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Munius - Article Directory Site Features     Home Page   Articles    Submit Article   © 2006 Munius All rights reserved		General General Business Business Management Internet Marketing Marketing Business Opportunities E-Commerce Start Up Home Business Network Marketing Telecommuting Blogging E-Business Podcasting RSS Article Marketing Email Search Engine Optimization Site Promotion Building Traffic Converting Traffic Traffic Analysis Entrepreneurship Internet Add Category    How To Obtain Non-Reciprocal Link That Will Raise by Serge Dandelin We all know that there are tons of different ways out there that can raise your search engine rankings. However, do you know how search engines rank your sites anyway? Well the truth is, there are tons of different facts that play a role on how the search engines rank your web page. That is why there are so many different ways out there to raise your search engines ranking; some just work better than others. The good news is that there is one way to increase your ranking tremendously, and that is by obtaining non-reciprocal links. The search engines rank you by the number of links that are linked back to your site. However, not just any link will do. You have to make sure that the sites that are linked up to you are related in content. Here are my top ways to get Non-Reciprocal Link that will raise your search engine rankings tremendously: 1 - Get your web site listed in web directories relevant to your niche. You will have to do some research. But your persistence will pay off. Not only in improvement of your google page rank but that will also bring you some targeted traffic in the process. There are thousands of free directories waiting to list your listing. 2 - Article Marketing, write and publish your articles on other web sites. Use article marketing to write simple, but useful articles in your field. Submit your articles to article directories. they will include your "resource box" with a link back to your site. That will once again boost your google Page Rank and at the same time increase your credibility. 3 - Write and publish an ebook. Write and publish you own ebook. Then offer a free copy of your ebook to websites related to your niche. Submit your ebook to ebooks directories. That way you will get a link back to your site. Publishing an ebook will provide you a new free way of promoting your website. Why do you think so many internet marketers are giving away electronic books? It's easy to go out there and look for these sites, but you have to make sure they are related to your site. A good way to do that is by searching for websites that have a lot of the same keywords as you. You can easily do this on search engines by putting keywords in quotation marks. Getting links to your website from all over the place is great, but overall, you will have to do a lot of things to get our website noticed by search engines. However, having links everywhere is a good way to start out. Just make sure that they are quality links and everything will go perfectly for you. Also, make sure you make a website that other sites want to link to. This way you know that the information that you are offering is high quality. This will get your site noticed in no time. To Your Success! I have just completed my brand new guide to Search Engine Marketing Success. Download it free here: http://affordable-search-engine-optimization-services.com/seo-course.html Best Regards, Serge Daudelin SEO Consultant http://affordable-search-engine-optimization-services FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS 5 Ways to Market Affiliate Programs by Jinger Jarrett The easiest business to start online, as I've mentioned before in other articles, is an affiliate program business. It requires no customer support, no website, and no list, especially if you're just starting out. Although some will suggest that you need a list or website to be successful in affiliate marketing, there are thousands, possibly millions of marketers out there who earn a full time living with affiliate programs and don't know the first thing about website building or list building. In fact, the best part of affiliate marketing is that you can focus most of your efforts on marketing, and once you learn how to do it correctly, you'll spend a lot less time working, and you'll make a lot more money. Since marketing affiliate programs can be quite competitive depending on the products or services you sell, you need some type of edge for getting the sale. Below are five ways to market you should consider. There are plenty of ways to market online even if you don't have a website. 1. Although list building isn't necessary, you may want to consider it. The reason is that its biggest advantage is you can recycle your traffic. When visitors visit your site, and it can be as simple as a one page lead capture page, you can get your visitors to subscribe. Not only will you have an opportunity to tell your visitor about your initial offering, you can also market additional products to those who subscribe. The easiest way to build a list is to give away some type of premium. Free ebooks or reports that talk about the problem your product solves are always good. Put yourself in your subcribers' shoes. Define what the problem is and then show how the product can solve the problem. 2. Try pay per click. If you have a very small marketing budget to begin with, this may sound crazy. After all, you want to make money, not spend money. However, there are plenty of pay per click sites out there that will give you free traffic to get you started, and you can test and track your ads to find the winners. If you really want to learn how to make the most of this type of marketing, study the FAQs as well as other resources offered on pay per click sites. These sites want you to make money because you'll become their customer. It's in the best interests of these sites to offer you extensive resources to help you reach your financial goals. 3. Try advertising in online ezines. This is an overlooked marketing technique, and there are tons of ezines on the internet that sell advertising. You can do a search on your favorite search engine to help you find ezines that fit your target niche. Start off small, test and track your ads, and cloak your affiliate links. You want to give a professional appearance to what you're offering. Try out each ezine for at least a month. That way you'll know whether or not your advertising is working. Don't try to sell your reader up front. Use what's called in newspaper advertising as the two step method. This is where you get visitors to the site and then make your offer. 4. Try writing articles and product reviews. Like ezine advertising, this is often an overlooked way to promote affiliate products. Although many article directories don't accept articles with affiliate links in the resource box, you can avoid this by sending your vistors to a simple lead capture page website, a Squidoo lens, or even a free blog you've created. Article marketing can be very effective whether you are selling your products or someone else's. Your goal should be to give readers enough information so they click through your link to the site. 5. Try creating viral reports. Although some affiliate program managers offer these reports, others don't. It's not that hard to write a short report explaining the problem and then adding your affiliate links. Make sure you convert the report to PDF so anyone can read it. By making your offers different, or offering your visitors an instant solution to their problems, you can make a lot of money whether you market your products or someone else's. Like these tips? Then get your free copy of Affiliate Money Machine, as well as other affiliate marketing resources. Get your free 30 day ebusiness course. Jinger Jarrett is the author of "Internet Marketing for Free: The GUIDE," available on Amazon. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Basics Of Pay Per Click Marketing by Guido Nussbaum The Internet is constantly evolving and changing, especially for those of us that are involved in the marketing end of the net. For some people, they have seen the changes come and go and trends that burn like fire for a while and then simply die out. One method of marketing, however, that is sure to stick around for the long term is pay per click marketing. This is one of the best methods of getting targeted traffic to your website in a short period of time. If done correctly, you can take a brand-new website and start getting sales on the very same day that it is uploaded. Pay per click marketing actually got its start very early in the century with a company that was called Goto. This company eventually became Overture and then was bought out by Yahoo. In the early days, it was very easy to purchase some targeted traffic to your website at around one cent for every click. People that got in on the game early were able to make a killing in a relatively short period of time if they did it correctly. Since that time, competition has come in from all different directions and more pay per click marketing companies have opened their doors to advertisers. As a matter of fact, Yahoo takes a distant second to the king of all pay per click advertisers, Google. The Google system has revolutionized pay per click marketing in a number of different ways and it is the single best way to drive quick traffic to your website, if you are willing to pay for it. There are several different aspects of pay per click marketing that are very important for you to understand fully before you decide to get involved with this form of advertising. First of all, you need to learn how to use the system properly so that you don't end up exhausting your entire advertising budget in a short period of time on traffic that has no way of generating any income at all. This is a very common mistake that many who are new to pay per click advertising tend to make. Once you learn the system, however, of how to bid and how to set up your various ads, it becomes an easy thing for you to build on and to maintain. As you continue to learn more about this form of marketing, you will understand some of the intricacies that govern where your ad will be placed and how well the traffic that follows through to your website will be targeted. Things such as keyword targeting and writing proper ads will all come into play along with making sure that your landing page is relevant to the ad itself. There's no doubt about it, using pay per click marketing is the single best way to generate an income online in a relatively short period of time. If you do it properly, it will take care of you for a long time to come. If you like to discover many more proven to work marketing strategies, then head over to the Profit Work From Home website http://www.profitworkfromhom FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS How To Use Podcasting To Build Your Business Onlin by Jennifer Connor Broadcast your business using podcasts! A podcast is a collection of digital media files that is distributed over the internet using syndication feeds for playback. The content is downloaded by users into multiple programs to be viewed on their home computer or portable media device. Youtube has set the precedent for this medium, with nearly 200 million hits per day. The podcast phenomenon has spread worldwide offering businesses the ability to broadcast any idea, and further opportunities to professionally record full segment commercials as marketing tools. Podcasts can be used for a variety of business needs * Educational broadcasts or tutorials * New product releases * Product demonstrations * Seminars and training sessions * Internal communications within a company or organization * Interviews or news feeds * Company brand introductions * Commentaries * A free deliverable for potential customers Why are podcasts effective? When podcasts are used to communicate internally within a company, they can be used as a training session for employees or to provide corporate updates. When they are used on a company website, they can be used to launch new products as a mini-commercial. Product demonstrations can be used to build customer relationships, as customer can opt for an RSS feed that would allow customers to receive information automatically, versus having to regularly visit the company website. Podcasts are often less expensive than traditional advertising, creating an even playing field for large and small companies to advertise online. They can be created professionally or with software tools on your home computer. The media can also be replayed by viewers and forwarded, creating viral marketing potential. How do you implement? Step 1: Create an audio file using audio recording software Audio recording software allows users to record audio files and provides the user a format that is easy to use and easy to implement. Some software to consider would be: Mixcraft, Text Aloud and Replay Audio. Step 2: Add the audio file to an RSS feed Start with your RSS feed provider and enter a title for your podcast along with a description of the audio files. You will need to enter the URL that is associated with the feed (often your company home page) and enter the file that contains the audio content, the size of the file and the format. Once you have entered all of the required information, you need to save the FTP file to your server to prepare for its launch. Step 3: Market your podcast There are multiple sites that accept podcast submissions, including podcasting station, podcast alley, podcast.net and pocketcasting. Be sure to research each podcast site to determine whether your podcast will meet the submission requirements before submitting it. Your podcast should also be marketed on your website using an RSS feed tool and as a link within your e-zines, e-books or as a link within your article or blog postings. Podcasting is an inexpensive marketing tool for your business and can be used across many business functions to increase business revenues. And it's an excellent way to reach a new audience and drive massive traffic to your websites. For more great free information and articles on podcasting visit my Understanding Internet Marketing Blog at: http://understandinginternetmarketing.com Feel free to distribute this article in any form as long as you include this resource box and link. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Free Websites, Understand The True Cost by Lorraine Hansen As you surf the net you will find offers that promise to provide you with a free Website. You are told that at no cost to you, you are accept as a distributor for the company and their products. Any sales that you generate from your site will result in commission checks. You can also recruit more people to start their free website and you will receive a commission from their sales as well. Free, always sounds good, but is it really free? Oh yes, most of these companies do give you a free website. It is merely a replication of the company site which has your name or company name on the landing or capture page. Your challenge is to get visitors to come only to your website. The more distributors a company has the less likely it is for your page to be the one selected to purchase from, unless you have personal contact with those looking for your particular brand or service. Now the reality of the cost of the free website begins to become evident. For example, you are now a distributor for this particular brand of diet pills. You have joined a group of probably more than 100 other websites selling the same brand of diet pills, with the same title on your website, except for your personal ID. Thus, when using any search engines for that brand name 100s of websites which look like they have the same name will be found. You may have added to your competition in the search engines by recruiting more people as distributors. The chances of your site being chosen are slim to none unless there is something different about your website. Besides, research also shows that most people only look at the first 10, and in rare cases 20, of their search results. For tracking purposes your site’s name is, for instance, http://www.diet.com/urID and if people only type in http://diet.com, they arrive at the company’s main website. A purchase here will not be credited to you, even though you have done the advertising. No financial benefits will come your way. One way to avoid this problem is by the purchase of your own domain name linking it to your website. Thus, you have a better advertising tool because you have made your site standout as different. but you also have more expense. You may try writing articles for ezine pages on the internet about the benefits of this brand of diet pills. Ezines will allow a signature link that includes your web address, unfortunately, most free distribution articles are not picked up by the search engines, even with the right key words. If you pay for distribution to a few hundred targeted, potential users you many increases your chances of a sale, while the cost for this may be small, it will need to be reoccurring if you hope for any type of success. There are many places to advertise for free on the internet, but it can be very time consuming to find them and manually place ads on them. This can be an option for those who have more time than money. You may also want to explore social or attraction marketing on the web. So, remember, “Free” doesn’t always add up to being really free. Lorraine Hansen is owner of http://WellnessGreat.com and writes on a variety of subjects. To learn more about this topic Lorraine recommends you visit: http://www.WellnessGrea FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Data Entry Jobs – Are They Real Or Scams? by Alan Lim Data entry jobs are one of today's most popular home businesses. Check some common types of data entry projects to see if they are a good fit. Generally, data entry jobs are those that record, manipulate, store or create any kind of data. In the past, data entry jobs were usually intended for workers in large corporations that had enough typing and transcription work to afford the services of full time data entry personnel. With the increasing use of the internet in the work environment, more companies have found it beneficial to contract out data entry work to home businesses, either directly or indirectly. The home businesses can be local or can even be found internationally in large centers where small organizations work is transmitted and prepared by typists and data entry workers. Who uses data entry? Both large and small corporations use personnel to do data entry jobs. Because home business owners can often perform data entry work at a lower cost that can be paid out for a salaried employee, even the very small businesses can take advantage of home workers for data manipulation. Because of the advances in technology, almost every business can make effective use of this type of office function. There are even businesses who use data entry personnel to do quality control work. Data entry has long been used in the legal profession both in court and by law offices. Medical offices use data entry workers to complete patient charts and insurance billing forms. What type of work is contracted? Work such as updating of databases, transcribing audio or video/audio materials or routine accounting entries into a standardized form can easily and economically be sent to contracted employees or businesses. Not only can the standard work be sent to data entry personnel, but data entry jobs to assure editing and quality control on a finished product can be contracted. Medical transcription helps keep patient charts up to date while legal transcription is another sub specialty often contracted to outside personnel. Preparing and maintaining large databases is a logical duty for data entry personnel. Who are the data entry workers? Data entry jobs are prized by home workers because of their variety, simplicity and lack of sophisticated equipment. A typical data entry worker is one who has worked in the corporate world and has decided that other lifestyles are preferable. The data entry worker can be a parent who wants to stay at home with preschool age children. He or she may be a retired worker looking for a little extra income that can be completed at a pace that suits the individual. How is work transmitted? Work for data entry jobs is typically transmitted over the internet especially if the distance from the business is significant. Alternatively, workers at home can receive projects and instructions through a messenger, through mail or delivery services, or over the telephone. In some cases, the worker will be required to travel to a location to collect or to pick up the data to be transcribed, such as is the case with legal transcriptionists. By far the easiest and most economical transmittal method for most situations is that of electronic transfer. There are hundreds of jobs in data entry, but the only outstanding one is at http://www.goodinternetmoney.com/How_To_Find_Legitimate_Online_Data_Entry_Jobs.php or http://www.goodinternetmoney.com/Make-Money-With-Data-Entry.php , the best resource site on the internet for reviewing such jobs. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Internet Home Based Business - What's The Best Int by Alan Lim Before you can run a successful internet home based business, you need a good internet service provider. Here are some of the features to look for in an ISP. There are several different types of internet service providers out there currently. You may think that the major variation amongst the service providers is just the speed of the connection. In truth, that is only one factor that can affect the overall service from the service provider. Some of the characteristics that make one provider different from another are speed of connection, availability of service, ability to connect, cost, technical knowledge, service hours and quality of the equipment. When you have an internet home based business you should consider all the factors in order to determine the best possible selection. Dial Up The oldest and probably most common internet service provider is still the dial up service. This is accomplished by dialing through your computer modem into the server computer with a telephone access. This is a more common solution for an internet home based business because telephone lines are still available in most areas of the country. Using dial up involves either purchasing a second telephone line or transferring the cord from the telephone jack to the computer. The difficulty with dial up is the limited number of access points at the service provider's location. If all the lines are busy, the internet cannot be accessed until someone else quits using the internet. Cable In more populated areas, where there is already cable television available. Those with an internet home based business can use the cable company in order to access the internet. The speeds for the cable hookup is certainly faster than the dial up service and more dependable since there is a higher usage factor and the service is often better maintained. The equipment tends to be more up to date. If you already have cable television, cable internet service is probably a good option for you. It's fast, convenient and the price is reasonable. Wireless A wireless connection for your internet home based business is even faster than the other two. The problem is the availability and access issues. You have to be in a wireless hot spot and have the proper equipment in order to use the service. Because of the line of sight requirements for the internet connection to work properly, finding a good location to operate your internet connection may prove to be difficult or impossible. Use of wireless service is totally dependent upon location and availability of nearby receiving and transmitting stations. Satellite A satellite access for your internet home based business is certainly an excellent way to get service even to a fairly remote location. Any place in the United States that has an unobstructed view of the southern sky can get internet access. Other than the expected satellite lag time which occurs, upload speeds and download speeds are very fast. One difficulty with a satellite internet system is that the equipment can be quite expensive, depending on whether you purchase or lease it. Some issues have arisen with the volume of usage by some clients. Some internet service providers limit the amount of bandwidth that can be used in any particular time period. As a resource site to find the best home based business, not a single business can complete with the information found on http://www.goodinternetmoney.com or http://www.goodinternetmoney.com/Finding_The_Right_Internet_Home_Based_Business.php . Visit the website to learn everything you want to know. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS How To Set Up A Profitable Squeeze Page by Constantin Chersin A squeeze page, or landing page, is a great way to test your advertising. You can also build your list in this way. It acts like a mini sales page, and will keep on working 24/7. There are certain elements that a good squeeze page will need in order to be effective. It is easy to set up. Here are a few steps to quickly set one up and increase your subscriber list. 1. Create a new web page: Make a new web page on your site 2. Mini Sales page: Create a mini sales page: remember to use all the elements of a regular sale page; make it personal, be professional and be persuasive. Bring forward the benefits of joining your newsletter, and make them curious to join. 3. Subscription box: Remember to have a subscription box for your newsletter on the same page. It is surprising how many people forget this. You should try to put your subscription box in the center of the page or in the ltop left hand corner. A hover ad can also be quite effective. 4. Bonus: Add a little bonus for subscribing. This can be a good quality e-book, or an e-course that will appeal to your market. These are always popular and will encourage people to sign up. 5. Traffic generation: Drive large amounts of targeted traffic to your squeeze page. One of the best ways to do this is to run a Google Adwords campaign. This will bring highly targeted subscribers to your newsletter. It will work especially well of you have a specialized niche market. Search engine marketing will bring you good responsive subscribers, so do not forget to optimize your squeeze page and submit your site to the search engines. Link up squeeze pages to your articles so that you can test their effectiveness. Articles will also bring you a lot of quality subscribers. 6. Create multiple squeeze pages: Link different advertising to separate squeeze pages. This will allow you to test different forms of advertising and see which ones are the most effective for your list building. 7. Track and test: Track and test all your squeeze pages. Be prepared to tweak them and discard any advertising that is not working. Remember to present your squeeze page well. Making it look good will boost your credibility and encourage sign ups. Credibility is very important in business and will help you to gain a great reputation as a business owner. It will also increase sales and subscribers. With these 7 steps you will be able to set up your squeeze page quickly and easily. Making multiple sales pages can sound tedious but it is a very effective way to track and test your advertising. A good squeeze page will greatly increase your subscriber list and ultimately your profits. All you have to do is to monitor your squeeze pages carefully and of course make sure you make good on your sales pitch and publish a quality newsletter. so do not forget to set up your squeeze pages and build a large profitable business list. Constantin Chersin is an entrepreneur specializing in software and web development. For more information about his services please visit his website at http://www.fox.ro , internet articles at http://www.net-review.eu and a study of autoresponders at http://www.the-best-autoresponder FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Enhancing Web Effectiveness With Audio Sound Desig by Jerry Bader The average person is exposed to an assault of stimuli each and every moment of our waking day. Some of this stimulus catches our attention, but much is filtered out as extraneous, useless, or unimportant. This filtering is our way of handling the constant barrage of information we endure. As marketers it is our job to cut through all the meaningless, random white noise of life and penetrate the consciousness of our targeted audience with our marketing messages. Mere Subliminal Exposure One of the weapons, tools if you prefer, professional media producers use to create an impression and influence behavior is something called mere subliminal exposure, the process of communication without explicit notice. It is a process and effect that everyone uses every day without ever thinking about it, and it is a necessity in order to deal with, and make sense of, our over-stimulated lives. The look your spouse gives you at a dinner party, the tone of a simple comment, or the change in body language communicates a message that says, 'stop what you're doing before I get angry,' or 'let's get the heck out of here before I die of boredom.' But whatever the coded meaning, the communication is clear. We all have the ability to decode these kinds of minimal subliminal messages. In fact the inability of some to properly interpret these kinds of signals has lead to unfortunate consequences. This process is not to be confused with the discredited work of James Vicary, who in 1957 faked the results of subliminal advertising in movie theaters. He claimed and later recanted that by flashing barely noticeable images of popcorn and soft drinks on the screen that it increased sales of the items by a significant amount. However, this abuse of the phenomenon does not negate the fact that people are sensitive to, learn from, and respond to a variety of subtle visual and auditory experiences that influence their behavior. The same can be said of other senses like smell and touch, but since our main concern is how to use this process on website presentations we will leave the more physical encounters to our offline marketing colleagues. Audio Sound Design The Art of Hidden Persuasion The Signature Voice-over One of the least used but most effective and economical marketing tools a website business has at its disposal is signature voice-over, or Sonic Personality. It establishes your identity and embeds your brand by giving your site a human voice. It is the sound of the human voice that conveys all the subtlety and nuance of the message you have to deliver. Major advertisers use familiar sounding actors and actresses to deliver personality and impact. Even when an audience doesn't recognize the voice being used, the positive attributes associated with that voice are transferred to the product or service being offered. It is not by random choice that Ford Motor Company chose Keifer Sutherland's Jack Bauer sonic personae for the voice of their television spots or that Chili's restaurants now employs John Corbett's comfortable, friendly, 'Sex and The City' voice instead of the previously grating and irritable sound of comic Wanda Sikes. Most website businesses cannot afford to hire Hollywood talent to pitch their products. What is important is that the voice you choose is a signature voice, a distinctive sound that delivers the script with character and style employing timber, cadence, and phrasing like only a professional voice actor can do. Of course, you must also give your voice talent the right words to say, which means you provide them with a professionally written script if you want to maximize the effectiveness of your signature voice-over. When we think of voice-overs we usually think of commercial presentations, but here again most website businesses truly miss the boat when it comes to utilizing Sonic Personality. We all know that text on your website is important in order to attract search engine indexing, unfortunately from a marketing effectiveness point-of-view, text alone lacks impact. People are impatient and generally do not want to read volumes of text information, and besides, most people find it difficult to read on a computer screen. Even if they do read your material, how much of it is retained, is it associated with your company, or does it just get confused with all the other stuff people see during their busy, business day? As a solution why not turn all your website copy, including articles, into audio delivered by a professional signature voice, providing people the option of reading the text or sitting back and listening to your words of wisdom? Of all the multimedia, marketing techniques available to you, a signature voice is the most economical option whether used as a stand-alone element or as part of a visual or video presentation. Sound Cue Punctuation & Effects Voice-over is not the only audio method available to the savvy website marketer. You wouldn't write something without using punctuation: it's what makes the words meaningful by providing the cadence necessary for maximizing the impact, but punctuation does not have to be limited to periods, exclamation marks and semicolons. Punctuation can be added in the form of sound cues and audio effects. Professional audio engineers know what kind of sound to add to a presentation in order to draw people's attention to certain key phrases, words, or points. In the same way a composer arranges the music score for a movie to enhance mood and build excitement, so too does the commercial audio producer turn a dry read into an authentic, memorable experience. Sound punctuation and audio effects should not be taken lightly; audio sound design, when done properly, is one of the most complex and technical areas of multimedia, far more sophisticated than video and just as important if not more so. Where and how to use trumpet swells, rim shots, and volume variance is not just art, it's science, and it has a profound psychological and emotional effect on the listener. Custom Composed Music If voice-over is the most under-utilized Web-marketing tool we have, then music is probably the most abused. No doubt music like sound design is an enormously powerful method of enhancing mood, and drawing attention to specific points and images. Unfortunately slapping on an over-used royalty-free sound loop that's been used on everything from breakfast cereals to incontinence products is not the answer. For music to be effective it should be unique enough to be associated with your company and arranged in such a way that it increases the presentation's memorability and enhances its experience. In the silent movie era music was the only method of creating this kind of emotional impact, and despite today's full range of visual presentation techniques and special effects, music scoring is still one of the most crucial elements of memorable movie-making. When it comes to music, you are dealing with the full arsenal of psychological presentation techniques and failure to use it properly may be counter-productive. Signature Sound Logos One of the first things people do when they start a business is to have a logo designed. Even novice entrepreneurs recognize that a company needs some kind of visual identity, a short-form tag that conveys the brand image that can be recognized in an instant. The advent of visual media like television and commercial TV spots did not obscure the importance of the radio-style jingle and what has become known as the sound logo or audio signature. The Maxwell House coffee percolator beat, Kellogs Rice Krispies' 'Snap, Crackle, Pop,' and Tony The Tiger's 'Grrrrrrrrreat!' are all classic examples of audio signature. Today we have the familiar sound of Intel's sound logo, the powerful swell of the THX movie sound tag, and Vonage's original goofy signature audio branding. In today's multimedia Web environment, your sound logo is every bit as important as your visual identity. It's Theater of the Mind Radio has often been referred to as 'theater of the mind' because the combination of voice, sound cues, effects, music, and audio logos helped paint powerful and memorable mental images for the listener. For those old enough to remember radio dramas, the ringing of 'Johnny Dollar's' telephone or the sound of 'Inner Sanctum's' creaking door are forever permanently etched in the minds to anyone whoever heard them. In a Web environment populated by millions of websites all competing for audience attention, failure to use every marketing tool at your disposal is simply foolish. If you want to be heard, it's time to say what you have to say out-loud. Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Web Host Services: What You Can Get by Bill McNulty When searching for a web host you may want to look into the extra services that are offered. Although some web host companies do not offer anything more than the basics, this is not the case with the majority of them. Since there is so much competition in this industry, every web host is looking for a way to distinguish themselves. And through extra web host services they can do this without any problem at all. As a buyer, you need to know what is available to you as far as web host services are concerned. Sure, you know that a web host company is going to offer you web hosting for your site. But in addition to this, you want to also look into the many web host services that you may be able to get along with this. In most cases, you do not have to pay for any of these extras. As long as you host your site with a company, they will be more than happy to give you these add on services free of charge. As you can imagine, this can make your time with your web host much more enjoyable. Anytime you are getting something for free you will usually have a good experience. So what web host services out of the norm are available to consumers? This is a question that has many answers, because as mentioned above, each company has their own way of doing things. You owe it to yourself to look into a number of different companies, and then decide which web host services you are being offered. Obviously, if there are two like companies, you will want to choose the one that is offering you the most in terms of added benefits and services. One of the most common add ons that you will come across is free domain registration. The moment that you sign up with a company offering this service, you will have the ability to register any domain name for free. While this may not be a big freebie, it is something that you will need nonetheless. This is a particularly good service to receive if you are a beginner. This way, you do not have to worry about registering your domain name with another service, and then taking the time and effort to transfer it to your web hosting company. Another popular web host service is when the company offers free message boards to users. This may not sound like a huge deal on the surface, but being able to get in touch with other people using the same service can be beneficial in a number of different ways. This will give you the ability to not only meet other people, but at the same time you can ask any questions that you may have. Although this may seem geared more towards beginners, even advanced webmasters can benefit from what message boards have to offer. There are many web host services that will be available to you. After you find a few companies that offer the actual web hosting that you like, you will then want to begin to consider these extra services. They may make or break your final decision! Bill McNulty loves everything tech, especially anything http://www.hostingref.com/ top 10 web hosting related. He writes for multiple tech sites on a freelancer basis and lives with his wife and 2 dogs in rural upstate New York. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS What Article Writing Can Do For Your Online Home B by K. Faram The internet is infamous for fads and phases, just like in the real world. While there are a number of different opportunities for online marketing, things tend to come and go frequently. However, article writing is something that has continued to stay strong and should be a long term marketing method that you use. Quality content is something that every online home business needs regardless of what type of business it is. And content is something that can benefit you greatly. When you think about it, most web sites have a decent amount of content on every page toward the top. The reason for this is because you want to give people intriguing and useful information to make them stay. The more information you have to offer, the longer people are going to stay at your site. If the content is not worth looking at, people may not be very interested in your site. Content is the juice of the web site. It allows you to display your expertise through words. The more you know about something the more people will come back to your site as well. There are far too many sites that have repetitive content, but if you can offer visitors informative and unique content you can go a long way in attracting and keeping customers. Not only is content important for your web site, but it is an extremely effective marketing method as well. Writing articles allows you to promote your site and generate traffic without spending a penny. And not only can you generate traffic, but targeted traffic at that. The reason for this is because most article directories have different categories to choose from. When you go to submit your article, you can submit it to the category that is associated with your online home business. Then when people search for content, those who are interested in your niche can read your article. It really is as simple as that. After reading the article, people can then look at your resource box to learn more about you. The resource box is where you place a couple of sentences about you or your web site and place a link to your web site. Then, people can easily be directed to your site by clicking on the link. Article writing and content is also great for keyword optimization. By targeting specific keywords and using them consistently in your writing, you can climb higher on the search engines. Whenever someone types in the keywords you target into the search engine, they will see your web site toward the top of the search engines. There is no question about the positive effect article writing can have on your online home business. Whether it is keeping visitors on your site or promoting your site through keyword optimization and article directories, quality content can do wonders for your business. It is therefore something that you should not ignore and dedicate some time to the task of article writing. Kerenza Faram is the webmaster of http://www.humdrumlife.com Small Business Ideas. Sign up for her free http://www.humdrumlife.com Small Business Ideas Newsletter and receive 6 essential home business e-books. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Three Rules To Writing Successful Copy For Online by Jolene Christopherson For marketing campaigns to be able to convert and be profitable, well written copy must go with them. In short, copy is the sales document used to promote the product or idea being sold. And copy is to a marketing campaign what search engine optimization is to a website. Here are the three rules to remember when writing your benchmark copy. These are important rules when you are serious about your marketing campaigns. One of the rules is that people don’t like the idea of being sold. People who make purchases want the idea of buying something to be theirs. They want the comfort of knowing they were in control and made the decision to buy based on scrutinizing all of the particulars about the product. Think of a time when you went to purchase something such as a car, house or life insurance plan. Think of how the salesperson treated you and worked with you. How did you feel when it seemed as though you were being sold the product and you weren’t buying the product? Do not give the feeling of being sold when writing copy. This is one way that people sometimes lose business that they might have been able to have. Another rule to keep in mind is that buyers make purchases based on emotions not rationale. They feel the need to buy based on feelings such as fear, lust, vanity, envy, laziness, pride, etc. When was the last time you purchased an item because you were afraid of what you might lose if you didn’t get it or that you might run out of something so you needed a replacement? How about a purchase to upgrade something? Pride or vanity was most likely involved in that transaction somewhere along the way? Appeal to a buyer’s emotion in your copy and he will make a decision to purchase based on that. The last rule to remember is that the decision to purchase must be justified with rational. Once a buyer is sold based on his emotion, he needs to rationalize that choice. The prospect needs to feel good about the decision he made to purchase. Consider this, after you decided to purchase your new car, how many times did you justify your decision based on the added comfort for your long commutes or better gas mileage. Heck, even a sun roof is a way to cool the car down and create circulation rather than using air conditioning. Provide in your copy all of the additional information that creates reasons for a buyer to be able to logically justify his purchase. Remember to let the buyer feel in control, know that playing to emotion will drive his decision and giving reasons to justify his choice all play a role in making a sale. If you utilize these three rules when writing copy it will help sell your product. And, writing that kind of copy on a consistent and continuous basis will bring you success in online marketing. Jolene Christopherson, of http://Successprofiting.com is an internet marketer working with top leaders in the Home Based Business and Internet Marketing Industry. She is actively working to assist other business owners and various individuals in achieving their optimal success. For more information on starting your own home based business visit http://www.successprofitin FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS What Will Become Of The New Geniuses Of Internet Marketing? by Ted Cantu Can there be too much of a good thing? There are so many “gurus” out there who have figured out the mechanics of Internet marketing these days. Maybe they have figured out what makes sense for themselves as business owners. A lot of these magical finds only work within one industry. That means these techniques will only work for the owner for the time being. But that could all change tomorrow. Remember in the not so distant past the rage over broadcast fax. Industries folded up literally over night because business got comfortable with one single technology. They bet the farm on it and lost their game. That can happen with just about any single internet technology today. There are a lot of experts popping up at conventions who have mastered Google adwords, pay per click campaigns, publicity, and getting their articles published all over the web. But what happens as the web changes and business owners are too caught up in their business to notice? For many of them this could spell lights out. That’s why the true test of time is going to come when these techniques can blend easily from one industry to another. One form of lead generation is going to be stronger than another depending on the industry it comes from. For example, you may find that a lead for a home based service may come from display ads in a home paper as opposed to a pay per click ad. This pay per click model could serve a legal firm better than a home repair company. You have to always pay attention to the proper distribution channels for that particular industry. Every one of them has a different set of rules. The Meaning Of True Success A lot of these internet experts have made millions of dollars by perfecting something small within their niche online. It could be combining online and offline lead generation techniques and forcing their prospects through squeeze pages. But that is just one aspect of what it takes to be successful. In the course of long term relationship building this becomes problematic. One should strive to make a multitude of sales from that one prospect instead of just focusing on the one time sale. One time sales are like freak accidents. They are hard to duplicate and they are often created without the use of a system. They are hard to duplicate because the exact conditions are hard to determine. When I select a guru to study and learn from I look for systems. I want something I can duplicate and recreate on my own. The other thing I want to do is look for ways I can sell them something bigger on the back end. I like to think big. This is hard to do when you are working on a one trick pony angle. I ran into a video series of the new bad boys of Internet Marketing and I got to say it was impressive. But too many times I found that this series was too simplistic. In each scenario the selected guru had taken an idea or a concept and ran with it. They exploited that technique to the hilt and made a substantial amount of money out of it. This was pretty impressive but my mind kept drifting back to the broadcast FAX thing and the passing thought….. this could all end tomorrow. No doubt the web is going to blossom into something else. It already has in many ways. We now have at least 9 different families of search including digital web video, social bookmarking, blog search and podcasting just to name a few. This is going to be an incredible market to play in and in a lot of ways it already is. Will business owners have the imagination or the patience to grasp it? The guru will survive no matter what happens because he sees the big picture and will do what it takes to survive. He is the pioneer and will lead the way. But the business owner who dumps a few thousand bucks into a campaign is the one you must look out for. They are in it most times like a jack in the beanstalk frame of thinking. They want to make sure they have purchased the “magic beans” and will find a quick way to riches. Will the American business owner, (small and medium business owner) have the imagination or the patience to see the “big picture”? Time will tell. Ted Cantu can be found at http://www.1seomichigan.com he consults companies on making smart powerplays and getting plenty of Google attention. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS The Right Mindset For Your Home Business by Donald G. Smith Starting your own home business and becoming a successful entrepreneur is not as impossible as it seems. All it takes is getting your self in the right mindset. First Mindset One thing you have to get in your head from the start is there is no such thing as becoming rich overnight. It takes time and hard work to become successful in owning a home business. As they say....Rome wasn't built in a day. When you are first starting out in the world of owning your own home business it can take months to generate an income large enough to keep you and your family supported. In those months it can be very easy to get stressed out and discouraged and want to quit. This is why most people fail in starting a home business. They believe all the hype they see online about getting rich overnight and they join an income opportunity or something to that effect and expect to be rich with very little work. This is a big mistake. You can not get something for nothing. It is your home business and you are only going to get out of it what you put into it. Stay strong and don't give up. Give yourself at least 6 months to a year to create a solid home business. Second Mindset The second thing that causes most people to fail is letting others influence their thoughts in a negative manner. Many family and friends, though meaning well, can cause you to quit before you see the true benefits of your labor. They will tell you it's not a real job, you are wasting your time and money...and so on. They will tell you this again and again sometimes maybe even to the point of not so nice of words being exchanged. Again, you have to stay strong. Stand your ground. This is your future, your dream, your life. If you don't stand up for it, who will? A way to avoid any conflict is to not quit your job until you at least match your income and it stays this way for atleast three months in a row. Another is to quite simply not tell anyone you are doing a home business until you are actually seeing an income from it online. Then your friends and family will see this and they will come to you wanting to know how you are doing it. This of course is the best lead you can get because you have already struck their curiosity and they will be more likely to listen to what you have to say. Third Mindset The third mindset is responsibility. It can be very easy to let the fun things in life get in the way of your work. When you are involved in a home business you are the boss. There is no one to keep you working but you. A friend comes over and wants to go out and shoot pool or your significant other wants to go to the movies. You say to yourself.. well I can do my work later. The problem with this is later never comes. Things will always get in the way of your home business if you let them. A good way to prevent this is to make up a schedule and stick to it. Find a quiet spot in your home where there are no distractions and make this your personal work space. Make sure your friends and family know that you are not to be disturbed during your scheduled work hours and that they need to respect this. Don't forget to leave time in your schedule for family and friends. Though it is very important to put time and effort into your home business it is equally if not more important to have time to relax and enjoy life. Too much work will cause you allot of stress and before long the boys in white will be coming to put you in a straight jacket and put you in a padded room. Fourth Mindset The fourth and final mindset that is also very important is financial responsibility. When you start seeing an income from your home business it can get pretty exciting and in that excitement you can forget that in order to stay in business and make it successful is to pay for your advertising with part of your profits. Your goal is to minimize your out of pocket expense. A good rule of thumb that I have followed is to reinvest at least 30% of your profits to your advertising and marketing efforts. This in turn will help your profits grow which also grows your marketing budget and will eventually completely eliminate your out of pocket expense. If you follow my advice and never quit. I promise you will see success. This is how I have came to be successful in realizing my dreams and I am sure it will work for you as well. I wish you luck , God bless. Copywrite Donald G. Smith Donald G. Smith has been involved in the home business world for 15 years and in that time has learned many useful tips tricks and techniques to marketing online. If you would like to learn more of his marketing techniques and tricks from his business mentor Stone Evans, The HomeBiz Guy Go To: http://www.makemymoney4me.com/specialoffer.h tml If you are looking for an honest scam free home business or some of the internet's best marketing software to market your own home business go to: http://www.makemymoney4m FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Surviving Expired Domain Name Industry by John Khu As a newbie and fresher to the expired domain industry, you may commit plenty of mistakes and blunders until you read, learn and understand the basic aspects and principles of expired domain industry. The first mistake that every one of us invariably make is to buy expired domain names that are useless and devoid of any real quality. Rarely will you be able to buy a great-expired domain for a very low price and later sell it at an exorbitant cost; in fact, you may even loose your hard-earned money by buying inconsequential expired domains and subsequently sell them at very low selling prices. There are many instances, when you will buy a series of domains expired, which others are not even ready to touch with a bargepole. These are all quite common mistakes and blunders that a new and fresh expired domains dealer will unknowingly do and commit. It is quite common too! As an expired domain name trader, your sole aim must focus at buying great domains at reasonable prices and later use the purchased domains to make money and a residual stream of passive income. Here are some ideas and practical suggestions that will help you buy good expired domains: Get out of comfort zone and start working: Most of us always believe in only good things and we never try to look at the bad part them. More often, we also like to remain in our comfort zone, by believing that expired domain name can provide us an unlimited income. Get out of that ugly comfort zone and try to understand what an expired domain industry really is. Neglect and ignore all those myths that surround the expired domain name industry. Instead, focus on the possible disadvantages and negativities of the industry. Go to an internet forum on expired domain names and start learning more about expired domain names. When you learn more about expired domain name industry, you will be saving both time and money. What do I want to do with the expired domain names? What exactly do you need from this challenging industry? Are you just looking for a good domain and sell it for a small profit? Are you searching to find a great domain with plenty of traffic and inbound links? These are some of the simple questions and queries that will help you establish your presence in the industry. Am I ready to spend some money appraising expired domain names? Appraisal is one of the most critical aspects of expired domain industry. A good appraisal report will inform whether the expired domain name that you wish to buy is really good or not. An appraisal report is an invaluable document that gives a series of very vital and sensitive data about a particular expired domain name. Expired domain name industry can provide you an excellent opportunity to earn some decent income. However, you will need to know the industry inside-out, so that you will not waste your time and money by committing avoidable blunders and mistakes. The most favorable approach to pursue this business is to empower yourself with the latest knowledge and skills of the industry. John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is the owner of the path breaking web site called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Good Business by Juhlin Youlein There seems to be the notion out there that in order to succeed at business you have to be cut throat. It's like the only way you can succeed is if you make somebody else fail. I think that is a false notion. I mean you could probably get away with doing business like that, but eventually it will catch up to you. To make a business successful and long lasting there is a better way to do business. Warren Buffett is the richest man in the world. He invest in companies that have proven themselves over several years to be successful companies that do what they say. He invests in honest companies because they will make it in the end when the dishonest companies more often times will collapse. Now I'm no Warren Buffett, but we can learn from him. What is in your nature? Will you do whatever it takes to succeed? I mean whatever it takes? Well what if I told you that you could succeed by being honest? What if I told you that you could succeed by helping those around you succeed? What if I told you that you will succeed if care about your end user? I suspect you might tell me that it sounds sappy. Well it works. Building a business is building a relationship with your consumers. Name branding is basically building trust with the consumer that your company will deliver a superior product time and time again. Don't dismiss the power of word of mouth. If somebody is happy with your product or service they will tell those around them they know. If they aren't happy with your product they will definitely tell people they know. Well I know some companies rely on a numbers game through mass marketing. Well your marketing will be exponential with good word of mouth or bad word of mouth. You choose which one you want. Well what if you are barely starting out with a business. I know a painter who made six figures one year and less than $30,000 the next. He cut corners and didn’t care about the costumers. It took less than a year for his business to decrease over 60%. I am positive if he would’ve taken a little bit more time to be more thorough and to do those little extra tasks to make his work quality, that the effect could’ve been reversed. He could’ve had a %60 increase in business from referrals and word of mouth. He could’ve easily expanded and made a small business that would provide income for years to come. It is as simple as doing what you say you will do and doing it right. Some could argue that my painter friend may have not been able to earn $100,000 if he was doing all the extra details. That may be the case for the first year. What if he would’ve only been able to earn $80,000 the first year because of the extra time he spent being thorough? Wouldn’t it of been worth it for the years to come? Sometimes small business owners will sacrifice the future for the now. The future will always be ahead of us, but the now will be gone in an instance. Security and long lasting businesses are built upon a foundation of integrity and quality. http://www.ourbestrealestate.com/Chandler_Real_Estate/city FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Page Length For Search Engines by Tim McLendon You’ve decided to create content for your web pages, but aren’t sure how many words each page should have to ensure that search engines and visitors come back often. It’s a dilemma that many web site owners face. They don’t want to have too little words, but they don’t want to have too many words, either. It’s a delicate balance that every web site owner has to know in order to have a site that is search engine optimized and visitor friendly. In this newsletter, we will discuss the appropriate length for pages, and the reason why your pages should adhere to this length requirement. What is a good length for pages? Ideally, each page should have at least 700 words, but no more than 1500 words. Anything less than 700 words and search engine spiders might just skip over your site entirely; anything more than 1500 and spiders won’t take the time to search through the content for keywords. When I write the content, what should I strive to do? You should strive to write content that is entertaining and easy to read. Don’t drone on and on just to meet the 700 word requirement. Find things to talk about that are relevant to your site and come up with ways to say them in a concise manner. Remember that search engine bots aren’t the only thing to come to your site—people are also coming to your site and they will want to read content that makes them want to visit again. Aim to please them first, then the search engine bots. How do I please search engine bots? Pleasing search engine bots is as simple as having 700+ words of content and some keywords sprinkled into your content. Keywords are words that the search engine bots immediately spot and use to figure out how to rank your site. In a document of 700 words, you’ll want to have at least 7 keywords, but preferably around 21, throughout your content. When using keywords, make sure to sprinkle them naturally throughout the document so that you do not distract your reader from what the content is about. Why should I have pages with content between 700 and 1500 words? The reasons for this are simple. Having pages with content of 700-1500 words will please visitors and search engine spiders. Pleasing both will help your site attract more traffic and become successful. Visitors who come to your site want to see useful content. If your content is short, chances are, it’s not very useful to visitors. Good content is content that is worthwhile to read and tells the visitor something they don’t already know. It must be packed with information and details. Few can accomplish this in less than 700 words, which is why it is often necessary to use that many words. However, it is also important not to be too wordy with your content. People want to be able to quickly get the content they need. They don’t want to read through hundreds of words of fluff in order to get what they came for. So be concise and try to make sure your content doesn’t go over 1500 words. Spiders who come to your site want to have a good amount of content to “chew” on. That is, they want to have enough content to report back to the search engine database. Less than 700 words really isn’t enough content for a spider to bring back to a search engine database, so spiders tend to ignore pages with under 700 words. Spiders, much like human visitors, also don’t like pages with excessive amounts of words. Pages with 1500 words are usually a big turnoff to spiders, and even if a spider does visit the page, chances are they won’t report the contents of the page back to the search engine database for which they work. That is why you must strive to be concise not just for human visitors, but for the robot(spider) visitors as well. If you are able to limit your pages to between 700 and 1500 words, you will do well with human visitors and search engine spiders. That’s the goal of every web site owner and should be your goal as well. P.S. Writing content between 700-1500 words is easy as long as you come up with good content to write about and try to be as concise as possible. It’s just that easy! Tim McLendon is owner of http://www.BandoMarketing.com and writes on tips to improve your Internet Home Based Business FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Small Business Ideas That Rake In Big Profits by Kevin Tyler Smith Working as an employee is not always considered as a great job by anyone. In fact, it is hardly the dream job that most of us want. Being chained to the desk, or worse, being ranted upon by a boss would immediately turn any dream job into a nightmare. That is why, more and more people are resorting into putting up their own businesses no matter how small. When it comes to ideas on small businesses, there are so many that choosing becomes the problem. Perhaps, the best way to begin is to know what you actually want. You could have millions of ideas presented to you yet you should learn to pick only the ones that pique your interest. Are you a student who is looking for a temporary summer job? Or are you a full-time mom and wife who would want to prove that you, too, can earn even without leaving your home? Whoever you are, be sure to put up a business that you are happy with. Putting up a small business need not mean that you will have it at home, although, there are schemes that work best for stay at home moms. There are many businesses that can be done outside of your home. But whether you would want to just hang out at home or go someplace else, it is best to consider the feasibility of holding a business on your chosen area. By this, it means that you have to think whether the place has high traffic. If not, think again. There are also businesses that do not require physical office. These include online businesses that you could also consider to put up. An example of this type of business is selling items on eBay. Just look for a good product that you could sell, start building a good reputation, and the end result would be rewarding. Another idea is online tutorials. You could do this with a group of friends who have unique skills. English, math, music and science tutorials could now be done online. If you are good in writing, making an e-book would be a rewarding and lucrative business for you. Here are some more ideas that you could start to work on soon: 1. Manufacturing eco-friendly products—examples are cloth bags or water bottles that are made of metal instead of plastic. These types of business require low capital and the best reward is not only earning but also being able to preserve the environment. 2. Caring for Seniors—what you would need is a small group of people (preferably with medical knowledge) to care for the elderly. Start with only a small group and you could eventually grow from there. 3. Landscaping—all that you would need is an artistic flair and some landscaping equipment, also a handful of people that would help you and you can now go ahead with this business. 4. Rentals of Sports Equipment—this is the perfect seasonal business for the bored student. It could also be done long-term. All you would need is a nice spot and some scooters, skateboards, or bicycles. 5. Dogwalking/Pet sitting—if you are an animal lover, this is a perfect business for you. This peaks during the summer when most pet owners are on their vacation and they need to leave their pets with someone. These ideas are simple yet they can rake in some bucks (or more if the business would progress). Even if you are a beginner, these ideas are so uncomplicated that is easy to begin. If you have long been an entrepreneur, it wouldn’t hurt to try these ideas as well. Just love whatever you get into and you’re sure to stick to it and earn more from it. To learn more about a small business that you can align yourself with, allow you to work from the comfort of home and position yourself for profits without limits, follow the link in my resource box now. Kevin Tyler Smith is an expert Internet network marketer. "If banking over $14,139.79 per month whether or not a single lead joins your MLM opportunity gets you excited, then pay very close attention to what's on the other side of this link" >>> http://www.KevinTylerSmit FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Effective Article Promotion by Ben Heart Article promotion is an effective way to increase your online presence and make more money. Article promotion works and that is why it has become so popular. It is as if you are educating your readers and providing valuable information that they could not have received for free anywhere else. Providing good content is very important to increasing web traffic. Internet Marketers who are not taking advantage of this are losing out because article promotion gets you noticed in the search engine and on article directory websites. As long as you write to give useful suggestion, advice and information rather than about your business, the prospect or reader will be interested to know more about your business and what you have to offer. You don’t have to be a good writer to promote good articles. You can hire a ghostwriter to do the job for you. You assign specific topics to the ghostwriter and the person will write according to your specification and instructions. No one has to know that you are not the actual writer. Once you pay the ghostwriter for writing the article or articles, you own all rights to the articles. You even have the right to put your own article resource box with your name and website address. The article solely belongs to you. It is not expensive to hire a writer. Prices range from $10 to $25 usually. Some may even charge a little less. You may even find writers who will go the extra mile and charge you to submit your article or articles to the article directories. This is a time consuming process, so you may want to hire someone to do this for you. If you have time, you can do it yourself. You also have the option to solicit article promotion to newsletter owners and magazine publicist. However, some may have certain requirements as to how you should write and submit the article. There are also article announcement lists or groups that will accept your articles. This will create additional traffic to your website. If you are able to produce 10 clicks to your website link from your article each day, then if the article is published on 20 websites or in 20 ezines, you would then be able to get 200 clicks to your website in the same day. This is the effect of one article. Can you imagine if you had 200 articles? Article writing may take a little time and effort from you, but in the long run, it can produce enormous results. Getting started is the key and the sooner you can get started, the better it will turn out for you. Once you get the hang of it, everything will get easier. The results will also encourage you to write more articles to get more results. Writing articles is not hard. Anyone can do it. All it takes is a little research or if you are verse on the topic, it will take your knowledge and some typing. Promoting your articles is the most effective way to increase your web presence. Ben Heart is an Article Marketing specialists from ArticlesBase. ArticlesBase is a free articles directory, http://www.articlesbase.com answers all your article submission needs. Learn more about Article Marketing from The Entrepreneur's Guide to Article Marketing - http://www.articlesmarketing FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Are Late Payers Damaging Your Business? by Naz Daud One of the biggest problems small businesses face is trying to collect payment after the work has been done. If late payers are crippling your business there are some effective strategies you could follow that will help you to collect more monies in timely fashion. Be Clear from Day One Right from the beginning you should be clear about how and when you expect to get paid. Agree payment terms verbally with the buyer at the beginning. It is then a good idea to give all quotes in writing and make it clear again what your payment terms are on the front of the quote just below your price. Remember to attach a copy of your full terms and conditions with all quotes or better still print it on the back. Before You Supply Any Goods Carry out a credit check on your potential customer before you even think of supplying them. You should also carry out an annual check on your existing customers' just in case their financial situation has changed for the worse. At Point of Delivery Check if your goods delivered or services supplied were satisfactory. There is absolutely no point in delaying any potential complaints. If the customer is unhappy try and resolve any outstanding issues immediately. If any goods were damaged uplift them and issue any credit notes quickly. Email & Post all Invoices As soon as the goods are supplied or the work has been completed email a copy of the invoice directly to your contact in the finance department and stick a hard copy in the post. If you only send invoices by post then you are at the mercy of the post office and your customers might use the excuse that they never received it! Print Your Bank Details on the Invoice This will allow your suppliers to pay you online. Often the reason why some customers are late in paying is that they are just too busy to sign a cheque and post it. Do not worry about fraud as there is very little anybody can do with just your sort code and bank account number. Don't be Timid Once payment is due, phone and immediately ask for payment. Try and get any further excuses for non payment out in the open at this stage so that you can proactively deal with them. If All Else Fails Have clear plans in place and start the process rolling as soon as payment is overdue by thirty days. A good idea is to take a step back from the process and get your legal agent to send out a demand letter with threats of further costs and interest charges. Persistent Late Payers If businesses constantly flaunt your payment terms you have to decide if they are worth all the trouble of supplying them in the first place. If you still insist on doing business with them then perhaps it is now a good idea to think about increasing your profit margins or supplying them with cheaper more inferior products at the same price. Naz Daud - CityLocal Business & Franchise Opportunities http://www.citylocal.co.uk http://www.citylocal.co.uk/frontend/franchiseinfo.php? cityid=79 http://www.citylocal.ie http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=120141 http://www.ecademy.com/module.php? mod=list&uid=1 FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Working From Home Do Not Be Complicated by Rifqi Munfaridon When you want to get rich from internet doing what as we usually said some internet business, it is very very simple, but almost many people or newbies make it so complicated for any things. When people come as a newbies,they actually want to learn how to make money online, buy they inside into many scams internet business, this why as a newbies you must to carefully about this home business opportunities scams. in this article i will show you the simple step by step even for newbies to start making money with no complicated lesson and trick to do. all this tips are working so perfectly until now. so lets we get start to learn about how to working from home and get rich with it. Step 1 : Find Your Market and Focus with it when you decide be rich just working from your home, you must to be able to find your niche market, this market is not expired with day and date, it means the market you choose must growing day after day. and remember focus on your market. Step 2 : Find The best Product Or Service to give people solution the easiest way with not complicated way to making money working from home is you just need to find other people product or service which can bring a solution for people problem. this business model as known as affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing has many many advantage. All you need to do is join with affiliate program and get paid every sale you made. This is the great way to making money online, and the best solution for beginners/newbies who has no experience. Step 3 : Focus More in Bring You Money When you choosing product or service to sell, you need to analyze the result for the next time, is the product/service you sell bring you money..?. Always analyze you result,or you can lost your time doing for nothings and you can not be rich working from your home. Step 4 : Be Proaktive to get more costumer if you realy want to make real income, you will never get it if you just sit there and just dream bout it, but the things you must to do is you must to do some thing proactive on your business,when you more active on your business,this could create a "momentum" and "profit" in your business.This is the factor you need to understand. otherwise, if you not yet get that momentum or profit,atleast you get some good experience. From this experience you can to learn from it, what make it fail or what make it so powerfull for your own business, and turn it to be your deadly effective weapon for your business to get rich working just from home. Conclusion : in my experience, when i was newbies i learn how the easiest way to working from home, and if you like me and decide to working from home, do not complicated things. just learn from the real author I was Longtime journey in internet marketing and learn from many successful internet marketers, this way my tips are so simple for newbies and it will help newbies to success, for more detail about my experience and other tips go a at http://easyprofitblo FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS How To Text Your Way To More Profit by Sean Dell Short Message Service: The Text In Advertising Text messaging was the brilliant idea of a few software developers back in the mid 1980’s. In its beginnings, it what thought up as a way to alert users about voice messages they have received. Few would have believed that it would become the global phenomenon that it is today. Short Message Service (SMS) has come to encompass all means of text message services, even though it originally only meant a communications protocol type. While it has always been an effective means for cellular companies to contact their customers and for customers to communicate together, this for of communication has recently come into the spotlight as an effective way for advertisers to reach their prospective new customers. How does texting differ from more common advertising methods? Can I be sure my intended and desired customers will receive my messages? What if users do not have cell phones? How does the cost compare? Is it effective? What’s In the Text? SMS, theoretically, can reach the customers you need to promote your business, by allowing you to reach specific demographics and even younger, digitally in tune, users that might not be reached otherwise. SMS, or text messaging also has added benefits. Text advertising is the fastest form of communication and most reliable. While other forms of advertising rely on user availability, such as watching TV, listening to the radio, reading paper advertising, being in range of a telephone, or cell phone, text gets to the customer and stays there until they read it and delete it. Direct Text SMS has been a reliable means of interacting with customers for many products on the market today. Just think about it, advertising contests on the back of labels or on the television, giving users up to minute updates on current sales on products, sending them scores of their favorite sports games with an attached advertisement, and even being able to target intended customers while not sending messages out in hopes the right customers will see it. There is much controversy in the advertising world today with regards to spamming capabilities. Potential advertisers would want to be careful that they target not only the right audience, they also need to be careful of OVER advertising. And because some cellular carriers charge for both sending and receiving text, some customers may not even have texting services or may block non-solicited advertisements and massagers. Texting Over the Net Overcoming little advertising glitches, such as no being able to reach non-cell phone users, and also being able to send out mass text messages, even while not using a cell phone, may seem a little daunting. Not to worry. Today’s market of programs and technologies has not fallen short on this advertising niche. On the internet, many businesses’ will find a variety of companies that will do the texting for you, all you have to do is decide on advertising space and a few other minor details. Your customers might not have cell phones. There are a few quick fixes for this issue. Now, there is the ability to send text messages to land line phones that can be read by a computer prompted voice. Even more fantastic, is the rising popularity of texting to TV channels. In a few countries around the world text massagers can text to a TV channel to be viewed by other users or to interact with user’s characters. Cost and Effect With all the added features of text advertising over other forms of advertising it would hardly seem like the idea could get better. The cost of text advertising is relatively inexpensive compared to traditional methods. While the ad itself may be the only cost, you might expect to pay for an allotment of total messages sent. Texting is still inexpensive in the long run, since most of the cost of texting is carried out by the users. So, reaching your customers has never been as easy and cost effective as this before. Many messages and advertisements can be sent, and even customers of products get in on the fun if companies hold contests for users to “text to win.” There are many advantages to using this method, such as direct advertising, ensuring that all advertisements get to the viewer, and being a cost effective means of advertising media. SMS, your ads never looked so good! Sean Derfield is a bar owner, and online marketer. He has many sites that deal with bringing more business thru your doors. Some of his sites include http://www.textatize.com http://www.myfriendbuilde FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS How To Drive More Traffic To Your Website by Alex Rich Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Nearly every email you read these days is filled with hype or requests from the sender that we follow a link to the senders' offer. Once we arrive at his or her website we have the distinct pleasure of paying for the potential benefits he or she is advertising. Here's the insanity: According to the latest statistics from the US Department of Commerce, less than 5% of all online businesses earn $150 to $500 a month from their Internet marketing! From a recent independent test of currently popular affiliate programs it was recorded that less than 1% of the affiliates were earning more than $12,000 annually. If you keep up with the latest Social Security news you'll see that the income of retirees on SS matches the income of the average Internet marketer without all the sweat and strain. Here's what is important to think about: Just like you will never get rich working for someone else, you'll never get rich following 1000s of other folks links to an opportunity that isn't even earning them $150 to $500 a month. Think about it! The answer to earning real money is and has always been to sell your own original product or service. It's not rocket science. The one who develops and markets the original item(s) makes the bulk of the dollars. Everyone else gets the pennies. Here's something else you may not realize about where your business is heading... Right now you are most likely not using articles, free or otherwise, to drive thousands of eyeballs to your offers. You might want to get started after you read this next short story. A couple of weeks ago I received an note from an email buddy who writes several dozen articles for his promotions. The subjects match what people are looking for, based on his Google searches. He began using article campaigns to help him drive targeted traffic to his product pages and his websites. He's now earning more than 5 figures a month and has been for over 2 years. His name is not a well known name and he's not a guru, however, he started earning at this level within 180 days from the time he started using article marketing to help him promote his products. Here are 3 simple steps that will make it easier for you to earn a respectable income from your Internet marketing efforts. The tool is article marketing. Read the following information thoroughly and apply it to to your online business. You'll find that you will start making progress toward earning a real income for you and your family. 1. Pick your best or favorite product or service. Decide on something that is fun or useful or both. Information products are best so begin your search in that direction. Go to an article site like http://EzineArticles.com (one of the best quality sites currently available) and look over the categories for an article that matches your product or service. 2. Read the article thoroughly so you'll have a good understanding of what the article does to build value in the author's offer. You'll notice links at the bottom of the article that lead the reader to the author's real reason for writing the article in the first place... namely making money from the credibility and trust the article establishes (at the bottom of the article you'll see how many people have read the article). 3. Decide on the product or service you are going to promote with article marketing and write your article. At that point all that is left is to submit the article and watch what happens. If you, like many other marketers, think you can't write an article you can always do it the easy way. Start by choosing something about which you are an expert. This could be as simple as being a weekend couch potato. This does not have to be treated like a best selling novel project. Start a journal for the next 2 or 3 weekends. Write your impressions from watching TV till your eyes got tired. Jot down comments about the commercials, the weird haircuts of the newscasters, or anything else that triggers laughter or tears. Now you've got an article that will match the behavior of approximately 50 million other couch potatoes who might just get a ripping jolt that you had the bright idea to write about what they do for enjoyment or just to relieve the stress of 50 hour weeks. If you can't think of enough words or angles for your article, check into one of the many article writer's forums. Most often you'll find lots of great writers just like you. Several of them may offer tips or assistance with your first article writing project. At that point you'll be able to be more competitive with the "Big Guys" we are already using articles as one of their marketing strategies. Hopefully your product or service will be of good enough quality to deliver a few hundred extra dollars to your PayPal account every month. To see more tips for building a top level website to drive more traffic to your products visit http://www.squidoo.com/lenscraftingguru Alex Rich PhD, is a business coach with more than 15 years of experience. His SEO approaches helped a recent client build a $7 million revenue stream in less than 9 months. For tips to improve your website traffic visit: http://www.squidoo.com/topse FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Things To Consider When Starting A Home Business by Francina Smit Working for yourself at home provides a lot of freedom especially if you manage an internet business. It also requires a lot of work and planning to ensure it is successful. If you are planning to start your own home based internet business, there are a variety of things you should do in advance to make it profitable Determining what exact business you will own and operate is the first step in starting your own home based internet business. You should consider what skills you have as well as what opportunities are available to you when making this decision. Many people find that they have a talent they can turn into a home based internet business, while others seek business opportunities that are presented to them such as selling things or providing customer service over the internet. By finding something that you excel at or an opportunity you can do from your home, you can set the foundation for a successful home based internet business. Ensuring that you have the technology to support your home based internet business is also very important. A solid internet connection is important given the fact that this is how you will be conducting your business. You may also need other types of technology as well. For example, if you are selling items over the Internet whether it is through your website or an auction site such as eBay, you will need a digital camera that allows you to quickly take a picture and post it online with the product description. Web designers and hosts may need servers and other hardware in order to adequately maintain and host their clients’ websites. You should carefully consider what you need in advance and determine whether or not you have the start-up money to get what you need to make your home based internet business a success. Setting up a tracking method for your finances is one thing most people don’t do before starting a home based internet business, but it is a very critical step. You are responsible for keeping track of all the money coming into the business as well as what is going out, and this can be difficult if you have never had any experience or training in finances or accounting. Preparing a system in advance to keep track of everything is much easier than sorting through papers, emails and receipts much later after business has picked up. In addition, a good tracking method will be very useful when you do your taxes or possibly get audited by the IRS. Finally it is important to consider whether or not you need to hire extra people to help you with your home based internet business. While you most likely don’t have the finances to employ a full staff, you may find that it is beneficial to hire someone who can cover an area of your business where you have a major weakness. For example, many people with their own home based internet business find it helpful to hire a financial guru to assist them once a week to track all their income and expenses as well as reconcile any delinquent accounts. You should consider what weaknesses you might have and consider hiring someone to fill them. It could mean the difference between success and failure. Francina Smit is the owner of http://InHouseDollars.com and writes articles on various subjects regarding Home Based Business. Visit her at: http://www.inhousedollar FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS How To Start A Home Based Internet Marketing Affil by Noel Lillis Many people go online looking for a way to start their own home business. Most people have no idea what they want to do when they get online. If you don’t know what you want to do for your business at home then you need to do some research before you attempt to start your own home based internet marketing affiliate business online. This is one of the most popular ways that people all over the world start their businesses. It is not hard to do and usually it can be done for free but that will depend on the opportunity you choose to start your business with. Here are some things that you will want to do before you start your own home business. The first thing that you have to do is carry out some research. Too many people never take the time for this step and then they regret it later when the business opportunity they choose fails or is not right for them. You want to log on to any major search engine and type in,"home based internet marketing affiliate business online". This will give you a lot of results that you can start looking through. Take the ones that you think might interest you and save them to your favorites. This way you can go back later and research each home business more thoroughly. Right now you are just looking for ideas. Once you have all the ideas you want then the next step is to check each opportunity out as thoroughly as you can. Look at their site, contact them with any questions you have.Go to home business forums to see if other people are talking about that home based internet marketing affiliate business. The more research you put into choosing the home business you want to start, the happier you will be with it. Starting an online business using free to join income opportunities does not mean your business will be entirely free to run. Like any profitable business, a successful online business needs an advertising budget. The next step is to figure out a budget for your home business. You need to decide whether you have to start advertising for free only or if you can use paid advertising methods, or both. Either way is fine. The only difference is that with the free options it will take you longer to see results. Once you have decided on the home based internet marketing affiliate business online and you know your budget, you now want to sign up to get started. With a lot of the opportunities you will be given everything you need to get started AFTER you sign up. Make your decision carefully and you will find yourself with a home business that can be very successful with work, time and patience. Starting and running an online home based business is much easier and less expensive than the equivalent offline business.Although the cost may be minimal compared to its offline equivalent, a successful home based business will still require that you have good work ethics,the time to commit to it, dedication and education. Parents who want to stay at home with their kids can start their own online home business.They can do so with the knowledge that it is not really difficult if you approach it the right way. Start your own home based business today. You'll be surprised how quickly you'll be profitable if you follow these guidelines carefully. Noel Lillis is the owner and webmaster of http://bilt2sell.com Noel looks at some prerequisites for people interested in starting their own affiliate marketing business. To help you succeed in your online business venture. free literature, training videos and information on Quality business opportunities is available at: => http://www.bilt2sell.com/newsletter-signup.html Get YOUR info now! Check out my site, tell me what you think. I'd love to hear from you. Sign up, Log in, and begin earning money .it's as simple as that. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Yahoo Small Business: 5 Reasons To Host Your Web S by Russ Blanc It is impossible to understate how important your web site is to your business, whether you operate primarily online or have an online presence in addition to a brick-and-mortar location. Hosting your web site with Yahoo Small Business is one of the best decisions you’ll make for your business. Here’s why: 1. Reliability - Yahoo web hosting offers unparalleled reliability. When you set up your Yahoo web site, you know that it will be up when your customers are looking for you. Yahoo web hosting is provided by one of the oldest, most dependable companies on the web. Your web operations are safe when you use. 2. Unlimited Web Hosting - When you host your web site with Yahoo Small Business, you get truly unlimited hosting. You can store, and transmit to your visitors, video, audio, and all the content you can create. As you know, the more information you can provide to your customers, the more likely they are to buy your products or services. With unlimited hosting from Yahoo web hosting, you’ll be able to give your visitors all the information they need to make a decision. 3. Ease of use - Setting up your Yahoo Web Hosting account and uploading your files, or building your own site, could not be simpler. Yahoo Small Business is dedicated to making your web hosting experience the best it can be. If you do encounter a problem or have a question, you can contact Yahoo web hosting support at any time for assistance. 4. Design tools - Yahoo Small Business web hosting is incredibly easy to use. Even if you’ve never created a web page in your life, you can quickly and easily build your Yahoo web site with the online design tools included with your Yahoo web hosting account. You can choose a template, customize it for your business, and create a great site in a very short time. On the other hand, if you’re a web design maven and want to upload your files, Yahoo web hosting lets you upload files from Dreamweaver, Front Page, or your favorite HTML editor. Yahoo Small Business web hosting also supports PHP, for interactive sites. 5. Price - Beware "budget" web hosting companies. Many of these companies charge a setup fee, where Yahoo Web Hosting does not. As for "low" monthly fees, many companies only offer this low fee if you pay for one year in advance. Yahoo Small Business offers a quarterly contract with truly affordable pricing. No setup fees, no signing up for a year before even trying the service, and no costly downtime and tech support nightmares. Recently Yahoo Web Hosting has lowered their 3 month contract price from $11.97 per month to $8.96 per month for the first 3 months. A 25% reduction in price should be advantageous to many who are looking for a solid web hosting provider. This is an introductory promotion and may be available for limited time only. Russell Blanc is a professional in the web hosting industry and manages a Yahoo Web Hosting and Yahoo Small Business resource web site at http://www.website-hostingco.com. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Advantages Of PR Over Advertising by Elizabeth Murphy People tend to confuse PR and advertising, but the truth is that they are quite distinct and while good advertising can bring your business plenty of publicity, there´s nothing like great PR to give you that boost in the public eye. First of all, you need to realize that PR is public relations. It´s coverage that isn ´t paid for in cash, like advertising. It takes a lot more effort to create good PR, but it is well worth it, since this method is far more effective for publicizing your business. PR Advantages The advantages of using PR are many, so let´s take a look at a few of them. Cost. PR is usually free. It may cost you in printing out your press release and stamps to send them, but it´s still a lot cheaper than advertising which can run into the thousands of dollars! Placement. No matter how much you pay for an ad, you´ll never get a big front page placement. That´s reserved for news and offering great PR is a good way to get that position for absolutely nothing. Credibility. People know that ads are paid for and they take them with a grain of salt. While a good ad can still convert, people are automatically suspicious of an advertisement. However, with media coverage brought about by PR, people won´t have their guard up. They´ll read your story and be interested in it without being suspicious because it is assumed to be un-biased. Angles. Once you´ve been featured on the front page, it´s quite possible for other areas of the newspaper to pick up on your story and redo it in their own way. This can provide free repeat coverage, within the same publication which is a real boost to publicity. People need to see information a lot of times before they make the decision to buy, so the more publicity, the better. Exposure. You´d be surprised at how far a good news story can go! Unless you have something to do with a piece of major breaking news, chances are you won´t be the number one story on the news tonight, but that doesn´t mean you can ´t enjoy repeat coverage. If one television show or newspaper reports on you, it ´s quite likely that your story will also show up on other channels! Details. You can offer far more details about your company or product within a public relations story. Most newspapers will want to print more than a few lines, which would be standard for an advertisement, so you´ll want to include information that will catch the public eye. Connections. Having connections with the media is never a bad thing and can stand you in good stead later on when you want to give your business a boost. Make sure that your press releases are exactly what editors are looking for, which will give you a leg up next time you have a press release. They´ll know that you provide quality work and this will reflect in their treatment of you. There are many reasons to choose PR over advertising, if you have to make a choice. The truth is that combining the two publicity methods is an excellent method for gaining the optimum number of sales. However, when it really comes down to it, good public relations trumps advertising the majority of the time. Building connections and relationships with the media is invaluable and should definitely be utilized in every business that wants to be successful. A great http://www.polarisprinc.com /index.html public relations firm can get your organization a lot of publicity and exposure, making the coverage garnered infinitely more valuable than advertising. FILED IN GENERAL | COMMENTS Internet Marketing Gets Humbled: A Tale Of Two Cit by Ted Cantu As a marketing punk and culture raver I found myself back on the loose again lately. I was in the process of tidying up some work in my home home office when the phone call came, “Ted – You gotta get down here!” said the voice on the other line. I summed up fairly quick that it was serious. The first response was that this was going to totally trash my morning if not my day because this meant I had to jaunt down to the Detroit Airport area in Romulus. “How serious is it?” I asked. “Oh man, you gotta see this – this is incredible what these people are doing!” and with that I hung up the phone. My associate was talking about the Internet Summit here in Metro Detroit on the last weekend of March 2008. Without much hesitation I jumped into my car and tore off down the highway. I knew about the internet seminar this weekend I knew it would be small. I got so caught up in the Dan Kennedy Super Conference that was coming up on April 3 that this internet seminar slipped under my radar. Now my buddy just tells me that I must see it in person to believe it….. Hmmmm We Choose Our Heroes When you think of boxing you think of Mike Tyson and you also think of many others who have totally demolished their competitors in the ring. We think of Las Vegas glitz and HBO specials and think of the star studded high polished sporting events on pay per view. Meanwhile there is some guy who can pull a plow with his bare hands somewhere in Alabama with a third grade education that can whip the snot out of Tyson as easy as breathing. And so it goes. That is exactly what I feel about these folks at the Internet Seminar I attended here in little Romulus, Michigan. The folks who were speaking at this event were not the big headliners I was used to. I have seen guys like Derek Ghel, from the Internet Marketing Center, or Yanik Silver from the Kennedy Circle. I looked over the list of speakers and although I have heard of Internet legend Matt Bacak I had to confess the others on this list left me baffled. Here is what is interesting about the Metro Detroit event…. These guys had all the answers to questions that have been eluding me for months. I have some very specific areas of study when it comes to Internet Marketing and one of them includes massive amounts of legitimate targeted traffic. I had some other specifics too when it comes to doing some offline advertising. I had some very detailed criteria on my list and these guys were addressing all of my concerns and to me that was phenomenal. You see I have spend thousands of dollars at Borders books every year trying to keep up w