3 steps to getting things done

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What To Pay Your Outsourcers

http://bit.ly/PKOUgb In any business association, money is of paramount importance because that is why business exists in the first place. So, it is extremely important that you have the money equation set right.

The beauty of looking for outsourcing professionals on the Internet is that you can benefit from a very wide range of budgets. Since it is people who are going to bid on your projects, you can select them according to what you can pay. You initially set a ballpark figure of what you can pay and most people will bid within this range.

Whatever your budget is, you are able to find good professionals to work for you within that range. Remember that you are looking at the global marketplace here, and people in other countries may work for much lesser or much higher than what they do for in your local area.

Different jobs have different money equations. It is quite all right if you bid a low budget project initially just to get the feel of the professional’s work. You can tell them that you will review payments after you have seen their work. This works well and it also keeps the professional motivated because of the better payments that are poised to come their way.

When you are posting your project on a jobsite, do take some time to check out similar projects that are posted by other people. This will give you a good idea of what you should pay. But, more importantly, you must keep your own budget in focus when posting the project.

Escrows

Escrows help the employer as well as the employed in an outsourcing equation. We shall learn more about escrows in the next chapter.

Online Banks

PayPal (http://bit.ly/7Rkx3) is the most popular online bank used by freelance outsourcers. It is followed (though not closely) by Moneybookers (http://bit.ly/28S8aP). If you are going to outsource a lot, it is also a good idea to have a Payoneer debit card (http://bit.ly/3WhwGN) since it is affiliated with most of the freelance jobsites including GetAFreelancer, ScriptLance and oDesk. Releasing money from these sites to this debit card does not attract any fees either.

Easily Add Google Analytics to WordPress to Track Stats

http://bit.ly/Tn6Mim Video: How to add Google Analytics to Wordpress to track stats

Is SEO too Expensive?

http://bit.ly/QCmlMP Video: Brad explains why it costs a lot to do search engine optimization.

The Biggest Blog Traffic Mistakes Revealed

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Do you care about your blog's traffic? Some people don't really care about traffic, they just write about what they are feeling. They are happy to just have friends and family find their blog. There is nothing wrong with that. For other people traffic is king. Some people use blog to make money through ads or affiliate offers. Other people use it to build a brand and direct traffic to their money sites. In either of the latter scenarios, traffic is important. If traffic is that important to your site then you have to monitor it. There are a lot of free options out there to monitor traffic. The problem is that people get way too wrapped up in these. If you care about traffic and want to monitor it, then avoid these mistakes:

1. A visible counter: These used to be found on a lot of sites, there is a reason they aren't anymore. They are lame. Counters on your website are just too old fashioned. No one really cares how many people have been to your site, except you. Besides being cheesy, they are also completely useless and usually inaccurate. There are a lot of options that let you monitor traffic behind the scenes, so stick to them.

2. Living and Dying by Alexa Rank: Alexa is a website that ranks other sites based on traffic. People new to blogging love to watch their site rise on the Alexa rankings. I used to be one of these people until I realized how useless it really is. First off, Alexa only counts when someone with the Alexa toolbar comes to your site. So sites that attract webmasters and technical people will have better results than a site that doesn't attract people likely to have the toolbar. For example, I had a general interest blog that got about 13k hits per month. My friend had a blog that attracted more techy people and got about 3k hits per month. Even though he had 10k less visitors per month than me, his Alexa ranking was hundreds of thousands better than mine.

You can easily tweak your ranking too. Just install the Alexa toolbar and surf your own site. I installed it last night, and checked out my site a couple times, I woke up this morning having gained 6 thousand spots on Alexa. That was with NO effort either.

3. Stat Addiction: This happened to me and it was worse than crack. I had to wean myself off of checking my stats to curb the withdrawal symptoms. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but it can be quite addictive. I had three traffic monitors on my site at one time. I had Google Analytics, StatCounter and Woopra all on one site. Besides negatively effecting my load times there is no need for this.

There is no real benefit to monitor your traffic every 10 minutes. I can understand checking it after a new post or something. That way you can monitor how effective the post was. Besides that though, you need to chill out on the traffic monitoring. It is a huge time sink. I was checking my stats 10x a day, taking 5 minutes to do so each time. That is almost an hour of wasted time. I could have created two high quality blog posts in that time. I could have created dozens of backlinks to my site. I could have promoted my blog through social media. I could have done anything more productive than staring at my traffic stats! My suggestion is to check your stats at the start of the day each day, and maybe at the end of the day as well. That way you can still monitor the effectiveness of your content, but you won't waste hours a week doing it.

Monitoring traffic is important for most blog owners. We all want traffic right? With that said, make sure you avoid the above mistakes. Don't get swept up in the traffic monitoring hurricane. Traffic is important, but it will come whether you monitor it or not.

Tips and Choices You have in Internet Website Advertising

http://bit.ly/RU3TB1 The internet has been a part of our lives for a while now, and it has also changed the way millions of businesses operate. More than anything, the internet has leveled the playing field, giving the "little guy" just as much of a chance at success as some of the biggest companies in the world. It all comes down to what is commonly referred to as internet website advertising. However, that term covers a lot of ground. Here are some things you should know.

It all begins with a website. Well, technically you need an idea first, but a lot of people make the mistake of thinking they need some incredibly, original, earth-shattering idea if they want to make money online. The reality is that you don't need such an idea to be successful. All you need is a solid idea, and it can even be something other people are doing. For example, a lot of people make money selling clothes online, and that isn't what anybody would call an original idea. Okay, back to having a website...

The reason it all starts with having a website is that it means you have a solid idea. Internet website advertising covers all aspects of how you promote your site. You have probably heard people say, "you can have the best looking site in the world, but it's useless if nobody sees it." While that's true, you shouldn't use it as an excuse to put up an ugly website (though it is better to start with something ugly and improve it as you go, than it is to wait and be left behind).

Which internet website advertising options are best for you and your business will depend on several factors. You need to have a good idea of who your target market is, what motivates them, what their problems are, and how your offer can help them. Not all online marketing methods are suited for every business. If you are a lawyer, then article marketing to establish yourself as an expert in your field makes a lot more sense than using a free traffic exchange where people will only see your site for a few seconds.

You also need to think about how your site looks. After all, you can drive people to your site, but if they don't like what they see, or they aren't clear about your offer, then they will leave. So, put some thought into it. Read your marketing message and be sure that it makes sense. Don't be afraid to sell, but be sure the type of selling you do fits in with your specific message.

Whatever methods of internet website advertising you choose to take advantage of, it is vital that you start right away. Every moment you spend wondering about how to do it or making excuses for waiting, is wasted time. While that may not have mattered a few years ago, in today's online world, every second counts more than ever.

Cash in with Digital Books

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E-Books are part of the new frontier of cyberspace. They are an entirely new medium for sharing marketing information, ideas, techniques, and expert knowledge. Each day the number of people accessing the Internet grows, causing the exposure of your E-Book to increase incrementally. It's obvious why electronic self-publishing has become so popular so quickly.

The publishing industry, I hope, does not intend to forever banish the printed word to the dustbin of history. Books in print have their own special qualities and merits, and the world would be diminished by their disappearance.

Having said that, let's look at what makes E-Books so important and so unique.

E-Books have certain abilities and qualities that other mediums do not possess. For example, E-Books are fairly easy to produce, and their production cost is inexpensive. Just think about it: you don't need a publisher, an agent, a printing press, offset film, ink, paper, or even a distributor. You just need a great concept, the ability to write it or to hire a writer, and the right software.

Additionally, E-Books are easily and rapidly distributed online. They are also easily updated; they do not require a second print run. All you need is to go into your original creation and modify the text or graphics. Because of this flexibility, E-Books can change and grow as fast as you can type.

E-Books are also immediately obtainable. You don't have to go to a bookstore or search through endless titles at an online bookstore. All you have to do is download it from a website, and presto! It's on your computer, ready to be read.

E-Books are interactive. This is one of the most unique and specific qualities that E-Books offer. You can add surveys that need to be filled out, order forms for customers to purchase your products or goods, sound and video that draw your reader into the virtual world of your E-Book, even direct links to relevant sites that will expand your E-Book outward. The potential is virtually limitless.

E-Books have a particular kind of permanence that other mediums do not possess. Television shows and radio shows air once, and then may rerun a few times. E-Books remain on your computer for as long as your choose, and they can be read and reread whenever you choose to. They can even be printed out and stored on the shelves of your traditional home library.

Another wonderful quality is that E-Books have no barriers in terms of publishing. You don't need to go through the endless process of submitting your manuscript over and over again, and then once you land an agent, having the agent submit your manuscript over and over again. Nor do you have to shell out thousands of dollars for printing a self-published book. All E-Books require is a writer and appropriate software.

Figure out your market, write your book, post it on your website, and with the right business savvy, your audience will come to you.

Finally, you have creative control over your E-Book. You don’t have to compromise with an editor or the publishing trends of the time. You don't have to haggle with a designer or wait for copyedited galleys to arrive by snail mail. You are in complete control of the design and the text.

Keeping Your Child Safe When They Are Blogging

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I have strongly urged parents to allow their children to blog. I believe it can help develop their technological, social and writing skills. In a world that is becoming smaller everyday due to technology like the internet, it is important our children have a strong basis in it. That said, you have to be careful because blogging by children can be dangerous. Follow these four tips and you will make blogging a safe and fun activity for your children.

Make Rules: You need to sit down with your child and set up some rules. Whatever rules you decide on you should explain them clearly to your child and explain why they are important. Set some consequences as well, let them know what will happen if they break any of the rules. You don't want to be lackadaisical when it comes to online rules. Stay firm and your children will understand.

Strong Passwords: Make sure that your children's accounts are all protected by good passwords. "12345" is not a good password. You should use number, letters and symbols. It might be impossible for them to remember, but if it means you have to log on for them - even better.

Screen The Content: Encourage your child to create their blog posts on the computer before they go live. This way you can check them out and ensure they don't give away any sensitive information, or have any objectionable content. Another bonus with this method is you can help your child get used to word processing software. You can also teach them about grammar and spelling with this method.

Monitor Blog: Check your child's blog everyday and make sure they haven't snuck any objectionable content on to it. Also make sure no one has been leaving weird comments. Even some spam comments can have dangerous links so make sure you have access to delete these. Install Akismet if you use WordPress and most of them should be caught. Also check out any links your child puts up, who knows where they could be linking to.

If you follow these four tips you will ensure that your child's blog will be a great learning experience and not a potential danger. Commit to strong passwords, screening and monitoring and your child can benefit from blog ownership!

Why You Should Choose The Right Host

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In addition to buying a web address, an online business will need to be hosted somewhere. After all, a website is essentially a collection of graphic and text files uploaded onto a remote server so other surfers can access your files. If you don’t have a web host, then what you basically have is a lot of files on your own personal computer that nobody else can see.

The first major choice that an enterprising business owner will have to make in regards to web hosts is if he or she would like a free or a paid web host. There are advantages and disadvantages with both.

The major advantage for a free web host is, of course, the fact that it’s free. Taking advantage of not being forced to fork out cash monthly for web hosting can save a business hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. For those of you who are starting on a shoestring budget, a free web host can be a real option for saving money.

There are several disadvantages inherent with free web hosts, though. The first being advertisements â€" the vast majority of free websites force ads onto their pages in order to pay for the hosting, which can be a major turn-off to visitors. (There are some free web hosts that don’t force advertising, but many of these close due to lack of revenue â€" since if people have the option to turn off advertising, most will!) In addition, several of the free web hosts don’t allow FTP, or File Transfer Protocol access. While this may mean nothing at all to you at the moment, once your online business really takes off, having FTP access means that you will be able to do so much more in regards to customizing and optimizing your site.

Generally speaking, it’s much more recommended for businesses to spring for the paid web host if at all possible. There are some places where you can get basic web hosting for under ten dollars a month, and you can switch web hosts at a later date should your requirements exceed the capabilities of the cheaper web hosts.

Should you elect to go with a paid web host, the amount of options out there could compete with the number of stars in the universe. You can choose to be based out of your own country or go international â€" while being based in your own country may seem like the obvious option, if you’re trying to appeal to an international crowd and your target is English speakers, being based out of the US is probably the best idea, even if you are located in another English-speaking country. You can choose to pay as little as five dollars a month or as much as five hundred.

It’s worth your while to put a good amount of research into the various web hosts out there before settling on one. A general rule of thumb regarding web hosts is that the old adage is true â€" you tend to get what you pay for. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the 500 dollar host will suit your needs better than a 10 dollar host. It all depends upon the technical specifications of your company and how much service and capabilities you need to keep it running.

Stirring A Hornets Nest Trough Blogging

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When you are constantly creating content for your blog it can become a tiresome and mundane task. You have to think of topics everyday and it can get a bit overwhelming at times. Even when you are talking about your passions, the constant need for content can get a bit boring. What about having some fun? Have you ever thought of injecting some controversy into your blog?

The power of controversy can lead to spikes in your traffic. People feel a need to respond to things that aggravate them. Even better than that, these people who respond will want to share your blog post to people who will be equally outraged or also feel the need to respond.

How do you inject controversy into your blog though? First I would suggest not going overboard, outright racist, sexist or homophobic blog posts are indeed controversial, but they can also hurt your personal brand. There are other polarizing issues that can inject curiosity at less of a cost. Politics, religion and sports all fall into this category. You can't play the fence though you have to take one side of the above issues and go for it.

Basically anything people feel strongly about you can exploit. On my blog my most successful post in terms of views and comments was an album review I did. I took the opposite stance of most other online reviews and it paid off. People were expressing their outrage in droves. My website views went up big time. In fact I noticed a 234% increase in my 30 day totals.

Another bonus of using controversy is that you will find people that agree with you. Regularly, these people might read your blog post and just keep it moving. Now that they see all these comments attacking you - they may feel the need to stick up for their viewpoint, which happens to be yours.

Controversy isn't a guaranteed traffic spike, but if you are able to promote your controversial blog posts to the right audience, you are sure to get some interaction. This interaction won't always be positive, but it could lead to viral opportunities. I suggest starting out by sharing some of your own controversial beliefs. Just be yourself, you surely have some opinions that go against the norm. That way you can passionately defend them. If you notice your traffic is at a plateau, break out some controversy and see what it can do for you.

What You Need To Know About Business Blogging

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Blogging used to be an activity reserved for writers or people with special interests or hobbies. Now, blogs have exploded and are among the most common type of site found on the web. Most active, current businesses have at least one company blog to keep their customers and prospects up to speed on the latest news, ideas, breakthrough, announcements, etc...

This short report will cover the most critical items you need to be aware of when it comes to blog marketing for your business.

Own Your Blog: There are so many different blogging platforms to choose from. Some are free and others are paid-for services. If you are a serious business looking to use a blog as a long term relationship building medium for you and your clients, make sure you “own” your blog. This means that you should host your own blog and have full control over it’s contents. Free blogs are ultimately controlled by the company who provides the blogging service. Treat your blog as you would any valuable company asset.

Content is King: This saying is almost cliche these days but it remains as true as it has ever been. If you are going to use a blog to market your business, make sure that you only publish high quality content that is representative of your company and your philosophies. Outsourcing your blog writing to someone outside of your industry would not be a smart move. If you are a small business owner, you should have a direct hand in the content creation. You may not write the content yourself but you should provide input and guide the blog. You are the ultimate expert and you need to work with your team to make your blog’s content showcase your company value.

Regular Updates: Nothing looks worse than a blog that has old content that is not even relevant anymore. If you are going to have a company blog, make sure you also have a regular blog updating schedule. It doesn’t have to be weekly but at least once a month. Make sure that the content is unique and interesting enough the pique the interest of your readers. This is your chance to build long term relationships with customers and prospects. Frequent and useful updates go a long way in this department.

Content Variety: A blog is your opportunity to be real and interact with your audience at a more personal level. Use your blog as an opportunity to share videos, photos, interviews, interesting presentations, tutorials, demos or even sample training lessons showcasing your specialty. The more variety you build into your blog, the more likely it is that people will return for more.

Search Engine Optimization: The very nature of blogs lends itself nicely with search engine optimization. Every time you add a new blog post, you are essentially adding a new page to your site that can be indexed in search engines. Each one of these pages can now be found by people searching for what you offer. Make sure that you have proper SEO settings in place on your blog so that you can capitalize on highly qualified prospects who are searching for information that you are qualified to provide. If you need help with SEO, give me a call :)

Set up Adsense easily

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Video: Brad demonstrates how to set up a Google AdSense account and how to add it to WordPress.

Staying Focused And Organized In Running A Business

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When you are marketing online you are going to be constantly taking notes. You will be making to-do lists, and you will be consuming and sharing more information than you ever believed possible.

I use to have my computer full of random text notes. No organization, no way to search it and just a horrible way to stay organized. it negatively effected my efforts when I was starting out. Organization was really one of my biggest struggles starting out and I believe it stunted my early revenue growth.

Once a friend of mine directed me to Evernote though - that problem became old history.

Evernote is the ultimate note taking and organizing tool online.

It will allow you to keep track of all of your notes in one easily organized spot. You can then access your notes from any computer or any device. It will sync all of your devices so you have seamless access to your notes.

It will also allow you to create great to-do lists. You want to organize your time better, create a to-do list in the morning and finish it! Evernote makes this ridiculously simple.

You won't believe how useful this software is until you try it. It doesn't just let you keep notes and to-do lists - it also lets you search them. Now you can search all of your notes at once. No opening up 100 files and reading, you simply search by keyword, or general topic and all related notes will come up. I literally have shaved off HOURS per month using Evernote. I can now direct that time to more productive things - you know, things that put money in my pocket.

Evernote also has an amazing feature that lets you take a picture of something, and any text in that picture will be readable by Evernote. You will be able to search these images base don the text within them. What does this mean? Well I know one internet marketer who now has a paperless office. All of his receipts and invoices are scanned as images into Evernote. If he needs to bring up any information, he can easily search these scanned forms.

I don't think I am a good enough writer to explain, just how helpful this tool has been. Check it out yourself here: *INSERT AFF LINK TO EVERNOTE*

This is the first tip because starting out organized was high on all internet marketers list of tips.

The Drastic Changes In Marketing

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Let’s take a quick stroll through the world of marketing to see what it was, what it became and what it now is…

Era 1 â€" newspaper, magazines, radio broadcasts, direct mail, telemarketing, cold calling, television, infomercials…

Era 2 â€" websites, banner ads, reciprocal links, ezine publishing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click, opt-in email, blogs...

Enter

Era 3 â€" marketing via podcasts?

Similar to the concept of opt-in email, podcasting takes full advantage of technology in reaching a pre-qualified, self-selected audience that craves the information and expertise a podcaster provides. Podcasting gives the strategy of establishing yourself as an expert a whole new playground.

Podcasting is the ultimate tool for reaching a fully-qualified target audience. A podcast is an audio broadcast published to the internet.

The broadcast is delivered to subscribers via a feed, usually in an MP3 file format.

For years consulting and service companies have realized that the way to a client’s heart is through information sharing. Be it through trade shows, conferences, seminars, newsletters, or free articles, providing useful information on a topic that potential clients are interested in grabs them â€" hook, line and sinker.

When a prospect first subscribes to a podcast, they likely aren’t ready to buy products or services from the podcaster’s company. Chances are they are just getting their feet wet, searching for information. With useful information delivered via a podcast day after day, weekly or monthly, the receiver will realize the value of the expertise demonstrated. Thus, when they are ready to become buyers rather than browsers, the podcaster has the lead.

As an advertising medium podcasts can be used just like a newsletter or press release. For instance, a tax consulting firm may publish a monthly newsletter giving updates on tax laws, information about tax shelters, tips for tax deductions and notification of available services. The newsletters will likely contain contact information and will encourage readers to contract the services of the tax consulting firm.

A podcast can be used in the same way. The only difference is, the news and information is delivered via an audio broadcast rather than through an electronic or print newsletter.

There are many advantages to podcasting. In comparison to other types of advertising, it is relatively inexpensive. Podcasts are delivered to a targeted audience, leave a lasting impression on subscribers and establish the provider as an expert in the field. Regularly published podcasts keep the provider’s name and contact information fresh in the minds of the recipients and vast amounts of business can be obtained as a result.

Getting Your Outsourced Tasks Done

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If you have been following closely until now, there is no reason why you shouldn’t get your job done to your satisfaction. But, there are times when difficulties begin to creep in.

One thing that you shouldn’t tolerate at all is non-responsiveness. On the Internet, the unsaid rule is that any professional email must be replied to within 24 hours, or sooner if your agreement is to that effect. If you are in the same time zone, there’s no reason to wait for 24 hours either. If you don’t get your reply within that time, you might as well begin looking somewhere else.

Another thing that is of utmost importance is quality. Even if your outsourcing professional has been providing you good work, do keep checking on it often. Remember that you are not seeing these people. Some of them might pass on their work to cheaper people and work as middlepersons. When that happens, quality definitely goes down.

If you are outsourcing your work, make it a point to outsource it directly to the person who will execute the job and not to a middleperson.

Avoid companies unless absolutely necessary. For home businesses, individuals are the best outsourcing professionals. However, if you are a large company and looking for something like a telemarketing agency, then, of course, you need a team of people whom you can outsource your job to.

The two major problems that can happen even after you have selected your professional carefully are non-responsiveness and deterioration of quality. Do not tolerate these problems, or your business will suffer.

Earlier we spoke about keeping a friendly rapport with your professionals. This is fine but only till the time they are providing you consistent good work. If the professional aspect of the relationship begins to wither, you need to tighten things a bit. Let the ‘boss’ in you show when that happens.

Seriously Considering Running An Online Business?

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Starting an online business has become a very popular venture in recent years as more and more people become acclimated to using the Internet in their everyday lives. As little as twenty years ago, the Internet was new to the average consumer and not much more than a novelty; today, it’s rare to encounter a home in the Western world that’s not stocked with at least one computer. Most middle class houses in America have multiple computers at this point.

What this means is that starting an online business can be profitable if done correctly, given the predominance of the Internet in the average household. People who are naturally entrepreneurial or those who have already started a non-internet based business will definitely have a leg up on the rest of the game, but for the right person who’s willing to take appropriate steps to ensure success, starting an online business can be easy, fun, and even profitable.

In general, the differences between online business and traditional businesses are slight but distinct. Here are a few things that potential online business owners should take into consideration before jumping on the Information Superhighway:

Lower start up costs/high effort. One of the greatest things about online businesses is that they typically don’t cost much to get started. There’s no need to rent out a space or pay utilities, and there are lots of free avenues to advertise with over the digital waves. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that “less money invested means less work,” because nothing could be further from the truth. Online business owners often feel like their computers are grafted onto their hands!

Be a jack of all trades. It’s not good enough just to have a stellar idea or a fantastic service. In order to be successful, you need to be able to do graphic design, understand web server technology, programming, and knowledge of the Internet as a marketing medium. For those that can’t do all of this single handedly, outsourcing is an option, but this raises overall cost.

Think globally. This isn’t opening up a small Mom and Pop store in your neighborhood. The business will be able to reach all corners of the globe, thanks to the Internet. The good part is that this potentially means more business â€" the bad part is that owners will have to make provisions for costs such as international shipping, and maybe even pay for translated versions of their websites.

Marketers make the market. There are thousands of ways to market on the Internet, including pay-per-click, viral, drip, social networking, AdWords, and many others. Don’t know what these things mean? Owners of successful online businesses take the time to learn!

Some of these attributes make working online easier, some may prove to be more of a challenge â€" but they all make online businesses unique!

Online Jobsites Can Provide Great Staffing

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Since the online jobsites are the best places for you to get professionals, let us look at them in a little more detail.

Here are some of the advantages of getting professionals from here:-

People you will find on the jobsites have registered here with the express intention of finding work. Many jobsites are free to join, but some require paid memberships. Being a paid member may reflect a bit more on their sincerity about being professional. Hence, you can be sure you get some sincere people to give your work to.

There are various ways in which you can find how good a particular worker is. Every jobsite has a rating and review system (for the employee as well as the employer). This helps you decide.

All websites have an escrow system. This takes care of all disputes. Once an escrow is made, the website will arbitrate any problems that arise.

You can make detailed project posts, outlining clearly what you want to be done, what time and budget you can afford. People make bids accordingly, so you can be sure you won’t have to bargain.

You can ask people to show samples of their past work.

You can also invite people to bid on your project.

It is very simple to post projects on online jobsites. Many of them, like GetAFreelancer, allow you to post projects for free (though they do take a $5 refundable deposit for each project you post). You only have to post all details of the work as you want it, spell out the timeframe and the budget you can offer and post it in the relevant category.

Once your project is live, which is instantaneous, people start bidding. Then, all you have to do is to look at the bids closely and make your decision on whom to select for your job.

You cannot communicate personally with the bidders till you select them. However, there is a private message board that helps you communicate with them, subject to certain restrictions (like you cannot give out your personal contact details in any way). This helps you decide better about whom to select.

Many people are forging fruitful and long-term work relationships through these online freelance jobsites, irrespective of geographical barriers, and getting mutually benefited. Without the hassle of actually needing employers on their premises, they are able to get their work done professionally and, in most cases, in cheaper ways as well.

Making Your Outsourcing Jobs Secure

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If you want to get the best people working for you, you simply cannot ignore milestones and escrows. Milestones are especially important when you are working on huge projects and want people to give you their deliverables in smaller installments so that you could manage work at your end as well. And we have already seen how escrows are important.

Some websites, like eLance in particular, help you to state the form in which you want your deliverables. You could actually set up milestones for the whole project. Among other benefits, this ensures that your employee can manage the deadline in a much better manner. You can also keep tabs on things better.

It is ideal anyway to post only short-term projects at the start, until you have a rapport set up with the worker. Even though everything might seem all right to you in the bid, there are chances that something might go wrong when the actual project is underway. If you have a long project running, it could be cumbersome to bail out of these difficult situations. However, a short-term project can help.

On GetAFreelancer, the shortest project you can post should be worth $30. However, on most other sites, there is no minimum limit for the project you post.

The best way to make the payment is through an escrow system. Most jobsites work with escrows (which is actually the main reason why you should use these freelance jobsites because an escrow protects both parties). When you select a bidder, you deposit some money into an escrow account. This money is held by the website but not released to the bidder yet. When they accomplish the task, you can direct the website to release the funds to them.

Escrow helps you because in case there is any problem with the project later on and you don’t feel like you should pay, you could ask the website to arbitrate. No freelance website will arbitrate if an escrow wasn’t made. Also, the worker knows that you have money for the project and it motivates them to do a better job.

Using Forums To Promote Your Offline Business

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A social media outlet that people often overlook is the forum. While sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn get a lot of attention when people are focusing on social media, many people forget about the saliency of forums when it comes to making a reputation for your business online.

The great thing about a forum is that it’s an easy place to establish a reputation of expertise. What you should absolutely not do is join a forum and start spamming it with ads for your business. This will only annoy the other users of the forum, and could possibly end up getting your account deleted by the moderators of the forum itself.

The best way to use a forum is to join one that is specifically related to your area of interest and product sales and start offering advice. For example, if you own a car dealership, you should look for dealership-related forums that pertain to the kinds of autos you sell. Then, you put in the address of your website or social media profile in the “signature” area of your profile and start answering questions. Giving out advice for free sounds like it might not be the best way to end up producing revenue, but once you can establish yourself as an expert on the forums, you can start drawing people into being curious about your products and services. After all, if you’re so helpful on the forum, you might have something useful to offer in the realm of sales, as well.

Another way to drum up trust in your business area using forums is to create your own forum. Of course, you’ll need to go through proper advertising channels in order to make people aware of your forum, but this is a great thing to announce on your Twitter feeds and Facebook profiles! If you can get a lively forum going that is directly attached to the website you have for your offline business, it’s a great way to get traffic to your site and a lot more customers, since you’ll have daily traffic to the forum. A successful forum might even have thousands of hits per day!

Establishing a reputation of excellence and expertise is the lifeblood of any small business. As it’s likely that you’re competing with a big box store of some sort, your bread and butter is the personal touch that you can add to your customer’s experience. When the business is online, or when you’re advertising your offline business online, a great place to show that you actually do possess both excellence and expertise is by engaging people on forums. In this way, you start building relationships of trust with the online contingent, and draw them further into your store and products.

A Comparison: Safelist Solo Ads and Solo Ezine Advertising

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If you have spent any amount of time looking into advertising your business online, then you know there are all kinds of options available to you. All of them seem to be screaming that they are the best method, but the truth is that any internet marketing can be effective if you know how to use it. The two methods we're going to compare are solo ezine advertising and safelist solo ads. First, let's take a look at what each one is.

An ezine is basically a newsletter that is delivered to the subscriber's computer via email. The ezine will cover one topic and appeals to those who are interested in the topic. Each issue of the ezine may contain ads, but such ads will be competing with other ads as well as the actual content of the newsletter. That's where solo ezine advertising comes in. This is where the publisher of the newsletter will send your ad to all of their subscribers, without anything else competing for the reader's attention.

Safelist solo ads are a bit different. A safelist is an email exchange. Everybody that signs up agrees to read email messages in exchange for their message being read. Readers click a special link within the email to prove that they have read the message, so they can receive credit. The more messages you read, the more people you can randomly send to. However, if you pay for a solo ad you can normally choose how many people will get it, or (at the highest level) have it sent to everybody participating in the safelist.

The big benefit of solo ezine advertising is that the newsletter covers one topic. Therefore, if you sell a related product or service, then you can be sure that you are targeting people that will be interested in your offer. Safelists typically don't have any requirement as to specific topics, so the targeting of safelist solo ads is more tricky. Your best bet with safelists is if you're selling something safelist users would want; such as information on how to make more money with safelists.

Another big difference between the two is that ezine subscribers are more likely to actually read each issue they receive. So when they receive your ad, they are more likely to spend time to read it, and consider your offer. Safelist messages, on the other hand are not typically read all that closely. Why not? Because most safelist users are only trying to build up credits to get more people to read their ads. So, instead of reading each message, they are just hunting for the link that will give them credit, and then they move on to the next one.

Does this mean solo ezine advertising is better than safelist solo ads, or vice-versa? Not at all. It just means that you should understand the pros and cons of each one before you use it to market your own business using either one, or both, of these methods.

What Is A Niche?

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If you haven't heard the word 'niche' being batted around by Internet Marketers then you haven't been listening. Finding a niche has become the antidote to competing in overly saturated online markets.

What is a niche?

According to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary a niche is described as "a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted... a specialized market".

Have you noticed that despite the closing of many businesses in these harsh economic times, the local hobby train store is still around? That the 'hole-in-the-wall' eatery is thriving? Or that trends such as scrapbooking can start with a bang and still close within a year when four similar businesses start up in the same area?

The online business world reflects the same trends as experienced in the offline world - often with faster turnover and startup rates. Those who promote a product or site that targets a small, select audience can tap into a market that is otherwise not being served. Despite the limitations of the client base, the targeted nature of the business creates a devoted and active market - the aim of any business.

HOW DO I FIND A NICHE?

Finding a niche requires diligent research. Whether you have access to software that harvests and sorts information or you take a manual approach you must first start with ideas.

With a pen and paper (or computer, if that's more comfortable) brainstorm a list of businesses, products and industries. Create a list of keywords and phrases you think would be used by individuals looking for these items online.

Use a software program such as Wordtracker or a free resource such as the Overture Keyword Selector Tool to find keywords for your niche that have a high amount of traffic.

Although a program like Wordtracker makes it easy to find details such as how many sites compete for that market, you can also do your own research.

Concentrate your attention on question phrases such as "how do I..." or "where can I...". These questions will clue you into potential markets that need servicing.

Next, look in Google Answers. Type one of your keywords into the search area. What questions are being asked and how much are people willing to pay for answers? If you find a group of keywords with a high number of questions then enter these words in your browser's search engine.

What sites come up? Do they provide answers or solutions to the problem? How are they making money? Can you see an opportunity to service these individuals?

Finding a niche can open the door to a profitable online business. Research the market and be certain that your product or service is valuable to this group. Find forums or groups that target this audience and pay close attention to their concerns.

If you can help these people you WILL make money. The best of both worlds!

The Power of Twitter

Marketing Tasks You Can Implement Now!

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1. Listen to (and write down!) the questions your clients ask. They're clues to the problems you can help them solve. They're also topics for your next article, talk and e-newsletter. Don't invent this stuff - just listen!

2. Plan and write out your next sales conversation. Got a meeting next week with a hot prospect? Write down the words you will use to find out who the decision makers are, what the budget is, the scope of their problem, and how you'll ask them to take next steps. If you have no idea how to do this, send me an email and I'll help you think through it.

3. Read a marketing article. Most non-marketers don't go out of their way to read about marketing. A painless way to stay motivated, though, is to read one new article every week. Start here: YOUR BLOG HERE :-)

4. Pay attention to the marketing messages all around you. See if you can pick out the WIIFM (What's In It For Me?) and call-to-action (what they want you to do). Practice thinking like a marketer.

5. If you manage others who perform your client work, visit a client with your employee to show interest. This keeps you fresh and demonstrates your commitment to the client. It also shows the client that there's more to your organization than their sole point of contact.

6. Give a copy of this article to your staff and ask them to come to the next staff meeting prepared to talk about the ideas that this generates. Ask people to commit to one new task. Have them give a progress report at the next meeting. Rinse, repeat.

7. Draft a 3 or 4-question survey to do short, conversational telephone interviews with your target audience to find out what they struggle with...what's on their wish list...what they want from you.

Do NOT ask them if they want to buy anything from you. This is a relationship-building task, NOT a sales call. That comes much later. Ask others you work with to pick two clients or prospects and call them. Compare notes and discuss your findings.

8. Think of small solutions that you can offer to important problems. Or small solutions to little problems. The key is to think small. It's less intimidating for your customer to "sample" you and makes it easy for them to take a first step.

9. Practice saying your Positioning Statement out loud. To the mirror. In the car. In the elevator. If you don't know what your Positioning Statement is, that's a problem. Email me and I'll give you a hand.

10. Visualize doing any one of these things successfully. Really - it's what professional athletes, speakers, performers, and successful people do all the time. Visualize it, and it will be so.

The next time a scientist tells me they can't market, I'll know better. These ideas clearly prove that theory wrong!

Why You Should Consider Using Wordpress For Your Business Site

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WordPress is a pretty simple platform. There isn't a lot of danger or ptifalls associated with it. I don't want to scare anyone but there is one issue that can be quite dire. WordPress may infect you and your site with a disease...Plugin Fever. This plugin fever will start before you know it and will have you mindlessly activating plugin after plugin until the inevitable happens...plugin fever! Symptoms include;

lethargic response time

on page confusion

ugly design lesions

In some rare cases - outright fatal errors.

Chilling, I know! Luckily this disease is easily avoidable and fully curable. You just need to protect yourself with these steps:

1. Self Analysis - Take a step back and think about if you really need a plugin. Plugins add a lot of great features to a site but do you need to have each one that tickles your fancy? My guess is no. Take a look at your installed WordPress plugins and really think about if you need them. Does your plugin help generate traffic? Does it help keep people engaged? Does it offer a feature you need on your site? If you say no to all of these you might want to think about deleting that plugin. When you start adding plugin after plugin you are risking slowing your site. You also risk a possible conflict between plugins or a plugin and your theme.

2. Eliminate Redundancy - One of the quickest ways for plugin fever to set in is to have multiple plugins that do the same thing. Go through your plugins and see if any of them offer you the same functionality. If they do, then one of them is redundant. You don't need 4 SEO plugins. You only need one XML sitemap generator. There are plugins that will help your visitors submit your site to social bookmarking sites -- one will do the job. Every redundant plugin you have has a chance to break or slow down your site. Instantly remove any redundant plugins.

3. Upgrade - Once you have trimmed the number of plugins you use, make sure all of your plugins are upgraded. This is an easy process and should be taken care of quickly. Plugin upgrades will usually address security and any possible conflicts. You can do this in your back office easily so there are no excuses. Everyone has some plugins, and they need the same care you give the rest of your site.

These three steps can help ward off Plugin Fever. It is up to you to ensure your site is in perfect working order, and these three steps can help optimize your plugins. It is easy to get carried away with plugins since they can do just about everything. You need to remember that too many plugins can slow down or break your site. They can also conflict with each other and your theme so be very selective.

One last piece of advice. If you ever notice serious issues with your WordPress site - then deactivate all plugins and see if that fixes the issue. If it did, reactivate each plugin until you find the one that caused the error. Remove the error causing plugin. This will come in handy at least once in your WordPress days, that I can promise you. Good luck and may all your plugins run smoothly!

The Rights and Lefts of Tracking Program

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What if Jonas Salk hadn’t tested the polio vaccine? Or, what if Einstein never tested his theory of relativity? Do you think they would have been successful? In the science world, definitely NOT, and in the marketing world, testing is every bit as important if you want to achieve success.

Any number of tracking programs are out there from Hits Connect to Track That Ad to the new Link Brander. Even server-side tracking scripts are available for purchase. Regardless of what you use, tracking every ad that you post, whether it be to a traffic exchange or to a safelist, you need to know how successful your marketing is. Why? Because if you don’t track your ads, you may spend tons of time and money chasing a dog that you’ll never catch.

Tracking works simply. You place the ad URL into the tracker, which devises a new URL for you to use in its place. Every time you employ the tracker URL, that “hit” is recorded by the tracking system.

Let’s say you buy 1,000 hits at XYZ traffic exchange. How will you know if they have been delivered, unless you’re using a tracking system? You won’t, and though it’s the exception rather than the norm, you may not get the hits you paid for.

What should really interest you are actual click-throughs. That tells you how many times someone has actually seen your page and clicked on the link to take them to the site you’re promoting. In this case, you will use the tracker link as the URL in your “call to action” (the click here, join now, etc.) button on your splash page. Or, use it as the link in your safelist mailing, as an FFA link, or in any other form of traffic generation system. By using the tracking link, you’ll know every time someone clicks because the tracking system will tell you.

As another example, let’s say we advertised site ABC on traffic exchange XYZ and we used a tracking link for our call to action. We did the same thing at traffic exchange 123. At XYZ, we got our 1,000 hits and only 15 people clicked through to our page. At 123, we got 1,000 hits, but 100 people clicked through to our page. In which traffic exchange do you want to promote that particular page more heavily? No brainer, right? At 123, of course.

The only way that you can possibly know whether your advertising is working is by tracking the results. Check out several tracking services to see which fits your budget and has the features you like. Then, either buy the script or sign up for a subscription. A tracking system is one tool in your marketing toolbox that you cannot afford to be without.

How to Find and Join Facebook Groups

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Video: Finding and Joining Facebook Groups

How to set up a capture form using your autoresponder software

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Video: Setting up a lead capture form using your autoresponder software.

Harnessing The Power Of Wordpress Widgets

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WordPress offers a lot of advantages when it comes to web publishing. There are a lot of reasons people use WordPress. One of the easiest to use functions of WordPress are widgets. Most WordPress themes come with "widget ready" sidebars. From the back office of WordPress you can drag and drop widgets into your sidebars. Widgets can add such things to your site as:

Calendar

Search

Recent Posts

Categories

Text/HTML

The above list is only touching on the functionality you can add with Widgets. If you want to take it to the next level you can also add widgets that don't come standard with your WordPress install.

I will share 3 that I have found very handy. Most of these widgets are added by using plugins.

1. Video Widget - This plugin will add a video widget that you can add to your sidebar. It will allow you to choose from over 25 video services. You can control video size within the widget. With this widget you only have to add the video ID as well - no embed code. Lastly, this widget will also allow you to add a list of videos that will be randomly chosen for your visitor.

2. Sexy Bookmarks Sidebar Widget - A quick note first, this plugin works with the original Sexy Bookmarks plugin so you will need that installed for this to work. It is a great and unique social media sharing plugin that you will find handy even if you don't want this widget. The widget itself will allow you to add Sexy Bookmarks to your sidebar. This widget looks great and should lead to more social media submissions for your site.

3. Flickr Widget - Flickr is one of the best and easiest ways to both store and share your images. With this plugin you will get a Flickr widget that will display your latest Flickr images in your sidebar. The widget will display up to 10 photos from a Flickr photostream.

These 3 widgets are a drop in the bucket compared to all of the widgets available out there. If you want to add something to your sidebar and can't figure it out - check out the WordPress plugins, they may have an add on widget that will give you exactly what you need.

One last suggestion: Please don't pack your sidebar so full of widgets it stretches out the screen. it looks sloppy and unprofessional, not to mention people usually don't scroll beneath your content to see your sidebar so it is wasted.

When used properly widgets can be a powerful addition to your WordPress site.

Setting Up Your Facebook Profile

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Video: Facebook Profile

How To Make Money Using Blogs?

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Blogs have been around for a while. And even though they have gone through some changes, they are still as popular as ever, if not more so. This may because it's so simple to get started with blogging, because there are some good blogging platforms, or because people have figure out ways to make money with blogs. Whatever the reason for their continuing popularity, there is still a strong need for good blogging advice.

The first bit of blogging advice is to just do it. Yep, that's it! Okay, what that really means is that there is no reason not to get started. There are several ways you can test the blogging waters for free; namely Blogger and WordPress. Both of these platforms give you plenty of options for customizing the appearance of your blog, and they make it easy to get up and running. Blogger allows some commercial content (such as AdSense), while WordPress doesn't allow it if you host your blog using a free website address through their hosting. Which leads to the next bit of advice...

Get a domain name and paid hosting as soon as you can. If you already have them, then you don't have to use the free address and hosting, and can set up your blog directly on your own domain name. Now, don't freak out. You can get good hosting for around $10 a month, and a domain name usually costs around $10 per year. However, you can often find deals that bring the cost down by quite a bit. That being said, you also need to look at what you get for your money. For example, be sure your hosting package has everything you need.

You will also need to think about the topic of your blog. If you just want it to be for friends and family, then you blog about the events of your day, without giving it much thought. However if you are interested in making money with your blog, then you need to have a more narrow focus.

Whichever type of blog you decide to have, it will require you to update on a regular basis. The more often you post to it, the stronger your following will be; whether it's family and friends, or potential customers. Posting every day or two is best, but once a week should be okay in most cases. Because you will have to update it often, it's a good idea to select a topic that interests you. Otherwise it will become too much of a chore, and you will soon stop updating.

So, how do you make money with a blog? The two main ways are through Google AdSense and selling affiliate products. The best bit of blogging advice for making money with a blog is to treat it like a business. This means you need to invest some time and a little money to get it to start producing serious income for you. The good news is that blogging is pretty low maintenance and the costs for running it are very low.

Using Facebook Applications

Selling Domain Names

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If you are aware of the best practices, reselling domain names can earn you a considerable amount of money. There are some factors that you need to consider for this. First of all, you must be able to speculate what names would sell the most and generate most demand. Let us look at all the points one should consider when looking to sell domain names to make some good money out of this business.

How To Choose The Best Selling Names

A small domain name is much more desirable than a large and complicated domain name. It is easier to type and remember for the surfer. Because of this, small domain names are very effective for advertising through word of mouth.

Once you have a domain name, try to get it a good ranking with search engine optimization. This greatly increases the value of the domain name. It can be achieved by good advertising and following the other methods of search engine optimization. Any business that purchases it will have a good ranking and hence get more visitors to their website with the domain name.

Selling Domain Names

Now that you have a good domain name that will get you a good price, how do you go for selling it? It is very simple. Try to go for the various forums, blogs and auctioneering websites and post the domain name and the price you are looking to sell it for. This generally gets a lot of people and businesses getting back to you provided your domain name is good enough.

The best thing to do is to wait for some time before actually selling off the domain name. In the mean time you can check the price of similar domain names and how they are selling. When you feel that the prices being offered are good enough, advertise about the domain name and sell it off at the best price obtained.In this way you can make very good money by selling domain names. Even when you have the domain name parked and are waiting for the best price, you can use it in various ways to generate money. Affiliate marketing, pay-per-click programs, etc are some of the ways for you to go for it.

Domain name reselling business is a great money maker requiring very little effort from you. If you are a bit careful and go for this business intelligently, you can make a lot of money with the minimum effort applied.

When To Use SEO vs PPC

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The online community is definitely a large market place that you cannot ignore, especially if you have an Internet business. There are thousands if not millions of consumers that you can tap in the Internet.

At the same time, the Internet also poses a quite different challenge. The easy access that Internet provides also gives you as much competition as you can imagine. It is too crowded and congested.

Having a website is not enough to make your business running and able to compete. You must take other alternatives to give way for the online community to access your website at any rate or chance possible.

You have to expose your website. Make it known. It has to be visible. It has to be frequently targeted by consumers and surfers.

Invest in marketing your Internet site. There are basically two options available to you, the SEO and PPC. These two are probably the most desirable alternatives you can get for your Internet business as strategy for search engine marketing.

1. SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Some researches indicate that 60% - 70% of Internet surfers and users actually resort to using the Google search engine to find and locate web sites and pages, for any topic they desire. SEO is the process taken to make sure that the Internet uses will find your website when ranked among the top results of a search. This way you can make sure that you will be visible and can clearly stand out from the rest.

To get a search engine optimization, you will have to build on your own Internet site frequently hit Internet links to web site pages. The process will involve IBLN or Independent Back-Linking Network, wherein hundreds or even thousands of pages will be utilized to promote a particular website of a client.

In SEO, there is no need for you to pay for the clicks although it will require you to spend time doing research to get a favorable combination of ads and target audience. The SEO process is a long term one. It requires months, 6 months at the least, before the proper outcome is fully achieved, but once the goal is accomplished, you will definitely get a steady source of profit.

2. PPC

PPC gives way in advertising on a search engine. These are sponsored listings that you see whenever you make a search. There will be a charge whenever a visitor or web surfer clicks on any of your ads. There will first be a bidding process. The highest bidder for the price per click will definitely get the chance to be first listed in the search engine.

With this kind of advertising, you can still basically control your campaign as you get to create your own ad. You will also manage the target audience and still stay within the bounds of your budget. Most of the providers of PPC advertising will allow you to specify the target market, either by topic, industry or geographical location. You can also very well check if your ad gets to be shown at all and if it is competitive with the rest.

There are some guaranteed benefits when you get to maximize the PPC strategy.

PPC lets you advertise to the whole of the online community. It is also relatively easy to set up.

At first glance, PPC advertising may seem very expensive. Could it possibly happen that someone out there will go on clicking on your ad? This will definitely give you a large bill without the expected profit on your part. If this provides a lot of worries, be rest assured that there is a protection for you. Networks are able to recognize fraudulent clicks.

You can also set a budget for a certain period. The moment your budget has been used up by the target number of clicks, your ads will no longer be displayed until the next period you want it again displayed.

You will also be able to adjust well to changes in market demands and trends.

In deciding which of the two strategies will work right for you, think of your goals and of your resources. They definitely offer benefits and advantages that will work for your good. The better way to approach this two is to evaluate according to your short term and long term plans. Take the PPC course for your short-term goals and choose SEO if you have long term ones.

There world is out there for you now. Just make sure you do what will work best for your entrepreneurial endeavors and visions. The secret to success lies in your hands. Just study your options well and you’ll get exactly what you want!

Leveraging Social Networks To Promote Your Niche

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You’re probably well aware of how helpful social networking tools can be when it comes to getting attention for your business. In fact, social networking has become such a salient topic in recent years that it’s developed its own marketing acronymâ€" just as Search Engine Optimization has SEO, social networking has Social Media Optimization, or SMO.

Yes, it’s true â€" there are people who make their living by controlling the Twitter accounts and Facebook profiles of people and businesses. The good news is that if you’re a small operation, there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t manage your own social media optimization. There’s very little about the process that’s acutely difficult â€" the most annoying thing about it is that it can be time consuming, which is why some companies choose to outsource the work. Once your social media optimization reaches a certain point, you might deem it necessary to outsource it as well, but for people who are just starting on the path to social medial optimization, it’s recommended that you take control of it yourself.

The reason why social networking is so pivotal when it comes to niche marketing is that the entire point of social networking in the first place is to find a niche. Think of it this way â€" when you create a personal profile on these sites, you’re seeking to find people who you can network and connect with. On personal profiles, these are likely friends that you know in real life, so you can build up your communication methods with them. In essence, you’re creating your own little niche where you can find others easily through social networking, and others can find you.

Working through social networking with a business is the exact same thing. You’re putting your business out on the waves, looking for people who might be interested in your goods and services, or what you have to say. The art behind using Twitter and LinkedIn is the same as it would be with email advertising or working on forums. Post regularly enough so that your account is obviously an active account and people stay aware of your existence, but don’t spam the accounts of your friends and colleagues multiple times a day. To do so is to becoming annoying, and even though you’re looking to keep a steady stream of conversation going, if you become irritating, people will “defriend” your social network account.

Good things to make your “friends” on social networking sites aware of are promotions, blog updates, sales, discrepancies in business (like if you will be away from the computer for a while or the business will be closing for a period of time), or tips and tricks. Keep your updates fun, interesting, and relevant. A good rule of thumb is that if you don’t have anything to say, don’t say it. However, you should have something to say about your business at least two times a month â€" should this not be the case, you need to work on making your business more dynamic!

Getting to the Top of Google Easily

Customizing your theme menu in WordPress with ease

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Video: How to customize your theme menu in Wordpress

Add a Contact form to your WordPress Blog

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Video: How to install contact forms on your Wordpress site

Why You Need Forum Marketing

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Internet forum marketing is the form of marketing where you market your business through online discussion groups. First you join a forum and start adding posts to the discussions. You are though not allowed to advertise or market directly through your posts, this is called spamming.

After registering as a member of the forum you can create your own signature file.

In this signature file you can hyperlink a keyword phrase back to your website, which when clicked can bring on the traffic to your site.

The following are the five benefits of forum marketing.

1. Always remember when you are posting you are helping out someone. It is a great felling when you are of any help to the other person. If you are a believer of the law of when you give you always receive something then online forum marketing is the place for you.

2. You get to learn a lot for free. When I started my Team-Schuman.com website I never felt the urge to post. I only read other people’s posts. I hung out in the Warrior Forum and learned a lot which helped me grow the business.

3. You’ll get free advertising from your signature profile. People read your posts and view your signature profile and click on the link for your website. This type of traffic is very passive and a great source of sales.

4. Search engines would give you credit for a backlink when you hyperlink your keyword phrase back to your website. As for example, my article writer website hyperlinks the phrase article writer. And now we feature in the top 10 on Google because of the backlinks from forum marketing. I try to be very regular and post on these forums several times a week. You can try Google search and you will get a large list of forums and discussion groups. Find the few which has any form of relevance with your business.

5. One other huge benefit I get is that I acquire ideas to write articles on my blog by going through the different kind of questions people ask. A good question usually stimulates a lot of discussion. Such questions can be made into good articles.

 

These are several reasons good enough for you to include internet forum marketing to be part of your advertisement strategies. Be consistent and rip the benefits.

Easily edit WordPress themes using CSS

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Video: How to edit Wordpress themes using CSS

Making More Money Fast Through These Websites

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CPC (Cost Per Click Advertisers) - These sites let you place ads on your site that when simply clicked earn you money:

Google Adsense

Adbrite

Chitika

Kontera

Clicksor

CPA (Cost Per Action Advertisers) - With these sites your web traffic must click an ad and then follow an action (usually a purchase):

ClickBank

Commission Junction

Linkshare

ShareASale

Max Bounty

Amazon

CPM (Cost Per 1000 Impressions) - With these companies you will earn a set amount of money for every 1000 displays of an ad. Note - most of these sites require a certain high amount of traffic per month before they will approve your site.

Burst Media

ValueClick

Tribal Fusion

If you want to start monetizing your current website, or build a website that is monetized from the start - check out the options above and you are sure to find some sort of offer that you can use to make some money.

The Power of Forum Marketing

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Video: Brad talks about what forum marketing is and why it’s important to get involved in forums.

Your Newbie Guide To Search Engine Optimization

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the cornerstones to an effective online presence. It is estimated that almost 90% of all web traffic is from a search engine of some sort. A good SEO plan is a great first step in any inbound marketing efforts. If you can consistently rank on the first page of any web searches, you will be positioning your business to be found by eager consumers.

This short report will cover the most critical items you need to be aware of when it comes to search engine optimization.

Google Rules: As of today, Google has a stranglehold on the search engine market. They hold about a 70% market share. When you are optimizing for the search engines, it usually means Google. It has the best chance to consistently send you leads.

It’s All In The Keyword: The strength of SEO is that you can attempt to rank for whichever keywords you want. Keywords are the terms users search for on a search engine. The strongest SEO campaigns will begin with properly researched keywords. The basic cycle is to brainstorm a list of words you think people would search to find your business or offering. Then you plug this list into online tools like the Google Keyword Tool, and you will be given even more options. You can also view the competition and the amount the keywords are searched. This way you can figure out which keywords are worth ranking for.

Think Local & Long-tail: Quite often ranking for a location based keyword is easier than just the keyword itself. Similarly, ranking for keywords that are 3-4 words long is also easier than one word queries. For example, ranking on the top of Google for “Bakery” would probably be very hard. If you add a local flair to it, it becomes much more likely. Ranking for “Tallahassee Bakery” will be a lot easier. Even easier than that would be a long-tail term like “Tallahassee Wedding Cake Bakery”. Each of those keyword terms are progressively easier to rank for, but the trade off is they are searched less. Counter that by trying to rank for as many related long-tail terms as possible.

Your Web Platform Matters: While any type of website can rank in the search engines (so breathe easy if you already have a website built), the platform you build it with can speed up the SEO process. The single most powerful platform I have used is WordPress. Google seems to love it...and for good reason. WordPress was initially a blogging platform, so it makes it very easy to add new content. Google loves new content (more on that later), so WordPress is favored since it likely includes fresh content. WordPress also includes many free plugins that are designed to boost your SEO rankings. The navigational set up of WordPress is also more inline with the type of interlinking Google values. They want to send people to sites that are easy to navigate. If you are choosing one platform to build your website with, seriously consider WordPress.

On-Page and Off-Page: Once you have your website platform chosen and list of keywords you can begin to optimize your website. The two major ways are on-page and off-page. It is a widely held belief that you should spend 20% of your time on-page optimization and 80% off page.

On-page optimization is making your site search engine friendly. One of the major concerns you want to address are the title tags on every page. Each page should have it’s own title and include a different keyword term. This way each of your websites pages can rank for a different search engine term. If you use WordPress you can install plugins like All in One SEO to help with this. You will also want to make sure your keywords show up in your site’s content but do not stuff them in. They have to be used moderately and naturally. Other on-page concerns include cleaning up any broken links on your site, including a sitemap, a privacy policy and proper working navigation.

Off-page optimization comes down to almost purely link building. One of the best ways to get your website into the search engines is if lot’s of people link back to your site. Actively building backlinks can be a grueling process but it works. For best results you will want your keyword to be the actual text of the link. Whatever words form the actual link are known as “anchor text”. You want your anchor text to be your chosen keywords! To get started add your website link to any online profiles you may have.

Consistent Content: This is one of the best ways to properly optimize your site for the search engines. You must be creating and posting content on your site regularly. It doesn’t have to be daily (although that would rock!) but I think weekly is a great goal. If you can’t do that yourself, you can get an employee to take that on, or find cheap outsourcing solutions.

Content is the lifeblood of your website. It is why people come to it and why people stay. Creating content also gives you more chances to rank in the search engines. If you are posting helpful articles to your site, make sure to get some keywords in the title so they can show up in the search engines. This is why WordPress is so powerful, it makes adding content easy.

Google loves fresh content as well. Sites that have fresh updated content are more relevant by their very nature in Google’s eyes. Commit to creating content consistently and you will see your search engine rank grow along with your traffic and revenue.

Search Engine Optimization is one of the best advertising opportunities online today. Start your SEO efforts today, and soon you won’t have to worry about cold calls because your customers will be finding you.

Adult Social Networking: What Good Could It Bring You?

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Social networking is a great way to connect with people that you know personally and people that are customers or potential customers for your business. There are a number of different social networking sites on the internet and the main focus is for these websites to be safe for adult conversation. Adults can use networking websites to socialize with friends and family all over the world and they can also use it for business or marketing purposes. Social networking is the best way to connect with other individuals either for business or socially.

When you are using social networking sites to connect with other people you need to have an idea of the sort of person that you want to connect with. So open up a document on your computer or just get out a piece of paper and write the characteristics and specific qualities that you are looking for in the people that you want to connect with.

When you know what sort of person you want to connect with then you can create an account at the social networking and create your profile accordingly. You can post information about yourself in your profile and other members will be able to view this information.

So when you want to connect with a certain type of person then you want to create your profile including information that would be of interest to the sort of person that you want to attract either personally or professionally. You want your profile to be personal and to describe characteristics about yourself that will match those characteristics in the people that you are trying to attract. For example, if you are looking to connect with people that are interested in art then you should include in your profile that you like art.

If you are creating a profile to market your business you don't want your whole profile to be about that business. You want to connect with your potential customers on a personal level first so leave any mention of your business until the end of your profile and even then only mention it briefly. When it comes to adult networking sites it is a good rule to get to know people personally first.

Some networking sites will promote networking for business and these sites can be very good for business. When people look at your profile they are aware that you are there to market your business so if they are attracted to your profile then there is a lot of potential for them to be a future customer.

You can also include a photo in your profile but if you do always have a photo that is professional. By having a photo in your profile you are reaching your customers on a personal level. You can also upload a video to your profile which can also be a very effective way of connecting with people on the network.

Social networking websites really do have enormous potential for your business marketing if you use them correctly. Remember to reach out to your future customers on a personal level and build a relationship with them and your business can grow in leaps and bounds by using social networking websites.

How To Write An Ebook?

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Writing a free ebook is a great way to sell more affiliate products. The ebook can work for you in two different ways and I encourage you to use both methods in each free ebook you write.

The first way is to promote affiliate links directly in your ebook where appropriate. You can casually mention a product in the body of a particular chapter, review a product as part of your ebook, or add an “Additional Resources” section to the end of the book.

The second way is to link to your content site from your ebook. You can offer additional information on the site or link to a review page. By sending your readers to your website you get the chance to expose them to additional affiliate products and have the opportunity to get them on your newsletter list.

Let’s take a look at how you can get started on your first ebook.

Find a topic that you are fairly knowledgeable about and come up with an overall theme for the book. What are people looking for on the particular topic? For example, parents of infants will be interested in tips and strategies to get their baby to sleep through the night. A mom looking for a work at home job may be interested in how to spot a work at home scam and where to look for legitimate jobs.

Come up with an outline, or group some related articles you have written on a particular topic. Now all you have to do is flesh it out a little bit and of course incorporate your affiliate links.

An ebook typically consists of at least 25 pages. That may sound like a lot, but you should keep your font size fairly large to make it easier to read on a computer screen.

Let’s talk about format for a moment. You can purchase software to create an ebook, or you can make it a PDF document. PDF documents will work on just about any computer and people are comfortable downloading them.

I usually write my ebooks in Microsoft Word, format it in there, add any pictures or graphics and then turn it into a PFD. You can either do this with Microsoft Acrobat, or use one of the free PDF creation services on the web.

Your next step will be to get the ebook circulating. After all you are not going to make any affiliate sales if no one reads your book. You can offer it as a free download on your site or give it away as a bonus for subscribing to your newsletter. I also like to add a note in the footer of each page that the reader is welcome to pass the book along to others who might be interested in the topic.

Offer the ebook as a free giveaway to other website owners and post it on the free ebook directories. Then sit back and watch the book do the work for you. After a few weeks you should see the affiliate sales come in. Time to move on to another book.

Easy ways to Set Up Page Order on Your WordPress Blog

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Video: How to change the order of navigation links in your Wordpress blog.

Get Your Site Reviewed To Suck In More Prospects

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People love reviews. One of the reasons why Amazon.com became so popular (and there’s a list the length of the Nile regarding why that site became one of the biggest deals on the Internet since Al Gore) is due to its extensive review system. Customers like to read about those who have bought the product or visited the store before they have done so themselves. Most people these days are savvy enough to realize the point of advertisingâ€" they know that commercials are out there for a reason, namely, to make the place of business or the product look good. Reviews, on the other hand, are ostensibly written by those who are not being paid cash to promote the product in a positive light, making potential customers trust them more.

We’re assuming here that you’re running a steady operation that customers like to visit and return to. If you have a business that you’re proud of and you feel as though people would review it positively, then it’s a good idea to put your business in a position where it can garner those positive reviews.

Two great sites to start off with when it comes to getting your place of business reviewed by customers are Yelp and Google Maps. Once you put your site up on these sites, customers can submit reviews â€" both positive and negative â€" regarding your offline business and what they thought of it. Both of these sites see a lot of traffic per day, and if you are confident that the masses would review your small business positively, this is a great tool to convince others to stop by your place of business. After all, all businesses know that the best advertising available is the golden word of mouth recommendation â€" and if you can get positive reviews on a social review site, it’s essentially the same thing. Just virtual.

It’s a good idea to advertise the fact that your business is up on Yelp or Google Maps at your place of business. This will encourage your visitors to write a review on your business, particularly if they’ve had an excellent time. Yelp in particular even allows the business owner to respond to comments left on their business by those who leave reviews. This is a great way to thank customers for their reviews if they’re positive, defend yourself if there is a bad review, or offer your condolences and suggest ways that both you and the customer can ensure a better visit next time if the review is less than glowing.

Social review sites can literally be a way to strike gold when it comes to an offline business’ foray into social media advertising. Even better, assuming that you’re running a legit place of business that the customer is pleased with, you don’t even have to do that much work. Just sign up for a profile and let the positive reviews roll in!

Using PLR To Sell During Webinars

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have mentioned it before, but a personal goal of mine is to help reduce the stigma of PLR.  So many people instantly think “low quality crap”.  Well, I think stories like this will prove that there is some great PLR content out there, and more importantly, it can be used to make money right “out-of-the-box”.

So recently Justin (if you don’t follow us, he is my biz partner and one of the “founding fathers” of Best Quality PLR) was approached to give a webinar.   When you are working in the online world there will be a lot of these kind of opportunities.

People will approach you to do a webinar based on reputation

Someone in your social network will need a webinar guest

You can offer joint venture opportunities to people with big mailing lists who can schedule a webinar

You can speak on someone’s web show â€" people are always looking for guests

There are even websites directed solely to generating webinar traffic.

Hold your own webinar â€" set up landing page and direct paid traffic to it.

Anyways, creating webinar opportunities is a post in itself.  What we want to discuss is how PLR helped us make some money. When doing a webinar there are two things you really need:

Webinar Content

An Offer

We were able to use our PLR products for both.

After being approached by someone who needed a basic SEO webinar, Justin created a slideshow from our SEO related products.  He didn’t skimp on the info, the goal is to deliver some quality content.  Delivering a webinar can be a lot of work, but having this content did speed up the process.

So while Justin perfected the webinar content, I worked on putting together a package.  I took some of our SEO related products, slapped our branding all over them (could have increased profit by adding our affiliate links through out but we didn’t in this case) and zipped them up.  I believe we used 3 eBooks.  We packaged them for $27 and that was our upsell.

Justin delivered the webinar to 80 people.  This is a good number of people for a webinar.  Now, one thing to keep in mind is Justin is a total natural on the camera, and has a knack for creating webinars and video content. We have that inherent advantage over a lot of marketers, but you can get good and comfortable as well â€" it just takes practice.

Easily add youtube videos to WordPress automatically

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Video: How to automatically add youtube videos to Wordpress

Your List Has Partners In It

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Now as far as turning your list into joint ventures goes, this is a pretty easy but also open ended and rather variable in results until you actually see what these people are capable of further down the line. Similar to previously, when we talked about gaining feedback from your list you can in the same way, gain joint ventures from your list, again, as in the above example with the affiliates, this is often far more widely used, and for good reason.

I urge you once again, not to relegate your joint venture prospects to those who visit your website, and the individuals you pick out through the top performing affiliates, but to actively seek them through your list. The reason we're doing this is simply because there's a good chance someone will be out there that won't progress down your line of resources otherwise. If they're experienced, have a big list of their own, or the ability to get in touch with your target market, you're going to miss out if you’re not telling them that you want their services.

For example, an experienced marketer that subscribes to a selection of lists to keep up with what’s going on around them, happens to subscribe to your list where you're selling an info product such as this. He or she won't buy your how to product, because they’ve got their system set up already and it just so happens, that they only promote their own stuff to their own lists, unless it's a joint venture (this is very common among the big guys by the way), they won't buy your big product for the same reason, and they won't be joining your affiliate program for the above reason. He or she is a heavy hitter with a big list, but you're missing out. These are the people you're aiming to cater for here. It's not good if you're leaving massive holes like this, because you're missing out on some massive profit potential. In fact, as we speak the majority of marketers out there are very obviously leaving these types of holes.

The problem with joint venturing through a list at this stage is it becomes kind of a lottery if you're not careful. You can't just send out a mailing asking for anyone with a list over ten thousand people to contact you for higher commissions, because then everyone else feels cheated and you may alienate some potential affiliates. In general terms joint ventures should be a private thing, the deal will also vary from person to person, depending on your product, their list size, what they want in return and what you can grant in return. The best way to go about this is to keep it that way. Don't do a mass mailing just requesting joint ventures for the reasons above, we can't do that for this particular resource.

What I'd suggest you do instead, which you should be doing with your list anyway, is carry on as your normally do, sending out your un-intrusive surveys to help with your research and find out as much info as you can about the people on your list, for something in return. For example a short valuable report that you've written on your area of expertise. In exchange you're getting vital info that not only allows you to tailor your ads to your list providing a better response rate, but at the same time you're building up a picture of who the good joint venture prospects are. Once you've done that, you can go through the results you've collected, and pick the top performers, the knowledgeable, and the people with the most resources, and contact them individually.