinct.
Your headline should spell out a strong benefit of your product. Here’s a headline I use for my own postcards promoting the Information Marketing Boot Camp dc-infobiz.com
“FREE Report How To Set Up and Run Your Own Home-Based Publishing Business… and Never Create A Product, Write An Ad or Talk to Anyone”
In the body copy, I follow up with a quick explanation of info marketing and then list the great benefits that it offers. And then I list my web site address where they can get more info.
Remember, that a postcard is similar to a classified ad in that you can’t use it to directly sell your product. There simply isn’t enough room on a postcard to do a complete sales pitch.
You use it as the first step in a two-step selling process. The postcard is only for generating sales inquiries.
You then follow up by directing the prospect to your website where they can find the full details and benefits of your product.
Or you can ask the prospect to send you an email and then reply with your sales letter.
Once you’ve captured their email address, you can follow up multiple times.
You can format your postcard in a word processing program. I use Microsoft Word and its Envelopes and Labels command to set the file up to print correctly.
Here’s a tip that Ron LeGrand, author of the Information Marketing Boot Camp, passed on to me.
Go to your local post office and buy their pre-stamped postcards. You just run the sheets through your printer, separate, attach the address labels and mail!
And, best of all, you’ll only spend a handful of change per postcard.
Time Management And Organization For Online Marketers
TIME DEMON. For online marketers, time is one of their most important assets — time spent marketing and selling their products. But often, organizing information (i.e. ad copies, sales letters and contact addresses) and managing this information eat up much of online marketer’s time. Precious time that could have otherwise been spent selling products and earning money. LOSING MONEY. Every marketer’s primary goal is to make a sale and earn profits. And in order to successfully sell and promote products,marketers must perform other marketing activities (i.e. write promotional material, update customer databases and search for prospects). But minutes spent organizing marketing information and searching are minutes spent on profit loss. So organizing and managing time actually causes online marketers to lose money. KEEPING TRACK. One of the things marketers should do is keep track of all their marketing activities. Important data, such as ad copies, good articles, URLs, promotional ideas and more, should always be instantly accessible by marketers online. It is the time spent keeping track and organizing this info that keeps marketers from earning maximum profits online. The less time they have to keep track of all their marketing activities, the more time they can spend selling their products and earning profits. So, how can online marketers manage their time and organize information successfully? Here are some tips: SPECIAL FILE. Use a special file to store all promotional ideas. This file should be easily accessible every time it is needed. It is also a good idea to create and save an index of all ideas. This file should be located on your computer’s hard drive, easily accessible and constantly backed up. Create a shortcut of this file on your desktop to allow quick access every time. SAVING AD COPIES. Save all ad copies written and used in a special folder. Create a file within this folder containing the success rates of each ad copy. Again create a desktop shortcut. MAKING PLANS AND LISTING SUCCESS. Make monthly, weekly and daily plans of marketing activities, including how much time is intended to spend on each task. Then make a short-list of all activities that brought in the most profit, making sure that these are included and given more priority in your next plan. Make these plans accessible by providing a desktop shortcut of this file. MARKETING DIARY. Keep a daily diary of all marketing activities. This is a good way to store thoughts and insights on every marketing activity and can save time in the future on what marketing strategy works and what does not. Again, make this easily accessible with one click of the mouse. PASSWORD FILE. Keep all passwords and interesting URLs on file. ADDRESS BOOK. Use a special address book to keep contact information on all people who might be useful for future marketing activity. STORING DATES AND MEETINGS. Always write and save all important dates and meetings. A marketer must always project a professional image, and punctuality is a big part of that image. All of the above tips on time management and organization are based on the method that online marketers create separate files (in text) for each piece of information and store them in a folder (which can be labeled, "Marketing Notebook" on their hard drive). Although creating a marketing notebook on your hard drive already provides a level of organization, the "time management" aspect of using this method still does not save marketers time, especially when files becomes too numerous and information gets too hard to find. EVERY ONLINE MARKETER’S SIDEKICK. Enter an on-line marketing notebook…a software designed to be every online marketer’s virtual secretary and sidekick. Storing and organizing all information related to marketing activities will help squeeze every precious moment out of every marketer’s time online.A marketing notebook, such as the EasyNoter (InternetMusketeers.com/apps/EasyNoter?ezine_article), provides online marketers "centralized" information storage. A marketing notebook helps you organize all your time in an easy and efficient way; keeps track of all your marketing activities; stores important information and makes it easily accessible to you at a later date; and functions as a great marketing notebook. THE PERFECT SOLUTION. A marketing notebook is truly every online marketer’s perfect solution to solving the problem of time management and organization. The EasyNoter, one of today’s leading marketing notebooks, lets online marketers manage their time and organize information the way they want it while making all information easily accessible. This nifty tool gives back an online marketer’s most precious asset, enough time to concentrate on what they’re really out to do, market and earn profits!
Five of the Most Powerful Elements Anyone Can Use To Grow a Highly Responsive List
Lack of trust is the biggest problem marketers have on the internet, or better yet, the biggest opportunity.
The power in this lies in the fact that affiliate programs have given us easy access to a huge variety of products and services that we can present to potential buyers, opening up an endless number of possibilities.
And really, you’re not limited to affiliate products. Many businesses would be happy to compensate you for bringing them sales.
But too many people have no reason to believe that out of the multitude of marketing messages they see every day, yours is one they need to pay attention to. You have to provide them with something they’d have a hard time finding elsewhere.
Usually, the easiest, most effective, and most permanent way to first is to earn their trust – that something they’d have a hard time finding elsewhere.
Here’s the key thing you must remember…
Your readers can only benefit from you and you can only benefit from them to the extent that they can trust you!
These days, not many marketers handle this well. Not because they don’t know enough, or don’t have certain skills, it’s just that, their focus is in the wrong areas.
That’s where you come in. You can grab an early advantage, but marketers will always adapt. It’s part of the process. And when they do adapt, it won’t be as easy to stand out anymore.
Not only that, but the ones who don’t take advantage of this aren’t likely to survive. So the sooner you take advantage of this, the better.
Everyon(e) has the ability to earn trust, that is, if they’re worthy of it. By following these tips, you’ll put yourself in a position of influence with your subscribers… and that’s a powerful thing!
1) Keep your focus as narrow as it has to be for you to bring the most value. In other words, focus on those areas where you have something unique to contribute. What your readers will probably read elsewhere… let them read elsewhere.
2) Find ways to over deliver, exceeding people’s expectations. This creates the element of surprise. People will tend to remember this, and by association you. That means better recognition and more influence a recipe guaranteed to make sales.
3) Make your subscribers feel like they know you. By doing this, you make it much easier for them to trust you. It’s like adding a third dimension to your marketing. It helps to complete the picture. And no matter how many people you write to, always use a personal, one on one type of style. It should sound like you’re talking directly to them.
Let yourself show through in your marketing, including your opinions, insights, stories, humor, etc. and your intentions will show through, whatever they might be. If that’s a bad thing, then you’re reading the wrong article.
4) Don’t try to please everyon(e). This is the biggest mistake you can make. You’ll forfeit anything interesting or unique about your marketing if you do this. In other words, you lose your edge and your marketing becomes ineffective. Don’t worry about the subscribers that drop off. You’re better off connecting with a smaller group on a deeper level.
5) Through your actions, you have to demonstrate to your subscribers that you don’t sacrifice their best interests in the name of profit. Become their trusted advisor. Do what you can to steer them in a direction that’s right for them, as individuals. Educate them to be able to make better decisions on their own.
These are powerful elements, and yet most marketers make compromises or loose sight of them because they see them as a conflict of interest with other profit seeking motives. The problem is, these things will lose their power when any one of them has been compromised. And earning the trust of your subscribers is never a conflict of interest.
The benefits of a responsive list are tremendous. To start with, you’ll make more sales with more profit in each sale. Then, word-of-mouth marketing, always the most effective method, becomes easy, and even more effective. You also put yourself in a position to sell bigger ticket items. Translation – a lot more money from a lot less effort.
If you have a passion for or enjoy learning about the things that your market values, then developing the kinds of relationships you need to make these sales won’t seem like work at all.
All the while, you’ll be growing and becoming more influential.
All of these things will work together to build your influence at an exponential rate, and your incom(e) is sure to follow. Essentially, if you use your power wisely, you’ll continue to have more of it in the future.
And that’s for the long run, because these relationships will still be there no matter what might happen with your business in the future. In fact, these relationships really ARE your business.
Powerful Considerations Before Starting Your Own Business
What does it take to start your own business? To many, the thought of starting your own business may be too daunting that you give up before you even start. Let’s analyze what a typical start-up needs:
Start-up Capital
There is no secret that money talks the loudest of all. As a future entrepreneur, you may well know the fact that capital is perhaps the most essential part of setting up a business, both online and offline. Lack of start-up capital not only puts your business at a disadvantage, it also makes cash flow a serious issue. Over time, it also makes it difficult for you to expand your business.
The good side is that start-up capital in the form of small business loans are readily available at most commercial banks around your country. As long as you have a good credit rating, getting small loans should not be much of a problem. One important thing to remember here is to never borrow more than what you need to get started.
You loan amount need only cover for the basic necessities of business. Start your business small and control your finances daily, monitoring everything you spend on and trying to cut costs where ever possible. When your business cash flow starts working in your favor, you are ready to safely take out another business loan for expansion of business activities.
Business Experience
Most people are afraid to start their own business, simply because they have “no experience”. Therefore, they never get started at all, and never end up gaining that experience in the first place.
Most people are afraid to enter into a business venture because they fear failure due to lack of experience. It’s a Chicken-and-Egg story, or a Catch 22, or whatever else you can call it.
A Solid Business Plan
Any business is more likely to succeed if they have a definite plan of action to follow. Unfortunately, in reality most small business and home based businesses have no idea on developing a business plan that drives them to success. That is the reason why 70% of businesses fail within the first year. A solid plan needs to state exactly WHEN and HOW you will make money.
Before you get into business, make sure your business plan is laid out right to the very minor details. You need to know:
Your target market
The average cost of one product
Your profit margin on each product
Your expected break-even point
Cash flow projections
To develop a business plan, you can get very valuable resources from:
bplans.com
home-business-association.com/rd/bplans/.
A Mentor System
A mentor is someone who you admire, someone in your line of work or business that is already having the success you dream of, and can teach you exactly how to achieve the same success yourself when you start your own home business. In reality however, most people could care less about your business or you. We are all selfish by nature, and who would want to impart seasoned business skills to a competitor, who will be a threat to their business. This mentor will help you in a win-win way that is mutually beneficial. Almost all business books will tell you that in order to be really successful, you MUST associate with those you are already having success, and duplicate their actions.
Starting from Scratch Vs Ready Made Business Opportunities
All these factors need to be considered when starting your own business. The absence of any one aspect can mean trouble, either when starting up, or later on as your business develops.
Considering these factors, it is no surprise that many are turning towards business opportunities and systems such as network marketing. In these systems, all the above factors are taken care of, and you can start your own business without any worries.
These systems are especially attractive if you are broke and have no business experience. You are in fact buying a proven system, which with your effort, can be turned into a thriving business.
Here’s to your success. Cheers.
Who Wants To Live Forever? The Advantages Of The Product Life Cycle Concept
Business is often associated with the dryer side of dullness, and many of us frequently refer with some distaste to “getting round to the business side of things”. But over the years some very useful methods and techniques have emerged from the “other-side”, many of which can be beneficial to all of us. After all, while we may consider much of what we do as a labour of love, we are nonetheless trying to make some money out of the whole thing as well! A good place to start is with the concept of the product life cycle.
Like most things, the sales (and demand) for your software conform to some sort of pattern. The advantages of the product life cycle concept is that it provides a basic structure that allows you to see where you are, and what lies ahead. There are four components to the cycle; introduction, growth, maturity and decline.
Introduce Your Product To The Market
The first component is fairly self-explanatory; when a new product is introduced, market gain tends to be very slight, and it is almost impossible to spot any kind of emerging patterns in demand. Depending on how you launch the software, marketing costs may be high, and it is unlikely that there are any profits as such. After the creation and subsequent release of your software, this often boils down to gritting your teeth and waiting. If this stage doesn’t lead into the next, then it may be time to jump ship.
The growth stage exhibits a rapid increase in both sales and profits, and this is the time to try and increase your product’s market share. By now you should be seeing where your demand is coming from, and which of your efforts are worth spending time and energy on. With a little bit of luck, you might even have knocked some of the competition out of the way too!
The growth stage is closely followed by the maturity stage, often seen as the “most common” stage for all products. Competition becomes more fierce and marketing becomes the key to your software’s success. During this time, any attempt to increase your market share will probably be expensive; growth at this stage is more likely to be down to external factors beyond your control.
Decline Doesn’t Equal Death
The final stage in the life cycle is the decline. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s time to abandon your product altogether, but rather that the introduction of new strategies might be in order. These could include new versions, new distribution methods, price reductions, in short anything that will inject a little life into the cycle.
Each of the four stages have their own characteristics, and each are open to different strategies being implemented. However, for many this stage will prove to be the critical one; many wait until this period before acting, and it is the only stage where some sort of action is critical. Two situations are frequently confused with a declining product.
Theoretically the product life-cycle is a smooth and elegant curve; in reality there are constant short-term fluctuations due to external factors. A common mistake is to assume that any reduction in sales signals the onset of the decline phase. This may at first appear to be decline, but in fact is part of the growth stage.
Remember The External Factors
The advantages of the product life cycle concept speak for themselves. Once you’ve applied this model to your software, there are an unlimited number of options and strategies that may be implemented, according to the specifics of your software and its’ current stage in the life cycle. For example, you may wish to considering product life cycle acceleration strategies, or at the very least recognise where you are, and what lies ahead. Before responding to any of the stage characteristics, don’t forget to consider the external factors, particularly in response to the decline phase. My own favourite for analysing external factors is the PEST analysis; Political, Economic, Social and Technological – between them they pretty well cover the whole lot. Take all of this information into account before jumping to any conclusions.
As with all business ideas and theories, keep an open mind, be honest with yourself, and never rule out any option before thoroughly chewing it over. Professionalism and management techniques are not the sole prerogative of the big-boys; we can do far worse than picking-up a few of their better habits. The shareware industry is seen as amateur and unprofessional by far too many people; don’t start believing it yourself. Be seen, be sold.
Good Domain Names Make Your Dreams Memorable
“What was the name of that website? It was good. It has something to do with…”
Is your web site like many others?
Domain names always on the tip of a visitor’s tongue, but not quite memorable enough?
Your choice of domain name needs to be easy to remember, as well as focused enough that your visitor will know right away what your site is about.
A Few Rules
Some rules do apply when deciding on a domain name:
Domain names must be at least two characters long but no more than 63 characters, not counting the TLD.
You can use any combination of letters, numbers, or hyphens, but you can’t use a hyphen as the first or last character.
Domain names are not case-sensitive, so my-home-based-business-advisor.com is the same as My-Home-Based-Business-Advisor.com.
Choosing A Domain Name
Choosing good domain names is almost as important as choosing your actual business (see our Startup Ideas page).
There are many different schools of thought when it comes to picking good domain names.
Some say to choose a short, concise name.
Some like numbers in the name, some don’t.
Hyphens and underscores — as opposed to words all running together — are another debated topic. It’s mostly a matter of easier reading for your human visitors. Which do you find easier to read?
myhomebasedbusinessadvisor
my_home_based_business_advisor
my-home-based-business-advisor
Generally, the hyphens between words make domain names easier to read for most people.
While search engines don’t rank domain names, a keyword-rich name will let your visitors know what your web site is about before they get there. This makes them more comfortable because they know what they’re getting in advance.
Also, when you get other sites to link to yours, that link is usually based on your domain name. This means that your main keyphrase (which you used as your domain name) will be the actual anchor text and search engines do give additional ranking for that.
Domain names play a major role in making your dream memorable to the world.
Take the time to do it right and your dream of a home-based business will be seen all over the world!
For a more detailed explanation of domain names and domain registration, and more great advice for your home-based business, please visit My Home-Based Business Advisor.
Affiliate Programs Make Your Dream Profitable
Marketing affiliate programs is one of the most profitable ways of making money on the Internet!
It’s exciting, challenging, and very, very rewarding.
What Is An Affiliate?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, affiliate means to associate as a member. So, as an affiliate, you associate yourself with the company who’s product you want to sell.
What Are Affiliate Programs?
Affiliate programs, also known as associate programs, are set up by companies so that you — the affiliate — can sell their product and receive a commission for each sale.
Many companies have more than one product available, giving you a variety to offer your visitors and a greater chance of making money.
What Makes A Good Affiliate Program?
The most important thing to look at is the product offered. You need to be enthusiastic about it so that you can recommend it honestly. That’s why it’s a good idea to actually use it, if possible.
At the very least, you want to make sure that the product delivers good value to your customers so they will be happy when they buy it and will then rely on your recommendations for other products.
Important Features
Some points to look for:
How quickly do they respond to E-mail inquiries?
Do they have an affiliate agreement on their site that you can read before signing up? A few companies don’t let you see this agreement until after you’ve signed up, requiring you to cancel your account if you don’t agree with the terms.
Do they pay on time?
Do they have good tracking and stats? This means real-time tracking, which lets you know immediately which of your promotions are working so you can concentrate on those that make you more money.
What To Watch Out For
Be careful of affiliate programs
With reports of late — or no — payments
With slow or poor support
With no anti-spamming policy
That allow spam or even send spam themselves
These are all signs of an affiliate program that isn’t looked after properly.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “So, how do I find affiliate programs and how do I market them?”
Very good questions.
Our answer?
For a more detailed explanation of affiliate programs, and more great advice for your home-based business, please visit My Home-Based Business Advisor.
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