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7 simple steps to Keyword Mastery & Search Engine Ranking

2008-11-04T22:19:00.001-08:00

Keyword Research has become an integral part of starting up your own business or growing your business (exponentially). Search engine marketing is here to stay for the long term, hence finding customers through keyword research should also be an integral part of your marketing.

Earlier, all you needed to do was to enter the description of your business in the title & meta tags and you were done with optimizing your web-site. Things have changed! And hence this article...

How does Search Engine Optimization (SEO) relate to keywords?

SEO is the process of increasing the number of visitors to your web-page by the careful and deliberate use of targeted keywords and their specific placements designed to get the page to show up on the top listing for such keywords. (SEO also includes other strategies not discussed here.)

TIP: Keyword Research is very useful to you when you decide to start a pay-per-click campaign to drive visitors to your website or increase revenue using adsense.

Here are the seven simple steps to keyword mastery that will cause your page to be indexed correctly by Search Engines and your link to be displayed at the very top on the search results page.

Step 1) Start with the most common words you use to describe your business(or your niche, if you operate in one). If you are in the automobile service business, you may have the following: Car Repair , Body Shop, Car Repair, New tires with car repair, Wax and Shine etc. If you actually have a niche business such as Jaguar Service And Repairs, then it becomes even more easier.

Step 2) Call your friend. Ask him how he would try to find your widget on a search engine if he lost your phone number and he wanted to look you up on the Internet. What if he forgot the name of your establishment? What if ....

Your perception of how people see you may be different from your customers' perception of you. Add these new words to the list.

Repeat this as many times as you can with different people.

Step 3) Find other words related to your original list. such as names of the brands. Lexus Repair, Lexus spare-parts, Honda kit, etc.

Mix and match keywords with your original list to find even more keywords.

Step 4) Go to google and run a search for your widget. See what keywords bring up your competition and what words do not. Add them to your list .

Step 5) Add plurals and common mis-spellings too.

Step 6) Figure out as to how often people search using each of the phrases you have identified in your list. You can use the google adwords tool for this purpose.

TIP: Use adwords tool to see how many people have searched for each of your phrases in the recent past. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal . This also suggest keywords you might want to use.

Step 7) Make sure your keywords are placed in the following locations on you web page: Page Title, Meta Keywords, Meta Description, Header Tags, Alternate Description for images, First Paragraph on the page, strong Tags, Em tags, Ordered and unordered lists, Anchor Tags, File names, Folder Names, Footer Tags, Any URLs and links in your pages.

Should I use many keywords in the same page?

Yes. Use as many keywords as it makes sense. Don't overdo it. If your content becomes just a keyword trash-bin, users will start skipping over it and the search engines will catch on pretty fast. So avoid using too many keywords where it does not make sense. It's best if you have multiple pages offering up different keywords.

One caveat. You need to be aware of 'Keyword density'. Sometimes, if your usage of keywords is too high, and it looks like you have placed too many keywords, the search engine may not give you the best ranking. "Sprinkling" is the key-word when it comes to using them on each page.

You should also be aware of negative keywords. These are keywords you need to use in your PPC(Pay-per-Click) text so as to make sure that people do not click your link expecting to get freebies.

e.g. If you said : "Self Clearning Widgets- $500 and up", you keep out the people who are looking for cheaper stuff.

Are phrases better than individual words?

Depends! If your customer is searching for self-cleaning widget, then you should use self-cleaning widget. If your customer is searching for just widget, and auto clean, you should use these words separately.

How often do I have to check my keywords?

As often as you can. Your customers react to various influences around them and search for different terms at different times. To be able to remain on top with a good ranking you need to keep on top of your keywords. Sometimes they react to an offer made by a competition and start searching for similar offers.

I know. You are saying:"But I don't have that much time to devote to just keyword research." That brings us to the next question.

Do I have to do it all by myself?

I have had many websites in the past few years. In the beginning I did everything manually the old fashioned way.

Lately I've found a few tools that help make life easier for me, though you could do it all by yourselves if you had the time and the tenacity(which I sorely lack). I suggest you find yourselves a tool to do the work for you.

I use Keyword Elite now, though I've used WordTracker in the past.

Pick 1: Keyword Elite tool : If you really plan to take your business to the next level, this is a great tool. From generating your own keyword lists, to analyzing pay-per-click listings, to studying your competition, this one accomplishes quite a bit. This tool works with Google, Yahoo,MSN, Ask etc. It will save you tons of hours of wasted time and effort. Also, I like the fact that it is multi-threaded(lots of more power.)

WebSite: http://www.elitekeyword.net

Pick 2 : WordTracker: Offers a free, 'lite' version, as well as a paid version. Features include an online management system for different keyword projects, searching for often misspelled words, a system to calculate your best keywords, and much more. WebSite:Wordtracker.com/FreeWordtracker

Pick 3 : WebCEO :From a free version to a $389/- version this company has various options available. For small business owners, the $199/- version would be suitable.Go for the $389/- version if you have multiple web-sites running and your business model is solely online. Web Site: http://www.webceo.com/cgi-bin/go/clickthru.cgi?id=linkflow

What next ?

Use keyword research to identify the most likely phrases for your business.

Master keyword research just like I outlined in this article and create a massive list of targeted keywords.

Make a list of the 5 most promising keyword phrases.

Head over to your favorite domain listing / hosting company (eg. http://www.GoDaddy.com) and see if you can buy that phrase in the .com domain.eg. Self-cleaning-Widgets.com

Point your existing website to this url. If you don't have an existing web-site, create your new website using all the keywords you identified.

Submit your site to the search engines.

Happy hunting!

Copyright (c) 2008 Dave James

How Do I Start An Internet Business And Maintain My Full Time Job?

2008-11-04T22:11:00.000-08:00

Many individuals ask themselves - is it really possible to run an online home business part-time and still continue their full time office job. The answer to this question is Yes. Many people wonder, How would they make the time? It's just too much to do all at once, How could someone manage all of this? All of these questions and comments are involved in juggling an outside job and an online home business, but the main to keep in mind is that it is possible – but are you capable? These are three important things that you would want to keep at the top of your head if you to be successful.

What really matters is you must have the desire and drive to have an online home business. If it is your wish to maintain your current day job and at the same time start an online home-based business you have to be really focused on being able to do so. If you do not want it bad enough and don't have the necessary drive you would be setting yourself up for failure. If you think you are ready to make a commitment to do both jobs and are prepared to do whatever it takes to maintain them both,then are defiantly moving in the correct direction.

What this means simply is that you must use all the available time you have from your full time job and use it to your online home business, this might mean cutting back on normal everyday recreational activities like going to dinners, the movies and other similar activities. Holidays as well as weekends can be used working on your online home-based business. As long as you are prepared to use all your free time on your online home business it would be possible for you to do both. It all comes down to you possessing the drive and desire to do what it takes to get what you want.

Nowadays there is never enough time; everybodys' daily routine is all about juggling, stretching and rushing what ever free time they have. This is the same when it comes to juggling a home-based business and you regular job you, have to be prepared to make the time. After investing the time and effort to find the best home business to start, you would not want to fail by poor time management.

Patience, Time and Drive all go hand in hand when working an online home-based business and a regular outside job, you must be efficient and manage your time wisely. Keep very focused on your plans and goals. Don't lose track and have patients because being successful does not happen easily and not everyone you meet will have understanding or patients. You can have a full-time job and run a successful online home business as long as you are prepared to make the effort and do what has to be done. If you would like to know more on this topic check out the link below for "Dotcomology" the art of making money with your home business.

by: Anderson Josiah

Are You Ready For a Successful Online Business?

2008-11-04T22:09:00.000-08:00

Starting an online business doesn't have to be a challenge, especially when you're equipped with the right knowledge, tools, and business planning strategy. Choosing a niche market is the first step towards building your online empire, but there are many other important factors to consider before getting started. Are you ready for a successful online business? Here are some key items to consider so you are prepared with the right information before jumping in:

Mapping Out Your Small Business Ideas

When you're considering different types of small business ideas, mapping out each one individually can help you decide which ones will be most profitable-and which ideas just won't work for the long-term. Mapping out your small business ideas can help you outline the benefits and challenges of each, and help you make a better decision.

Your Small Business Startup Marketing Plan

Your marketing plan will consist of the different ways you plan to promote and build your network. This includes both clients and customers, and is an important step for a small business both online and offline. If your internet business ideas can't be promoted properly, you'll miss out on the right opportunity. Designing a valuable small business startup marketing plan is an essential step towards success. Whether you choose to launch a retail site, a newsletter, or even a blog, consider a variety of approaches so that your online business startup can be a success.

Number of Employees for Your Online Business

Is your online business going to be a solo venture, or will you be hiring employees? An online business that is maintained with just one or a few employees is easier to start and manage; you can plan out everything step by step, and slowly build your business until you feel you're ready to start paying a salary or wage to others. One of the biggest benefits of a small business startup is the ability to control and manage operations from the get-go; if you enjoy working independently and are interested in building your own small business, consider waiting until a later date to bring on a team of employees.

Designing Your Online Business Website With Success

If you're not web-savvy enough to build or design your own website, you'll need to hire a professional web designer to manage the project. Make sure you choose something that will attract customers and make it easy for people to find your products. You want customers to be able to get a hold of you easily, so it's a good idea to include an e-mail address or phone number for contact. Whether it's an online retail business or just a service, a great presentation can help you make the sale.

Building Credibility Online

Your online business will need to build credibility to attract customers, clients, and subscribers. You can do this by marketing and promoting your website using a variety of tools already on the web. From article distribution to press releases, you'll need a strategy to build credibility so your online business can take off easily. There are many money making ideas on the web today, but only a few survive because of effective marketing and promotions. Use a variety of strategies to start building credibility online, and you'll start seeing profits sooner than you think.

Being prepared for online business success is an important step. From marketing to hiring, get your online business off to a strong start with any or all of these key factors in mind.

by: Clinton Douglas IV

SEO Campaigns And What Not To Do

2008-11-04T22:05:00.000-08:00

Given the ratio of the internet, and given the fact that so many people in the business world use it to further their goals and ambitions, it is shocking how so many people still have issues with using the internet appropriately. Search engine optimization is one powerful tool that many people use when they are looking to increase the level of relevant traffic to their website, but remember, that like any tool, its efficiency depends on the employer. Take a look at a few of the reasons why so many SEO campaigns falter and fall, and often are unable to rise again.

Bad keywords are one of the first culprits. Look at the text on your website and really think about whether it reflects your company. Will the people who are searching for your services know to use those terms? Bad keywords can work in two different directions. Firstly the keywords are too specific. They are only understood by other professionals in your field, and someone who isn't aware of the ins and outs of your business would never think to search for them. Over-generalization is similarly a concern. With keywords that are too generic, you will simply bring irrelevant people to your site who have no actual interest in what you have to offer.

SEO also means that you have to take into account the format of your page. Are things placed in a logical way that will draw people? Have you made sure that your page has enough content to draw people to it? Part of good page optimization is ensuring that your website has a good place when it comes to link building. The more people who link to you without you offering a reciprocal link, the better your rating goes. Link building is one aspect that the Google search engine uses to push you towards the top of your search page, so make sure that you don't ignore it when you are thinking about optimization and content.

Some companies who try to avoid these mistakes contract with SEO consultants, but even there they might find that they are working with someone who uses illegitimate means to bulk up your numbers. Some warning signs include multiple names, the ownership of shadow domains and a guarantee of rankings through obscure keyword phrases that you would have gotten anyway. Beware of companies that give you a strange feeling or refuse to explain how your website would be getting the hits. Although there are many of them, the concepts relating to SEO are fairly straightforward, so if you catch someone being secretive, make sure you find out why.

When you are looking to conduct an SEO campaign, unless you are a specialist in the field yourself, you should consider consulting with a professional. A professional who cares about his or her work and is dedicated to making your site a success can easily save you from the blunders that could cost you in time, resources and money which is important to any business.

by: Derek Roger

All You Need To Know About Pay Per Click Advertising

2008-11-04T22:02:00.000-08:00

What is Pay Per Click Advertising?

It is just as it sounds. You place an advertisement, usually text or graphic, and you pay each time someone clicks that advertisement. Sounds simple enough right? Though simple, it is a very powerful form of advertising that in many cases makes more sense than other methods of advertisement. How does Pay Per Click Advertising work and why is it the best choice for your business? That is a good question, let's have a look.

Targeted Audience

With Pay Per Click advertising, also known as PPC, you have the ability to target your unique audience. Sure, you have other methods of advertisement that may target a portion of your customer base, but with PPC, you have a more defined method of targeting. You target your specific customer base with solid keywords. These keywords are crucial to your advertisement. If you operate a chocolate business, you might use keywords such as chocolate, chocolate candy, candy, gourmet chocolate, and the list could actually continue to grow.

However, what makes PPC so useful is that it incorporates these keywords to make it work for you. Your pay per click advertising will not show up until a user searches for your keyword terms. The next way that PPC works best for businesses is that it works well within your budget.

Costs and Budgets

The great thing about pay per click advertising is that it is designed to work within any budget. With many sites that promote PPC advertising, you have the ability to define just how much you are willing to pay. However, it is important to note that you will likely be in competition with other businesses, depending on your keyword. The more you pay per click the higher you will be on the search engine results; this is of course dependent upon your competitors and what they bid to pay as well.

As your pay per click campaign goes along, you will have the ability to monitor your campaign. If at any time you feel that your specific campaign is not working as well for your business as you had hoped, you can change it, add another, or delete the campaign as you see fit.

What makes pay per click advertising so appealing is that you are only charged when someone clicks on your advertisement, hence the name pay per click. With other advertising methods, you are charged when your advertisement is displayed or rotated. With PPC, you pay only when a potential customer clicks on the advertisement to visit your website. This is a great cost efficient method of advertisement.

Just Works Better

Pay per click advertising just works better because you know, if you have chosen the right keywords, that when someone clicks on your ad to visit your site, that they are doing so because they are truly interested in what you have to offer via their search terms. This means that each and every person that clicks on your advertisement is a targeted potential customer, which means more likelihood for a sale or membership.

by: Derek Rogers

What Makes People Believe On Your MLM Business?

2008-11-04T22:01:00.001-08:00

The simple truth about the network marketing business opportunity is that people don't join your business, they join you and a positive aspect of a network marketing business opportunity is that it is a long term endeavor and many ordinary people can financial freedom by putting in sincere and hard work. For many people, having home business network marketing is their only realistic hope of making an extraordinary income.

Internet

Internet home business network marketing is one of several home business plans you can have. Internet work at home network marketing is a powerful business tool to use to generate more money for your home business. And one reason why so many people of all ages are interested in network marketing is the “Internet”. Thanks to the Internet now it is possible to build a worldwide business of your own in a very short period of time with a very simple secret to success in Internet based network marketing which is a simple duplicable system that anyone can follow. The Internet now enables network marketers to build national and international businesses from the comfort of their home. Most internet businesses that people become involved in these days are actually home based Internet businesses that require a strong network marketing component for success.

Trust

You need to build a degree of trust with your prospect in fact, it's not the products or the business opportunity which will ultimately attract them into your business but believe it or not, it will be you. So, build trust and watch the cash roll in. People will usually open up to you a little more, and thus starts a relationship built on trust. The more people see your name, they more they will grow to trust you and listen to what you have to say. It can be really daunting and scary for people new to the world of online MLM, and sometimes the only person they trust is you. It's not that there is a lack of leads or a lack of opportunity seekers out there; it's the fact that there are now so many so-called lead generation companies and even individuals marketing to the industry that it's almost impossible to know who to trust and who has the best leads with the best price with the highest quality. Honestly, I do not trust any business plan that offers to pay income without you doing any work.

Conclusion

The next step in your quest to find a great network marketing business opportunity is the products the company offers coupled with the compensation / marketing plan. The best ways to learn a network marketing business opportunity are to do the business, and build up your own trustworthiness. For more information about Network Marketing, make sure you follow the link in the recourse box below now.
by: Tsuyoshi Suzuki

Network Marketing Success Is Not Difficult

2008-11-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for network marketing success, I would like to tell you that success in network marketing is not magic: there are no secrets. The MLM Presentation system is key to Success in Network Marketing. To achieve success in network marketing, it is helpful to know the characteristics of successful people.

Leadership in Network Marketing is boldly taking on the responsibilities and commitments of creating an empowering environment and a path to success that people willingly follow. That is The Secret to Network Marketing, as it is all about creating a success in your group, with people who want their life to burn with Success, not mediocrity. With so many people online boosting about their success with a particular network marketing opportunity, it should be obvious that your joining the wrong programs and doing nothing to create your own destiny.

There are many people who spend their time talking and just dreaming about Network Marketing Business Success; but never making the effort to do anything about it. Many people have phone-phobia and I am amazed that they can talk to anyone on the phone about most anything, but when it comes to this network marketing, they freeze up and many cannot do it. So many folks in Network Marketing will have the same year they had last year, and the year before, because they have not set any goals that will focus and inspire them to greater success in their Network Marketing business.

You MUST get off to a fast start in Network Marketing, because this will be the start of creating a habit of quick actions and focus. When I was starting, my team got off to a blazing fast start and a blazing fast crash, because we lost sight of our Ultimate Objective in Network Marketing. Your FOCUS on what to EXPECT is a HUGE part of your success in network marketing and your focus always seems to be what you end up with in this industry.

We all know people in this industry who are sought after and respected and almost without fail it is because of their unshakable commitment to success, to their people, and to Network Marketing. Many people in Home Based Businesses and Network Marketing operate their enterprises today with little or no Power of Success in them. There can be many reasons for giving up on MLM, but we have found that there are basically three major reasons that people never reach Success in their career.

You will hear that many times and it is a sign that new beginnings are at hand, and many people are looking at doing better in 2007, and enlarging their MLM business and paycheck in Network Marketing. You want to find the people that are motivated for your business, and talk to them.

It could be considered a 'Combination" to the Lock of Success in Network Marketing. It's What Rules the Journey of outrageous and radical MLM and Network Marketing. Leadership -- true, pure, unbridled leadership -- the most powerful force in Network Marketing success.

You can do whatever you make your mind up to do in Network Marketing -- as long as it is powered by the heart. Empower yourself with skill to make affiliate marketing or MLM network marketing work for you.

by: Tsuyoshi Suzuki

How Does Internet Marketing Work?

2008-11-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Internet marketing is a component of electronic commerce. Internet marketing is by far the fastest growing advertising method for all companies in this day and age. Internet marketing is about people knowing each others interests, values and preferences. Internet marketing is becoming one of the highest return-on-the-investment strategies these days.
Engine
For the most effective Internet marketing, you'll want to make sure your site is listed in the following search engines and directories:DMOZ. What I can't emphasize enough is that you take the time to find the right search engine submission category, and if your business is regional or local, make sure you submit there instead of the main areas. Also be sure to read the search engine submission guidelines carefully. If after a few months you find that your site is still not listed in the search engines, go through the search engine submission process again. Effective Internet marketing Effective Internet marketing starts with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and is comprised of optimizing the content, specific keywords, and over all design of your web site in order to ensure that your site attains maximum exposure to search engines. Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other major search engines use search engine software known as robots. Once a site is submitted to the search engine, the robots, also often known as search engine crawlers or search engine spiders, analyze the content of a site as well as other search engine criteria such as the accuracy of the website coding (ie: clean coding) to establish content relevance and overall website relevance.

Site

Internet marketing does not simply mean 'building a website' or 'promoting a website'. Somewhere behind that website is a real organization with real goals. Internet marketing strategy includes all aspects of online advertising products, services, and websites, including search engine marketing, public relations, social media, market research, email marketing, and direct sales. These include e-commerce, where you sell goods directly to consumers or businesses; publishing, where you sell advertising; and lead-based sites, where an organization generates value by getting sales leads from their site. At one time, Internet marketing consisted mostly of having a Web site or placing banner ads on other Web sites. Since most home-based businesses don't have a physical location, a Web site provides an inexpensive means for prospects to get to know what you do or what you sell and can even be a "storefront" for selling goods and services directly.

Conclusion

Internet marketing is any legal activity intended to bring traffic from a search portal to another Website. Internet marketing is becoming one of the highest return-on-the-investment strategies these days. The decision to use Internet marketing as part of a company's overall marketing strategy is strictly up to the company of course, but as a rule, Internet marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of nearly every company's marketing mix. That's why Internet marketing is all about networking and communication.
by: Tsuyoshi Suzuki

Internet Marketing And A Future Financial Focus

2008-11-04T21:55:00.000-08:00

One of the prime motivations for Internet marketing is that you don’t want to be in the same place you are right now - in 12 months.

In every business the predominant idea is to set goals that help you conduct business smarter, learn lessons faster and bring more business to your site.

The problem is many entrepreneurs tend to stay focused on their bottom line and to product fulfillment issues. By doing so they may indeed find themselves in the same place 12 months from now. They may also find their business has declined in total sales revenue.

How is that possible?

This is an interesting question especially when, from all appearances, the business owner IS paying attention to their business and that the sales are brisk. It can also seem baffling when it appears that the business owner is busier than they have ever been.

The problem may be that some of the details of business should be delegated to other employees, especially if the business is of significant size.

The sad truth is some business owners are spending too much time in the mailroom and not enough time in long-term strategic planning. Online business grows as new ideas are developed and implemented.

It is not unlike an architect spending all his or her time developing the entryway of a new luxury hotel while failing to draw up plans for the rest of the building. It looks nice from the outside, but the inside is in disarray.

What this means, in the broadest terms, is that you need to pay attention to all aspects of your online business. If you don’t feel adequate to manage certain aspects of the business then find someone who can. When you neglect certain aspects of your business you will almost always run the risk of a loss of long-term business. You will also be subjected to feast or famine cycles where you may have more work than you can handle for a period of time and not enough work for an equal or greater length of time.

It’s a given that you find your business to be an important part of your life. You have invested a lot in the success of your business and that investment is too great to simply allow glaring marketing omissions to go unchallenged.

Sometimes business owners adopt an out of sight - out of mind mentality. They avoid those things that are not on their immediate radar. They push back all those things that are not fires to attend only the tyranny of the urgent.

Internet marketing is one of the very first things to be cast from view for many businesses. The reason this is true is because the role of marketing seems to have little intrinsic value for those online shops that are currently doing a brisk business. It appears to be a sign that they did everything right and can move on to the role of bean counter.

Learn the art of balancing your business interests and include marketing as a prime component for achieving future goals.

by: Scott Lindsay

The Quickest Way To Learn French

2008-11-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

Did you realise that it is now easier than ever to learn French fast and for free? Yes that right for free! I have some great ideas that won't cost you a dime. These quick yet effective methods are proven to get great results in less than two weeks. Read on to learn more...

The first thing you need to do is to visit your local library. If you're not a member, then all you have to do is join - don't worry it's free. First start buy checking out all the book they carry on French learning and French Tuition. Guess what, not only will they have shed loads but they are all free to lend. Don't stop there. Move onto the audio section. Yeah that's, right libraries don't just carry books these days. Get yourself some French audio courses – again these are usually free, if not it'll only cost about two bucks to rent for the whole week. We're still not finished – now move on to the DVD section and look for some French DVD tuition. Look at just how much French tuition there is on offer – and the best part is, it's all free.

If you were shocked by how much free stuff they've got at the library then your gonna be amazed by how much free stuff you are going to find online. Lets start simple – you're going to need to use a search engine. You can use Goolge, Yahoo or whatever you prefer. Now start looking for some French websites, it doesn't matter what ones, just as long as the text is written in French. The next thing I want you to do is to try and read it. “What on earth?” I hear you shout. Calm down – just give it a try. You won't understand very much in the beginning, but the more you do it the more you'll understand.

Make sure you check out what's going in your local community. Get down to your local, book store, coffee house, college or library and check out some of the notice boards. I bet you'll find either a French group or some French evening courses. These groups and courses are usually free or very inexpensive to join. What a great way to meet new people! You'll actually be able to have real life French conversations with real people.

Take a trip to the movies. No, this isn't an excuse to check out the current Hollywood blockbuster – you've gotta watch a French film. Don't worry, they all have subtitles, so you'll be able to understand what's going on. Not only will you be entertained, but you'll also be improving your vocabulary and pronunciation. Its a win win situation. If they're aren't any films showing at your local cinema, then visit a video store and rent some – this is a even cheaper option.

Did you ever imagine that learning French fast and for free could be so much fun? I hope my suggestions have made you realise that learning can take place outside of the classroom.

Learn French Guide

2008-11-04T21:51:00.001-08:00

Learning French is now easier and more accessible then ever. I have put together a list of the top four ways to learn French. Hopefully this will help you choose best possible French tuition option for you.

Learning a new language doesn't have to take hours each day. You'll find that most modern language courses understand how busy people are, so they create courses that require less than 20 minutes study time each day. I am sure you could spare 20 minutes a day out of your bust schedule to gain a new valuable skill. These short daily sessions help you retain more information and are a great way to keep you motivated.

Have you ever thought about using your time more effectively? I am sure there are times during you day that you could fit in some extra French tuition. What about during your commute to work? Maybe even during your lunch break? Think about it? Could you squeeze in some extra French tuition into these times? Most modern courses can be purchased in CDs or MP3s formats. All you would need to do is upload the tracks onto your Ipod and take it to work! The last thing any of us want to do when you come home from work – is work some more. If you use your time more wisely you won't have to.

Have you ever though about teaching yourself to learn French for free? I know it sounds crazy, but it's easy if you know how. The best way to start is to simply use your ears. Get on-line and listen to some French internet radio stations. The more you listen the more you'll realise the similarities between English and French. Before you know it you'll start to understand some of the things they are saying – you'll be amazed how quickly this will happen. Another great tip is to rent some French movies from your local library. All foreign movies now have English subtitles so it's understand what's being said.

If you want to learn French very quickly then you may want to think about one 2 one French tuition. This can be quite expensive, but you will be able to speak and understand French in no time at all. If you are serious about learning another language, and are prepared to pay for it then this is definitely the way to go. A great less expensive alternative is to attend an evening class. You won't receive the same amount of individual attention, but expect to see some pretty impressive results in a relatively short amount of time.

Hopefully my top four ideas on French tuition have enlightened you, and help you get a step closer to learning French.

by: Jane Morgan

Learn To Speak French Free

2008-11-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

Do you know that you can now learn to speak French free online? All you have to do is know where to look. I have put a list of the four best places to start looking. If you follow my simple ideas you could start learning French for free online - today!

Do you ever come across French words and have no way of finding out their accurate English translation? If so, the Google language tool may just the thing that you've been looking for. It so simple to use and best of all it's absolutely free! Go to the Google search engine and type – “google language tool”. Click on the link and you will be taken to the translation page. Type in the word, choose the language (in this case it will be French), then choose the language you want it translated into (this will be English), hit enter and you'll have instant translation. Remember this can work the other way too.

There are hundreds if not thousands of online companies that will try and sell you all kinds of online French courses. Because there is so much competition, these sites will often offer freebies as incentives. Some will even offer free trails of their products with no obligation to buy. Why not take advantage of this? All you would need to do is sample a handful of these courses and you'll have enough French tuition to last you the next couple of months. When you eventually run out, all you would need to do is sign up for some more free courses. It's so simple and you'll never have to spend a dime!

I am sure you have heard about the new craze of streaming video sights such as youtube.com and Google video. You can literally find clips on any subject you search for. Have you ever thought about searching for French tuition? Give it a try. You'll be amazed at how many free video clips there are available. You don't have to stop there, you could even check out some current French TV and music Videos – the possibilities are endless.

There are numerous websites such as the UK site bbc.co.uk that simply offer free tuition. All you have to do is know where to look for these sites. Fortunately, there are search engines that can do all the hard work for you. All you need to do is type “learn to speak French free online” and hit enter. This search will instantly return one and a half million sites for you to choose from (depending on your internet connection). You don't have to look at all of them out (that would take forever), just check out a handful from the first page and you will bound to find some great information - free of charge.

Most people underestimate the amount of free information that is available to them via the internet. I hope my handy hints have helped you realise just how easy it can be to learn to speak French free online.

by: Jane Morgan

Invest In Yourself – Your Career, Future Income Stream, Education And Training

2008-11-04T21:42:00.000-08:00

The advice often given to young couples starting off in life is “Not to buy what you cannot afford”. The same basic advice should be heeded by many. If you cannot afford it- then do not buy the item. But what of investing in your own future in terms of an investment in your personal education or training as well as investments in your own personal career. Is this not getting ahead in life? Is this not money well spent? Even if you have to borrow and go into debt is this not money well spent?

If at the end of the day , year or decade you will be much further ahead in position , salary as well as benefits in addition to “job” and “personal” satisfaction is this not money, time and effort well spent and allocated. ? Indeed it is and can well be.

In the case of your education a dollar borrowed now will result in better jobs- that you will most likely find more challenging and enjoyable , and have a lot more financial reward than a job on the status scale – say as a bus driver or a technician doing oil jobs at your local Wal-Mart. In the case of a vehicle or car loan it may be a godsend. If your vehicle is not reliable – then how can you show up on time, keep your job without an image and reputation of reliability? Not only do you want to keep your employment and income associated with the job but also the job references from your employment superiors for use with other employers for better positions and pay, or for promotion within your present organization. You may even run into a case of promotion within your present firm to another branch office or plant. Not having reliable transport may limit your promotion offerings and flexibility. In addition, if you take out a loan to purchase that vehicle, you may well have upscaled and upgraded your car or SUV, from the models that you most likely would have purchased. By doing so, and driving a higher grade auto model, you may well appear as a more established, senior, more experienced and established employee as well as individual. Fortunately or unfortunately in life most comes down to appearances and perceptions.

There may be a much better and / or better paying job but its way across town, or in an area not served by the bus transit system. Or it may be the case that there is bus service - but if devours a good two to three hours a day of travel time. Good bye to your personal social life. You may have all the money in the world – the wealth of Bill Gates Himself and yet no time or energy to enjoy it. So much for all that pay of that new wonderful job.

A real step foreword as they say. It is always a case of reward versus cost or cost versus benefit. It is a case by case analysis.

In addition you should think of additional or add on costs. Do not stretch yourself too thin – financially. A course at university may not be offered in your calendar year – you will have to complete your schooling fully at a later date than expected. A course may be full – ditto for time delay. Or you may even have to repeat a course or change plans along the way necessitating longer time duration of studies. Leave a buffer of funding both for yourself and as well with the agency that provided the loan – be at bank, savings and loan, credit union or even parents or relatives. Don’t break the bank so to speak at the first step. The same analysis of benefit versus costs prevails in the car / transport / job scenario situation. Many people will drive across town for a bargain to save a dollar and spend $ 10 on gas costs in the process. Incorporate the price of gas into your final net salary not as an aside.

Lastly and most importantly – always pay your bills. Never take on more than you can chew, or in this case afford. Before making that commitment for a loan or undertaking always evaluate carefully before signing on the bottom line. It’s not only a matter of convenience. Your credibility itself is on the line, in addition to your personal honor and integrity and reputation. Pay your bills on time – even earlier than required. This applies to all loans – whether they are for rent, mortgage, utility bills, bank loans, charge card payments or student loans. If you cannot pay in full, then at least pay a bit above the minimum payment. If you are really stuck then contact the lender. Explain the situation honestly. Make a commitment and follow through. Remember the whole point of the exercise was your self improvement – an investment in yourself. To not take the exercise seriously is to shortchange yourself and your future opportunities as well as income stream in the future. To borrow for yourself and personal gain make prudent sense.

by: Maxwell Z. Rubin

How To Generate Emergency Money NOW!

2008-11-04T21:37:00.000-08:00

Over the past 11 1/2 years, I've created dozens of information products, and sold hundreds of affiliate products. I've discovered what does and what doesn't work in quickly creating AND marketing information products.

I've also shared with dozens of clients, and thousands of subscribers, my very successful methods for earning a living online. When I say shared, I'm referring to those who were willing to listen and apply what I taught them. Those who listened, but didn't do, aren't counted in that number because to me "sharing" is a two-way communication.

Today, I'd like to share with you exactly what I've instructed dozens of people to do when they've came to me with cash-flow emergencies. These were people who usually came to me looking for a loan or a hand-out. Instead, I usually had them do what I'm about to share with you.

I've learned over the year that giving handouts too quickly only conditions the person to come back a few weeks later for another handout. I believe that it's important to teach them a proven method for extricating themselves from such situations.

Here's the exact plan that I've directed many people to follow:

1) Look around you, and identify two large, related problems that you could create two information product as solutions to. These need to be painful enough problems that people are acutely aware of, that they desperately want to solve , and that they'll pay for good solutions to.

You generally want related problems because the plan calls for selling both solutions to the SAME people. You're going to sell the first solution through affiliates, giving them the majority of the money, and then you're going to keep at least half of the money on the second (backend) product.

You're going to set up you sales process so that you "lead" with one product and then offer the second product as an upsell, or special offer after the first purchase is made.

The reason that you're going to pay your affiliates so much is that you need them NOW. Without their enthusiastic promotion of your products, this plan often CAN'T work very quickly.

The most CRITICAL part of this whole plan is step 1, and the most CRITICL part of step 1 is making sure that you identify a real problem that people actually want to solve. Otherwise, you end up creating products that no one will buy.

When I look at why products fail, the number one reason (in my opinion) is that demand wasn't verified beforehand).

Teaching you how to do the research is beyond the scope of this short article, but it only needs to take an hour or two. It IS too important to skip. An excellent guide to conducting painless research is Steve Wagenheim's "Niche Research Revolution."

If you need help with the research, it's at: http://TheRealSecrets.com/SteveWagenheim/

2) Create the solution (product), or better yet, modify and improve on an existing solution.

If you are good at researching, or already an expert on a topic, then by all means write an ebook on it, or create a piece of software that solves a big problem. At the same time, in many niches you are surrounded by thousands of experts who have already done the majority of the work for you. They've already created the product and will often sell (or even GIVE) you the rights to it. Then all you need to do is refine and improve on these product that you have "Private Label Rights" to.

Just go to any search engine, and do a search on your keywords plus the term "private label right" or "PLR," and you'll locate dozens of sources. Alternatively, just visit my blog, and you'll often discover dozens of people giving away private label rights for various reasons. That blog is at: http://WillieCrawford.com/blog/

Simply sit down and refine those PLR products (where someone has already done 90% of the work) into something truly valuable.

3) Get a few people to critique your product, offering you feedback that both allows you to improve your solution and that perhaps you can use as testimonials. After your product is created, simply post on a discussion forum (after confirming that it's permissible) that you are looking for product reviewers. You'll get dozens of volunteers.

If you don't get dozens of volunteers, I would take that as an indication that you haven't really found a painful enough problem... at least not one that that particular community cares about.

Do one product all the way through until it's ready to launch and then do the other one. For many people, doing them simultaneously is too confusing.

4) Set these products up for sale with their own affiliate program. Use a system such as Rapid Action Profits that allows you to pay instant commissions. The instant commissions are "key" because instant cashflow is as important to many of your potential affiliates as it is to you. You'll recruit lot of affiliates who are promoting your products almost on impulse.

That's great!

You want people who will promote your product today rather than a week or two from now.

I recommend Rapid Action Profits as the affiliate program platform because it's inexpensive, easy to set up, and you can use it on as many different websites (with as many different products as you want) after purchasing the software just once. I use it on over a dozen websites. You can get RAP here: http://TheRealSecrets.com/RapidActionProfits/

Rapid Action Profits is designed to work with Paypal, meaning that you don't need a merchant account, and that anyone with a Paypal account can become one of your affiliates.

5) Recruit affiliates by posting to forums that have a "joint ventures" section. Post to communities set up to facilitate your recruiting affiliates such as JV Alert and The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers.

Announce to your email list that you are looking for affiliates.

Private Message (PM) or email ideal affiliates that you've noticed promoting similar products, and ask them directly to promote yours. Be very clear in these communications or you're likely to get declined or to not get firm commitments to promote your products.

6) Turn customers into affiliates. Email customers who have purchased your previous products thanking them, and pointing out your new product(s). Explain why it's a match for them and rather than focusing on making a sale, make your focus recruiting them as an affiliate (if appropriate).

Set up your autoresponder system so that any time anyone purchases your product they are automatically invited to become an affiliate. Consider adding a blurb right on your download page that invites them to join your affiliate program.

Your best potential affiliate ARE those who know and like your product, so it makes perfect sense to recruit customers as affiliates.

7) Use article marketing to generate interest and find customers. Write a 500 - 1000 word article that:

a) Describes the problem that your product solves.

b) Explains why this really IS a problem that they DO want to resolve.

c) Proves why your product is the perfect solution.

Submit these articles to every appropriate article directory that you can locate as well as post them on your blogs, your sites, and on discussion forums that have article sections. If you can afford it, use an article submission service such as ISnare.com or ThePhantomWriters.com. This will save you considerable time and quickly get your articles in 100 times as many places.

8) Leave "the land of excuses" and just do it! Make the decision that you're going to implement this plan, and then instead of looking for reasons why you can't implement it, look at the very real reasons why you MUST implement this plan.

Acknowledge that the key to the success of your plan is taking massive, immediate action, and refusing to EVER give up.

9) Update, test and track your sales process. As your articles, affiliates, and emails drive traffic through your site, evaluate how well your sales letters are converting. The ability to split-test, and determine the exact conversion rates for your sales letters is built right into Rapid Action Profits. Test four or five different versions of the sales letter changing only minor things on each one, such as the main headline or the number of testimonials.

When you discover one sales letter that works better than others, keep the one that is working, but then create a slightly different version of the winner to test against your new "control."

10) Rinse and repeat. Once the sales start coming in, and you see that this formula does indeed work, use the same system to roll out other products. You are now building an army of active, happy affiliates. Offer them other, equally-lucrative products to promote.

Don't allow the momentum to stop once you get it going - that's incredibly wasteful.

11) IMPORTANT: Slow down enough to act rationally rather than in desperation. I put this step at the bottom because I want it at the top of your mind as you get started.

As you implement this simple, proven plan, make sure that you take a deep breath and don't act out of desperation. People who feel like that "HAVE" to get results today, often make very bad decisions. Slow down enough to make sure that you're actually doing each of the preceding 10 steps, and in particular make sure that you really confirmed that what you're offering the market is something that they want.

I've watched dozens of people use this exact method when they suddenly found themselves needing to make a house payment, pay a medical bill, or catch up with mortgage payments... and their bank balance was "less than zero."

This system does work. If you really examine it, there's nothing magical or mysterious about it. It's just common sense, and taking massive action. Now it's time for you to apply both :-)

by: Willie Crawford

5 Essential Ingredients of a Successful Online Work at Home Business

2008-11-04T21:35:00.000-08:00

The internet changes daily as far as what works and what doesn't when it comes to making money online.

If you are new to work at home online businesses, your head can spin with all the hype, sales pitches , and outright lies as far as the reality of starting up an online home based business.

There are however a few things to look for in your search for a work at home business that can become some nice additional income, or even better, your "job". Working at home, generating $1000 a day is far from what I call a "job".

To help ease your frustration, and point you in the right direction for what you should be looking for in today's online marketplace, the following summarizes the 5 essential ingredients in a winning work at home online business opportunity.

Later in this brief overview, I will offer a "secret" to online success that is rarely mentioned in the many articles written on the subject.

1. SYSTEM- This may be the most crucial item to your success. You need a System that generates prospects, educates them on your business opportunity, sorts and weeds out those that are not interested in your offer, then closes the sale at a conversion rate that ensures profitability. The System must be as automated as possible so you aren't spending hours cold calling or following up with people that are probably not interested, then trying to use your sales closing skills to make a sale.

Think of the successful off line businesses such as McDonalds, Tim Hortons or Subway. Do you think they could duplicate those businesses all over the country, setting up new franchise owners to run these businesses, without a SYSTEM that works?

2. BIG Profits- This is important as the advertising needed to result in sales can be quite costly. For some $1000 price point business programs, it isn't unusual to spend $200, $400 or even $600 to make that $1000 sale. Of course, there are ways to also spend $0 in advertising, but the reality is advertising is often on the range where to make $1, you may need to spend $0.40. Your profit is still $0.60. Would you do that over and over if you had a automated system in place to make this happen? Big Profits allows enough profit so your advertising cost is well covered by your selling price. You can't do much advertising to make a profit on selling a $20 ebook for example.

3. Hot Products- Yes, the product must be tangible and have use and value. There are many new business opportunities that offer $75,000 or more worth of downloadable products that sell for $1000. That's pretty HOT, and full of value. Having a product that can be downloaded, means NO shipping. Now that is just way too easy.

4. Leads and Traffic- This is probably the most perplexing for most new work at home business owners. An online business will never make any money without a source of leads (prospects). The key to providing leads to an online business is they need to be targeted.

This means you need to advertise to a niche market of people looking for exactly what your offers. Seems so simple a concept, but so may people struggle in building their prospect list.

5. Support and Training- as with any business start up, you need to learn your work at home online business program.Make sure that your business program has ample training and resources so you know exactly what to do to get those prospects to your System. This is not always easy to figure out when doing your due diligence on an offer.

As a suggestion, make sure you ask for examples of where and how you will advertise. Also ask where will you get the wording for the ads,who will write the ad copy and the followup messages, what the conversion rates are for your system. If your sponsor can't provide good answers, then they may not be that successful themselves.

This is just a brief overview of what today's online business programs need to cut through the many offers out there and make your business stand out to others.

Earlier I mentioned I'd offer a "secret" to successful online work at home business programs that is rarely mentioned in the various sales pitches. The true secret just might be you.

Most people do not realize they are starting up a real business. There will be ups and downs, profitability may not come overnight, or you may expect riches in the first few days.

I am sure some people have had such success, but most starting out, very likely start with leads, no prior list of prospects, and a small advertising budget. You then need to make good decisions to leverage your sales to grow your business.

The best way to accomplish an online business start up is with the very best automated SYSTEM. Then you can spend most of your time on advertising and growing your prospect list- leaving the rest to the system to close sales which will deliver you paying customers. Then you can train your new customers to do what you know how to do!

For more information on automated systems, please take a look at our main business review website. To your success!

http://www.businessreviews4you.com

by: stan tomaszewski

Secret Search Engine Optimization Strategies: How to Turn Keywords into Conversions

2008-11-04T21:31:00.000-08:00

Are you focusing your search engine optimization efforts on getting tons of traffic from the search engines?

If you answered yes, then I am about to tell you something completely different from other Internet Marketers.

Forget about getting tons of traffic from the search engines. Get LESS traffic that converts MORE!

The Secret to Turning Keywords into Conversions is to Keep Your Keywords Focused

For example, if your site sells an all-natural remedy for acid stomach problems...

You start to do your keyword research and you discover that the keyword phrase "natural remedies" has 288 daily searches. But it has over 2,000,000 sites competing for it.

While the phrase, "acid reflux natural remedies" has 67 daily searches with just over 11,000 competing sites.

Do you want to spend all your time and effort trying to optimize your website for the first keyword phrase?

You may get more searches, but you'll never know how many of those searchers want to buy your stomach acid remedy. Not to mention the HUGE number of competitors the keyword has!

Or would you go for the second term, which only has 67 people searching for it -- knowing those 67 people are looking for EXACTLY what you offer? And, it has a MUCH lower competition number to boot!

Obviously, the second term is better!

Sure, you might get less traffic -- but the visitors you DO get will be MUCH more likely to buy your product.

Why You Will Make More Money with Less Traffic That Converts More

People search the Internet to find a solution to a problem and not necessarily to buy something. So what problems will they solve by coming to your website?

Think of a keyword as a "problem statement" that someone would type into the search engines.

When you can match your keywords to the exact problems they're trying to solve. You'll attract the BEST visitors to your site so you can focus all your optimization efforts on them!

Here are some more keyword research tips that will help you turn keywords into conversions…

Top Search Engine Optimization Tips for Finding Highly Focused Keywords That Will Bring the Absolute Best Buyers to Your Website:

Check your server logs. See what keyword phrases people are actually using to find your site. If there's something relevant that you've overlooked, build a page focused on that keyword phrase.

Also look for keywords that are causing people to leave right away because they're not finding what they're looking for. Ditch those keywords immediately.

Look for "intention." Say you sell cross-country ski equipment. People can come to your website looking for different things.

For instance:
They're looking to buy a specific product
They're looking for product reviews
They want information on how to get started in cross-country skiing
They want used or discount equipment
They want to know what kind of equipment will be best for them
They want to know what's new and hot in cross-country ski equipment

Same products -- far different intentions!

If you optimize a page (or pages) for each different problem people are trying to solve, you'll give them what they're looking for…

That means they'll stay on your site longer -- and you'll have a better chance of getting them into the sales process.

Check out your competition. What keywords are your competitors optimizing for, and on what pages?

You can spy on them by going to their websites and looking at their code!

In your web browser, just go to View on the main menu and click on Source or Page Source to "look under the hood" of any competitor's site. Then you can see what they're doing right and what you could do better.

Find your best keywords with pay-per-click advertising. This is the fastest way to find out just how well different keywords perform.

Pay-per-click lets you run ads based on two or three different keywords at the same time. This enables you can track which ones convert best. Make sure the ads click through to pages that relate directly to the keywords.

Focus your SEO efforts on the specific keywords that describe EXACTLY what problem each page solves. Don't be tempted by more general keywords with higher traffic numbers. They'll never send you the traffic you want.

Follow these search engine optimization tips and you will turn keywords into conversions.

Keywords: how to make money online, how to start internet business, ways to make money online, internet marketing course, online marketing course, internet marketing training course, web marketing course, how to start an internet business, e business strategy, online small business course.

by: Derek Gehl

Top 3 SEO Tips of 2008

2008-11-04T21:22:00.000-08:00

Since 1998 I've spent the first several months of each year looking for the very best search engine optimization (SEO) tips of the previous year's end. This year I've come across the best SEO tips yet.

SEO Tip #1: Make Google Alerts Your Personal Online Spy

Google Alerts is a great way to let the world's biggest search engine be your personal online spy. This takes search engine optimization insider info to whole new level. Here's an excerpt straight from Google....

"Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

* monitoring a developing news story
* keeping current on a competitor or industry
* getting the latest on a celebrity or event
* keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams"

As you probably guessed, it's the second one we care about most, "keeping current on a competitor or industry."

Here's how it works... Each time Google finds a reference to the query or topic you request you will be sent an email with the details. This is like having an online spy to make sure competitors are not using your protected keywords (trademarked names, company names, etc.) It's also an instant identifier to know when your site or product is mentioned in a news story or even when a topic is hot so you can take advantage of the situation. It's the easiest way in the world to stop competitors' dirty tricks and identify trends that you can take instant advantage of.

It's fast, free and works every minute of every day. Let Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) do your most time consuming legwork while you reap the rewards!

SEO Tip #2: Optimize Your 404 Page and Always Be Found

"Error 404: Page Not Found" is a blessing that most Webmasters curse. Why? Getting a visitor on any page of your site is fantastic! Don't blow the opportunity. Not only can you make your "404" page a valuable sales tool, you can use the following search engine optimization techniques to attract customers in droves.

Use your main keyword in your title, add a "pipe" (usually above the Enter key) and then use your secondary keyword. Here's as example for an SEO site "SEO - Search Engine Optimization Tips"
Add some keyword rich content using one to two keywords for the page. If you have less than 250 words on the page, just use one keyword and use it no more than three times total. Bold the first use and italicize the second or third use. Keep in mind this is an "inactive" page so simply tell the visitor what your site is about and whet their appetite with a good description. Something like this works well... "Thank you for visiting SEO (bold) Group, Inc. We are sorry you landed on a missing page but don't worry, if you're looking for the very best search engine optimizations tips (bold), you're at the right place..." This will go on for a couple paragraphs or as long as you'd like then end it with something to the effect of "Please Click Here (link) to visit our site map or click any link to the left."
Add your site's standard navigation system (bar, column, etc.) as mentioned above.
Make the look and feel of the customized 404 page match your main site as closely as possible with a template, matched palette, cascading style sheets, etc.
Create a link to the site map page if available, and make the link easy to find. You want your visitor off the 404 page and into your main content as quickly as possible.

SEO Tip #3: Get (Even More) Serious About Linking

I saved the most important for last. If you want to do well on any search engine, especially Google, linking is THE single MOST important thing you can do. It's that simple.

Here are the five things you MUST do to make your site #1 on Google:

Find the highest page rank sites linking to your site AND your competitors' sites.
Run monthly link campaigns and snatch up the best of the above identified Web sites.
Run regular checks on what pages are still linking back to your site. Alsomake sure they did not move you from a high page rank page to a lower one (don't get cheated!)
Eliminate any penalized sites you link to; ASAP!
Check your search engine ranking AND your competitor's for each of your keywords every week. Do this, at the minimum, for Google, Yahoo, MSN and Alta Vista.

Inside Tip: Keeping up can be a lot of work so a lot of SEO Consultants (myself included) use SEO Elite (http://www.SEOeliteWeb.com) to do all the most difficult and time consuming work.

One last thing to know is that Google was originally a college student's project created for the sole purpose of defining a Web site's value by the sites that link to it. Twelve years later this is still it's main job. Linking is EVERYTHING to Google.

These few SEO tips are the very best of the best so use them wisely. Best of luck!

by: Scott Jason

The Tips for Making Money Online-The Last Part

2008-10-31T06:29:00.000-07:00

Make money online is my primary job. To make money as an affiliate is the second opportunity that we wanted to highlight. The definition of the affiliate is the person who acts as a referrer to products or services of a company/business and receives commission on every successful sale. This simplified list of opportunities to make money online is a great help to many. Much of learning how to make money online is dependent on your ability to access critical information about advertising techniques, finding the right products to market, and learning how to build a huge opt-in mail list.

Focused

Here you search make money online business, you are entering into a make money online business and the more involved they are in the marketing process, the more likely they are to remain focused on promoting your company’s products and services.

Affiliate

Affiliate Marketing allows you to make money online by hosting an ads or contents designed to drive traffic to another site (the advertiser). . Affiliates can also be referred as publishers. Affiliates are online "word of mouth" referrals and can increase the amount of money you make online. Affiliate marketing is a big and profitable industry that covers a wide spectrum of topics and fields and it has been known to be cost-efficient, assessable method of conveying long-term results. It is also a great way to start in making money online. Affiliate programs can drive targeted traffic to your website. The articles have links to an affiliate or partnership websites which allow making money online from the affiliate activities. The easiest and fastest way to start an internet business and make money online is with these programs. The Amazon Associates is the excellent example program if you are an entrepreneur. If you want to participate in the affiliate program to make money online but have financial problems, nevertheless, there are many costless approaches allowing you to earn commissions and to make money online.

Conclusion

Make money online surveys is focused on order, meal and book which contains all of the free online paid survey make money fast at home because make money online business is the same as make money online business or again heat and label or toy sometime have as a result of make money online business sometime information and label. Anybody that promises you an easy, effortless way to make money online is not telling the truth. So today, the most common way used these days to make money online is affiliate marketing. And one of the easiest and simplest ways to make money online is to go into affiliate or online network marketing programs or build up your own one. And for you to remember, the key to make money online is knowing how and where to start. For more information about make money online, make sure you follow the link in the recourse box below now.

by Tsuyoshi Suzuki

The Tips for Making Money Online - Part 2

2008-10-31T06:27:00.000-07:00

Remember: The biggest reason most people don't make money online is that they never get started. A crucial step to make money online is driving targeted and qualified paying traffic to your website. The lesser the competition for the specific keyword, the higher the chance of your site to get to the top of the search engines and the chance to make money online is significantly increased. Another way to make money online is to become involved with email marketing or search engine marketing. With today's technologies, all you need to make money online is an 'interest', like a hobby, a skill, a passion, or a just general topic that you have interest or expertise in.

Traffic / Keyword

Your need to have good traffic to make money online an in order to do that, you need to know which keywords to use as the best. Once you have them, you also need to know if those keywords are working for you, or if you will need to tweak them to get better results. So, keywords are a great topic to understand. You need to become a member of famous Directory like Google and Yahoo. Using service of Google called Adsense, you have to add your ads, details or article related to keywords in the content of your site for example “Make Money Online”. Then you search on Google for "Make Money Online" search term and see how many websites are competing on the keywords. For every click thru, you will make some pennies depending on the keywords. Some keywords might give you higher rank than the others. Your site's ranking on the search engines will depend on how optimized it is with the keywords you choose and the number of competition it has. Good keywords are the key to any good internet business marketing campaign as can be seen below. The better the keywords chosen the more money you will make online.

Search Engine

Yahoo and Google are the top two sites where most of the web searches come from. Yahoo's directory, the Google Directory, and the Open Directory Project (dmoz) are web directories -- essentially subject indices. Search engine traffic is the one referred by search engine result page (SERP) like Google or Yahoo. Experts estimate that Google account for 45% of the searches while Yahoo gets 30%. Google, Yahoo and MSN are the top search engines to date. Another way to make money online is to utilize an auction website such as Ebay or Yahoo Auctions to sell unwanted merchandise that you own to others using the internet as a tool to do so. But it is only possible, if your website or blog is optimized for your visitors who are looking for quality information and for the search engines. I recommend advertising mainly with the larger, more reputable search engines to get the best traffic to your website.

Conclusion

Search Engine is ideal for websites with thousands of web pages. As I said in the part 1 already that, in many ways, starting a make money online business is no different to starting an off line one but online is a lot easier than you think. Ways to make money online is the same as addition and bandage a search clamp and again heave without nook, knock. The key to make money online is knowing how and where to start. Today I know that the challenge for anyone trying to make money online is figuring out what opportunity can make a difference for him. Although generating online traffic is an important goal of any website, attention should always be directed to the very first and most important issue in website marketing: targeting online customers. In summary, I believe that to make money online is not that hard.

by Tsuyoshi Suzuki

The Tips for Making Money Online - Part 1

2008-10-31T06:25:00.000-07:00

In many ways, starting a make money online business is no different to starting an off line one. A make money online business is a lot easier than you think. This article has information on make money online business to make extra money online. One of the best ways to make money online is by simply selling information. The first concept you have to understand to make money online is this; your product has to be placed in front of people who are looking for it, making survey, linking service to your website and more (see part 2). The final free method to make money online is to use reward schemes such as paid surveys. And the thing you have to understand about being able to make money online is that you have to work at it.

Surveys

Surveys can help you earn an income from home. Here you search make money online business or minus or poster or darkness in make money doing online surveys is focused on make money taking online surveys. While Paid Surveys will not make you rich, it is a good way to generate cash flow especially if you are starting with nothing or have little or no technical skills. You can find others just by doing an Internet search for paid surveys. Try to find one that will be the most reliable and easiest when it comes to making money. You can surely make money or get high-ticket items when you join survey sites and take part in the surveys they send you. All survey sites are not fraud as conducting surveys is a legitimate economic activity. And last but not the least, keep in mind that you may not get rich with surveys but you can expect to see good money with them if you understand how surveys work and take precautions not to get scammed.

Links

Links to sites to boost your education and increase your profits. Another option is to write a few free E-courses that people can subscribe to via an auto responder and weave the links into your article. Now, the really important thing is to not just have the ads running on your site, but make sure that you have referrer links and banners to each of your advertisers, as the above four all pay you when you successfully refer a new publisher or advertiser. The articles have links to an affiliate or partnership websites which allow making money online from the affiliate activities.

Conclusion

Make money online are lots easier than make a living out there. Make money online surveys is focused on order, meal and book which contains all of the free online paid survey make money fast at home because make money online business is the same as make money online business or again heat and label or toy sometime have as a result of make money online business sometime information and label. Anybody that promises you an easy, effortless way to make money online is not telling the truth. The easiest and fastest way to start an internet business and make money online is with affiliate programs. One of the best ways to make money online is to focus your energy for a month or two and establish a membership website for your chosen market.

( by Tsuyoshi Suzuki)

Starting An Internet Business In As Little As Within Hours With These 9 Proven Secrets

2008-10-31T06:20:00.000-07:00

With the right guidance, an Internet business can start generating income almost immediately. A home internet business can be very successful for people who have the dedication, skills and patience to await agradual increase in business and income. There are several ways how an internet business can be started. However, no matter which internet business is being initiated, it won't make an impact at first.

The start up costs for an internet home business are next to nothing compared to the offline world of business start ups. In fact it is a lot more simple to start and grow a business on the internet. Of course you need some knowledge to begin your internet home business enterprise. But you don't need a "Bacc" to do business on the web.

All you need is some computer knowledge and some internet marketing basis and a good dose of determination.

Here is some basic tips on how to start an internet home business.

== 1.Write Your Business Goals ==

It is important to set goals and objectives and then take action to accomplish them. This will be your Business Plan.

Here Are Some questions you should ask yourself:

- Why do I want to start up an Internet Home Business?

- What product or service can I provide?

- Do I have the knowledge and expertise to provide this service?

- Do I know enough about the competition?

- Where will my customers come from?

Take the time to write down your questions and answers and thoroughly research your chosen market.

== 2. Choose A Product or Service To Sell ==

On the internet you can find hundreds of product or services to sell.

You can sell your own product by creating your own, or purchasing resale rights or being an affiliate with a good internet company.

Don't put your personal gains first. Make sure that the product will deliver what it promises. When you promote a product that leaves the buyer dissatisfied, you' ll only be ruining your business. So sell solutions and the money will come.

== 3. Business Domain Name ==

One important first step is to choose the best domain name you can. Keep it as short and simple as possible.

Think of domain name like " Google " or " Yahoo ". They are short and easy to remember.

I know that some people say to use keyword in you're domain name. But if you choose " Internet Business " there is million of site with this term.

So are you going to use for example "AprofitableInternethomebusiness.com" it might be a nice name but it is too long and not simple.

== 4. Your Business Web Site ==

Having A good business website is essential to succeed with an internet home business.

Here is the thing you have to plan to build your website

A) Decide on the website design (color schemes, buttons, special effects etc). However, you may have a preference for a certain color or look. To help you choose a design, you may wish to check out other people's websites or work with your web designer's pre-set templates.

(b) The content. There are many items you may wish to include on your website. The most common ones include:

1 Products And Services

2. Contact Information

3. Pricing

4. Testimonials

5. Frequently Asked Questions

6. Resources & Articles

7. Refund Policy

8. Privacy Policy

9. About Us

10. Site Map

11. Useful Links

12. On-line store

== 5. Choose a Web Hosting Company ==

What is a Web hosting Company?

A Web host is a company that provides server space for your website. You can think of a web host as a commercial building. The web host provides space for your website just as a commercial building provides space for your shop or office.

What are some of the things you should look for when choosing a web host? The criteria for choosing a free web host and a commercial web hosting solution are slightly different although they do overlap.

A) Web Space

Does it have enough space for your needs? If you envisage that you will expand your site eventually, you might want to cater for future expansion. Most sites use less than 5MB of web space. Indeed, at one time, one of my other web sites, thefreecountry.com, used less than 5MB of space although it had about 150 pages on the site. Your needs will vary, depending on how many pictures your pages use, whether you need sound files, video clips, etc.

B) Bandwidth allotment

Nowadays, many free web hosts impose a limit on the amount of traffic your website can use per day and per month. This means that if the pages (and graphic images) on your site is loaded by visitors beyond a certain number of times per day (or per month), the web host will disable your web site (or perhaps send you a bill).

It is difficult to recommend a specific minimum amount of bandwidth, since it depends on how you design your site, your target audience, and the number of visitors you're able to attract to your site. In general, 100MB traffic per month is too little for anything other than your personal home page and 1-3GB traffic per month is usually adequate for a simple site just starting out. Your mileage, however, will vary.

C) Reliability and speed of access

This is extremely important. A site that is frequently down will lose a lot of visitors. If someone finds your site on the search engine, and he tries to access it but find that it is down, he'll simply go down the list to find another site. Slow access is also very frustrating for visitors (and for you too, when you upload your site).

How do you know if a host is reliable or fast? If you can't get feedback from anyone, one way is to try it out yourself over a period of time, both during peak as well as non-peak hours. After all, it is free, so you can always experiment with it.

== 6. Shopping Cart ==

No e-commerce website is complete without a secure shopping cart. There are many shopping cart options. Many e-commerce business owners make the mistake of using Pay Pal to accept payments, which immediately tells visitors that their company is very small and not professional.

A good alternative to Pay Pal is a remotely hosted shopping cart. Remote shopping carts take the burden of maintaining security and credit card numbers off your shoulder and places the responsibility on another company. Remote shopping carts can usually be configured to look similar to your website.

In fact, your customers may not realize that they have left your website to place an order. The remote shopping cart provider will give you the HTML to add to your website. When your potential customer clicks on the Buy Now button, he or she is taken to the remote shopping cart to enter the personal information and payment details.

Depending on your choice of a shopping cart, you may or may not need a merchant account to process transactions. Some shopping cart services allow you to use their merchant accounts for a slightly higher fee.

== 7. How To Promote Your Business Website ==

Write An Article: Write an article promoting your site or product. Write an article on a hot topic many people would like more information on and submit it to various e-zines. How do you find out what's hot? Visit a few of the message boards and see what questions are raised often.

Search Engines: Thousands of search engines exist on the Internet. But, you should only be concerned with the top eight or ten. You should manually submit to the top eight: Alta Vista, Excite, Yahoo, Hotbot, Lycos, Northern Light, Infoseek, Webcrawler, and use one of the FREE automatic submission services like *SubmitPlus* to handle the smaller search engines.

Directories: List your site here too. Directories organize sites into categories. Good examples of Directories: Yahoo, Magellan.

Ezine Listings: If you have an e-zine to promote along with your site. Why not list it with one of the many e-zine services on the Internet. E-zine Library is a good one to start with.

Free Classifieds: You will have to submit to a ton of FREE classifieds to get any significant traffic. Why? You are competing with thousands of other Ads. Remember to work on your Ad copy and make it attention grabbing. Go to one of the popular search engines, type in Free Classifieds, and surf to the top 20 classified sites for beginners.

Often, these sites will lead you to several other Free Classified Sites. In response you'll get a stack of e-mail thanking you for listing your site while barking their promo. Best to get one of those free email accounts. Hot mail is a good one. So is Yahoo mail.

FFA Pages. Free For All's are worth a try. Be prepared for a avalanche of e-mails from FFA web site owners. If your title is attention grabbing you will get a few clicks. Good Attention grabbing headlines, FREE, Limited Time, Limited Offer, Proven, Secrets, and many more if you brainstorm. Check out the sales literature delivered to you by regular mail. Check and see what headlines grab your attention. And why? Incorporate them into your Online Ads.

Tell Friends And Family: If your friends, family, acquaintances, have an Internet Connection, e-mail them telling them about your new website, and ask them to visit often. Offer a FREE incentive if they tell a few friends to surf over. Perhaps, a FREE Ad in your e-zine.

Leave Business Cards or Flyers: Leave these promo pieces with small businesses in your community. All relevant contact information; email address, URL, telephone number, should be included. Offer a freebie to anyone who visits your site. A free e-book, report.

== 8. TRACK YOUR MARKETING ==

Here are some questions to consider:

1) How many unique visitors come to your website?

2) How many visitors opt-in to your mailing list or order your products?

3) When you send emails, how many are opened and how many people actually click through to your website?

The reason these question are so important is because if you don't know these stats, you won't know what to improve. It could be different things; like your headlines, the content or navigation on your website. You won't know until you start checking all your marketing offer.

== 9. YOUR BUSINESS IN CONCLUSION ==

Think of your first six months primarily as a training period. Don't expect large earnings until after you've educated yourself.

Even the most dynamic, highest-earning entrepreneurs in the industry took MONTHS to begin seeing an income of any real significance with their internet home business.

Don't be a negative thinker and don't let the negative attitudes of others (even if they're family members, friends, or peers) influence you.

All the great men and women in history had to overcome the naysayers who said it couldn't be done and then went out and did it. Think for yourself!

As long as you think positive and focused on your internet home business target you re on the right way to a rich life, which is directed by you and it will lead you to tremendous success and personnal satisfaction.

Building an Internet business can be very rewarding when you start making money online out of the comforts of your own home. If you've always wanted to be self-employed and be your own boss. Then having an internet business will open this up for you. You just need to work on it.

(by Aaron Herman)

Making Money From Affiliate Programs

2008-10-31T06:16:00.000-07:00

Affiliate programs are a great way to generate income if you
don't have a product of your own to promote yet. You know
that already. But it's NOT, despite what you've heard, just a
simple matter of signing up for this or that affiliate program
and placing free and paid classified ads all over the place to
generate traffic to the website they give you or to get people
to click on your autoresponder link. There's more to it than
that. Much more.

When I started out in this business in May 1999, I signed up
for Cookie Cutter. Like many of you I thought that I could
simply absorb the information provided and then resell it to
others. I followed all the advice about advertising in other
people's ezines and all of that. I looked forward to some very
round numbers. Well, I got one alright. A big fat ZERO. And
that's how it stayed until I realized the truth. That if I was going
to make any money in this business I had to start from scratch.

In saying that, I don't want to take anything away from Cookie
Cutter. It was and is a marvellous product in terms of what it
can teach you in a very short period of time if you're starting
from ground zero. (Debate rages about its merits in terms of a
business opportunity but that's another story.)

In this article, I tell you what worked for me. It's nothing earth-
shattering or particularly profound. It's simply reality and
common sense. Here's what you need to do to make any
significant income from promoting other people's products.

YOU NEED A WEBSITE

Sorry, but yes, you do. A lot of people pushing their affiliate
program will tell you, if you ask the question "Do I need my
own website?", "No, you get this beautiful 25 page website
for free!" Great. How are you going to get people to visit it?
And how are you going to get people to visit YOUR
YouBeaut.com website in preference to everyone else's
YouBeaut.com website (all 50,000 of them)?

Well, let me tell you, the time, effort and expense you
would have to spend would be MUCH better invested in
your OWN unique and interesting website that will attract
traffic simply because it IS unique and interesting.

That said, you pick your affiliate programs to fit in with and
complement your website. Not the other way around. You do
NOT create your website to fit in with and complement your
affiliate programs. So, start with what you know, what interests
you, what you're passionate about. THAT should be the subject
matter of your website. Then, and only then, should you start
researching which affiliate programs out there fit in with the
website you have created. More about that later.

YOU NEED AN EZINE

You should support your website by publishing an ezine at
least on a monthly basis but preferably weekly. Why? A few
reasons:

First, it reminds your readers that your site exists (assuming
they signed up at your site in the first place) and hopefully
prompts them to visit again.

Second, you develop a targeted mailing list of subscribers
interested in the subject matter of your ezine and subscribers
that you can direct mail to (judiciously, of course).

Third, you can accept paid advertising in your ezine once it
hits 1000 subscribers or so and fourth, you can use it to
advertise your affiliate programs.

In addition, assuming you take your ezine publishing duties
seriously and it's not a mere regurgitation of other people's
articles without any purpose other than to keep your name in
front of an audience (and an ever-decreasing one it will be if that's
all you do), you can use it to develop your reputation as an
expert in your field by making the original articles you write for
your ezine available to a wider audience by submitting them to
other ezine publishers. Believe me, there's no shortage of ezine
publishers out there who rely exclusively on other people's work!

Establishing your own website and ezine takes serious time
and work. You can't build either in a weekend. It will take you
several weeks of effort to get it into good enough shape to take
it public (and even then you won't be satisfied but you have to
start at some point). And it will take several more weeks of
time and effort publicizing the fact that your website and ezine
exist and to start seeing some traffic trickling in.

SELECTING AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

Once you have an established website and ezine, you can start
using them to promote your affiliate programs in a serious way.
You can, of course, start promoting affiliate programs from day
one, it's just that you won't see any results until you reach what
I think of as the "established" stage. By this I mean you have
a few hundred subscribers to your ezine and maybe a hundred
unique daily visitors to your website. These numbers are on the
very low end and your sales will reflect that but you'll at least be
on your way by this point.

Once you reach the "established" stage, you need to be very
selective about the affiliate programs you choose because you
are only going to select a very few of them and they need to be
good performers. Some internet marketing so-called experts
will tell you to pick one or two programs and market them
exclusively for big returns. That's good advice on one level -
it keeps you focused, and that's important - but on the other hand
you're at the mercy of the owner of the affiliate program. If they
go out of business so do you.

So, pick a small handful of programs to promote but make sure
they complement each other (so that someone who is interested
in one program is likely to be equally interested in the others).
It should be obvious but it bears stating - don't pick programs
that have no relevance to the subject matter of your site! Your
chances of selling to your website visitors are much higher if
what you sell is closely related to the subject matter of your
site. It was the subject matter of your site that attracted them in
the first place. They are already a qualified prospect if what you
sell from your site is relevant to that subject matter.

COMMISSION STRUCTURES

If you have a mega traffic site, then you can make up for in
volume what a particular program's commission structure
may lack in terms of straight dollars.

But if you have a lower traffic site, then you need to make sure
your traffic is very targeted, but go for higher commission
programs.

In other words, if you're a mega traffic site, by all means sign
up with Amazon.com and make maybe three bucks a sale.
If you make a hundred sales this week you've got three
hundred bucks you didn't have before. But if you're a lower
traffic site, focus on making just three sales a week of a
product that pays a hundred bucks a pop and you're even with
your mega traffic brethren in the commission stakes.

My current best selling program earns me $90 a sale. I
don't do anything different to promote that than I do the
program that makes me $20 a sale. If it takes the same amount
of time and effort to make a sale from each program, why wouldn't
I focus my energies on the $90 commission product?

Contrary to what many believe, it is no harder to sell a $247
product than it is to sell a $50 product. Don't prejudge your
audience. Make sure you offer programs that are relevant to
their interests (and which you're proud to promote - that should
go without saying but just in case ...) and the mere fact that
you're bringing targeted buyers and highly relevant products
together will do the rest, statistically speaking. Never, never
forget - making money in an online business is a numbers game,
pure and simple. Generate enough traffic and you'll generate
sales. But if you generate traffic that doesn't match your product
line, forget about it.

MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS

To finish off, here's a few miscellaneous considerations to take
into account when selecting your affiliate programs.

=> How Long Do the Cookies Last?

Always go for programs that will credit you with the sale even
if the customer doesn't buy on the first visit. That high paying
program I mentioned above? 90% of the sales come from the
follow-up messages sent by the owner of the program once I
give him the lead.

That's pretty typical of all affiliate programs. You've heard that
it takes an average of seven exposures to a message before a
prospect will buy, right? Well, what happens to your
commissions if you only get paid for direct sales (i.e. where the
customer buys on the first visit following a direct link from your
site)? Right. You get maybe 10% of the commissions you
would have earned from the program if the customer was tagged
as yours for a period of time (and preferably for life).

Always read the terms and conditions of the affiliate program
carefully before investing your time and effort. If it says
anything like "if customer later makes a purchase on a repeat
visit that does not originate from your link, you will not qualify
for a commission on such sale" keep looking.

Some programs will place a cookie on the customer's hard disk
for 45 days or so which means that if that customer returns in
three weeks to eventually make a purchase, that customer will
be identified as "yours" and you will get the commission. Some
programs even offer "lifetime customers", that is, the customer is
yours for life even if they come back in three years time and buy
a completely different product.

=> Stats Reporting

Look for real-time reporting of statistics including hits and sales.
Then check to make sure that the hits the affiliate program
records are in line with your own stats tracking. This is easy
to do. I use Roibot to track all clicks I'm interested in
monitoring whether it's a program I'm promoting or whether I'm
just interested in how many people click on a particular link to
an article, for example. (To check out the Roibot suite of
marketing tools, click this (Roibot) link:
http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?R5469_roibot ).

=> Frequency (and Amount) of Payments

Some programs will only pay once you accumulate a certain
amount of commission dollars. That's OK ... it keeps admin
costs down and therefore makes more of the profit available
for payment of generous commissions ... but if it's
disproportionately high compared to the amount of the base
commission, consider another program.

If it takes you a year to accumulate $50 in commissions, ask yourself how
likely is it that this particular company will still be around in one
year? Even if you have no concerns on that score, if it's
taking you a year to accumulate $50 worth of commissions,
this is not a program that's giving a particularly good return
on your investment of time and effort. Look for something
more productive.

=> How Long Established?

Related to the previous discussion, think twice before investing
too much time and effort on newly established programs. Add
these to your portfolio by all means, but make your staple
programs the tried and trues.

=> What is Their Policy on Spam?

Nothing irritates me more than to receive spam from someone
promoting one of the programs that I promote (well, OK, other
things do irritate me more but you get my point). Not because I
get into a tizz about spam per se (unlike apparently 90% of the
internet population I have more important things to worry about),
but such tactics bring the program into disrepute because it
suggests that the owner of the program condones spam and if
the owner of the program condones it, how much value does
he or she place on the program? Not much.

So look for programs with strict anti-spam policies.

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

Finally, a word about patience. This is a slow and steady wins
the race game as well as a numbers game. Don't spit the
dummy, throw in the towel, chuck the Glomesh onto the shagpile
(or whatever your vernacular equivalent of a dummy spit is)
because you don't make a single sale in your first month with a
new program.

By all means take a closer look at how well the product fits in
with the demographics of your audience (website and ezine) but
if it's a good fit, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
(enough with the metaphors already, OK).

Instead, refine your marketing approach, tweak your ads,
brainstorm for more creative ways of promoting the program.
Don't just write the program off as bad until you're sure it's not
going to work for you. There may be some peculiar demographic
factor common to your group that you're not aware of but until
you've given it a good try, don't assume that's the case.

As a general rule, so long as you're sure that the product is a
good fit, work with it for a year to give it a real chance of
performing for you. The internet landscape is strewn with the
carcasses of would-be successful entrepreneurs whose only
mistake was giving up too soon. Don't be one of them.

by Elena Fawkner

Guaranteed Extra Cash Online

2008-10-31T06:13:00.000-07:00

For college students and other people who feel burned out trying to balance paying the bills and living at the same time, ads like these can prove to be irresistible. Many of them make perfect sense and easily hook you based on good concepts. Unfortunately, many times the product or service does not match the brilliance of a great idea for making money from home or through the Internet. As I’ve learned myself, the further you go down this road, the more excited you get. You basically get hooked, and if you aren’t careful, you will end up working hard and falling further into debt than you can imagine. Much like gambling, the lure of easy money and independence can make just about anyone fall prey to work at home scams that feed off your dreams to get to your wallet so they can go on to the next victim.

Hopefully, you will never fall victim to these scam artists. However, the fact of the matter is that these scammers would not be wasting their time if they were not making any money. And as long as people continue to get mixed up in this business, these scammers are going to stick around to trick more and more people.

The best way to keep a scammer’s claws away from your credit card is to do thorough research on each opportunity that you are considering. This means doing much more than simply reading a bit about it online. In my personal experience, I have been taken by companies who were savvy enough to pollute the Internet with staged testimonials, guarantees, questionable references to big name endorsements, and even appearances in the Better Business Bureau.

A colleague of mine who invested in vending machine placement services even went so far as to physically go to the manufacturing plant to tour the warehouse as well as contact the Better Business Bureau of that state. What he received, in return, were twenty malfunctioning candy machines with a list of local businesses who had apparently agreed to receive them. Not only did none of these businesses know what he was talking about, many of them were hostile when he showed up to place them.

What you want to do is check message boards such as the ASK section of Yahoo.com. Another simple method of weeding out the scams from the genuine opportunities is to go to a search engine and simply type in the company name followed by the word “scam”. If you do this, and you are barraged by an endless list of complaints, you my friend have found a nugget of gold in a sea of mud.

In terms of the Better Business Bureau, it is best to contact them directly to ask about any complaints, and also find out how long a company has been listed. The Better Business Bureau operates state by state. They will be able to tell you if they have any complaints on file. If they do, you will want to avoid the opportunity at all costs. But if it appears that a company is doing business the right way, you can continue your own research.

Being in the Business Bureau is not necessarily that hard to accomplish. Many scammers can use their money and connections to set up a front to initially qualify for the Better Business Bureau just long enough for them to collect their cash from unsuspecting victims, close shop, create a new identity and start again.

Before you decide to do anything, attempt to get in touch with the company that you are interested in. Can you get a human being on the phone? Do they have an actually physical address? How long does it take them to respond to your e-mails, if at all? If you cannot even talk to the company before you start, there is not chance that they will be around when you really need them. I once made quite a bit of money selling vacation vouchers on auction sites. The marketing plan was sound, and the money saving vouchers was a hit. Only problem was, I could never get in touch with their customer service department to handle my customer inquiries and complaints once I realized that the promises that existed in writing on the vouchers were misleading at best. This proved to be such a problem that it took me over a year to recover from the negative publicity on my auction site.

Of course, there are legitimate home based businesses out there. With the Internet and all the low cost, web producing tools available, there seems to be a renaissance in entrepreneurship. Basically, just find a product or service you can market online, and do your research. Sell on EBay if you don’t want to build your own website. You can have a website their and all search engine marketing is already done by EBay.

However, like anything else worthwhile, you have to do your homework and work hard at it. The problem is that too many people make you think you can practically go online and make money just clicking on a mouse. You want to steer clear of any business that asks to you to pay for their “Top Secret” e-book that will teach you how to make an automated income.”

Think about it, if you are in dire need of cash, can you imagine any other situation in which you would not only work for free, but pay for the privilege to work. There are no magic formals or secrets worth paying for. All of the information in these e-books can be found for free through your own research if you have common internet skills.

If you don’t want to work hard and just make a few easy extra bucks without donating your blood or volunteering to be a guinea pig, it is possible to make some good extra money filling out online surveys or through mystery shopping. There are real opportunities out there which require no fee to get started. Not only that, several of them will even give you a $5 bonus just for signing up. If a company such as this is legitimate, they would be making lots of money through the success of its members. Companies that require that $49.97 start up fee only make money through the fee and only want to teach you how to get other people to do the same. The products are all useless lists and general information that anyone with a functioning mind could figure out on their own, or get for free by doing their own research.

( by: Peter V. Ruble)

Does the Truth Help or Hurt Relationship ?

2008-10-31T05:10:00.000-07:00

Remember how your relationship was in the very beginning?

You stayed up all night talking about everything - your dreams and desires and even the things that scare or embarrass you. But then, as the relationship went a long, you stopped talking about so much. Everything became so heavy and meaningful.

In the beginning, things were great. There was a level of trust and open communication that created intimacy and understanding. So, what happened to that? Where did it go and how can you get it back?

I used to try to protect my partner from those heavy, bad moods and ugly thoughts. I went to my room and hung out until I felt like socializing again.

I thought I was noble in my ability to control what came out of my mouth.

I thought I was kind because I never let on what I was thinking.

But what I was doing was ruining my relationships. There was no relationship. I was cutting myself off from others and never allowing them to know me. They never knew what I was thinking or feeling or needing.

I was an island. A very lonely island.

I really thought that if I let people know the ugly thoughts, not only would they be hurt - but they would probably become angry and disown me - betray me, talk shit behind my back. I would be the outcast.

So I beat them to the punch! Hah! I'd banish myself to my own room (or apartment, as I got older). I'd banish myself to silence.

You can either have a N.I.C.E. (Not Interested in Connecting Emotionally) relationship... where you hide what is true out of fear. Or you can have an alive, real relationship with intimacy, compassion and understanding.

Some people withhold from their partner and add an extra zinger -- they put on a show of pain and discomfort in order to punish them. It's an effort to communicate just how much pain they're in. But none of it's verbalized. It's a show of the pain.

When you start keeping secrets and withholding,.. when you cut off the sharing of life force between you,... you're cutting off the intimacy in your relationship. Even if you think you're protecting your partner from painful or embarrassing thoughts - it's still destroying your relationship.

Relationships require sharing... both our dreams and desires along with our doubts and fears.

What are you feeling and what needs of yours are being met or not? ...

I'm happy because my need for support in keeping our home is being met.

I'm disappointed because my need for partnership isn't being met in the way we're handling our finances.

I'm sad because my need for connection isn't being met when you're out with your friends every evening.

You can find out more about this style of intimate communication, along with other advice on building healthy, intimate relationships, at our website: www MagicRelationship dot com.

Another tip: when you offer your feelings and needs, it's best to follow them with a request. If you offer them without a request, your partner won't know why you're giving them the information.

Do you want to be just heard?

Do you want advice?

Do you want to come up with a strategy for meeting your needs? Why the heck are you telling me this?

Often, a comment without a request will be taken as blame... which will lead to fixing, fighting or fleeing. Don't leave your poor partner hanging.

Paul and I recommend asking, "Would you tell me what you heard me say?" (Avoid saying 'could'- it implies they aren't intelligent enough to repeat you. And avoid saying "What did I say?" because what you said and what they heard are two different things.)

And one more tip: don't think that little behaviors are enough to be warranted as 'sharing feelings and needs.' Fixing your honey a cup of coffee in the morning is very sweet, but it may not communicate your feelings of love and contentment like actually verbalizing the information. "I love you so much", PLUS the cup of coffee goes much further.

Frowning and throwing around the bed covers while you make the bed may not adequately communicate your feelings and needs, either.

Instead, say: "I'm feeling disappointed because my need for support around the house isn't being met. Would you be willing to discuss a way to help that would also meet your needs?"

There's no room for misinterpretation there.

Try it out this holiday season: make a pact with your beloved to share absolutely ALL your feelings and needs for one day - the good, the bad and the ugly. Then follow the information with a request.

Be prepared to spend some time processing and discussing those feelings and needs as they come up.

However, try to avoid getting into BLAMING and 'FAULT' behind the feelings and needs. That tends to end up in a free-for-all about evaluations and judgments - who's right and who's wrong. Try to stick with feelings, needs and requests.

Try to do this on a day when you'll have the time.

You won't want to get cut off because you have to run to pick up the kids right when you're getting to the heart of an issue that's snuck up silently between you.

You're going to want to stay and hold each other and talk it through... and feel the intimacy of clearing out all of those old, crusty feelings and unmet needs that have been clogging the flow of love.

(by Kristin Denton)

Maintaining a Good Credit Rating

2008-10-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

There are a few good rules of thumb to maintaining a good credit rating. If you are able to follow them, then you will have no trouble getting credit or keeping your balances down.

Pay your bills on time. Even one late payment can negatively affect your credit rating.
Always pay the minimum amount due. Otherwise, not only will you lower your rating, but also you will incur added fees.
Occasionally, if not consistently, pay more than the minimum amount due. This helps to keep your balances down, so that you can continue to come up with the minimum payment due.
Avoid opening several credit cards at the same time. Many stores offer incentives such as percentages off the total purchase if you open a new credit card with them. This has a negative impact on your credit rating.
A few simple reminders:
Bills include not only your credit card bills, but also your mortgage and or home equity loans. Your payment history is a major factor in computing your credit rating.
It takes longer to renew your credit rating than it does to destroy it. Paying bills late consistently does more harm than you know. It may take up to three on-time payments before a company no longer lists you as delinquent on payments.
A little bit of credit card use over a long period of time is better than a spate of large credit card use in a short period of time.
In general, pay your bills on-time, charge only what you can truly afford, acquire new credit cards sparingly, and enjoy the benefits of a good credit rating!

Tips on Using Credit Cards Wisely

2008-10-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

Credit cards can be both a curse and a blessing. If you don’t use them wisely they can lead you into debt and exhaust your monthly income. On the other hand, if you do use them wisely then you can improve your credit rating and improve your monthly cash flow.

Create a Strong Credit History
Using credit cards is a great way to develop a positive credit history. To create a strong credit history you will need to make periodic purchases, and you will need to make on time payments. The best way to do this is to use the credit card to pay for purchases that you would normally make during the month using cash. Then at the end of the month pay off the balance completely. This way you build a positive credit history without accumulating interest charges.

Using Credit Cards to Grow Your Business
If you own a business then you can use credit cards to increase your purchase power and improve your company’s cash flow. Credit cards can be used to purchase equipment and supplies when you need them, and then allow you to pay for these items over time. To maximize the benefit of your business credit cards you will want to find credit cards with low interest rates and you will want to pay off the balances as quickly as possible. This will help you keep your line of credit open for business purchases.

When Not to Use Credit Cards
In addition to knowing when to use your credit cards, you should also learn when you shouldn’t use your credit cards. Credit cards shouldn’t be used when you are emotionally unstable. Impulse buying can be very addictive, and it can lead to serious debt problems. Credit card purchases should optimally be strategically selected. You will also not want to give out your credit card number to unsolicited telemarketers. There are many scams circulating that involve asking for credit card numbers over the phone. Finally, you don’t want to use your credit card in a country that is known for credit card scams and identity theft. If you will be traveling abroad make sure that you check with the U.S. Embassy in that country about how safe it is to use your credit card in that country.

Preparing a Budget

2008-10-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, you say, I know I need a budget, but how do I prepare one? The most common budget period is one year, but this can vary depending on whether or not your business has seasonal or cyclical fluctuations. For example if you run a Christmas decorations shop, or a costume shop your business is going to peak during certain times of the year.

The budgeting process usually begins with the collection of accounting data. In order to prepare a strong and achievable budget, you must analyze each item of income and expense from the prior year. If your accounting system is a mess and the figures are inaccurate, the numbers used in your budget will be useless. This is why it is so important to keep good records. Quicken and Quickbooks are excellent programs to help you with setting up an accounting system that is easy to use and understand.

If you can review your prior year’s figures with confidence, try to cultivate your strong areas and look for ways to increase performance or volume. For example, if one particular product sold well, take a closer look at that product. What you did to market it, etc. and try to model your other products in the same vein to accomplish the same results.You also need to analyze your weak spots. If possible, set up some type of internal control over the weak areas. A cost analysis will help you determine if you are actually making money on the sale of a certain product. This is a big problem with new business owners. They don’t do the research or due diligence in determining the need for their product. In effect, they spend a great deal of time and money with a product that is never even going to break even. You cannot get emotionally tied to your product. If it is not selling, let it go and move on to what is selling.If your business is in its first year, your budget will involve a little more homework. Keep in mind that a budget is an expression of your goals. Try to determine the number of billable hours you might reasonably expect to charge for within a year’s time.

If you are in sales, try to establish the number of items you will be able to sell. After determining the revenue portion, you should look to your expenses.Some expenses, like rent, will be fixed because they do not change from month to month. For example, if your office space rent is $3,000 per month, you must still pay $3,000 per month, regardless of whether or not you have made any sales or earned any income. This is why working out of a home office, if you can, is so much better. You can substantially cut your rental costs down.Another type of expense is a variable one. In budgeting, this is known as a variable “cost,” which is a cost that increases with the level of sales or income. They are variable because the more income you generate, the greater the costs you will incur (this just means the more you sell, you more you have to buy).If you have others working for you, sales commissions are an example of a variable expense—the greater the sales revenue, the greater the sales commissions.You need to be sure to do research before starting your business to determine what comprises your fixed and variable costs.Certain types of businesses have an established profit margin.

This information may be available by simply asking other professionals in your field. Your accountant sees thousands of tax returns and may be able to give you an idea of the average “cost of sales” or “profit margins” for your type of business. The averages for certain industries are also compiled by financial ratings organizations such as Dun & Bradstreet, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. For example, if you are starting a coffeehouse, you could compare your sales, gross profit ratio, and net income to the averages for the retail sales/coffee industry compiled by Dun & Bradstreet.It’s amazing how many home based and small-business owners don’t know if they’re making a profit on service, parts or sales. Others don’t know whether they’re making or losing money on a particular job. The purpose of the accounting and budgetary process is to help you answer these questions and make the right management decisions. You can’t plug the leaks in your revenue ship if you don’t know where the holes are.Again, using a program like Quickbooks allows you to see where time is spent for a particular project, what your costs are, how many employees were needed to complete the project and the time it took them (which gives you an idea of salary differential for certain projects).If for example you are running a consulting business, Quickbooks allows you to track the number of hours you work on a project and what your costs are. In most consulting businesses your time is your valuable commodity. You need to be compensated for the time you spend on a particular project or with a client.Copyright 2003 DeFiore Enterprises

Holiday Networking, Santa-Style

2008-10-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

It's that special time of year again. Odds are that very soon you'll be mingling with people you barely know (or know all-too-well) at some sort of holiday get-together. Whether you' re attending out of courtesy, tradition, or business desperation (it's been a tough year for many) doesn't matter. What DOES matter is that you understand how holiday networking differs from the networking you'll be doing in January.Holiday networking is less aggressive, slower-paced and more subtle. Think "market research" instead of "close the deal" and you'll have the right mindset. Yes, making connections that lead to sales is still a primary reason for attending social functions, but around the holidays it's less obvious. The social "dance" is longer.

So when preparing for your holiday party "performance," practice the role of Santa instead of Scrooge, and you'll do just fine.How would Santa act at that lavish bash in your office building next week?First, remember that Santa is friendly and approachable to EVERYONE. He's not a snob or someone who's solely focused on influential, powerful people. You'd do well to adopt that attitude yourself. You'll enjoy yourself more, feel less stressed, and who knows? You may meet someone with unexpected influence or connections.If you're one of the many people who'd rather have teeth pulled than talk to strangers, rehearse a few "safe" opening lines."So how do you know (the host/hostess)?" or "Don't I know you from somewhere?" are non-threatening ways to begin a conversation, with the added benefit of allowing you to look for connections. And "How has your day been?" is much more likely to initiate small-talk than the usual "How are you?" ("Fine, thanks.") exchange.Second, Santa is a great listener who's really focused on other people's wants and needs and not his own. He invites confidences and listens more than he speaks. Can you imagine Santa thrusting his business card on someone he's barely met? (I DO have one of his cards, by the way.)So ask a lot of "who, what, where, when and why" questions.

Try to spend the first five minutes of any conversation talking about the other person. You already know about yourself; you want to gather information and make friends with others. Besides, it's very flattering. Someone who's interested in others is invariably seen as someone worth knowing. (So tuck a few business cards in your pocket beforehand!)Finally, Santa is welcome and appreciated at any gathering because he brings gifts. No, you don't need to carry in a large red bag filled with personalized company pens or magnets. But before the party, think about who you're likely to meet and what you can offer them.Have you read a great book? Do you know what's being built across the street? Did you discover a helpful new product or service? Then don't be a Scrooge! Spread the news. Offer the information.Better yet, do you have a personal connection to someone party attendees would like to meet? Then be prepared to offer their name and/or business card.And when talk does turn to business, keep it light and keep it brief. If you have helpful ideas to pass on, or discover a connection you'd like to strengthen, ask for a business card and permission to call at work. Then steer the conversation back to more fun, personal topics. (Just remember to follow up afterwards!)With preparation, you can enjoy meeting new people and reconnecting with old colleagues in mutually profitable ways.And you might just become as popular as Ol' Saint Nick.Copyright 2003, Diana Ratliff. All rights reserved.

(By Diana Ratliff)

PUBLIC RELATIONS

2008-10-27T09:07:00.001-07:00

Your Key to Business Growth in the New Year or Any Time of YearThe New Year is here and we all are making our resolutions. What about yours? What's your business resolution for the upcoming year? Taking stock of where a company is and where it's headed is always good to do a couple of times a year.Businesses that want a leg up on their competition need to focus on boosting their public relations (PR) efforts. This keeps them from going under when the economy is weak, and gets them ahead of their competitors when sales start picking up.

With the economy emerging from recession, now is the perfect time to get a fresh start on your PR strategies.So what exactly is public relations? It's a strategic form of communication that's used to obtain positive exposure for your company and keep key publics informed. It's news releases, feature stories, interviews, analyst meetings, application stories, speaking engagements, newsletters, websites, product launches and events. It's also developing a key message that differentiates you from your competition and selecting the mix of tactics that will get your message to the marketplace with the most impact.

PR is different from advertising. Advertising and promotion are about salesmanship. Consumers know it and are on the defense against being sold something they don't want or need especially when moneys tight. Public relations is about conveying information. By providing information to consumers directly or through trusted third parties, PR is a cost-effective marketing effort that has a big-payoff: credibility and visibility. That's why PR should play a key role in your business plans in the upcoming year.So what are the best ways to use PR to kick-start your business into high gear?Think of more than just a press release.

Media coverage can be an excellent way to influence public opinion, but today's media includes more than newspapers and television. Think outside the box to find the right medium for your message and your target audience. For example, handing out small gifts bearing your logo, maintaining a presence at trade shows or getting more links to your website are all wonderful ways to generate public relations.Keep messages simple.People in the US get bombarded with more than 4,000 marketing messages a day. Who has the time and energy to decipher complicated jargon? Stick to one message, and learn to tell it in various ways to make your point. Position yourself as an expert.Give advice on your business topic freely. Write articles for online publications, business journals and magazines. Participate in online forums and speak to local groups.

When you consistently provide information of value in these outlets your reputation as an expert will make itself.Focus on people, not products.Make the product the hero is an old expression that's not right today. The product can play a role in allowing a person to be a hero, but the product itself probably isn't heroic, and it shouldn't be portrayed that way. People long for stories they can identify with, small achievements where an obstacle is overcome or a person does something surprising. People want to connect with somebody, not something.Today's successful companies make public relations a priority. Whether selling direct, through distribution channels or via e-commerce, a successful company must achieve and maintain a strong market presence through a continuous and effective public relations program.

Get More Customers - With Less Work!

2008-10-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

A lot of website owners work tirelessly at increasing their traffic. They submit to FFA pages and classified sites. They participate in startup programs and pop under exchanges. There is no end to the gimmicks they will try, all in the hopes that they'll get more customers.If you're one of these website owners, there is an easier way to increase your sales!By improving your conversion rate you'll be able to make more money from the visitors you're already getting. What is a conversion rate you ask? Well,quite simply, it's the percentage of visitors that you're converting into customers.Most websites have a conversion rate of 1% - 2% on average. That means that out of 100 visitors only 1 - 2 are turned into customers. You can seethe benefit of increasing that number. If you can get a conversion rate of 3% you're now making more sales without having to do any extra work or spend any more money to get traffic.

So how do you improve your conversion rate? Here are 10 steps you can take right now.

Make sure the traffic visiting your site is targeted and looking to buy. The key point here is "looking to buy". There are a lot of services that offer targeted traffic but the visitors have no intention of buying. If the person isn't interested in purchasing then you're wasting time and money showing themyour ad.

Make sure that when people land at your website from an ad there is a correlation. Far too often people click on an ad that is discussing one topicand are taken to the home page of the company. Instead of taking the time to search for the information they read about in the ad, they leave. Avoid this problem by sending people to a specific page within your site that discusses the same products you mentioned in your ad - if such a pagedoesn't exist then create a mini-site.

Have a professionally designed site and copy that is written to sell. A good sales letter includes benefits for the user (not just a features list), testimonials and action statements that encourage the reader to take the next step.

Offer more value. With each product offer free eBooks, reports, consulting, or whatever else your visitors would find valuable - These items don't cost you anything and there is a perceived value that can encourage someone who's on the fence to take the leap and buy.

Offer a free trial or money back guarantee. People are naturally skeptical, especially on the Internet where they can't see a live person and decide for themselves whether they're trustworthy. A great way to encourage them to trust you is by showing them that you believe in your product so much that you're willing to let them try it free - or that you'll give them a full refund if they're not satisfied.

Do everything possible to get the visitors name and email address so you can follow-up. Do this by offering a great newsletter, a special report, an Autoresponder series, a free eBook, a giveaway/contest, a free tool. There are endless ways to get people to give their contact information - play around with different offers on your site to see what works.

Offer multiple products. Offering products at different price points and to different segments of your target market increases your chances of making a sale. If you only have one product of your own to sell, look into affiliate programs as another income stream.

Follow up on every inquiry you get. Excellent customer service is something that is unfortunately lacking on the Internet. Do yourself a favor and make it a priority to respond to all inquiries by the end of the day. If you're getting too many to make this possible consider ways you can take off some of the strain. Are there questions that a lot of customers have? If so, include them on your FAQ page. Are there processes you can automate so you don't have to be contacted such as unsubscribing from your newsletter? If all else fails consider hiring someone to help you answeryour inquiries.

Make the order process as easy as possible. Abandoned shopping carts is a problem that continues to plague online businesses. The reasonsfor this include: a cumbersome order process that involves too many steps, asking for too much information (you really don't need to know theirshoe size) and additional fees being added on that weren't mentioned upfront. On many websites they never even mention the product price orshipping costs until you're half way through the order process. By that point customers are feeling too frustrated to purchase anything. Be upfrontabout exactly what customers can expect during the order process and strive to make it as quick and easy as possible.

Test, test, test! Finding the right mix of product, price and sales tactic is very difficult - if it was easy the average conversion rate would be a lot higher than 2%! Your best chance for getting a mix that works is testingdifferent scenarios. If you don't already know what split run testing is you need to learn about it. In a nutshell it allows you to show different pages to different visitors for the purposes of determining which one performs best. Using split run testing you can try different site layouts, sales letters, prices, special offers, and many more scenarios to find what gets the most sales.Now get out there and make some money!

Yoga For Improving Your Figure

2008-10-27T06:05:00.000-07:00

Knowing as you do that Yoga can give you a perfect figure, you have made this your main reason for pursuing the subject. I assure you this is no worse a reason for beginning the study of Yoga than any other. There cannot really be a bad reason for wanting to do something good, and though Yoga offers much in the way of a peaceful and healthy existence, your main concern at this stage, anyway, is how to get that pad of fat off your hips and reduce that bulging tummy. So be it. I will show you the way and as you learn more and more of Yoga perhaps eventually your reason for studying it will be a more spiritual one.

There is little need to explain to you the connection between obesity and your health. Apart from being aesthetically all wrong, it puts a strain on the heart, the internal organs, the legs and feet and in fact the entire body. It is dangerous to be overweight. It is your duty to improve your figure for the sake of your health, your peace of mind and your general well being.

But before I explain how Yoga can help you to regain a slim, supple, and graceful figure I must impress on you right at the beginning that there is no magic formula which will sheer those extra pounds off you while you go on eating four square meals a day with snacks in between and goodness knows how many cups of tea sweetened with sugar. In short, Yoga is not black magic. It is sheer common sense. It will help you if you are prepared to help yourself.

In presenting various Yoga asanas, I must impress on you that these alone will not make you lose weight. Yoga you see is a way of life not just a system of physical culture.

You must study Yoga as a whole and let it pervade every part of your life. Let it gradually alter your way of thinking and in time it will affect your attitude towards food. For many people food is a social occasion or a means of chopping up the day. To very many others, it is a form of sheer solid comfort in times of stress or anxiety. To still others it is a hobby or a release from boredom. They don't know what to do with themselves so they eat-and grow fat.

I do not suggest that you try drastically to alter your eating habits. Let Yoga gently do that for you. Practice Yoga as a complete science and very slowly adjust your eating habits according to your state of mind. By this I mean that, at the moment, maybe food is of major importance to you. It is right that you have this incentive to eat for it is necessary to take food in order to live, but many people, far too many, take far more food than they need. This results in a gradual build up of fat in the body until there you are-two, three, or even more stones overweight.

It is never easy to take off weight and Yoga is not a short cut by any means, but this much I promise you. Once you have slimmed the Yoga way, you will be able to eat as you please and not gain an ounce. Yoga, in affecting the glands, establishes a rhythm in the body so that you do not feel a desire for food that you do not need. You want to eat only enough to keep superbly fit. Your new calmness of mind will make it unnecessary for you to turn to food for comfort or as a means of relieving tension or boredom. As I have said, Yoga will affect your way of life, even against your will; it will alter your attitude towards many things and one of these things is the food you eat.

Having warned you that I have no magic formula dreamed up by the ancient Yogis with regard to recovering a slim, beautiful figure, let me discuss the first step in this 'battle of the bulge'. Here is a Yoga asana which will help you on your way. It is called the SIDESLIP and it should not present too much difficulty if you spend the first couple of days limbering up your torso with the following simple movements.

Limbering up Exercises
Stand up straight, feet together, arms raised to shoulder level. Holding your arms steady, swing them as far as possible round to the right. Twist your body to the maximum to bring your right arm as far round as you can and at the same time turn your head to look over your right shoulder so that you twist your neck to the utmost; as you turn slowly, bend your left arm so that when the swing to the right is at its height your left thumb should touch your right shoulder. Hold this position for a few seconds and then repeat the swing to the other side. You can repeat these swings ad lib but at first it is as well to limit yourself to a maximum of six if you have never taken any exercise before.

Two points to remember. These swinging movements from side to side should be performed slowly and rhythmically. Emphasis is on the full sweep of the arms and the twisting of your torso to the utmost rather than on speed. Speed isn't a word used in Yoga, rather substitute the word pressure. At the extreme points of the twisting movement, you can exert a slight pressure to enhance the value of this limbering exercise. And having practiced it for a day or two you should graduate with no difficulty to a more advanced lateral twist called THE SIDESLIP POSTURE.

Sideslip Posture
1. Kneel down on the floor and sit back on your heels. Raise your arms above your head, clasp your hands together and turn them palms upwards. Slide your body off your heels to the right and at the same time gently swing your arms towards the opposite side. You should not bend forward while performing this movement but move from the waist to the side only. Now raise your body off the floor, swing it slowly and gently to the other side and at the same time swing your arms over to the opposite side. Try to keep your knees together throughout the Sideslip Posture, but if you find this difficult or impossible at first, you may hold your knees apart to maintain your balance, but at all times endeavor to bring your knees together.

Many people, while attempting this asana for the first time, have difficulty with stage 3, that is the lifting of the body off the floor and the swinging it to the other side. In fact some people have trouble in getting themselves off the floor at all in this position and others, if they do succeed, land with a great thump on the opposite side and have difficulty getting up from there. Be patient. This exercise is not quite so easy as it looks. Graceful, and a great favorite with women everywhere, it looks simple enough but in actual fact it requires a high degree of muscular control and concentration.

Remember your head while you are doing the SIDESLIP POSTURE. It should bend the same way as your arms which you should, throughout the movement, try to press backwards as far as possible to avoid any possible sagging forward of your body.

This asana is one of the finest in the entire Yoga range for slimming the waist and reducing that pad of fat which often settles on top of the hipbones. You will feel a powerful stretch from your hips to your armpits and if you do this exercise correctly you will feel rather sore in the region of your hip joints the next day. This is normal and it will prove to you that this Yoga exercise has already begun to work for you. While one side of your body is being stretched the other side is being powerfully contracted. You can feel it squeezing the fatty tissue. It also imparts a healthy massage to the organs and muscles of the abdomen and helps the torso towards a new suppleness and grace.

When you can perform the SIDESLIP POSTURE at a moderate speed and with some degree of muscular control, then try to slow down the whole process so that it becomes a study in slow and gentle motion. This calls for a much higher degree of muscular control and thus the benefits of the posture are greatly enhanced. When you have perfected your movements in slow motion, regulate your deep breathing so that you lean to one side while inhaling and to the other while exhaling. Rhythm and slow motion are the final keywords in this exercise.

In its perfect form, the Sideslip Posture should be as follows. Lean to the right while inhaling. Remain immobile as you complete your inhalation and hold your breath for as long as possible. When the impulse to exhale appears, do so, as you raise your body off the floor and swing it to the other side. Remain immobile as you complete your exhalation and remain holding your breath for as long as possible before inhaling again. This constitutes one round. Perform up to a dozen rounds a day, starting with four and adding two rounds per week.

Like the Sideslip Posture, this next exercise is not so easy as it looks. It is called AROHANASANA or in English THE RAISED HEAD AND LEGS POSTURE. This asana wages war on that bulging abdomen. Lie flat on your back with your legs outstretched and your feet together. Lace your fingers together and place them at the back of your head just above your neck. Inhale very slowly and deeply and at the same time raise your head, shoulders, and legs off the floor, remembering to keep your knees straight. Hold this position until you have completed your inhalation. After holding your breath for a few seconds, very slowly return to the original position.

Those two words 'very slowly' in connection with the lowering of the legs will catch most of you out at first. You will want to plop your legs down on the floor in a great rush, but try as hard as you can to resist this impulse. It is the easy way out and you will gain nothing from employing it. You want to reduce that abdomen don't you? Then do please remember that there is no hurry at all in this exercise and the slow s-l-o-w lowering of the legs is precisely what strengthens, tones, exercises, and reduces those flabby abdominal muscles and helps to reduce fat in this area.

This is an exercise that requires a lot of patient practice before you can perform it perfectly. As it is a strenuous posture, do not do it more than twice a day for the first few days and after that very gradually increase the number of times you do it up to six.

In addition to toning and strengthening the abdominal muscles and reducing excess fat, this exercise also helps to relieve constipation, so it is doubly beneficial to the would-be-slimmer. The back and shoulders are also strengthened by the slow motion lifting and lowering of the head and shoulders.

A word of warning. This is not an exercise for women during pregnancy or who have any internal disorders, and people with hernia should practice it with extreme caution.

For those readers who find the Arohanasana too strenuous or simply beyond you, here is a similar though much easier exercise which is called UDHITTA PADASANA or THE RAISED LEG POSTURE.

1. Lie on your back with your legs outstretched and feet together. Inhale slowly and deeply and at the same time raise your right leg, keeping the knee straight until it is at right angles to your body.
2. Remain thus as you complete your inhalation, hold your breath for a few seconds while keeping absolutely still, your other leg flat on the floor.
3. When the impulse to exhale appears, do so, and at the same time very slowly lower your leg. Repeat with the other leg.

This simple exercise may be performed once or twice a day until you feel you are ready to try it with both legs at once. This exercise, like the previous one, will help to break up fatty tissue in the abdominal area. I must warn beginners to this and the previous exercise, that they might find their abdominal muscles a little sore the day after starting as you are using muscles which may never have been used in that way before. Do not worry about the discomfort. It means that Yoga is working for you so you should welcome it as a sign that you were performing the exercise properly. Remember always to lower your legs s-1-o-w-l-y.

Let us now try a standing posture for the improvement of the figure. This one will keep your spine healthy and supple, reduce abdominal fat, tone up sluggish bowels, and slim your waist. It is called THE WOODCUTTER Exercise.

Stand erect, feet far apart. Stretch out your arms, lace your fingers together and imagine that you are holding a very heavy axe. Inhale slowly and deeply and at the same time slowly raise the 'axe' above your head until you are leaning back as far as you can without losing your balance. Remain in the backward bend as you complete your inhalation, remain immobile for a few seconds holding your breath. When the impulse to exhale appears, swing the 'axe' down slowly as though there were actually a log in front of you and you were chopping it up. The downward movement should be a very powerful one, but do not stop when you reach the imaginary log, but let your hands follow through your legs.

Repeat this exercise six times, and do watch the following four points. Firstly that your elbows should be straight throughout, secondly that your feet should be firmly planted on the floor without moving, thirdly that you do not move your buttocks whilst you are bending down, and lastly, that all the movement should be done from above the waist. The lower half of the body should remain absolutely still.

A word of warning. This is a rather strenuous exercise and I do not recommend it for women with internal complaints or people with weak hearts. This exercise should not be done during menstruation.

The next posture for reducing abdominal fat is called THE TRIANGLE BEND.

Stand erect with your hands clasped together behind your back. Your feet should be far apart with your knees straight. Inhale slowly and at the same time turn your torso, from the waist upwards, slightly to the right. Continue with your inhalation as you bend your head slowly until your forehead touches your right knee. Your hands should still be clasped behind your back. Remain in this position for as long as you comfortably can without exhaling and, when the impulse to exhale appears, do so, at the same time slowly straightening up. Repeat the movement to the other side, bending your head towards the left knee.

That is the Triangle Bend. Repeat it twice each way at first but when you are limbered up you can perform it up to half a dozen times. Did I hear some of you say 'impossible'. I'll admit that if you are very stiff or very much overweight, the Triangle Bend may well seem so, but again I must ask you to practice it, without straining, and you will soon be pleasantly surprised at how easy this exercise really is. It reduces fat on the abdomen, waist, and thighs.

And now for another posture which has a similar name. This is TRIKONASANA or THE TRIANGLE POSTURE, and you may find it easier than the previous one. It is one of the most effective Yoga asanas for reducing fat round the waistline, the hips, the upper arms, and the thighs, and it should present little difficulty even to the beginner.

Trikonasana
Stand erect, feet far apart, and your arms extended sideways at shoulder level. While keeping your head in the same position (that is not turning it), bend slowly to the right until your right hand touches your right foot. You will have to bend your right knee a little to do this and at the same time your left leg should remain outstretched to maintain balance. Your left arm should be gradually brought up and over your head as far as possible. Remain in this position until you have completed your inhalation. When the impulse to inhale appears, do so and at the same time slowly return to the starting position. Repeat this exercise to the other side.

The most important feature of this exercise is the gradual increase of the stretch of the free arm, which should be brought over farther and farther each time you practice this exercise. It should be performed four times a day at first and, when you become more flexible, it can be performed up to a dozen times a day. The accent is on slow and rhythmical movement, as this exercise is much more beneficial to the health and the figure when performed slowly and gracefully. The breathing should also be carefully timed to coincide with the appropriate movements. Trikonasana is not a very strenuous posture but, all the same, I do not advise it for women with any kind of internal disorders or for people suffering from hernia.

This being the last of the so-called 'slimming' Yoga asanas, I should like to lend a helping hand to those of you who, with the best will in the world to practice Yoga and grow slim, feel that you cannot find the time to practice. I know it isn't always easy especially if you go out to business, as the mornings are filled with rushing about, and breakfasts and bath water, and if something has to be left out-well that's Yoga isn't it? This is one of the main reasons, I find, why would-be devotees of Yoga do not pursue the subject.

In view of the fact that Yoga asanas should be done on an empty stomach, it is usually convenient to perform your practice schedule first thing in the morning when you get out of bed. You may feel you are too sleepy to do them then but you will find that some of the asanas are very bracing owing to their stimulating effect on the nervous system and soon give you a wide-awake feeling. And once you have established the habit of doing Yoga postures first thing in the morning, it should become as much a part of your routine as having your morning bath or cleaning your teeth.

So, starting with one of those bracing exercises, here is a ten-minute practice schedule which is not beyond the means of anyone. All you do is get up ten minutes earlier. Ten short minutes each day-so very little time to devote to Yoga, but how rich will be the rewards, so rich that I feel convinced that many of you will soon want to get up even earlier to devote yet more time to this healthful study.

Ten-Minute Practice Schedule
1. Limbering up for Sideslip -1 minute
2. Sideslip - 3 minutes
3. Raised Head and Legs Posture - four times 2 minutes
4. Leg Raising Posture
5. Woodchopper - six times 1 minute
6. Triangle Bend - four times 1 minutes
7. Triangle - six times 2 minutes

This ten-minute practice schedule can be varied of course, according to your individual needs and the amount of time at your disposal. There may be one exercise which you find you like better than some of the others, in which case, do spend more time on that one. The schedule I have set out is a mere indication of what can be done with a few minutes set aside for Yoga practice. Do not omit the correct breathing as you perform these exercises and if you would slim do please avoid constipation, as this is one of the worst enemies of the body and of the figure. Yoga will do wonders for your health and your appearance and for your figure, but do please give it a helping hand by watching your diet

Smart Ways to Shop, Spend and Save this Holiday Season

2008-10-27T05:23:00.001-07:00

(ARA) - The holiday shopping season is here, and with it comes the stress of dealing with crowded stores, the temptation to overspend and the search for a bargain.

"Being in a mall around the holidays is like grocery shopping at dinner time," says financial expert Hilary Kramer. "You'll want everything you see." And since you're in a holiday-induced good cheer mode, it is easy to just keep taking out that credit card and ignore the fact that you'll have to pay for those purchases eventually. A little planning can make the holidays - and the ensuing bills - easier to deal with.

The first, and most important, step is to draw up a budget for your holiday spending. "Make a list of everyone you need to buy a gift for, compare it to your financial situation and then set a realistic budget," says Kramer.

Limiting yourself to spending only what's in your wallet is a built-in safety mechanism. Services like AOL Bill Pay (part of AOL Money & Finance) serve a similar function when you're shopping with a credit card - it will send you a "money alert" if you spend more than what you've allotted.

In addition to a budget, it's also good to have a general idea of the gift you're looking for. That way, you won't be tempted by an expensive impulse purchase. Knowing what you want also gives you the advantage of shopping online - and avoiding crowds.

"The Internet has made it easier than ever to be a comparison shopper," says Kramer. "You can visit half a dozen Web sites in the time it would take to find a parking spot at the mall. And you may even score extras like free shipping or gift wrapping by shopping online."

Shoppers can also go to AOL Money & Finance which features "Smart Shopping with Consumer Reports" to see an extensive library of product buying guides. By turning to trusted names shoppers can view unbiased reviews and comparisons of everything from baby products to electronics, appliances, home & garden items and more.

For another easy shopping solution, consider gift cards. They make it easy to stick to a budget, and in many cases you can buy them online and send them electronically. You can personalize the gift by matching the card to the interests of the person you're giving it to. For example, the techie in your life might love a gift card to an electronics store, or give your teenage nephew a movie theater gift card and your favorite reader a gift card to a bookstore.

Making a charitable donation on behalf of your friends or family is another great option. It's really two gifts in one - the charity gets a much-appreciated donation, and the honoree gets the satisfaction of knowing they've made a difference. And in many cases, you can claim the donation on your taxes, another smart money move.

As you shop, be aware that the holidays are a prime time for identity theft. A little shopping savvy goes a long way toward keeping you and your personal information safe. "When buying online, use a secure site, (you can tell at the checkout page if the link says https:// instead of http://) and shop with companies you know," advises Kramer. Be sure to print out a record of your order and your confirmation number.

At the mall, pay attention to your wallet and your purse at all times. When making a purchase, don't give out any more personal information than necessary - you can refuse to give your phone number when checking out, for example. When using the ATM or the credit card device at stores, always cover the key pad when entering your PIN number.

Always shred bills, receipts and anything else with your account numbers before throwing them away. And pay careful attention to your credit card statements. If you notice any unusual transactions, report them to the credit card company immediately. Using services, such as AOL Bill Pay, that provide you with an e-mail alert when a large transaction is made, are a great idea to help you manage your account. The service provides an early warning system with an authenticated e-mail "Money Alert", protecting you if your credit card number is stolen and also helping guard against identity theft.

After the holidays, paying bills online is a great way to keep track of your finances and to avoid hard copies of documents containing your personal information. With AOL Bill Pay, you'll get an online summary of your charges via e-mail, and in most cases you can link directly to the supplier Web site to pay online.

Smart shopping tactics will give you more time to relax and enjoy the holidays with friends and family.

Financial Tips for Women

2008-10-27T05:10:00.000-07:00

Financial articles and strategies have traditionally not been marketed with women in mind. In fact, until recently, financial themes have been considered male territory. Today this has changed. Women are now in control of their finances and their professional lives.

Control Over Your Financial Assets

The first thing financial strategy that women should learn is how to retain control of their financial assets. This means that they need to educate themselves about how to get and manage credit, how to establish a monthly budget, how to make money, and how to build their own personal wealth. Women should not rely on others to make all of their financial decisions for them, nor should they be blind about how their household funds are being spent.

Setting Financial Goals

Women also need to set goals for their financial future. A financial goal can be as simple as saving $500 for next year’s family vacation. Financial goals help to focus your energy on a specific outcome. This allows you to develop plans that will allow you to meet your goals.

Spend Less than You Earn

The most basic financial tip that women should learn about is that they should spend less then they earn. By spending less then they earn the household will be able to avoid debt and avoid added stress. Also, if a budget can be constructed for the household that allows it to generate a monthly surplus of money, then the household has the opportunity to build their wealth through savings and investments.

Save Money for Emergencies

Finally, women should try to set some money aside each month for emergencies. Many people plan for emergencies by having a first aid kit or buying insurance, but few people put money aside for unplanned expenses. Even putting aside $10 a month can help when your car breaks down, when you are faced with medical expenses, or if you lose your job.

10 Marketing Must Have's

2008-10-27T04:59:00.000-07:00

Marketing is what makes or breaks any business, and all too often it is simply overlooked or made as an after thought. Though it is important that you get together with a designer experienced in marketing and design, there are some things that you can do right now to improve your marketing efforts by yourself.

1-Have a clear message: What are you trying to say? Do not attempt to put your life story in a brochure and pass it out! People will simply throw it out.

2-Be consistent: Your letterhead, flyers, banners, web site etc. should carry the same theme throughout. This builds up trust among other things.

3-Proof Read: Or don't-but when you get your order for 5,000 flyers back and realize that there are errors in it, you will wish you had.

4-Target Your Audience: We all have a target audience, that is who we most often sell to and therefore cater our marketing to. Your marketing materials should appeal to these people.

5-Don't Skip It: You and I both have seen wonderful products go belly up, and worthless crap clutter store shelves successfully. Why? Marketing. Do not overlook the importance of this in your business.

6-Be Memorable: Set yourself apart from everyone else. If you sell goat milk soap, there are about 1,000,000 other goat milk soap creators out there, right? So when I, the consumer, come into contact with your company, why would I choose you? Give them a reason!

7-Get a Logo: If you can not afford to hire someone to handle all of your marketing materials, at the very least find a really good designer to design you a killer logo. You can expect to pay anywhere from $50-$5,000 for original logo designs, but when all is said and done, you have an authentic and memorable brand to build upon and last you many years.

8-Never miss an Opportunity: There are so many times through out the day when you have the ability to 'market' and don't. For example, for paintedplatesandbowls.com, the company ships many packages and has to mark them all 'fragile'. Well, when we had the fragile stamp designed, we added the web address just below the "Fragile" so now that web address is all over the package and being seen by people we will never meet!

9-Understand Humans: Just as in the example above, you have to understand human reactions. Humans are naturally curious, but avoid being manipulated.

10-Invest wisely: Do not simply buy ads with companies or directories because they are cheap. If no one read the publication then no matter how cheap it was, you over paid. It is better to be creative in your marketing (sending samples to radio djs, sponsoring contests, etc) and save your money up until you can afford to buy an ad on a site with more visitors. And, only market to your market, anything else is spinning your wheels.

Next time you are shopping, look at their clearance section and you are bound to find some great products with poor marketing. Go through the rest of the store, and you will at some point find some products that are little more that junk selling quite nicely, because they have a great marketing campaign. Follow these tips, and stay out of the clearance section.

(by Samantha Olea)