วันพุธที่ 30 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

6 Steps to Attracting Black Customers Online

By: Jamila White, "The E-Commerce Diva" (TM)
In the rush to keep up with technology, many African-American business owners are so busy trying to add the latest bells and whistles to their Web sites, get to the top of the search engines, and learn the latest database technology that they often forget this simple fact: people do business with other people, not computers. Understanding the importance of relationships is key to attracting African-American buyers online. Here are a few practical tips to getting Black customers to buy more from your Web site.Here are a few practical tips to getting Black customers to buy more from your website.Step 1: Make a personal connection... put a face on it.Adding photos of realistic-looking people to your Web site will increase your sales. Photos jump out from a page, so even if someone just skims over the words, the photo will create a lasting impression. If you don't have photos of your actual employees or customers, use stock photography.Here are a few of my favorite sources for photos:
FotoSearch
Getty Images
Corbis Royalty-free images start at around $19-35 per image and are much less expensive than rights-managed images. If you have a bigger budget, you can purchase CDs with entire collections of African American stock photographs and illustrations.Step 2: Establish trust.When you walk into an establishment, you usually can tell right away if you feel comfortable doing business there. You can see if the place is clean and well maintained, brightly lit, and whether someone friendly is available to greet and help you. On the Internet, your Web site has to do all the talking and all the handholding. If this is a potential customer's first visit to your Web site, they may be uncertain if you're a legitimate business and if they can trust you.There are a number of ways to alleviate these fears and give your customers peace of mind. First, provide full contact information - including a telephone number - on your Web site. Second, show a picture of your location and employees, if applicable. Third, if you are a member of any professional organizations, such as the Better Business Bureau and/or professional trade organizations, this is a great time to display your membership logos. Most importantly, display quotes and testimonials for your current happy customers to show how what great quality products and service your company provides.Step 3: Use the "word of mouth" network.From the griots of Africa to barbershops and hair salons to the chat rooms on BlackPlanet.com, at the center of African American culture is the oral tradition. Use this ready-made network to your advantage, and give people the tools to tell their friends and colleagues about your products. A great way to do this is with an instant "Tell a Friend" button on your Web site. Constant Contact (see Step 6) includes this service as part of it's e-newsletter management program.Step 4: Network with other Black Web sites.One way to jump-start the flow of traffic to your Web site is by recruiting customers from other high-traffic sites. You can buy ad space on a well-trafficked site that also attracts a high percentage of your target market. A cheaper alternative is to swap ads with a business that offers products or service that complement, but don't compete with, your own offering. For example, if you offer Web site design, look for someone who offers Web site hosting or network services. This strategy can work both with ads on a Web site, but don't overlook swapping ads in each business' promotional e-mail newsletter.(NOTE: Do not swap customer databases or lists of email addresses unless you have specific permission from your customers to do so.)Step 5: Give your customers a reason to act now.How many times have you visited a Web site and thought to yourself: "What a great product! I'd like to buy it, but I think I'll come back later." Did you actually go back and buy it? Perhaps not. Help your customers make their decision today: make them an offer they can't refuse. For example, use promotions like "limited time only", "this week only", "act today and take $10 off," etc.Step 6: Keep in touch.Remember, it's about relationships. Did you know that customers who buy online usually do so on the fourth to eighth visit to your Web site, and not the first visit? So you'll need to come up with a strategy to get them back to your Web site a second, third, and fourth time. The easiest, simplest, and cheapest method, hands down, is an e-mail list. It isn't enough just to collect e-mail addresses on your Web site and at your vending events - you have to actually write and send messages to the list! Strive to get your newsletter out at least twice a month, but if you're just getting started, do quarterly, then build up to monthly, and then build up to every other week.Here are a few e-mail list services I like:
Aweber
Constant Contact
YahooGroups (free) Essentially, what successful online marketing boils down to, regardless of ethnicity, is relationships, relationships, relationships. Find meaningful ways to connect with your customers, and they will not only reward you with their loyalty, but they'll be happy to spread the word about your Web site as well.

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วันอังคารที่ 29 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Eight No-Fail Steps for E-Commerce Marketing

By: Jamila White, "The E-Commerce DivaTM"
I know how to get a blank stare from just about any e-commerce web site owner. All I have to do is ask them about their web site marketing plan!When I ask them about their web site marketing plan, I get that look. First the eyebrows go up. Then the eyes glaze over for a minute. And then the stammering begins."Uh, well, you know - I have my URL on my business card." "I, ah, I'm going to start an e-mail newsletter."Some of them may even mention something about "search engines."But practically no one has a plan! And you know how the old saying goes: "Failure to plan is a plan to fail."Most small business owners I talk to are frustrated. They think their web site is a big waste of money. An "online business card." A "marketing expense" that doesn't return any of its investment. And no wonder:You've spent thousands on a pretty web design. You shell out dough each and every month for web site hosting. You may even be paying a webmaster to update the web site regularly. And month after month, year after year, the sales barely trickle in.Marketing your web site is frustrating. It's confusing! So we end up doing what all of us do when we're frustrated and confused: deal with it "later." And later never comes.Know what? It's not your fault! No one ever taught you how to market on the Internet, this new medium. (They sure didn't cover that in my marketing class when I was in school.) And there's all that hype on the Internet - so called web marketing gurus who've made millions online. But guess what? The only thing they've ever sold is reports and e-books on - what else - "how to market on the Internet." They've never packed and shipped a box or ran down the street after the UPS guy.But what if there was a formula you could follow, a step-by-step guide to creating an online sales machine? After 10 years of marketing and selling on the web, I've boiled it down to a winning eight-step formula. This formula works for any web business, for any product from amber gemstone jewelry to zebra-print home accessories. In a nutshell, the eight no-fail steps of this formula are:
Define Your Goals: With no clearly defined purpose, your web site can't succeed. Be specific with each goal, adding both an amount and a timeframe.
Take a Snapshot: How's your web site performing now? Know your traffic stats and your "three magic numbers."
Define Your Market: Who are you talking to? Be specific about who your products are for, and where these customers exist.
Get Them There: Build targeted web traffic by getting your target audience's attention and creating an ongoing dialog.
Turn Site Visitors into Customers: Once you've gotten them to your web site, make sure you seal the deal before they leave. Know what they're looking for, and what information they need to make a purchasing decision. Give it to them, then ask for the sale.
Increase Their Spending: Would you like some fries with that hamburger? Since they've got their wallet open, ask for the add-on or upsell.
Get Them Back: It's cheaper to get an old customer to buy again than it is to recruit a new one. Make the experience memorable, and make the next one convenient.
Get Their Friends: A happy customer can be your best sales tool. Empower them to spread the word about your products and web site.
When you work each of these steps, your e-commerce marketing can't fail.

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วันจันทร์ที่ 28 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Building a Better Brick-and-Mortar with the Billion-dollar Web

By: Donald Lee
More than $117 billion passed hands from Internet shoppers to Internet vendors in 2004, according to the statistical research firm comScore. That's billion, with a B. Compared to the year before, the figure represents a whopping 24 percent increase in sales. Compared to the early 1990s, when the Web was a questionable commercial venture, today's $117 billion is proof-positive that the Web is the full-fledged money-making machine. It seems to be a big enough pie that any merchant with a Web site can cut out his heaping slice.Not so fast. As any merchant who's tried to take a bite out of the Internet will tell you, turning a profit online is not as simple as throwing a few pages together. Professional Web sites cost big bucks for design, consultation, and upkeep. Either you have to hire a full-time editor or technician to manage your Web store, or you need to pay three-digit hourly rates to contract Web professionals. Then you have to face fees for Web hosting, broadband access, and IT maintenance.Even after you expend all of this capital and launch your Web site, you're still not guaranteed anything. Your site will only be one among millions, if not billions. Yes, that's billions with a B again. The Internet, after all, is like a clear sky on a dark night. How can you expect a customer to pick your star out from among all of the others that shimmer for their attention?On the Web you'll quickly learn that attracting your clientele-and building your Internet-based business-is just as tough as it was when you first started your brick-and-mortar shop. It takes smart investing, creative marketing, a little luck, and a lot more know-how.What's great about the business side of the Web, however, is that your old-fashioned know-how translates quite well on the Web. A great example is the timeless merchant adage: "Location, location, location." This saying holds true on the Web, too. You can place your store's site in a spot on the Web where no one will discover you, or you could position it on a "busy corner" on the Internet.One such spot are online classified sites. These sites provide similar services as you would get from a newspaper classified. Sellers can place ads online that describe a particular product for sale. Buyers browse these ads and contact sellers when they're interested. Online classifieds, though, are far more dynamic. They allow a merchant to display dozens, if not hundreds, of their goods with pictures and descriptions. And believe it or not, some online classified sites allow you to do this for free. Yes, that's free with an F.The benefits don't stop there. As a merchant on a classified site, you can enjoy:
A store that never closes. Your goods are for sale 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The Internet never turns off.
A mall of online shoppers. Think of a classified site as a virtual shopping mall, with your grouping of ads under your own virtual storefront. By having a storefront, this allows you to have your own web page and listings, under the umbrella of the classified site.
A chain reaction of shopping. "Real" shoppers go to a mall to visit one store, but often they end up browsing through all of the stores in the mall. The same is true of virtual shoppers. Even when they visit a classified site looking for one particular thing, they're likely to "spill over" to your storefront out of curiosity. At the very least, it leads to advertising for your store; at best, business.
An advantage over pure Web merchants. Your classified site will pit you against wily online vendors who only sell their wares on the Web. This is where your brick-and-mortar business comes in handy. It's proven that shoppers seem to trust online merchants that have a real address and a real store somewhere.
A solution to the intricacies of the Internet. Many classified sites can help with setting up your ads and with designing your storefront, providing you with instant IT IQ. For your buyers, the sites offer the security that Web shoppers demand to protect them from identify theft and fraud. As mentioned before, many classified sites charge absolutely nothing for all of these benefits. The listings, the shopping traffic, the sense of business community, the advertising-you receive all of these perks for free. Oh, and don't forget your piece of the $117 billion dollar pie.

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วันอาทิตย์ที่ 27 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Profiting With Private Label Rights

By: Bob Bastian
There are three basic rights you should know about when it comes to resale rights marketing. These are resale rights, master resale rights and private label rightsWhenever you purchase a product with resale rights, you will only have the license to sell the said product to other people. When you purchase a product with master resale rights, you will have the license to sell the product to other people, and you will also have the option to sell the resale right for the same product as well. This means that the people to whom you sell the resale rights of the product whose master resale rights you own will consequently acquire the license to sell the said product to other people.Confusing as this may sound, our focus for this article are private label rights which, of the three rights enumerated above, is undoubtedly the most empowering and the most profitable.Private label rights are embodied in a license that comes with an information product you may be able to purchase. These rights would allow you to alter, modify, enhance and rearrange the contents of the said product to suit your own needs and wishes. What exactly does this mean?With private label rights, you could divide the chapters of, say, an eBook, and sell them as a series of articles. The reverse is also true. If you purchased a set of articles with accompanying private label rights, you could compile them into one nifty and seemingly novel eBook or special report.Better yet, you could add any information on the said information product, without having to seek the permission of the original author. You feel that one section is wanting in details? You could freely insert your own additions!But the best part of information products with private label rights is that, in most cases, you could put your name as the author of the work, without having to pay royalties or ghostwriting charges to the original author.There are many benefits to private label rights. Some are quite apparent. Others only manifest after a deeper scrutiny. Let's take a look at some of themPrivate label rights would allow you to come up with a variety of new products from the original source. Being empowered to alter the contents to suit your needs, you have the liberty to repackage them as novel offers for different markets.Private label rights would allow you to improve on a work that you may have found lacking. Tired of purchasing products to sell, when such products do not meet your standards of quality and they are disappointingly unalterable? You won't have to worry about such with private label rights. You have the freedom to change and improve on what is written as you see fit.Private label rights are perfect for branding yourself and your business. You need to get the word out about your online venture. Purchasing a number of information products with private label rights and naming them as your own would impress upon the online world that you are an expert in your chosen field, and they would trust you more easily when the need arises to procure your services or avail of your products.The purchaser is not the only person who stands to earn from private label rights, however. An information product creator can also consider this route if he wishes to make some fast money. The information product creator can offer the private label rights to his works at a substantially higher price, considering all the perks that are attached to it.There has been an age old debate as to whether or not a creator should sell the private label rights for his products. Though there are many schools of thought on the matter, the following scenario seems to be the most beneficial for the information product creator: he should sell the private label rights for his products only when the same is nearing the end of its market life. At this point, it is widely believed that the product has already been squeezed dry of its moneymaking potentials, and by allowing other people to alter it in creative ways, the said product might find new life in different markets.Private label rights are excellent offerings in the world of Internet marketing. When you encounter a hot commodity that would give you the liberty to alter its essence and call it your own, it is very much worth your time to study the profitability of purchasing the same. Offers this good don't come everyday.

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วันเสาร์ที่ 26 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

What You Must Know About Spam

By: Mihaela Lica
What Is Spam?When referring to emails, according to the NCES (National Centre for Education Statistic), "Spam refers to electronic junk mail or junk newsgroup postings. Some people define Spam even more generally as any unsolicited e-mail. In addition to being a nuisance, Spam also eats up a lot of network bandwidth. Because the Internet is a public network, little can be done to prevent Spam, just as it is impossible to prevent junk mail. However, the use of software filters in e-mail programs can be used to remove most Spam sent through e-mail."Some search engines use the term to describe websites that try to attain a high listing rank by submitting identical or mirror pages. In this article I am going to give you a few tips about email Spam. If we give a too general definition to the word, we might end up taking for Spam perfectly legitimate emails. Not "any" unsolicited mail is Spam. Spam means unsolicited bulk email.If a message is unsolicited that doesn't make it Spam. The same goes for bulk. A message is Spam only if it is both unsolicited and bulk. When you receive an unsolicited job enquiry, you do receive an uncalled-for email. But is that Spam? No. What about a newsletter? That is bulk, but no Spam if you are a subscriber. Why Do You Get Spam?Have you posted your email address online in forums, chat rooms, on your website? Than why do you marvel? Spammers gather the addresses from the Internet; so no wonder your own found its way onto a spammer's list. Besides, spammers use different other means to get what they want: viruses, Trojans, buying from other spammers. Spam ScamsHow many times have you received an "update your account" email from paypal, a bank or ebay? How many times have you received a "warning message"? Maybe it didn't look suspicious to you as it came from an institution you work with, but was it really that way? This kind of emails is referred to as "phishing scam". There is not much you can do when this happens. Just don't click on any links in that email, don't give away any confidential information such as social security number, bank account or credit card number. There are some free tools that can protect you against known phishing websites. For example download the free EarthLink toolbar and report the scam to the Anti-Phishing Working Group.What about the emails from different Nigerian (or other nationalities) citizens offering you a percentage of a vast sum of money? Yes, you've got that right: scam. You'll only loose your money on this one. Better don't be curious. They will ask you to pay a fee in advance - a so called transfer tax, and guess what: some complications will appear, you have to pay more and more and end up with nothing. And don't believe the "you won money" lottery sweepstakes either. You'll only spend. The same goes for the Nigerian purchase scam: they want to buy something from you, pay by check and they wish the goods to be sent in Lagos, Nigeria. A Major Don'tDon't reply to spammers... ever! Don't send any "remove me" message. By doing so you confirm your address is active, you show you read bulk messages, you prove your ISP doesn't use Spam filters. You are the perfect candidate. You will never be removed. On the contrary... Spam FightersIf Spam really bothers you and you want to fight against it, than you have plenty of possibilities. If you are an American, join Cauce at: www.cauce.org. If not... check out Cauce's international partners (example: EuroCAUCE for Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland, France, Norway).Associations such as to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, the American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or other volunteers' organizations are there to help protecting you against scam or other illegal emails (children pornography for example). Detailed information about Spam, Spammers and ways to fight against them you can find here: www.spamhaus.org.

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วันศุกร์ที่ 25 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

The Contemporary Hysteria of SPAM

By: Robert Evans
Spam is one of those internet nuisances no one should have to put up with!
But in many cases, the furious and avid anti-spam campaigner, while attempting to rid the internet of this nuisance, causes some very real and equally serious side effects. In fact, we should not have to put up with that either!
Under the current climate of aggression towards the sending of SPAM emails, is it any wonder that hysteria is beginning to set in?
Don't get me wrong, I am not condoning spam. I hate it with a passion. I am always very careful to ensure that the people on my mailing lists have chosen to be there. Verification is of the utmost importance when building my lists. As are clear instructions to unsubscribe should anyone wish to be removed.
Adopting a double optin policy should be of primary importance to every online marketer and webmaster.
But is this enough?
The answer, it seems, is a resounding NO!
In my own experience, people often forget that they have opted in. This can cause problems that really only reason can solve.
But most of the time, I have to say, reason does not even get a look in. Take the case of a good and trusted friend of mine.
He almost lost his entire downline (which he had worked VERY hard to build) after he had paid for an ezine ad.
One subscriber (who had clearly forgotten he had subscribed to this particular ezine) got very hot under the collar and alerted some self-righteous vigilante anti-spam "service" (and the company with whom my friend had built his downline) and they were indeed ready to have him kicked off the internet! It was only because he was prepared to jump through hoops to clear his name that the matter was resolved, but it was a close call.
And only recently I had a sharp email from someone accusing me of spamming. I had sent a message to the safelist I had paid to join and he was obviously on the list or he would not have received the message. In his email to me he said that he had never joined the list, and that my message was "Spam, pure and simple," and that he had filed a report with the FTC.
My first reaction was to fire off a reply in my own defence, which he never had the courtesy to answer, and in fact I have not heard from him again. So perhaps it has all blown over.
But why do people get so hysterical about a few emails arriving uninvited into their inboxes when they scarsely bat an eyelid at the daily influx of junk mail coming through their letter boxes?
There may be occasions, of course, when you feel something simply has to be done. That's okay, but why not try the reasoned and measured approach BEFORE you blast your complaint off to SpamCop. For example:
if you've received a message via a safelist, ezine etc, for goodness sake check to make 100% certain that you are NOT a subscriber to this list and if you cannot confirm this yourself, take it up with the OWNER of the list
if the message has come directly from an individual, reply to them and ask them how they came about your email address. This is to ascertain whether they are bona-fide or not. If the reply to them bounces, then you can be almost certain they are spamming you and you can take the matter further
I myself receive thousands of unsolicited emails every month. Most of the time I just grit my teeth, click the delete button and commit the offenders to the trash can. In my view that seems to be the best solution for the time being. At least until someone somewhere can come up with a more "grown-up" approach to dealing with the whole sorryBy: Robert Evans
Spam is one of those internet nuisances no one should have to put up with!
But in many cases, the furious and avid anti-spam campaigner, while attempting to rid the internet of this nuisance, causes some very real and equally serious side effects. In fact, we should not have to put up with that either!
Under the current climate of aggression towards the sending of SPAM emails, is it any wonder that hysteria is beginning to set in?
Don't get me wrong, I am not condoning spam. I hate it with a passion. I am always very careful to ensure that the people on my mailing lists have chosen to be there. Verification is of the utmost importance when building my lists. As are clear instructions to unsubscribe should anyone wish to be removed.
Adopting a double optin policy should be of primary importance to every online marketer and webmaster.
But is this enough?
The answer, it seems, is a resounding NO!
In my own experience, people often forget that they have opted in. This can cause problems that really only reason can solve.
But most of the time, I have to say, reason does not even get a look in. Take the case of a good and trusted friend of mine.
He almost lost his entire downline (which he had worked VERY hard to build) after he had paid for an ezine ad.
One subscriber (who had clearly forgotten he had subscribed to this particular ezine) got very hot under the collar and alerted some self-righteous vigilante anti-spam "service" (and the company with whom my friend had built his downline) and they were indeed ready to have him kicked off the internet! It was only because he was prepared to jump through hoops to clear his name that the matter was resolved, but it was a close call.
And only recently I had a sharp email from someone accusing me of spamming. I had sent a message to the safelist I had paid to join and he was obviously on the list or he would not have received the message. In his email to me he said that he had never joined the list, and that my message was "Spam, pure and simple," and that he had filed a report with the FTC.
My first reaction was to fire off a reply in my own defence, which he never had the courtesy to answer, and in fact I have not heard from him again. So perhaps it has all blown over.
But why do people get so hysterical about a few emails arriving uninvited into their inboxes when they scarsely bat an eyelid at the daily influx of junk mail coming through their letter boxes?
There may be occasions, of course, when you feel something simply has to be done. That's okay, but why not try the reasoned and measured approach BEFORE you blast your complaint off to SpamCop. For example:
if you've received a message via a safelist, ezine etc, for goodness sake check to make 100% certain that you are NOT a subscriber to this list and if you cannot confirm this yourself, take it up with the OWNER of the list
if the message has come directly from an individual, reply to them and ask them how they came about your email address. This is to ascertain whether they are bona-fide or not. If the reply to them bounces, then you can be almost certain they are spamming you and you can take the matter further
I myself receive thousands of unsolicited emails every month. Most of the time I just grit my teeth, click the delete button and commit the offenders to the trash can. In my view that seems to be the best solution for the time being. At least until someone somewhere can come up with a more "grown-up" approach to dealing with the whole sorry business.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 24 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Publishing E-zines via RSS

By: Rok Hrastnik
It's clear that RSS and e-mail in fact need to be used together, as opposed to either one replacing the other.
While RSS might not be used by as many people as e-mail, you can be sure that those that do use it and subscribe to your feeds will get your content without fail. In addition, many already prefer to receive information via RSS instead of e-mail, making RSS an absolute must as a supplement to e-mail delivery.
Let's now take a detailed look at exactly how RSS and e-mail can work together.
1. ANNOUNCING YOUR E-ZINE VIA RSS
What's the use of an excellent e-mail e-zine if it's blocked by spam filters or lost in the recipient's mailbox? No matter how high quality content you prepare, if it's not received it can't be read and then acted upon to drive sales your way.
Namely, you need to stop thinking of your e-zine in terms of e-mail delivery, but rather consider it as a vehicle to present relevant and related content in a specific context of an individual e-zine issue, which can then be delivered to your recipients in multiple ways.
Just consider newspapers, which are delivered in print format, on the Web, via e-mail and RSS as well, all this to assure optimum delivery according to end-user preferences.
While most e-zine publishers will never consider presenting their e-zine in print format and delivering it via traditional delivery services, you need to explore all available means of online delivery. After e-mail, RSS is the first that comes to mind.
Using RSS to announce your e-zine via RSS is the simplest and least expensive way to get started with RSS and it will help you make sure that your valuable content in fact does get delivered, at least to the audience using RSS.
A) THE PROCESS: E-MAIL E-ZINES
What is the process behind traditional e-zine publishing?
The publisher provides an e-mail e-zine subscription box, in which visitors enter their e-mail addresses, thus giving consent to the publisher to receive his communications and at the same time building his subscriber database.
The e-mail address is saved in the publisher's subscriber database.
The publisher prepares an e-zine issue, usually creating an HTML document with either full-text e-zine issue articles and news or summaries of articles with links to full-text articles on his website.
The HTML document is packaged as an e-mail message by the publishers' e-mail publishing solution and then sent to his subscriber database using e-mail as the delivery channel.
E-mail messages "travel through the internet" and are either stopped on the way by various spam filters and other "barricades" and are then either deleted automatically or delivered to the subscribers' e-mail accounts.
Subscribers download these e-mail messages when they log-on to their e-mail account and can then manipulate them, either deleting them, moving them to another folder or reading them. How can we now transfer this process to publishing your e-zine via RSS as well?
B) THE PROCESS: RSS CONTENT DELIVERY
We first need to understand how RSS content delivery works.
The publisher creates an RSS feed, basically just a simple XML file structured in a specific way, and provides a link to that XML file on his website and through other sites, search engines and directories. The file needs to first be created and then uploaded to the server, before a link to it can be provided. Fortunately, there are many tools available that will do this for you easily.
The visitor to the website subscribes to this RSS feed, by easily importing the link to the RSS feed in to his RSS Reader/Aggregator, instead of giving the publisher his e-mail address. In terms of subscriptions, the process is reversed. Instead of the visitor giving his e-mail address to the publisher, the publisher rather provides the visitor with a single URL, which then the visitor "puts" in his aggregator.
The publisher now prepares a new story or article to include in the RSS feed. Usually, he first publishes this new story on his website and then simply prepares a summary and puts it in to the RSS feed/file. In this case, the summary in the feed simply notifies the reader of new full-text content being made available and pulls him to click-through to the full-text article on the website. Alternatively, the publisher could also provide full-text content of the story in the feed.
As soon as the publisher updates the RSS feed with the new story, the subscriber can retrieve it and read its content. The feed content is immediately available to the subscriber, without having to face any spam filters on the way. All of this might sound complicated, but it really is not. Let's now take a look at the process from the e-zine publishing point of view.
C) THE PROCESS: RSS E-ZINE DELIVERY
The publisher creates an RSS feed intended to specifically notify subscribers of new e-zine issues and promotes it on the website. The feed should be promoted directly below the e-mail subscription box, serving simply as an alternative to e-mail delivery. Visitors have the choice of subscribing either via e-mail or RSS.
The publisher now takes the HTML document he already prepared for the e-mail version of the e-zine, and puts it online like any other webpage. What you basically need to do is practically take the same presentation and format that you already prepared for the e-mail e-zine and place it online for anyone to see.
The publisher then creates a new story or content item in the RSS feed, which is basically just a short summary of the e-zine and links it to the webpage he prepared earlier.
Once subscribers retrieve the feed, they see a new content item with the e-zine title and its description. After clicking on the title they are taken to the web version of the same e-zine that was also delivered via e-mail. D) THE TECHNOLOGY
As you can see this is a simple process and it only takes about 5 minutes more to do than just doing an e-mail version, and it will ensure that your content is now accessible to all those that prefer RSS to e-mail, it will generate additional exposure for your content by being included in RSS search engines and directories and it will generate more search engine visibility for you.
The best part is that the technology to publish an RSS feed in such a way is widely available and there are quite a few tools to choose from.
If simple e-zine delivery via RSS is your starting goal, a desktop solution should work very nicely. Just try out www.feedforall.com, which is the market leader in this category, or the less advanced but free www.usablelabs.com/productFeedSpring.html.
Keep in mind that only using RSS for e-zine announcements is the simplest way to go and that there is much much more you can do with RSS.
In the next article of the series we'll take a look at how you can measure the readership of your RSS e-zine version and then take on other ways RSS and e-mail can work together.

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วันพุธที่ 23 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Opt-In Email and eZine Advertising Still More Effective Than RSS, Blogs, and PPC!

By: Drew Michael
When you factor in all the costs related to promoting via an Opt-In Email or Ezine campaign you are still getting the best return on your advertising dollar investment than using RSS, Blogs or PPC. The measurable results are significantly faster than RSS and Blogs and less expensive than using Pay Per Click marketing. Without a doubt, Email and Newsletter advertising campaigns are still two of the best tools available to promote your product or service.Email Marketing CampaignsThere are a great many people that are still reluctant to use what is one of the best marketing tools available today. Many marketers associate email marketing with spam and have concerns about being shut down by their ISP or hosting company. The fact is, done right and by following specific guidelines you have little to fear. Follow the guidelines outlined below and you will probably kick yourself for not using this tool a lot sooner.1) CAN-SPAM COMPLIANT: Just about everyone receives hundreds of spam-related emails per week and that is the main reason a lot of legitimate businesses balk at using email marketing. But if you are a legitimate business you only need to do a few things to make your email marketing efforts legal.
(a) Subject Line: It should not be misleading in any way. It should relate to the body of the message and it is a very good practice that the first paragraph relate to the subject line.(b) Specific Opt-Out Instructions: You must include a way for the reader to opt-out by supplying a link that works.(c) Physical Address: If you work out of an office this is the address that should appear after your signature. If you work out of the home your home address should appear after the signature.(d) From Address: Messages should be from the same "from address"2) USE OPT-IN EMAIL ADDRESSES ONLY: This is very important. Use only Opt-In email addresses for your marketing efforts. There are many legitimate email suppliers so you have a lot of options. And even using 100% Opt-In Email Addresses does not guarantee that you won't have a few people complaining. But if you purchase addresses that include the full name, IP and date stamp you have proof of the opt-in just in case it is needed.Additional Tips For a Successful Email Marketing Campaign1) USE EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE: We like Broadc@st HTML Bulk Email Software(www.myaffiliateprogram.com/u/mailwork/b.asp?id=1979) and GroupMail 5 (www.infacta.com/asp/common/groupmail.asp). Some of the suppliers listed below provide free email marketing software.2) USE SPAM FILTER SOFTWARE: Don't let this software intimidate you. The software is easy to setup and use. It is a good idea to use spam filter software to filter out words or phrases that tend to get flagged by ISP spam filters. Some of the suppliers listed below provide free spam filtering software.3) USE AUTORESPONDERS: Using an autoresponder will save you a lot of time and work. You can preload messages and assign specific criteria to when they should be sent. Some of the suppliers listed below provide free autoresponder software.4) TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY ONLY: For best results send your email campaign from Tuesday to Thursday. These are the days that will obtain the most attention to your message. Monday is usually bad because people are planning their work-week and getting tasks out of the way quickly. Fridays are bad because most people are already planning their weekends.5) COME TO THE POINT IMMEDIATELY: Don't write a book. Try to be as brief as possible and outline your key points in the first paragraph. If you word it right the reader will read on.Here is a short list of companies that supply 100% Opt-In Email Addresses.Email Leads For Lesswww.email-leads-for-less.com/Hot_100_Opt-In_Email_Leads.htm EmailResults.comwww.emailresults.com/default.asp Exact Sales Leadswww.exactsalesleads.com/ Expedite Media Group's Email Marketing Serviceswww.expedite-email-marketing.com/index.htm GetResponse Power Leadswww.getresponse.com/leads_offer.html Lifeline Leadswww.lifelineleads.com/default.php OptInDataSite.Com www.optindatasite.com/ PermissionDIRECTwww.permissiondirect.com/index.asp Prospects Influentialwww.prospectsinfluential.com/ Red Clay Mediawww.redclaymedia.com/ Salesleads.tvwww.salesleads.tv/index.html SimplerLeads.comwww.simplerleads.com/ TheListGuy.comwww.thelistguy.com/index.html Tip Top Leadswww.tiptopleads.com VentureDirect List Services Groupwww.venturedirect.com/html/lsg-about.htm Please take note that the information contained in this article was up to date at the time of writing and is subject to change at any time. Additionally, it is not the authors intent to recommend or guarantee products or services of the companies listed. We believe that they are all legitimate and provide good products and services but readers are always encouraged to do 'due diligence' prior to making a purchase.

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วันอังคารที่ 22 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Using Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) For Email Privacy #2

DisadvantagesWhat you need to know about BCC is that some spam filters automatically delete email addressed in the BCC field so it never reaches its destination. This means that while sending BCC is okay for privacy, your email might not always reach the intended recipients.A problem I had with Outlook Express 2002 was that if I sent my email using BCC I couldn't print a hard copy of the sent message with the addresses on it. I had to write address details on my file copies for record keeping purposes.If sending BCC email is likely to be impractical for you, then you need to consider upgrading your email client from the standard run-of-the-mill version to a professional version. That's what I did.Email Management ProgramsIf, like me, you distribute large quantities of email regularly to newsletter subscribers, clients, club members, colleagues or anyone else, you will be better off getting a program designed for high volume mailings.I use and sell a heavy duty bulk email program that lets me do simply, many tasks not easy to achieve with standard email clients like Outlook 2002. For example, the program I use will allow me to:
Automatically record subscriptions to my newsletter
Personalise each email with a recipient's name or any other information I choose to include eg, place of residence
Send as HTML or plain text with or without attachments
Do a partial send to my distribution list eg, if I wanted to email everyone in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, clients 64-73 of 3,000 or all persons whose title is Ms I can do it By having a separate program for bulk emailing, I overcome the problems involved with privacy and reduce the likelihood that my messages will be eliminated by overzealous spam engines.If you rely on email to carry out business activities (and who doesn't?), it may be time to consider how well your email strategy meets the needs of your business in today's security conscious society. More information and a free download that will help you save time can be found at our site.

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วันจันทร์ที่ 21 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Using Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) For Email Privacy #1

By: Robin Henry
Need for PrivacyPeople have become hypersensitive about their privacy during the last few years. They now expect that their details will be used only for the purposes for which they have been provided and not shared by original trustees. This is especially true of email addresses because of the huge volume of unsolicited commercial email (spam) circulating the web.In Australia and elsewhere, there are statutes requiring privacy when collecting and using personal information. (In Australia the Privacy Act (Commonwealth) was recently amended to include private sector use of personal information eg, medical records retained by private practices).In an increasingly litigious society, there are not only sound business reasons, but legal reasons why you should ensure the strictest standards of privacy are applied to personal information of which you are custodian. Despite this, numbers of people using email unwittingly reveal the email addresses of other people to whom they are sending email.This article tells you how to maintain client confidentiality when sending email to multiple addressees by using Blind Carbon Copy or BCC.Blind Carbon CopyThe term Blind Carbon Copy is a hangover from the dim, dark ages before word processors when we used typewriters (some of you have probably never seen a typewriter). To produce multiple copies of a document, one had to place a sheet of carbon paper between sheets of plain paper so that the type key impact on the top sheet would be copied to the second sheet (and any subsequent sheets).It was a somewhat messy, but proficient process. When one wanted to send an original letter to one person and copies to several other people without showing each recipient who the other recipients were, a BCC annotation was made on the original. Each copy displayed only the name and address of the individual recipient, but the BCC notation on the original showed to whom the copies had been mailed. A BCC looked like this: Bcc: Mr Tom Jones, 14 Weaving Court, East Melbourne VIC 3000Some email programs allow you to enter email addresses into the BCC field and send them. When you do that each recipient receives your message, but the names of other recipients are not displayed.That is why they are called 'blind' - they are not seen.By using the BCC feature you preserve the identities of those who are on your mailing list and ensure that anyone receiving your email cannot email your list or harvest their email addresses and sell them.Your Email ProgramWhen you obtain an email program, make sure it has a 'Blind Carbon Copy (BCC)' feature. Programs such as Outlook Express and Outlook 200? have BCC capability. Although I have never used it, I'd be surprised if Eudora and other common email programs didn't have it too.If when you click to send a new email your email client displays only the To ... and Cc ... boxes it may be that the Bcc feature IS available, but is simply not displayed. Try the View menu or Help menu to see if you can find a Bcc option.If your email program has a BCC option that you can select as a permanently visible option, select it. If it doesn't, you may need to think about getting a new program.How to Use BCCWhen you send email messages to multiple addressees and you do not want each addressee to know who else has received a copy, use the Blind Carbon Copy field.Simply enter all the addresses in the BCC field separated by a semi-colon, comma, or whatever your program uses. When you click the send button, your email will go to each individual with only his or her name in the To field. None of the recipients knows to who else the email has been sent.Outlook 200? will allow you to send BCC addressed email without an address in the To field. Other email clients require at least one address in the To field before they allow multiple recipient addresses in the BCC field. Test the program you use to see if it needs to have an addressee in the To field. If so, address it to yourself. (Surprisingly, email programs usually allow us to email ourselves ... that's why I receive so many emails from Jennifer Lopez (just joking).If you need to make an entry in the To field, place your own email address in that field and everyone else's address in the BCC field.

วันอาทิตย์ที่ 20 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

How to Sell Your Crafts on eBay

By: James Dillehay
Artists, craftspeople and photographers are successfully selling their wares everyday on the online auction site, eBay. According to a recent analysis of eBay sales, a crafts-related item is sold every nine seconds, a scrapbook item is sold every minute, and 40 cross-stitch items sell in an hour on eBay. Sales of craft items on eBay have grown almost 60 percent in the past year, according to TheBidFloor.com. But, at the same time, many would be sellers are listing their pieces for sale on auctions and getting no bids, concluding that eBay just doesn't work.Here are some tips from James Dillehay, craft artist, eBay seller and author of the new book, "Sell Your Crafts on eBay" (Warm Snow Publishers), on how to profitably sell your wares online:1. A word's spelling impacts an item's profitability. For example, the word 'handmade,' spelled as one word, was part of 2,233 auction titles with an average closing price of $16.29. However, auction titles that included 'hand made' as two words were found in 1,358 listings, but with an average auction closing price higher, at $27.81, or $11.52 more profit per item.2. Go to eBay.com and find the search box. Type in the word or phrase that describes your art or craft item. Then scroll down the links on the left side of the page and click on the link for "completed items." Here, you'll be able to see the demand for this type of product. Do searches for your items every two to three weeks to chart buying patterns.3. Find out how much people are willing to pay for your wares. Click on the link that says "highest price." This will give you a list of completed auctions from highest priced items to lowest priced ones. You want to know what people are willing to pay for items like yours. If you can't make and sell your product for a profit, eBay might not be your marketplace.4. Determine how much money you'll make on your product. To determine your profitability, use the cost of your materials plus the cost of your labor plus the cost of your selling price, which should be the minimum price to recover your expenses. If it takes you eight hours to make a piece of jewelry and the highest priced similar item sells on eBay for $26, you won't make a profit.5. Look at the elements of successful sellers of products that are similar to yours. Examine their winning auction titles. Observe how much detail they use to describe their item. See if the seller used any of eBay's special features such as gallery photos or a bold, featured listing. Evaluate the starting price, starting day of the week, and duration of winning auctions.For more tips on how to sell your craft items on eBay, consult a resource book like "Sell Your Crafts on eBay," by James Dillehay. It offers-more than 200 easy-to-learn tactics and tips that help sell art, craft and theme-related items for a profit on eBay and on other online auction Web sites.

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วันเสาร์ที่ 19 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

The Easy Money Earner Using eBay

By: Ian Stables
A brilliant idea I ran across the other day meant I could get a large cash sum in about 3 days.All it meant is that I bought an item on eBay which had resale rights and struck up an agreement with a powerseller.Before I explain it I want you to imagine this...A desirable item that's for sale at £10 is suddenly offered to you for £5. The person offering it to you is someone you've bought similar items from before, so you trust them.But the half price offer is only going to be available for 48 hours. The person offering you this item has struck an agreement with the seller. They've agreed to offer their item half price but just for 2 days.If it's something you really desired do you think you'd miss out and pay the full price later on. No, of course not. 3 out of 10 people who are made this offer go ahead and buy. Everytime!Now imagine if 100 people are offered this or 200 or maybe even 500. Multiply a third by £5 halve it and get this in your bank account in 3 days.What if the product was normally £20 and offered for £10?How it works is simple. You could either write your own ebook that is desirable or buy an ebook with resale rights that's already a best seller. Don't waste your time with 99p items you want something at least £10. Check someone else is not offering it on eBay for less.You then send an email message to a powerseller on eBay or someone who's an eBay shop owner. You say that if they will offer your item to their past buyers at half price that you'll go fifty fifty with the profits. Make sure they're selling similar ebooks to their customers. That way they are already interested in what you have to offer.You simply set up a free web site on something like Tripod.com. Just follow their instructions. You can put a Paypal link on as well quite easily.If someone agrees to offer your item to their list you simply send them a link to your temporary website. They then send an email with the temporary half-price offer and website link to all their past customers. The email tells them when the offer expires to create some urgency to buy.At the end of the 48 hour offer period you simply close down the temporary web site. Check how much money has been taken into your Paypal account. You'll be amazed. Copy the screen into an email and send it to the powerseller as proof of earnings. Pay 50% of the earners into his Paypal account. You keep the other half yourself.Powersellers or eBay shop owners who sell ebooks have a vast number of past buyers. Imagine they offered your item normally sold for £10 at £5 to a list of 500 people. Results have shown that about a third of people offered the item actually buy. A third of 500 is approx. 166. Multiply 166 by £5 = £830. Divide by 2 which is yours and the powersellers share and you get £415. Not bad for 3 days work eh?3 days is required because the first day is what you'll need to allow you to build the temp web site and your powerseller partner to email all his list.

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วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 17 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

How To Use Ebay To Gather Tons Of Quality Traffic

By: Matt O'Connor
The major bugbear of any webmaster is that no matter how stylish, how well written or how downright beautiful their site is - it all counts for nothing unless you have traffic.There are many articles (just like this one) that can describe the varying ways of getting eager visitors to gaze upon the marvels of your site.You could use reciprocal links to get visitors from other websites - although there is talk that the value of these is slowly diminishing.You could write articles to get back links to your site - write a particularly good one and you'll be surprised how many times it gets duplicated over the net, all the while with your website address in the author bio!There are other avenues to explore such as viral e-books, forum signatures and so on, but what if you could harness the power of a site that already has billions of visitors?Heard of ebay? Thought so, you're probably already a buyer or seller on there. But it's time to start seeing auction listings as something other than a way to sell off unwanted tat.I'll let you know what I do and then you can adjust the method to suit your own needs. I have a newsletter which I publish at least once a month - I struggled for a long time with how to get subscribers whilst also selling a lot of e-books on ebay. Then it hit me - time to combine the two!Now, it's a great idea to include links to your site within the ebook, providing you've written it yourself obviously. The buyer will read the book and hopefully click on the link to whichever of your sites you've chosen. You could even have them sign up to your newsletter before they can receive the book.On ebay however, you're going to get a lot of visitors who read your auction and decide not to buy for whatever reason. You may only sell 4 or 5 books per one hundred visitors. This is where the "about me" page comes in to play. Make the most of this underused tool!Ebay gives you the opportunity to write a quick description about yourself, your interests and a list of your feedback. Use this space to give yourself a short bio and then a link to your latest website. Be careful though - ebay doesn't allow direct links to sales pages. Instead link to your newsletter course, a page on one of your content sites or anywhere that doesn't obviously look like you're taking sales away from ebay.The killer tip is to include a link to your about me page on your auction listing. I usually place a short paragraph above and below my listing pointing out the benefits of my free newsletter.It helps also to make the product you're selling compatible with what you are offering through the "backend" of ebay. Don't sell a mint condition Barbie doll and then put in an advertisment for your bonsai gardening auto-responder course for example.I tend to offer a resell rights ebook or (preferably) a short guide I have written myself about one aspect of Internet Marketing.That way you will no only get sales for your listed product (provided you do your listing in the correct manner, but that's a whole other article) but also subscribers or visitors and therefore future sales for your off-ebay business.Give it a try and use some of eBay's billion dollar power for yourself!

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วันพุธที่ 16 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

The Unearthed Secrets Of An eBay PowerSeller

By: Seth Chong
Have you seen any sellers on eBay which shows a "star" and the word "PowerSeller" by the side of their names? PowerSellers are eBay's top sellers who have sustained a consistent high volume of monthly sales, a high level of total 98% positive feedback or better, and have met a threshold of compliance with all marketplace policies.Sounds hard? Nope, not at all, in fact anyone can do it. Shortly, if you want to qualify for being an eBay seller you need:
To be an active member for 90 days.
Average a minimum of $1000 in sales per month for three consecutive months.
Achieve an overall Feedback rating of 100, of which 98% or more is positive.
Have an account in good financial standing. Now we'll learn about the methods used by our fellow eBay PowerSellers. A successful auction has three elements which are: the title, a description and pictures of your selling item.When listing, always write a clear, attractive and concise title. The first thing any potential buyers see will be your title so you should grab their attention once they enter. It should tell what the buyers want, make them nod their heads when they read your title. Some descriptive words like old, vintage, runs, works or condition statements like "New in Box", anything that is appropriate can get you better results than a bold headline.Many people left a lot of money on the table when they depended just on "see photos" instead of writing a good description. A large number of auctions are filled with paragraph after paragraph of information about where to send the payments, how to send the payments, when to send the payments, who can bid and who can't which sometimes clutters the auction. It's really simple to include a good description which can make your potential buyers stay glued to what you say right until they make a bid or purchase your item and everyone in the world should do it!By writing an accurate description you will make bidders more confident about your item. Not certain on what to describe? Search for similar items on eBay, and read the description, take down the catchy words then use it in your listing. The confidence can translate into higher prices.As for your auction's pictures, use big clear photographs. The best way to get nice and clear photos is to take them using a digital camera. Other than that, it is also easier for you to upload the photos into your computer with a digital camera. Try and improve your pictures by adding suitable lightings as well, it can help produce better results in your picture's quality.Now, all of us know that feedbacks are based on the seller's customer service. Whenever we go out somewhere for a meal, customer service is very important. Let's say DOME, people likes going there because the food has low calories, and of course, it tastes great. But what makes people feel comfortable eating there is the customer service. Good customer service is always defined by: a smile, fast service, and simple.We'll need to always be pleasant to our customers. Don't be shy, be more humble than your customers and treat them as though they're your boss. When people know you have good customer service, they won't mind considering buying more items from you. Since you are a trusted person and easy to communicate with it, being your repeated customer in time to come will be great. If you have excellent customer service, it just hurts if I don't write you a good feedback and keep your items, right?Selling the item to your customer doesn't mean he or she is done for good. There are a lot more ways to benefit from your current customers. After they've purchased your item, try to offer a bonus, like a free e-book or something that is useful. But first, they will need to sign up for your newsletter, or subscribe to your opt-in list. You can instead not only offer the bonus for the buyer, but all the other bidders. This way, you add up your opt-in list, make everyone happy, and all these current bidders can be potential buyers of your items in the future.In your auctions, you can always put a link to your other auctions in your description and inform the surfers that you have more items for sale. By telling the viewers you have similar items for sale and can offer cheaper shipping & handling cost, it urges people to buy more items from you.A guarantee is always part of the most important factor in your auctions. This can be a simple statement like if the item is not as represented you can return it for a refund. Using a strong guarantee can greatly increase your response. If you offer a guarantee you need to honor it, but if you're diligent, you will definitely not have many returns. If you want to know how a good guarantee statement sounds like, you can refer this one:"100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE - IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY FOR ANY REASON JUST RETURN YOUR ITEM FOR A COMPLETE REFUND INCLUDING SHIPPING BOTH WAYS."How does it sound? Safe enough to buy definitely! It doesn't matter if they refund your item in the future, you just need to sell your items to your customers and let them make their choices after receiving it. 863 wordsAt the end of your auction's description, always make it easier for surfers and maintain their urge of buying by listing the shipping & handling costs for your items. Refrain from letting them do the math or turn to other pages just because it's troublesome inquiring for the fees. A good example is:"$5.00 shipping to US Destinations by Priority Mail. I will pack with care and ship with delivery confirmation for your protection. International shipping are sent by Airmail letter Post. I will combine items that end on the SAME day to lower your shipping cost."This is absolutely clear and to the point. When you include this information, surfers will not have to figure out anything extra or look at other pages to find out the shipping information, and it can help increasing your response in sales!People have many different opinions when it comes to how long they should list an auction. There's no definite answer to it, but five to seven days are the peak ones. Search results are presented by newly listed items or those items which are ending on the same day, which means the first and the last 24 hours are when most people will see one's auction.Pack well! By packing nicely you inflict the message of how valuable your item is, and it increases your customer's satisfaction for the product. Chocolates like Ferrero Rocher or Kit Kat have nice packing and that urges people to buy it as well, noticed it before?To be an eBay seller isn't hard at all, it takes a little time and effort, but that's it. Slowly build your customer database, keep the opt-ins, add up your positive feedbacks, continue providing good customer support, and you're almost there.

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วันอังคารที่ 15 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

10 Steps to Successful Selling On Ebay

By: Jane Foster
Step 1: Identify your market.Take a while to sit and watch for what sells and what doesn't out of the items you're interested in. Any market research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on. You'll probably see the sweet spots quite quickly - those one or two items that always seem to sell for a good price.Step 2: Watch the competition.Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are up to, and what their strategies are. Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can move in and beat them at their own game.Step 3: Find a product:Get hold of a supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and see what are the best rates you can get. Don't be afraid to ring round quite a few to get the best deal. If the eBay prices you've seen are higher than the supplier's, then you're set.Step 4: Start small:Don't throw thousands at your idea straight away - get started slowly, see what works and what doesn't, and learn as you go. Remember that it's very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on eBay, and who knows, they might just work!Step 5: Test and repeat.Keep trying different strategies until you find something that works, and then don't be ashamed to keep doing it, again and again. The chances are that you?ve just found a good niche.Step 6: Work out a business plan:A business plan doesn't need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you've spotted, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget. This is more for you than it is for anyone else.Step 7: Invest and expand:This is the time to throw money at the problem. Buy inventory, and start spending more time on your business. Set a goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time.Step 8: Make it official:Once you've made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you should really register yourself as a business. Don't worry, it's not expensive or hard to do - a lawyer is the best person to help you through the process.Step 9: Automate:You'll probably find that you're writing the same things again and again in emails or item descriptions. This is the time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide.Step 10: Never give up:Even when it looks like it's all going wrong, don't stop trying until you succeed. If you keep working at it then you'll almost always find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look desperate.Once you get into the swing of things, you might start thinking that you should quit your job and take up eBay selling part time. But it's not always as easy as that - there are all sorts of factors that you need to consider.

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วันจันทร์ที่ 14 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Great Ideas for your Auction Site Business

By: Joel Dresse
Finding great items to sell can be difficult for some people. After all, your auction site business depends on great items that you can purchase very inexpensively and sell for a profit. If you are having difficulty finding items online for your auction business, here are some easy tips.One of the best ways to find a great idea is to check out the auction sites. Many people don't realize that great ideas are on practically every page of Ebay. You can easily look at which products are selling, how much they sell for and the average price that they are sold at. Using Ebay is probably the easiest and quickest way to find great products that already have a thriving market.You can also check out auction site forums. Here many people talk about great products that are hot. There are even auction analysis companies that analyze millions of pieces of data to come up with great items for their customers to sell. There are many overseas manufacturers and distributors that would love to sell their items to you for a great price, which can be quickly converted into profit. Many of these overseas manufacturers are usually located on large marketplace websites which are easy to find. So if you are looking for great items to sell on auction sites, follow the above tips.

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วันอาทิตย์ที่ 13 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

One Step Ahead on Ebay!

By: Kevin Anthony
Selling on Ebay can be a good hobby or a nice profitable business for others. I like to sell on Ebay and other auction sites for both of these reasons. Below I will list some of the things that have helped me out enormously through trial and error.
1. Determine if the product that you are going to auction is a one time sale or if you have a continuous supply of this item. This means that if it is a one time item that you are going to want to get the best price for it. The best way I found to do this is to put a reserve price on the item close to what you need to get out of it. I know that alot of people say that a reserve price will hinder the chances of selling an item, but it won't if you try not to be greedy. If you have a continuous supply of a product, taking a $15-$20 profit is the way to go on something like a $200 Digital camera because you will have many more sales.
2. If you want a steady income on Ebay you need to find suppliers. The best way to do this is to determine what type of product you want to sell, and then start researching what that item is selling for on auction sites. Once you find a supplier that carries your product and you determine that you can profit at least 10% after your listing fees and Paypal fees if any, you are then ready to climb aboard the Ebay bandwagon.
3. The next thing you will want to do once you find the right supplier is to buy a few items to sell. This way you are going to test the suppliers quickness in getting the items to you. Also it is good if the supplier will dropship to your customers. The reason for this is sometimes you may get a item that is broke or scratched and you don't realize it until it is time to ship to your customer. A dropshipper can send this item to your customer just like it came from you.
I hope these few little tips will help you get started in a hobby on Ebay or maybe a lucrative business.

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วันเสาร์ที่ 12 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Make Money Blogging

By: Matt Bacak
You have created a blog and your blog is dedicated to a niche industry. Have you ever thought that the blog could make money for you? We would look here in this article, ways and means, to make money blogging. Lets first have a look at what are the prerequisites for a blog needed to make money:
1. Blog needs to be dedicated to a niche market.2. Updated regularly.3. Enough back links (Don't worry for it. Directory submission would be enough to begin with)4. Good blog host or application (blogger, Xanga or typepad recommended), and5. High quality articles or news items supported with images.
Get the above criteria in place and Hurrah... You are ready to make money blogging.
Top 5 Ways to Make Money BloggingLets now take a look at top 5 ways using which you could make money blogging:
1. Google Adsense
Google Adsense delivers text and image ads to the authorized websites/blogs depending on the content of the website. Small code is required to be pasted at proper locations on a webpage and Google automatically recognizes the page. Google shares the revenue it gets from the advertisers whenever a visitor clicks on these ads.
Google bills advertisers on price per click basis (PPC). Advertisers are required to pay only when any visitor clicks on their ads. They bid against each other for the keywords in order to receive better placement and thus prices for each keyword differ from one another. It is better to choose keywords for your blog which pays high $ per click.
2. Amazon
Amazon Associate program is another important way to make money blogging. The Amazon Associate program gives opportunity to website/blog publishers to promote any product from its inventory by adding a predefined code to their website/blog, which, when clicked by a visitor, takes them to the relevant product page. Once the visitor buys the product, the blog owner will be compensated with a commission.
3. Blogads
You can use Blogads as an effective tool to have a better control over the advertisers in your blogs. You can analyze and compare your profits with any one of your online agencies. Blogads can be simply specified as an advertising service used for the web logs or blogs. From the total money generated by Blogads, it retains 20% of it and the remaining money is paid to you through PayPal or checks.
Alternative Services:
Crispads is another useful network focused on the blogs. You can put your advertisements in their blogs using Crispads. You can move through their RSS/ATOM feeds that help in generating revenues.
Tagword - It is similar to Blogads. It makes you select the ads and their price.
Users can place their text-based ads in the site within minutes and the ads will be displayed instantly on the website.
4. Affiliate Programs
Your affiliate programs can help you earn a lot of money for selected products and services. Lot of websites offers you to become affiliate members. These affiliate programs can provide a better reach and an in-depth exposure to the products. The commissions for the sales differ according to the quality of the product, sales and marketing strategy involved. You can gather information related to the commissions by looking into the catalogues of Link Share and Commission junctions.
5. Text Links
Text links has emerged out to be the best form of moneymaking source that you can use instead of cluttering or crowding the page with ads. You don't have to make these text links prominent within your website. This link can act as an extra value to your site and will also help to promote the rankings of other sites. In most of the cases you will find these text links placed in the bottom of the web pages. The best part of this strategy is that the publishers send and accept links as the market continues to grow.

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วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 10 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Marketing Optimization 101 for Blogs #2

8. LOOK DIFFERENTBlogs are usually not heavily designed and most of them look exactly the same. While light design is one of the positive sides of blogs, you should invest some effort in making your blog stand-out visually. Don't cram it with design, but still make sure it's different than every other blog in the market.
9. USE YOUR OWN DOMAIN
Having a subdomain.typepad.com type sub-domain might be the easiest choice, but don't forget that your domain name is your permanent online address and part of your online brand.
Consequently, invest a couple of dollars to get your own domain name, to enforce your brand, as well as making it easier for your readers to access your blog.
10. DON'T FORGET YOUR KEYWORDSWhat keywords do you want your content and blog to be found under in the search engines?
Don't forget to implement these keywords in the titles and body content of your blog posts. I'm not saying you should write your posts to please the search engines, but at least keep them in mind and use them when possible, without taking anything away from the actual content.
11. INTERACT WITH YOUR READERSIf you're blogging for business, don't forget about business oriented reader interaction.
Mainly, solicit questions from your readers, pertaining to your field of expertise, and then respond to them via your blog. Post interesting client case studies. When you get a review, post it or link to it. And so on...
12. BLOG SPECIFIC PROMOTIONAL TACTICS 101a] Intensively market your RSS feeds
b] Ping the search engines and directories after you update your blog, using a free service such as http://www.pingomatic.com
13. DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CONTENTAnd of course, none of the above won't make any difference at all if you don't provide high-quality, interesting and frequent content.
These 13 points are of course only the most basic stuff, but enough to help you get on the marketing optimization train.

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วันพุธที่ 9 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Marketing Optimization 101 for Blogs #1

By: Rok Hrastnik
Truth be told, most blogs aren't really optimized for marketing effectiveness. Even more so, some blogs are absolute marketing machines, but they at the same time fail to fully capitalize on that fact by not being really optimized marketing-wise.
Blogs may be Web 2.0, but bloggers should not ignore some of the good old internet direct marketing tactics that have been working for marketers online almost for a decade or more.
Here are the absolute 101 basics you really shouldn't ignore ...
1. DON'T FORGET E-MAIL DELIVERYBloggers are often abandoning or completely ignoring e-mail as a tool to deliver their content to their readers. As an RSS evangelist I certainly believe in using RSS to get your content to the world, but only as a supplement to e-mail delivery.
While RSS provides us with many unique benefits, it is yet to reach mainstream adoption. Until it does, marketers and publishers should not even consider abandoning e-mail delivery, or risk ignoring most of their potential readership.
If you're still wondering why you need e-mail, consider the potential you might be wasting without it. Someone visits your blog, likes the content and would like to be notified as new content of interest becomes available, and he does not know what RSS is or even care. If you fail to capture his e-mail address and consent at that exact moment, he might never again return to your site, either because he forgets about it or because dozens of other sites capture his interest even before the next day.
2. E-ZINE PUBLISHING IS STILL A MUSTPublishing a blog is not a replacement for an e-zine. If nothing else, publish a weekly or monthly e-zine of your top blog posts, available in a single easy-to-consume format.
Some simply do not have the time to watch your blog regularly and others will only want to receive a quick summary to get only your best and most crucial content. Publishing an e-mail e-zine will do that for you, giving you the opportunity to communicate with the widest possible long-term audience for your blog.
3. E-MAIL AND RSS SUBSCRIPTIONSProviding e-mail (e-zine) and RSS subscriptions is important to the success of any blog. But neither of these will do you much good if your visitors don't actually see them and if you don't give them enough incentive to subscribe.
Foremost, display your e-mail e-zine and RSS subscriptions information at the top of your blog, instead of somewhere far down where no one will see them.
And second, use enticing copy to get visitors to subscribe. Briefly explain the benefits of subscribing, what kind of content they can expect to receive, and also do not forget about your privacy disclaimer, calming potential subscribers that you will never abuse their personal information.
4. EXPLAIN RSSMost internet users still do not know what RSS is or how to use it, and consequently the RSS buttons on your blog mean absolutely nothing to them.
To overcome this problem, create a special RSS presentation page and link to it next to the RSS subscribe button. On that page explain:
What RSS is
How the visitor will benefit from using RSS
Where they can get a free RSS aggregator (recommend one yourself!)
How they can install it (provide step-by-step instructions)
How they can subscribe to your RSS feeds
Why they should subscribe to your own RSS feeds
Then, on this same page, include the links to all of your RSS feeds. 5. TOP CONTENTIf you update your blog frequently, your less recent top content keeps being pushed down and down, where most of your blog readers will never bother to look for it.
Overcome this frequent blog problem by creating a list of your top posts, clearly displayed and available from each of your pages. Depending on the topic you cover, you might want to place these headlines as close to the top of your blog as possible, in order to quickly entice your new visitors to start reading the best of what you have to offer and then use this content to convert them to loyal readers and subscribers.
6. THE HEADLINEThe site or blog headline will tell your visitors what to expect from reading your blog and will answer their key question: "What's in it for me?"
Make sure that your blog headlines gives this reason and the story inviting enough for your readers to keep reading.
7. LEAD YOUR VISITORS TO YOUR MDAMDA is the Most Desired Action you want your visitors to take on your site, ranging from a subscription to your e-zine to requesting more information about your services or ordering your product / getting more information about it.
Your blog will be of great help in this area, but only if you actually lead your visitors to this action. Putting this information in your menu simply is not enough.
Experiment putting some copy for your MDA directly below each blog post (on your permanent blog post archives pages) and also prominently in your left- or right-hand columns.
If you're providing multiple services or products, promote each of them next to the appropriate posts, based on post topics.
And yes, this is more important than having dozens of Google AdSense ads on your blog ... if you want to use your blog as part of your marketing mix.

วันอังคารที่ 8 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

New Google Blog Search is Great Marketing News for Business Podcasts, Blogs and RSS Feed Publishers

By: Rodney Rumford
Google just introduced Blog Search in beta yesterday. This new search function allows for you to search the internet for Blogs, Podcasts and RSS feeds. You simply type in your keywords and it will show you results that have come from these sources.
The results they display are not showing any preferences to Blogs that are published on Blogger. We are seeing results for all Blogging platforms. Actually Google Blog Search is not just looking at Blogs. They are looking for any RSS feed, which might be from a Blog, Podcast, or any other XML feed. It appears that the search tool is pretty responsive and we are seeing results show up in a matter of hours after a new post is made to the RSS Blog and Podcast Feed. This is another way that you can create online visibility for your business.
The organic results are sorted by relevancy, but you have the option to sort them by date as well. This is especially nice if you want to locate the latest post for a fast breaking news topic and want to find it quickly in the blogosphere. The other thing that Google has done is to try to eliminate some of the "noise" and Spam of the blogosphere. They are looking at high quality Blogs and show them at the top of the page under what is called "Related Blogs". This is prime real estate for your Blog to be listed in.
As an example: Go to the new Google Blog search ( http://blogsearch.google.com ) and type in podcasting tips. The results that are shown at the top 2 of the 3 Related Blogs happen to be authored by me. You will also see over 1600 results and we have several additional results on the front page. This is because we are writing 6 quality Blogs and publishing quality content frequently to these Blogs. http://blog.podblaze.com
Google currently does not support a manual submission for your Blog feed. I think this is smart, since it keeps the unethical people out of the picture. If you are Blogging or Podcasting properly and following best practices; your feed will be found by Google. Make sure that you are also following best practices for pinging after your feed is updated. This will ensure that your feed is updated by Google.
It looks like Google started to index Blogs, Podcasts and RSS feeds in June of 2005. They are currently not showing posts that were made previous to this. They may change this in the future. Google has found a way to somewhat keep the black hat SEO and unethical Bloggers out of the results. We can all celebrate this; because this means quality and relevant results for searchers.
Podcasters should also take note that individual podcast shows are also being listed in the results. This is a great way for users find your podcasts and individual podcast shows, based upon specific topics and content.
If you are serious about improving your marketing and the online visibility for your business website; then you need to be creating quality content with a quality Blog or Podcast. If your business wants to get maximum exposure in this important new area of Google you should work with professionals that truly understand this technology. You can look at www.leveragedpromotion.com as they have experience with many Blogging, RSS and Podcasting Solutions.

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วันจันทร์ที่ 7 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

How to set up your own profitable Amazon aStore

By: Ray Clegg
Do you know that you can have your own online store featuring Amazon products? And you can have this store up and running in minutes.
aStore by Amazon is a new Associates product that gives you the power to create a professional online store that can be embedded within or linked to from your website in minutes and without any knowledge of HTML or any other programming skills and best of all there are no fees associated with building an aStore for your website.
aStore is a dedicated shopping area that you can set up on your website in minutes you decide which Amazon products you want to feature you can include all Amazon products or display only the categories that you choose you also have the option of creating your own custom product categories you can also customize your store's look and feel by selecting colours and design that closely match those of your existing website. aStore also allows you to offer your customers a shopping cart for multiple item purchases plus check out on Amazon is the most trusted store online
aStore allows you to inform your customers with robust product details, product reviews, product images and information from Amazon including informative product descriptions, Amazon editor product reviews, recommended products, up-to-date product information, Listmania (themed product lists from other Amazon customers).
The aStore wizard will guide you step by step through the process of setting up your aStore and generate a URL to which you can link to or embed in your website. There are 3 ways that you can embed your aStore into your website the quickest and easiest way is via a simple link from your website navigation menu to your aStore as a standalone site this option also includes a link back to your site from each one of your aStore web pages or if you wish you can embed your aStore using an inline frame or embed using a frameset these two methods of embedding your aStore will appear to your visitors as if the aStore is part of your website and enable them to shop without leaving your site.
As an Amazon associate you can create up to 100 aStores and you will earn commissions for every product that is sold to a customer that either purchases directly through your aStore or who subsequently purchases at a later date direct from Amazon.
You can receive your Amazon associates commissions by either direct deposit in to your bank account, a cheque or Amazon gift vouchers.




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Invasion of the Blogs

By: Meryl K. Evans
Lemmings are cute, but dumb. If you tell them to jump off a cliff, they will. Just like the people who start blogs because everyone is doing it. Guess what happens after a little while? The blogs die.
In managing a list of many Web sites, most of which are blogs, I deleted countless sites from the list because the sites and blogs no longer existed. The people ran out of steam or had no reason to start them in the first place.
How do you know when a blog is right for your business? Learn why people start blogs, how they find their niche and how blogging tools can be used for more than blogs.
Blog content is king
Some people like to read blogs, others like to read newsletters, still others like to rely on feeds and some read a few or all of them. No matter the method the information is distributed, each medium has one thing in common: content. Having a blog connects your newsletter and your business with all of these readers and delivers important content in a particular style.
I've been blogging since June 2000. If you review my early blog entries in meryl's notes, you'll notice they're more personal. When blogs first hit the scene in the late '90s, they were personal diaries and journals. Like the blog business, my blog has transformed from personal to business speak, although I still add personal notes here and there.
A few bloggers tend to talk about their work, their products and their little world. That might work for celebrities where fans want to know everything about them, but it doesn't work for the average business person. Other business people want information on how to succeed and when a blog spends time hawking products offering information of no value, few people will return. The people whose products sell well are the ones who provide valuable information. Readers already know what kind of information they're getting, so they trust that when they buy something, it will be of the same or better quality. This value must be reflected in their blog. It's much like people who only sign up for a newsletter after first seeing an example.
Who should venture where one has not blogged before?
No one wants to be a lemming (I would hope). How do you decide whether or not to set up a blog? The answer isn't black or white (what did you expect?). Ask these questions:
Can you regularly update it -- at least five times a week?
Do you have something to say other than just linking to others?
Do you read other blogs or feeds?
Can you provide information of value to others not just to yourself?
How large is your newsletter subscriber list?
How many unique visitors do you get on an average day, week or month?The big decider is whether or not you can write in the blog almost daily. The people behind the high traffic blogs post multiple times a day. Though resourceful, merely linking to other sites doesn't give visitors much reason to make the effort to come to yours. Reading other blogs or feeds is a great way to learn how to carry a discussion. Find other blogs covering topics similar to yours and check them out. Disagree with their opinions? Write about it and explain your reasons. Cross-blog discussions are common, and that's where trackback comes in handy.
Trackback is a blog feature. If you decide to comment on another blog posting in your blog instead of in that blog's comments page, then you link to the conversation through the trackback link. Trackback is similar to the permalink, the permanent URL for the blog entry, but it has a different URL for copying and pasting in your blog's trackback box.
Aside from the technical aspects of operating a blog on a daily basis, subscriber list size and Web site traffic are good indicators of what kind of reaction you'll get when opening a blog. Starting from scratch with little traffic means you have a long road ahead and lots of work to do. There is no magic formula anyone can sell you for $97 to make your blog an overnight success. But with some perseverance and ingenuity, your blog can engage many prospects and clients.
Pick a niche
Considering there are numerous blogs out there, pick a niche topic when starting a blog for a better shot at attracting and keeping an audience. meryl's notes focuses on three areas: webby, geeky and wordy. In reality, this is too much. What I need to do for my readers is create three separate blog entry points, so those interested in writing, newsletters and Internet marketing get nothing but the wordy entries. Those interested in Web design get the webby stuff and the technophiles receive the geeky content.
I also manage a personal blog separate from meryl's notes. It's about cochlear implants and deafness. This could fall under the geeky category, but it's a personal blog and doesn't belong in meryl's notes. This blog is written for a different audience.
The blogging tools for both of my blogs come with syndication capabilities so those using feed readers or aggregators can read the content through the software. For an explanation of syndication and feed readers, refer to What Is This RSS, XML, RDF, and Atom Business? When sending a new issue of a newsletter, comment on it or link to it in the blog, that way the blog and feed readers will get the goods, so all three bases are covered.
Blogs in disguise use the same tools
Blogging tools aren't just for, well, blogging. Such tools are an excellent way to help you update your Web site more often than you otherwise would. I use it to manage the list of tableless Web sites. Using blogging tools is much easier than the way I managed it before, updating the HTML files by hand. Though using a blog tool, it isn't a blog. In this case, the blog tool has become a content management system (CMS).
Small business owners don't have a need for the fancy and pricey CMSes out there. They find it easier to use blogging software to manage their sites or hire someone to adapt the tool for their site. Women's Spirituality is one such site. Karen Casey may not use the blog, but she does have discussions surrounding the articles she writes.
Blogs have found a place in businesses and people are finding creative ways to use them. Some companies have a blog on the intranet for communicating project status, jeopardies and metrics. They're used for knowledge management. With information pouring in, blog tools provide a way to share, organize and process the information.
Being a follower can be good or bad. No one wants to walk off a cliff with the lemmings, but everyone wants to succeed. Best practices won't help, since the decision to blog is based on the organization's mission, needs and goals along with its target market's desires and needs. A blog about lemmings? There is one, sort of. Or maybe you'd like to start your own and talk about dumb business moves.

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วันอาทิตย์ที่ 6 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

13 Steps to Successful Blogging #2

7) Multiple blogsUse multiple blogging accounts (free) to attract more people. This means you should have a blog with JournalHome.com and others. The more blog accounts the better (be sure to read and adhere to the Terms of Service for each site). You can copy/paste from 1 blog to all others. Having different blog accounts is like having a publication in different newspapers. This enables you to attract more visitors and this also increases the chance that 1 of your blogs will be in the search engine results for your focused keywords. 8) Short & ConciseAside from the lengthy article a week for syndication and publication your blog entries should be short & concise (if you can help it). Sometimes there are exceptions to the rule and you have no choice but to blog lengthy entries, but try to avoid this as much as possible. You do not want your blog entries to become hours of reading. Visitors like to easily find information and skim through your entries. It is good to be detailed and provide useful information, but do not include useless information or run away sentences that veer away from your topic. Stay keyword-focused.9) Digital ArtTry to include non-advertising graphics, pictures, photos, and art in your blog entries. Not too much. Once a week is fine. Graphics can sometimes bring your blog to life. Of course, the content of the blog is the most important aspect and you do not want to overshadow your content with graphics, but displaying graphics can add a bit of spice to the blog. Be choosy about your graphics and make sure they fit your entry topic. You should add content with the graphic, at least a caption. Original graphics, photos, pictures, and art is recommended. 10) Keep it PersonalA blog is most successful when it is kept personal. Try to include personal experiences which relates to the topic of your blog entry. Stay away from the business style of writing. Write with a more personal style and use first-person narratives. Do not write any of your entries as sales letters, instead share product reviews and personal endeavors. 11) Interact With Your VisitorsYou now have the traffic you deserve. You should begin interacting with your visitors. Create a regular theme such as: "Monday Money Tip" or "Picture of the Week" which entices your readers to look forward to each week. Give your readers advance notice about a product, service, or topic which you are going to review and then talk about later. If the President was scheduled to give a speech then in your blog you should state that you "will discuss the speech and give your opinion after the speech airs. Comments will be appreciated". Try your best to find exclusive information that not many have. Do not disclose any confidential or secret information which is deemed illegal or can potentially get you into trouble, but try to get the scoop before everyone else does. Such as: If your blog was about Paris Hilton (the socialite) and you had a blog entry about "Paris Hilton Getting Married" then it would be interesting to your readers if you had a actual picture of Paris Hilton engagement ring. Give your best effort to dig and search the internet for exclusive information and you will possibly come up with something useful. Your readers will appreciate this and they show their appreciation through word-of-mouth referrals. Imagine how many readers will tell their friends, family, and others about information they only can find at your blog. 12) Make MoneyOnce your blog has gained some real momentum and your blog traffic is increasing then it is time to start thinking about turning your traffic into profit. You should use contextual advertising, like Google Adsense or Chitika. Contextual advertising is usually text links which use the content of your blog to publish targeted ads on your blog. The payout is usually based on a pay-per-click model, meaning for ever click an ad receives you are paid a small percentage of the profits. In addition to contextual advertising it is good to also use graphical advertising such as: BlogAds.com, Amazon.com, MammaMedia, or General Sponsored Advertising. 13) You're a ProfessionalYou're a professional now! What are you still doing with that free blog hosting service? It is time to upgrade to a domain hosted solution. You need to get a web host and choose a domain name for your blog then check its availability. Select the blogging software you wish to use, such as: Squarespace.com, WordPress.org, MovableType.org, TypePad, etc. When you have your new blog domain setup and ready for traffic then it is time for you to announce your move on all your previous blog accounts. Your last entry to the blog should be a "move" announcement. The title should be "Moved" and the blog entry should state something like "I have a new home for my blog, please bookmark and follow the link: http://www.YourNewBlogDomainName.com". This way all returning visitors and new readers should not have any problem finding your new blog domain. Plus, search engines can easily index and crawl your new blog, since your old blog should already be popular with the search engines.At the level of a professional blogger you may want to team up with 1 or more other bloggers. This will create a more interesting and more powerful blog. The old saying "two heads is better than one", more authors mean more advertising and exposure because each author will have a vested interest in the blog. The idea of a team blog is to make it profitable and rewarding for all authors, while continuing to target the blog topic and keeping the blog interesting for visitors. Following these blogging techniques should make your blogging experience much more rewarding. There is no guarantee that your blog will become popular or a household name, but the effort should at least put you one step closer. Making money online is not an overnight experience like many may think, but making money online is definitely a foreseeable possibility. As well, growing popularity on the web is not an overnight experience, but through time, dedication, and persistence you will be rewarded with all the royalties of blogging.To learn more about successful blogging subscribe to the Journal Home Newsletter

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