Publishing Your Own Ezine, Part 2: Choosing The Right Autoresponder Service

Publishing your own eZine is one of the most powerful tactics you can employ for your strategic online positioning. Gold is in your mailing list, they say, and one of the best ways to build up your mailing list is by offering your prospects something they'll find difficult to refuse: the information they need. And this information is best conveyed through a digital magazine format that is an eZine.

But publishing your own eZine is not as easy as writing and formatting an electronic newsletter. That is the easy part, quite actually. The process of placing the right gears in the right places to ensure an automated system that will allow you to milk your mailing list for a long, long time with minimal labor on your part is the first goal you should aim for.

And the heart of a highly efficient mailing list is an excellent autoresponder service.

What Is An Autoresponder Service?

If you’re going to send an email to 5 or even 10 people, then manually doing the same won't be a problem. But if you're going to send an email to hundreds, if not thousands, of recipients, then such will be a laborious task that will take a day or two to accomplish.

Since you're expected to build up your mailing list to as many subscribers as possible, you don't have the luxury of manually sending out issues of your eZine.

The solution? You have to enroll with an autoresponder service.

Not just any kind of autoresponder service, mind you, but the best one you can ever find. The reason for this is simple. An autoresponder service is your business partner. Since your mailing list will play an integral role in determining the degree of success you can gain in this industry, and since an autoresponder service will make your mailing list possible, you need to join the best one available.

An autoresponder service automates the entire process. It picks up the contact details of your prospects, stores them in a database, and allows you to pre-load and pre-schedule the delivery of your messages. This way, it is possible to have a year's worth of messages ready for delivery even before you start accepting subscribers.

Things To Look For In An Autoresponder Service

An excellent autoresponder service should have the following characteristics:

• Allows you to create as many mailing groups as you want. You'd need to transfer subscribers from one to group to another depending on how well they respond and how much they have purchased from your enterprise.
  
• Allows you to personalize your messages automatically by using the details submitted by your subscribers. People respond more when they are referred to by their given names.
  
• Has excellent customer care service. You wouldn't want to be bogged down by technical difficulties in the middle of a very important campaign.
  
• Will protect you against spam complaints. Spam complaints are sometimes unavoidable despite your best efforts to avoid the same. Your autoresponder service should be able to protect you at times like this so as not to jeopardize your email marketing strategies.
  

Price Or Features, Which Is Which?

Often, I've been asked which is more important in choosing an autoresponder service: its applicable fees or its abundance of features. The ideal answer is: both.

But it can't be helped that the more powerful and reliable services come at a steeper price. We get what we pay for, after all.

In choosing an autoresponder service, the features should take precedence. An autoresponder service is one of the primary investments you can make for your online business, and it should never be compromised least your success in this field will be jeopardized.

My autoresponder of choice is GetResponse. I can create as many mailing lists as I want, can copy subscribers to and from those lists, and can set up as many autoresponders as I want for the list. I have one client who has over 400 autoresponders attached to one subscription list.

Contact me if you have any questions about autoresponders. They are a great tool for automating your subscription process.

technorati tags: ezines, autoresponders
del.icio.us tags: autoresponders, ezines
icerocket tags: autoresponders, ezines

Creating Your Own Informational Product

If you have been dabbling with internet marketing for some time now, you're most probably aware of the fact that information products are one of the easiest and most profitable things that your could sell online. Information products may be eBooks, special reports or articles which you could offer for a price.

Preparing information products is quite easy, at least in theory. All you need are two things:

1. Information; and
   
2. Writing skills
   

Information is the hottest commodity in the World Wide Web. This is why the Internet is called the information superhighway. If you'd be able to provide the right kind of information, you will never run out of potential customers. This is especially true if you manage to find a hungry market where the demand for such information would be immense.

Writing an eBook is very similar to writing a special report. An eBook is work composed of approximately 30 or more pages. Anything shorter would be considered as a special report. Here are some simple steps you could take to come up with an information product of this type:

1. Select a topic from the niche you have previously chosen. This topic must correspond to a particular aspect of the niche, something that people would want to know about. For example, in our running example of dog grooming, supposing you choose the niche of shih tzu dog grooming, a good topic to write about is "how to select perfect grooming kits for your shih tzu."
   
2. Prepare an outline for your work. It should be as organized as possible. Start with the most basic concepts, and gradually proceed to the more advanced ones.
   
3. Do your research! This is very important. If you're offering something in exchange for your prospective customers' hard-earned money, you should give them something valuable. A well-researched work is what they deserve.
   
4. Fill up your outline with the necessary information. If you have a great outline, this shouldn't be a problem. All you have to do is to write about what you have researched and include them in the specific portions allotted by the said outline.
   
5. This is very important: avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism could ruin you. You need to learn how to respect intellectual property rights when you're doing business online. There are no ifs and buts about it. You need to come up with an original work to sell.
   
6. Once you have finished the draft of your eBook or special report, have it proofread for errors. Make corresponding corrections.
   
7. Once you have your error-free manuscript, you would need to come up with an attractive and attention-grabbing eCover for your work. People always say that no one should judge a book by its cover. This is rarely practiced however. Many books, and many eBooks, are sold on the basis of their covers alone. Invest on a good eCover to boost your sales.
   
8. Then you would have to convert your work into .pdf format. Being in .pdf format would allow more people to read your eBook, as a variety of computer platforms recognize this file type.
   

Once you have completed these steps, you'll own an information product that is ready to be sold!

But what if you are not possessed of writing skills, or you simply don't have the time to write? Does this mean that you can't come up with your own information product? Most definitely not, of course, as there are many ways to skin the cat, in a manner of speaking. For starters, you could always try outsourcing, or contracting the services of an outside party to help you prepare the information products you have in mind. Another option is to make good use of private label rights, better known as PLR in the industry today. Products sold with PLR would allow the purchaser to alter their contents and even name themselves as the author of the works.

There is no excuse why you couldn't come up with your own information product. If the internet promises to be your ride to a good life, then an information product, quite surely, is your ticket to hop aboard that freight train.

technorati tags: passive, income, ebooks

del.icio.us tags: passive, income, ebooks,

icerocket tags: passive, income, ebboks

The Importance of Having Your Own Ezine For Your Online Business

You may have encountered the saying "gold is in your list" in this industry. This passage simply means that a great majority of your sales will come from your mailing list. Statistics show that, at the average, your prospects will only decide to buy from you after the 12th contact.

Yes, that's a whole lot of messages.

And the only way you can contact them over and over again is by capturing their email addresses and including them in your mailing list. This is where it gets tricky. The "what's in it for me" mentality is still prevalent, and you have to offer your prospects something valuable so that they can be motivated enough to fill up your capture page and submit the personal details to your mailing list.

Fortunately, there are many valuable things you can use as bait, and electronic magazines, or eZines, are on top of the list.

What Is An Ezine?

An eZine is basically a newsletter in digital format, deliverable via email. And every media of this kind is efficient for one thing: conveying information. The internet is fueled by the constant need for information. People log online to find information on the things they need to know about as well as the things that interest them. They use search engines to find the particular information they're looking for.

And if you have the information they need, they will naturally come to you. If you can offer such information, or better yet, constantly updated information on the matter as time goes by, then you can rally them into joining your mailing list in exchange for what you can provide.

They're In, Now What?

Building the size of your mailing list is a magnificent strategy to catapult your online business to the highest levels of success. Name a guru - any guru - and study his tactics. You're sure to discover that a great part of his success can be attribute to his mailing list, particularly these two characteristics that determine its efficiency as a moneymaking pool:

1. The sheer size of the mailing list. It's still a numbers game. The more prospects you have, the more leads you can contact for your future offers.
   
2. Response rate of the mailing list. Your subscribers should be able to read your eZine issues so that they can be exposed to your business message. This is something within your control.
   

The tactic is simple in theory. Gain as many subscribers as you can, send them an offer they can't refuse, and see what happens next. Repeat the process throughout the duration of your online career. Many online empires are founded on this simple principle.

The Many Applications Of Your Ezine

Not only will an eZine help the sales rate for your online business, it can also be used to help you succeed in other online business models you may choose to pursue:

• Do you have PPC-enrolled websites? Guarantee repeat visitors by capturing the contact details of your guests and informing them of updates to your pages.
  
• Are you an affiliate promoting a high paying program? Advertise your affiliate links to the members of your mailing list.
  
• Are you running a membership site? Use your mailing list for your announcements and updates.
  
• Or are you looking for a way to earn money online? Your eZine can serve as an electronic course, or eCourse, and you can charge for subscriptions.
  

There are many things you can do with eZines. But one thing is certain: its value is very much indispensable for the success of your online enterprise.

Blogging 101

A blog is basically an online journal wherein you can digitally pen down your thoughts, ideas, opinions and practically anything that you want people to read. Blogs come in different styles, formats, and settings, depending on the preference of the user. Many blogging sites offer built in features such as hyperlink, straight texts, pictures etc. Some blogging sites even allow you to put video and mp3's on your blogs.

Instead of writing texts, some bloggers choose to make their blogs more audio friendly, by using spoken word entries. This is called audio blogging.

Basically a blog contains these features:

• title- which allows you to label your post
  
• body- this is the content of your post
  
• trackback- other sites can be linked back to your blog
  
• permanent link- every article that you write has a URL
  
• comments- this allow readers to post comments on your blog.
  

Anyone who wants to start a blog can do so by becoming a member of a blogging website of their choice. Once they've become members, they automatically become a part of that particular blogging community. They can browse through other bloggers pages, and link them back to their own blogs. They can also make comments on other members' blogs.

Blogging is not just limited to personal usage. There are a lot of blogs that follow a theme such as: sports, politics, philosophy, social commentary, etc. These blogs espouse on their specific themes. This way blogging becomes a medium in which people can share their knowledge and opinions about a variety of themes and topics.

Some bloggers even use their blogs as a means to advertise. Some authors advertise their books on their blogs. While other bloggers, use their blogs to shed light to currents issues, events, news and catastrophes.

A lot of entrepreneurs benefit from blogging by promoting their businesses on their blogs, with millions and millions of people logging onto the net everyday, blogging has become a lucrative strategy. Some bloggers who run online businesses promote their merchandise online. While others profit through advertisement.

Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging. It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts, and comments with each other.

Blogs varying in topics, themes, and set-ups, can be found in blog directories. First time users who want to get an idea of what the blogging world is all about can browse through a number of blogs using these directories. This way they'd get an idea of what these blogging communities are like.

Blogging is popular all over the world. Blog is short for the term weblog. There are no rules when it comes to blogging. Bloggers have the freedom to express themselves how ever way they want, and the best thing about blogging, is that most blogging sites are free.

There are numerous blogging websites to choose from in the net. This give first time users the option of joining a blogging community that appeals to their interests.

Just search any blogging directory and you'd get a listing of a lot of blogging sites that are available on the net. It's easy to search a blogging directory, because it is organized according to category. This way you would get exactly what you are after. Blogging is really for everyone. It is fun, simple and easy.

If you are interested in using blogging as a marketing strategy for your small business, contact us for more information.

Leads Club Holiday Networking Mixer

An interview with Lisa Bentson about Ali Lassen's Leads Club's Holiday Mixer being held on November 30, 2006 at Morgan Run Golf Resort. The festivities begin at 5:30pm, lasting until 8:00pm.

Hone those networking skills and join Lisa Bentson, and me to "Celebrate your Network, Increase Your Networth!"

Visit Leads Club's website for more details.

Work At Home Business Expo

I'm speaking at the Work At Home Business Expo on Monday, November 6th at noon ET, 9am PT. I'll be presenting my workshop on "You Are The Expert!" where I'll share tips to positioning you and your business as "the experts!"

Why would you want to be viewed as "the expert" in your industry? Because it's easier to get more clients when you are "the expert." Join me and find out how you can use the internet to market you and your business, increasing traffic and passive income on your website.

This is a virtual expo. All you need is an internet connection, speakers, and a mic (if you want to participate verbally). Of course, bunny slippers and your favorite beverage are optional.

If you have any quesitons, contact me.

International Podcast Expo In October

I'll be presenting "Podcasting For Professional Speakers." Talk about the ability to spread your message, at the same time positioning you as the expert in your field. Branding to the max!!

Visit the website, grab a pass, put on your favorite slippers, and grab your choice of beverage and join us from the comfort of your home office. You won't be sorry and you may just learn one or two new things to take your business to the next level.

Business Expo October 17th, 5pm to 8pm

Interview with Terry Hall, Business Mastery Network about the Business Expo.

It's being held October 17, 2006 from 5pm to 8pm at the San Diego Marriott Del Mar, 11966 El Camino Real, San Diego, CA 92130. Register today, it's only $10 for a great networking opportunity.

Five More Innovative Ways To Use Your Autoresponder

1. You could publish your testimonials or endorsements in autoresponder format if you don't have the room in your ad copy. It's more effective to include all of them.
   
2. Provide back issues of your e-zine archives in auto- responder format. This will give your subscribers and web site visitors easy access to them.
   
3. Publish your entire web site in autoresponder format. Sometimes visitors don't have enough time read your entire site. They could print it out and read it offline.
   
4. You could offer your ebook in autoresponder format. Your visitors won't have to download it or have the software to read it right away.
   
5. You could publish the terms and conditions to any business transactions in autoresponder format. This could include return policies, purchases, refunds etc.
   

Five Ways To Indirectly Get To The Top Of Search Engines

1. Participate on their discussion boards. You could post questions, answer other people's questions, and join in on conversations. Just include your signature file and link at the end of your messages.
   
2. Ask the web site owner if they would like a free ebook to giveaway to their visitors. You could have them link to your web site or include your ad in the free ebook.
   
3. Submit content to their web site. You could write articles for their web site and include your resource box and link at the end of the article. If they publish it, you'll indirectly be at the top of the search engines.
   
4. Write an excellent article review of their web site, products or services. Then publish the review on your web site. E-mail the web site owner and tell him or her about it. They may link to your web site so their visitors read it.
   
5. Ask the owner of the web site if they would want to trade advertising. If you don't get as much traffic as they do, you could throw in some extra incentives.
   

Five Innovative Ways To Use Your Autoresponder

1. Collect leads with your autoresponder. You will get an e-mail digest of everyone's e-mail addresses who requests information from your autoresponder.
   
2. Publish a price list of all the products and services that you offer. You could also include order forms, product descriptions, and other sales material.
   
3. Publish free reports in autoresponder format. The reports should be related to your business or web site. Giving away free stuff will quickly increase your traffic.
   
4. Collect vital customer satisfaction information by publishing a survey in autoresponder format. This type of information will help you serve them better.
   
5. Instead of answering every customer question that's e-mailed to you, publish "Frequently Ask Questions" in autoresponder format. This will save time and money.
   

Five Eye Popping, Jaw Dropping Ad Copy Secrets

1. Use a hand written letter on your ad copy instead of text. Write the ad on a piece of paper, scan it and publish the ad on your web page. Adding a personal touch will always increase your sales.
   
2. Publish a list of famous and respected customers who have bought from you on your a copy. People will think that if these people bought from you, they should also trust your business and purchase your products. Make sure to get their permission first.
   
3. Show before and after photos for your products on your web page copy. Show the problem picture and then beside it, show the picture of the resolution to the problem when they use your product.
   
4. Include an article or review that has been written about you or your business with your ad copy. This will show people that your business is respected and will increase your credibility.
   
5. When you offer free bonuses in your ad copy, also list the dollar value beside each bonus. People will feel they're getting a good deal and it will increase the value of your product.
   

5 Important Things To Tell Your Prospects

1. Tell your prospects that you offer free delivery. This may cost a little money, but, you will gain the extra customers to make up for it.
   
2. Tell your prospects that you offer a lower price. If you can't afford to offer a lower price you could always hold the occasional discount sale.
   
3. Tell your prospects that your product achieves results faster. People are becoming more and more impatient and want results fast.
   
4. Tell your prospects you've been in business for a longer period of time. People think if you've been in business longer you have more credibility.
   
5. Tell your prospects that your product tastes, smells sounds, looks, or feels better. When you target the senses you're triggering human appeal.
   

Five Creative Ways To Make Money With eBooks

1. Allow other e-zine publishers or web site owners to republish small nuggets or excerpts of information from your ebook with your byline or ad included.
   
2. Make extra profits from selling monthly updates of your ebook. You could also back end sell the extra never released chapters of your e-book.
   
3. Give away a free ebook and then give people an option of buying the paid version of the ebook. Also let others give away the free version of your ebook.
   
4. Divide your ebook content into reports then give people the option of just purchasing the info they want.
   
5. Purchase reprint rights to other people's ebooks an combine them with your in a large package deal or private ebook library web site.
   

Five Bonuses That Will Sell Your Products Faster

1. Consulting
   Give your customers advice on topics related to your product or service. You can consult via e-mail, message board or chat room.
   
2. e-Book
   Compile related product information or instructions into an ebook. You could publish it in text, pdf, html or exe format.
   
3. Customer's Only Discussion Board
   Make a place online for your customers to communicate about your business or similar information.
   
4. E-mail Newsletter
   Publish an informative e-zine that keeps your customers informed of important or helpful information related to their purchase.
   
5. Private Web Site
   Give access to a private part of your web site were customers can find helpful information non customers can't access.
   

Five More High-Impact Viral Marketing Strategies

1. Allow people to provide your free online service to their web site, visitors, or e-zine subscribers. They could be free e-mail, e-mail consulting, search engine submissions, etc.
   
2. Allow people to give away your free software. Just include your business advertisement inside the software program.
   
3. Allow people to give away your free web design graphics, fonts, templates, etc. Just include your ad on them or require people to link directly to your web site.
   
4. Allow people to place an advertisement in your free ebook if, in exchange, they give away the ebook to their web visitors or e-zine subscribers.
   
5. Allow people to give away your free ebook to their visitors. Then, their visitors will also give it away. This will just continue to spread your ad all over the internet.
   

Five More Incredible Ways To Sell Your Products Now

1. Use bullets to highlight your product or services benefits. Benefits are the key to selling anything, make them standout in your ad. You can use dots, dashes, or circles to highlight them.
   
2. Give a money back guarantee that surpasses a normal one. Instead of the normal timed guarantee, give them extra back. Tell them they can keep the free bonus or give them double their money back.
   
3. Tell your reader they'll receive surprise bonuses. This'll raise your reader's curiosity and make them want to buy so they can find out what the surprise bonuses are.
   
4. Let your reader know this specific package will not be offered again. You must create urgency so people buy now. You may always sell the same product but not with the same bonuses or price.
   
5. Give them a couple tips in your ad that will help them with their problem. This will give your business credibility and gain your readers trust to buy your products or services.
   

International Women's Expo Wants You

I am so excited to participate in the International Women's Podcasting Expo. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to get your business out there on the internet. The exhibit halls will be open to the public, giving your business plenty of international exposure.

Just the opportunity to have the expo booth up for three months is worth the exhibitor fee alone. Just think of what you could do with a virtual conference room for three months. If you can't think of what to do with it, contact me and I'll share with you many ways to use a virtual conference room, with audio capabilities, to increase your visibility, credibility and profitability!

Maybe you are just now hearing about podcasting and the fabulous opportunity it can give to you to brand yourself as an expert in your industry. If you are sitting on the edge, not knowing if you want to "hang" with us or not, in the words of the famous shoe, "just do it!"

Come and join us. Get a mic, buy a ticket, grab a booth, just do it! Today!

Debra
The Digital Marketing Diva

Six More High Readership Content Ideas

1. Business History Articles: they include information about your business. Examples: years in business, goals your business has accomplished, community affairs, financial information.
   
2. Product Articles: they include information about your product or services. Examples: new products, improvements to existing products, new accessories.
   
3. Visual Content: they include visual helpers that help explains, shows or supports an example. Examples: charts, photos, graphics, graphs.
   
4. Entertaining Content: they include humorous and off beat information. Examples: contests; quizzes, trivia, puzzles, games, cartoons.
   
5. Excerpts: they include information used from other resources for different purposes, but can also support your business. Examples: journal articles, transcripts of seminars, reprints, speeches, press releases.
   
6. Technology Content: they are new technologies you can use to present your content. Examples: audio clips, streaming video, MP3 files.
   

Five More Ways to Boost Your Ezine Subscribers

1. Write your e-zine's ad to sound like it is common sense to subscribe. For example: "Everyone knows you have to..."
   
2. Assume people are going to instantly subscribe to your e-zine. For example: "Dear Healthy Subscriber" After all, they'll want to subscribe in order to feel healthy.
   
3. Give your subscribers free stuff from each issue of your e-zine. It could be ebooks or software. They'll tell others and those people will subscribe.
   
4. Tell people what their friends or family might say as a result of them of learning what's in your e-zine. People care about what other people think of them.
   
5. Make people feel like it's their idea to subscribe, they will be less hesitant. Tell them in your ad "You are making a smart decision for subscribing".
   

Five High-Impact Viral Marketing Strategies

1. Allow people to reprint your articles on their web site, in their e-zine, newsletter, magazine or ebooks. Include your resource box and the option for article reprints at the bottom of each article.
   
2. Allow people to use any of your freebies as free bonuses for products or services they sell. Include your ad on all your freebies.
   
3. Allow people to use your online discussion board for their own web site. Some people don't have one. Just include your banner ad at the top of the board.
   
4. Allow people to sign up for a free web site on your server. Since you are giving away the space, require them to include your banner ad at the top of the site.
   
5. Allow people to add their link to your free web site directory. Just require that they return a link back to your web site, advertising your directory.
   

Five Incredible Ways To Sell Your Products Now

1. Make your reader visualize they have already bought your product in your ad. Tell them what results they have gotten and how it makes them feel. They'll already become emotionally attached before they buy.
   
2. Turn your ad into an article. It could be a story, or how-to article. This will lead them into your ad without them knowing it's an ad. They'll already be interested when they get to your sales pitch.
   
3. Make sure you show your reader that they are getting a bargain. Tell them the usual price you sell your product for is $99. Then tell them if they order today they can buy it for $69.95.
   
4. Direct your ad headline to your target audience. Your readers will feel important and belong to a select group of people who buy your product. For example; "Attention! Accountants, Discover A New Way To Increase Your Client Base!"
   
5. Tell your reader how fast they can receive your product or service in your ad. Their buying decision may be based on how fast they can receive your product. They may need it by a certain deadline.
   

Six High Readership Content Ideas

1. How To Articles: they include detailed step by step instructions. Examples: how to publish your e-zine, how to promote your business, how to attract visitors to your web site.
   
2. Tips: they are usually small pieces of information about the size of a paragraph. Examples: tips on using a product, tips on doing your taxes.
   
3. Top Lists: they are a group of tips listed in order, usually numbered from first to last. Examples: top 7 ways to get to the top of search engines, top 10 ways to market your product.
   
4. News Articles: they can include news about your industry or company information. Examples: joint ventures, new product releases, special events, overseas activity
   
5. Interview Articles: they could include interviews from customers, employees and experts. Examples: interview an employee that won an award, an expert related to your industry, a satisfied customer, people profiles.
   
6. Publications: they include information that's bundled together to take with the person. Examples: ebooks, reports, software, auto responder information.
   

5 Innovative Ways To Advertise Your Web Site

1. Directory Linking
   Create a directory of web sites on a specific topic. Give people the option of adding the directory to their web site by linking to it. Put your business advertisement at the top of the director's home page. This technique will get lots of people to link to your web site and give you free advertising.
   
2. Bonus Advertising
   Do you have a product or service that doesn't sell good? Offer it as a free bonus for someone else's product or service. Get free advertising by placing your web site or business ad on the product or in the product package.
   
3. Autoresponder Trade
   Trade autoresponder ads with other businesses. If both of you send out information with auto- responders just exchange a small classified ad to put at the bottom or top of each other's autoresponder message.
   
4. Tip Line
   Start a free tip line.Offer a free daily, weekly, or monthly tip recorded on your voice mail. The tips should be related to your business. Include your ad for your web site or business at the beginning or end of your message.
   
5. Content Swap
   Exchange content with other web sites and ezines. You could trade articles, top ten lists, etc. Both parties could include a resource box at the end of the content.
   

Online Business Press Release Ideas

One reason entrepreneurs ignore promoting their online business with press releases is because they don't know what's newsworthy.

Here are 10 online business press release ideas:

1. your opening of a new web site
   
2. new products or services you're offering on your web site.
   
3. the results of an online survey or poll you've completed
   
4. an online award your business or web site has won
   
5. a free e-mail newsletter you're publishing
   
6. a new book or e-book you wrote
   
7. a fundraising event you're doing at your web site
   
8. a new contest or sweepstakes you're having at your site
   
9. major sponsorships you're doing online
   
10. a famous person that's endorsing your business
    

You can get other press release writing tips and ideas by reading other businesses press releases, reading how to publications, talking to experts and visiting other media web sites. A Goggle search for online press release directories will yield you plenty of site to submit your press release. Good luck!

Online Business Press Release Writing Tips

Press releases are one of the most cost-effective ways to get promotion for your online business. Many entrepreneurs ignore this type of promotion because they don't know how to write a press release. It's important to promote your online business with press releases because of the media all over the internet. The following is a list of some common press release writing tips:

• your press release should sound like news, not an ad
  
• you should only send your press release to the media related to the topic of your press release
  
• keep your press release one page in length
  
• your header, contact information and release date should be at the top of your press release
  
• use short sentences and double space in between sentences
  
• your header and first few sentences should capture the readers attention
  
• you should tell a story and briefly mention your business, product or service in the body of the press release
  
• proofread your press release many times. Look for grammar and spelling mistakes.
  

You can get other press release writing tips and ideas by reading other businesses press releases, reading how to publications, talking to experts and visiting other media web sites. A Goggle search for online press release directories will yield you plenty of site to submit your press release. Good luck!

8 Ways To Get People To Visit Your Web Site Again And Again

1. Polls
   Hold an interactive poll on your web site. Ask visitors a poll question. Have them e-mail their vote or opinion. People love to give their 2 cents worth. They would also like to read the results the next day or week on your web site.
   
2. Prize Drawings
   Hold an ongoing prize drawing on your web site. The prizes should be something of interest or value to your subscribers. Most people who enter will continually revisit your web site to get the results.
   
3. Original Content
   Give your visitors content they can't read anywhere else. I'm not saying all your content has to be 100% original, but a portion of your web site should have original information. People will usually read information they haven't read before.
   
4. Quizes
   Give your visitors a quiz or a series of trivia questions. Post the correct answers weekly on your web site. The people who participate will want to come back to your site to see if they were right.
   
5. News
   Supply news stories related to your web site topic. People want current and up-to-date news. If you can be their first source, they will become repeat visitors to your web site.
   
6. Jokes
   Give your visitors a little humor now and then. Don't be so serious; tell them a joke. If they associate your web site with being happy they will visit again and again.
   
7. Free Stuff
   People love to get free stuff. List free stuff on your web site. It could be software, services, sample products, e-books etc. The freebies should be related to your web site topic. Keep the freebies coming and your visitors will return regularly.
   
8. Directories
   Tell your subscribers about Web sites related to your web site topic. The web sites should be interesting and helpful. Become your readers web site directory and they will come back.
   

Five Ways to boost Your Ezine Subscribers

1. Show your potential subscribers a sample issue of your e-zine. You might want to consider showing them portions, blacking out or blocking some of the important info. Tthis will make them curious about what they are missing and more likely to subscribe.
   
2. Give away a free follow-up autoresponder course. When my visitors subscribe to my newsletter they are given a 6 part autoresponder course on internet marketing. Publish your e-zine ad in each lesson. The more people see it, the higher the chance they'll subscribe.
   
3. Offer your potential customers a discount on a particular product you sell if they subscribe to your free e-zine.
   
4. Look for strategic partners and give them permission to give a free subscription to your e-zine as a bonus for a product they sell.
   
5. Ask your potential subscribers questions that'll persuade them to subscribe like: "Would you like to be able to retire before you're 40?"
   

Email Courses and Autoresponders

Offering free things to your website visitors is one marketing method that often results in a lot of sales. Free courses that are delivered via email are very popular, and people sign up for such courses on a regular basis to learn more about a topic of interest to them. These courses are best maintained and delivered with the use of autoresponders.

An autoresponder can be set up to send out a series of lessons for an email course. The lessons can be set for distribution at specific intervals. You determine how often the lessons for the course are sent to the people who have signed up for it. Email courses are very different from traditional courses, web based courses, or any other type of course.

There is no student and instructor interaction. The instructor writes the information out, puts each lesson in an autoresponder series, sets the timing for the lessons, and the rest is automated. You can opt to have lessons delivered daily, every other day, every three days, or any other time frame that you think works best for your email students.

Email courses are commonly used to sell products and services. For instance, if you sell widgets, you might develop a course that teaches people how to use widgets or how to care for their widget. Experts agree that an email course can be written for almost any product that you can imagine - if you put enough thought into it.

Start by determining what your course will be about, and how long it should be. If the course should be delivered every other day for two weeks, you know that you would need seven lessons. Write the lessons, and load them in the autoresponder. Set the interval for each lesson, which in this case would be 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13.

This means that the first lesson would be delivered one day after the person has requested the course, and the second lesson would be delivered three days after the person has requested the course, and so on. The interval for each lesson is set for the number of days after the person has signed up Make sure that everything is spelled right, and that your sentences are grammatically correct. You want the lessons to look and sound as professional as possible.

Next, simply advertise the email address that will activate the autoresponder. Make sure that you run a test first, sending each lesson to yourself. This will allow you to see what your email students will see when they sign up!

Increase The Efficiency Of Your Email Marketing Campaign By Avoiding These 10 Dreaded Red Flag Words

If you have been running an email marketing campaign for quite some time now, then you already realize the fact that your number one enemy is not reader apathy... it's the spam filters. Indeed, spam filters can prevent your messages from being received by your target recipients. And because of the decrease in your recipients' numbers, your response rate would likewise take a dip, and with it, the profitability of your email marketing strategy.

Time and time again, people have said that gold is in your mailing list, that your subscriber base is a figurative gold main. Too bad the spam filters sometimes close the road towards that gold mine, preventing us from harvesting whatever bounties it could promise.

The Number One Culprit...

The main reason why your messages get flagged down by the spam filters is the presence of what we call as red flag words. These are words which many email programs have pinpointed as likely used by spammers, hence, their spam filters are programmed to check messages for the presence of these words. Once determined, the message goes straight to the bulk folder.

What are these words? Here are the top ten most dangerous red flag words you should start avoiding as soon as possible:

1. free
   
2. amazing
   
3. congratulations
   
4. great offer
   
5. unsubscribe
   
6. risk free
   
7. winner
   
8. guarantee
   
9. dear friend
   
10. click here
    

Indeed, writing messages have become quite restrictive with the seeming ban imposed on marketing-centric words like those mentioned above. Logically, the first option would be to stop using the aforementioned words altogether. But then again, such a recourse would render your email messages useless. After all, how else will you describe an "amazing" and "great offer?" How else would you tell your subscribers that your offer is "risk free," or that you promise a "guarantee?"

Is there something you could do to avoid the spam filters without losing the potency of your messages?

Some Practical Solutions

For starters, you could begin using other words in your vocabulary. A thesaurus would come in handy. You'd be able to convey whatever it is you want to convey without sacrificing the power of your message altogether.

This is not always effective, however.

For example, nothing can beat the sheer power of the word "free." Yes, you may use similar terms like "gratuitous promise," or "available at no charge," but they are not as attention-grabbing as the original. The word "free," after all, has always been hailed as the most powerful term in marketing.

So what should you do?

Some marketers go around the problem by ingeniously spelling the red flag words quite differently. "Free" becomes "fr.ee" or "fr/ee" for example. "Click here" becomes "cli.ck.here" or "cl-ick here." This strategy has been proven to evade the watchful eyes of the spam filters and have contributed in increasing deliverability rate of many marketing emails.

The Value Of Testing

The most prudent approach, however, is to always test your messages before you send them. Once you have composed an autoresponder sequence, try to send each of the messages therein to your own email address. Check if they will all make it through.

If an email or two gets flagged by the spam filer, study them and determine where you went wrong. Correct the error, and send them again to your email address.

Continue repeating this process until such time when all your messages actually arrive in your inbox.

Sounds taxing? It's very much worth it, however, considering the fact that your emails contain your business message, and this is essential for your overall marketing campaign.

Adding Real Value To Your Article Marketing

The secret is out. Article marketing is both an inexpensive and lucrative way of attracting visitors to your website. Nonetheless, just because you can direct lots of traffic to your website because of your article marketing campaign, doesn't mean that you can see a direct correlation between the additional traffic and increased profits. To do that, you need to add real value to your article marketing.

Staying focused

Regardless of what it is you are selling on your website, or why you want to increase traffic to your website, if you do not stay focused with your article marketing, it is possible that you will not see any benefit in increased revenues. To ensure your article marketing remains focused, you need to think of a long-term strategy of how you want your website to look in 6-months to 1 year from now and establish an article policy that fits with this plan. Creating ad hoc articles for website is unlikely to be successful.

Avoid repetition

It is a frequent mistake by many web owners to add volumes of articles to their website, which all say the same thing, just in slightly different ways. What you find with such websites is that readers become bored with the site, and look to move on. You need to make sure that you grab the attention of readers and keep their attention by offering a different selection of articles in the same area. If you want to be extremely innovative with your article marketing campaign, you can include an email marketing aspect by asking your readers if they want to sign-up for updates on any articles that can then be email directly to them.

Remain the expert in your field

Although this may have a hollow sound to it, becoming an expert in a particular area is not as difficult as it remaining the expert in that field is. You need to be constantly aware of any changes or updates and soon as anything does change, you need to be the first person writing about this. Writing articles for your website that are 6 months behind the direction the market is moving in will not prove a successful article marketing strategy. Being 3 to 6 months ahead of the market will.

Be selective

Without doubt one of the most important aspects of your article marketing will be submitting articles to other websites. This has the value of directing traffic to your site. The downside is that the article will become associated with the hosting website. As such, if the hosting website has a loss of reputation, so will you. Consequently, it is an important part of any web owner's article marketing strategy that they are associated with reputable websites that enhance your website's reputation. After all, you're not undertaking the program just to help others!

Be professional

Finally, even if the website is only your part-time hobby or income generator, visitors to your website are not going to know this. Because of this, you need to maintain professionalism at all times. This means making sure that the articles are well written, with perfect spelling and grammar. Moreover, if you include facts in your articles, make sure they turn out to be true!

Following the above simple procedures should result in your website not only generating greater numbers of visitors, but these visitors should becoming trusting loyal repeat customers because of your successfully implemented article marketing strategy.

Niche Marketing

If you have even a passing interest in the topic of niche, then you should take a look at the following information. This enlightening article presents some of the latest news on the subject of niche.

There are two different ways of ideas about niches. One takes the target audience into consideration first, which is the product centric model, while the other takes the product into consideration first, the audience centric model.

Actually, both of these ideas are identical but one of them will allow you to have more advantage. So which one is that? The product centric based idea.

The product centric model carries a time-tested rule of marketing: if you want to get into profit quickly, sell what people are already buying! There is plenty of information about things that sells well. Niche marketing is just a job to identify the gaps in the market which haven't got dug yet, and build a business around it.

If you realize, books account for a huge portion of online revenue. Nevertheless, how do you grab a slice for yourself without competing against the huge companies like Amazon.com?

The answer is simple, you specialize. No matter how huge Amazon is, sometimes you still wouldn't be able to find books that you want. What types of books are people searching for that they can't find through the mainstream booksellers?

Could you become the authority and number one resource for books on a particular hobby? How about underground titles like "The Anarchist's Cookbook?" That's what the owners of http://www.loompanics.com have, controversial and "hard to find" title books.

Another way you can build a niche around hot-selling products is to add some spice by customizing or personalizing them. In summary, the product-centric model is based on giving a twist to existing markets and trends.

On the other side, an audience centric model takes a subject matter, special interests or information more importantly first. Basically, you start off with no idea on what to sell. You don't have a product in mind. You only know your target-audience.

The great thing about the audience-centric approach is that you can create whole new markets out of thin air. This is the model preferred by most e-book authors and information marketers.

So where do we start? You need to assess your own interests and strengths before you begin, especially if this is your first time starting a business. What are you already interested in? Do you have any background or expertise on a particular subject? Start with what you know, you'll have more advantage because your prior knowledge will allow you to narrow down your niche quickly. In other words, you already have a good idea of how the topic breaks down.

If your passion is music, for example, you know there is an almost endless supply of potential products and potential buyers in areas as diverse as:

• Instruments/instrument sales/instrument repair/vintage instruments
  
• Techniques and lessons on how to play a certain instrument
  
• Memorabilia - shirts, hats, tickets, stickers, posters, autographs
  
• Audio production, recording, CD labeling, booking, promotion etc
  

If you find yourself confused by what you've read to this point, don't despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish.

You also know that any or all of those can be tailored towards: solo artists, bands, fans, managers, engineers, agents and the list go on.

Now that's a great thing for you, but what if that's not you're interested? What if you are just not into creating a business out of your hobby, or you don't feel any passion for your current expertise?

The good news is: It's Fine! You don't need to give up hope or bang your head against the wall for ideas. You will however need to do some extra work. This brings us to the second reason I suggest taking stock of your strengths.

Here's a secret about most internet marketers. Ready to know? Here it is: Most of the famous niche marketers you've heard of create products for niches they know absolutely nothing about.

How do they do that? Easy, they either hire the research and writing to someone else, or hunt down an expert for an interview, just a combination of outsourcing and "branding". Also, this type of marketer has his or her own set of "reasons why" for motivation.

They include:

• Money
  
• Pride of ownership
  
• Love of the creative process
  
• Need for variety and breadth, rather than depth
  

It doesn't matter as much to this type whether the market personally interests them. His or her goal and passion is to hunt down as many overlooked niches as possible, dive into them quickly and start profiting.

So, if this sounds like you, you're in good company! Once you learn the basics of niche research, you'll have your pick of dozens of potential business ideas.

As your knowledge about niche continues to grow, you will begin to see how niche fits into the overall scheme of things. Knowing how something relates to the rest of the world is important too.

Additional Resources: Niche Marketing Predictions for 2006

Stop the hostile takeover of the Internet

Congress is now pushing through a law that would give control of the Internet to giant companies who want to charge big bucks for things that are currently free or low-cost---everything from posting a webpage to being able to use audio, video, and photos online.

This would ruin the Internet for nearly everyone: nonprofits, online activists, Google users, Ipod listeners, small businesses, economic innovators, and others.

Politicians don't think we are paying attention to this issue. Many of them take campaign checks from big telecom companies and are on the verge of letting companies like AT&T and Verizon destroy the Internet for the little guy.

We need to act now. Can you sign this petition to your member of Congress asking him or her not to ruin the Internet? Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet

A great article on this is located here: http://www.newyorker.com/printables/
talk/060320ta_talk_surowiecki

Thanks!

Adding Real Value To Your Article Marketing

The secret is out. Article marketing is both an inexpensive and lucrative way of attracting visitors to your website. Nonetheless, just because you can direct lots of traffic to your website because of your successful article marketing campaign, doesn't mean that you can see a direct correlation between the addition traffic and increased profits. To do that, you need to add real value to your article marketing.

Staying focused

Regardless of what it is you are selling on your website, or why you want to increase traffic to your website, if you do not stay focussed with your article marketing, it is possible that you will not see any benefit in increased revenues. To ensure your article marketing remains focussed, you need to think of a long-term strategy of how you want your website to look in 6-months to 1 year from now an establish an article policy that fits with this plan. Creating ad hoc articles for website is unlikely to be successful.

Avoid repetition

It is a frequent mistake by many web owners to add volumes of articles to their website which all say the same thing, just in slightly different ways. What you tend find with such websites is that readers so become bored with the site, and look to move on. You need to make sure that you grab the attention of readers and keep their attention by offering a different selection of articles in the same area. If you want to be extremely innovative with your article marketing campaign, you can include an email marketing aspect by asking your readers if they want to sign-up for updates on any articles, that can then be email directly to their email account.

Remain the expert in your field

Although this may have a hollow sound to it, becoming an expert in a particular area is not as difficult as it remaining the expert in that field. You need to be constantly aware of any changes or updates and soon as anything does change, you need to be the first person writing about this. Writing articles for your website that are 6 months behind the direction the market is moving in will not prove a successful article marketing strategy. Being 3 to 6 months ahead of the market will.

Be selective

Without doubt one of the most important aspects of your article marketing will be submitting articles to other websites. This has the value of directing traffic to your site. The downside is that the article will become associated with the hosting website. As such, if the hosting website has a loss of reputation, so will you. Consequently, it is an important part of any web owner’s article marketing strategy that they be associated with reputable websites that enhance your website's reputation. After all, you're not undertaking the program just to help others!

Be professional

Finally, even if the website is only your part-time hobby or income generator, visitors to your website are not going to know this. Because of this, you need to maintain professionalism at all times. This means making sure that the articles are well written, with perfect spelling and grammar. Moreover, if you include facts in your articles, make sure they turn out to be true!

Following the above simple procedures should result in your website not only generating greater numbers of visitors, but these visitors should becoming trusting loyal repeat customers because of your successfully implemented article marketing strategy.

Additional Reading: Article Marketing Content Guide

How To Choose A Product To Sell Online

Any veteran internet marketer will tell you that the first step towards attaining online wealth is to find a hungry market, or a niche, if you will. A hungry market is almost always profitable, given the great demand for appropriate products, as well as the virtual absence of competing enterprises servicing the said segment.

Once you have selected a profitable market, or a niche if you will, it's time to think about what product you could offer. Products are the items you could sell. They are the ones that will ultimately deliver some profits for you. Business is all about selling something, after all. You have to offer something to get another thing in return.

Here are the more popular items you could sell online:

• Traditional information products. These include eBooks, special reports and even articles. They are excellent choices because all you really need is information and the writing skills to put them down in writing. The best way to convey information is through the written word. Also, traditional information products are capable of being delivered digitally. You won't have to worry about shipping costs and storage space. Everything would be stored in your hard drive, and you just have to retrieve the same whenever someone purchases what you have to offer.
  
• Non-traditional information products. With the many things made possible by the internet, a lot of possible vehicles for information have also popped up. Products like video lectures, audio lessons, and podcasts have become prominent items that have proven to be hot sellers. Non-traditional information products are not limited to these choices, however. You could always come up with something new. The limit is your imagination.
  
• Tangible goods. You could also sell physical items. However, you have to bear in mind that such requires storage space (which can become problematic if you're planning to sell high quantities of different products) and shipping charges (which can be a drag when it comes to really large items).
  

You're not only limited to products, however. You could also sell your services online. Here are some examples of the kinds of services you could offer to prospective clients:

• Consultancy
  
• Web design
  
• Search engine optimization (SEO) advise
  
• Graphic design
  
• Data encoding
  
• Ghostwriting
  
• Copywriting
  
• Customer service handling
  

This requires appropriate skills. If you're good with writing, then you could most certainly find a lot of clients who would hire your services for a fee. If you're good with web design, you could be employed by some webmasters who are in need of good websites.

Choosing the right products or services to sell would depend on a few considerations. Let's take a look at them.

• What product or service is most appropriate for your target market? What do the people in the said market need? What do they want? What product is most accessible for them?
  
• What product or service will you be able to offer? Some products require financial investments. Do you have the budget to pursue such? Or would you be better off in creating a product that requires little financial demands? Services require certain degrees of skills. Do you have those skills?
  
• What product do you think will be able to sustain profit for a long period of time. The length of the earning potential, or the market life, of the said product should be enough to reap great earnings for you. Profit, after all, is the bottom line for every business.
  

Once these considerations have been satisfied, you could safely say that you have found the right product for the business you want to pursue.

All About On Page SEO

When it comes to doing business online, you will soon discover that it's all about the traffic. Traffic, or the number of internet users you'd be able to generate for your website, is and will always be the lifeblood of any online venture. After all, what good is a website when there's no one there to see its pages? How successful will your digital products be if no one would be able to know about them? Who will avail of your services when no one will get exposed to their existence?

Contrary to what many people believe, generating traffic for your website does not start once you pages are published and have gone live. Traffic generation strategies start at the very moment you are conceptualizing an idea for the website itself.

This is what on page search engine optimization (SEO) is all about. It is concerned with techniques that you could implement on your web pages themselves to ensure a good volume of traffic for your website. 80% of your traffic would come from the many search engines in the World Wide Web. If each and every web page you have is optimized for these search engines, then your website would be in a good position to have a high rank for the results of every relevant query.

• Keyword selection
  Choosing the right keywords is essential for the success of your website. Keywords are the popular search terms that people use to gather information from the search engines. If your web pages are populated by the right density of the correct keywords, then you'll have better chances of winning the attention of the search engine spiders. To determine the appropriate keywords for the subject that your website will be servicing, use the free tools that can be found at www.nichebot.com.
  
• Keyword placement in content
  Content is the king of the internet. But even royalty needs support. Populate your content with the proper amount of keywords. A density level of at least 2% should be sought. This means that the right keywords should be mentioned at least twice for every 100 words of text.
  
• META tags
  META tags are HTML codes that do not have a bearing on the physical appearance of your web pages, but they do inform the search engine spiders that such web pages are appropriate for a particular query. Always include the following META tags on the top portion of your source code. You could copy-paste them from the list below, but do change the indicated fields. Also, make sure that you include your keywords as much as you could on your META tags.
  

  Before you copy and paste these tags in, make sure you start with a "<" then end with a ">".
  

  
  META NAME="Author" CONTENT="your name here"
  META NAME="Subject" CONTENT="the subject of your site"
  META NAME="Description" CONTENT="description of your site"
  META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="your keywords here"
  META NAME="Revisit-after" CONTENT="14 days"
  META NAME="Rating" CONTENT="General"
  META NAME="Robots" CONTENT="All"
  

  
  
• ALT tags
  ALT tags refer to the text that would appear every time the mouse cursor would pass through an image. Your ALT tags should include your keywords.
  
• Page titles
  Page titles are the captions that appear at the very top of your web page. Make sure that each web page in your website would have a different title that will include the appropriate keywords.
  
• Focus
  Remember, search engines will crawl through your website per page. Each page is a different project altogether. Focus is the key. Ensure that each web page of yours would focus on a particular keyword or key phrase. If there is an article in that page, make sure that the article will only discuss and include one keyword or key phrase from the list you have made. Also, it would greatly help if you would name the page file in a manner that would include the keyword or key phrase it is focused on. For example, www.thisisyourwebsite.com/thisisyourkeyword.html is a good page filename that would help boost your SEO efforts.
  

Following these guidelines would help you a lot in securing a favorable position in search engine results pages. This in turn would guarantee for you a sustainable and sufficient volume of traffic that would make your website a genuine success.

Answers To Five Common Questions About Information Product Creation

There is nothing better than being able to sell your own product. The problem is, how do you create a product that is actually sellable?

With the advent of the internet, product creation has taken a whole new aspect. Whereas in the real world, creators vie for ideas that are tangible and physically deliverable, the web allows creators to package information as profitable merchandise. It is the age of information after all, and information is one of the primary factors that drive online dealings.

Information products can take many forms. You could publish your own e-book. Or if you wish to come up with something less daunting, you could distribute your own special report. Electronic magazines, or e-zines, can also be sold through subscription. All of these are effective methods of conveying novel information.
The best thing about it is that you don't even have to write them. If you simply don't have the time to come up with an e-book, a special report or any information product, you could hire someone to write them for you. Ghostwriting services are abundant on the net.

But we're getting way ahead of ourselves.
In creating a product, the businessman is confronted with many questions that more often than not derail the creation process. Hence, here are five answers to the five most common questions that an internet marketer encounters in information product creation.

1. What's the first step in creating a product?
   The answer is simple: you need an idea. Coming up with that idea, however, is the difficult part.
   You have to realize that everything is a product, as everything is information that, when packaged correctly, is desirable to certain people. Try to update yourself with the latest trends. Read a lot of books and newspapers. Be on the lookout for things that might inspire a deeper study.
   Also, think in terms of titles. For example, you're reading the papers and an article therein reports of unique wedding ideas. Think big. Think flamboyantly. Apply these thoughts to titles. You should come up with something as grand as "Ten Truly Magnificent Ways To Celebrate Your Wedding," or "Ten Enchanting Ideas To Make Your Dream Wedding A Reality."
   Remember, product creation is partly driven by packaging. Titles add so much to the overall feel of the product. And conceptualizing a title would assure that you would be able to keep your focus during the rest of the creation process.
   
2. Where do I get content?
   Information products are naturally carried out through content. If the content is good, the information would be excellently conveyed. There are three ways to get good content.
   First, write the product yourself. If you have the time to do so, then no one is better suited to convey the idea than you.
   Second, hire a good ghostwriter. As we've discussed earlier, ghostwriting services abound on the web. Look for a good and affordable one.
   Third, you could try public domain information. These are free to use, and they are easy to find for those who actually try to look for them. Basically, all works before 1923, and some works before 1978, are considered public domain information. You could reproduce these without having to pay any royalties.
   
3. How do I package my product?
   Selling them as mere .doc or .txt files would seem amateurish and unattractive. The usual format used for information products is .pdf or .exe. Of the two, .pdf is more widely used, but .exe offers more eye-grabbing features.
   Converting your products into .pdf is simple. There are many free resources available on the net that would allow you to do this. Creating a .exe file, on the other hand, would need some programming skills.
   
4. What price should I put on my product?
   Basically, there is no limit as to how much you could price your product. If you feel it is worth $500, then sell it for $500.
   Some are afraid that by pricing their products at a high amount, marketability would suffer. The truth of the matter is, it could go either way. Assigning a high price for your product may give the impression that it is something valuable. This would attract potential buyers.
   Additionally, you could add more value to your product by packaging it with freebies. An e-book with two accompanying software programs, for example, would perfectly justify a high price that is attached to it.
   
5. What if my product has run its course?
   Even if you feel that you have squeezed every possible profit from your product, you could still earn from it.
   

Try selling its master resale rights.
This simply means that instead of selling your product, you'd be selling the authority that would allow others to re-brand and resell your product any way they see fit. This shouldn't concern you anymore as you've exhausted all the markets that would buy your creation. Let other people worry about marketing it for further profit, but do take their money as parting gifts for a product that has served you well.


Additional Resources: 50 Proven Informational Product Ideas

Podcasting

Podcasting is simply creating an audio file then uploading it to your website so your visitors can either play it off the site, or download it for playing later on an MP3 Player.

I love podcasting. It's an easy way to share information and drive traffic to your website.

It all started at the gym. I took my MP3 player, loaded with music, naturally. It was there that I realized I was held captive on the bike for 30 minutes and instead of listening to a podcast I could learn from, I was listening to music. It was then, and there, that I realized the potential of podcasting.

The term podcasting is identified with iPod, an Apple MP3 player. However, podcasts play on any MP3 player. In an effort to acquaint you with podcasting, I've got an ebook for you on how to choose an MP3 player.

Now, you'll be ready for the next blog entry on podcasting! Enjoy!

Pay Per Click Advertising

Advertising your services or products on the Internet is both extremely effective and extremely competitive. There are several ways to go about attracting traffic to your website; Pay-Per-Click is one of the options you can choose from, along with developing an SEO, or search engine optimization campaign. Both pay-per-click and SEO are targeted to get your website placed as close to the top of search engine results as possible. One of the differences is that it takes minutes to set up a pay-per-click campaign versus months for a good SEO campaign.

Pay-Per-Click is a simple type of paid advertising that most search engines, including some of the largest ones, now offer. It requires a bid for a "per-click" basis, which translates to your company paying the bid amount every time the search engine directs a visitor to your site. There is the added bonus that when a per-click site sends your website traffic, your site often appears in the results of other prevalent search engines.

As with all marketing campaigns, there are advantages and disadvantages. If you understand the process and monitor your pay-per-click campaign frequently, it can be very effective. One of the greatest advantages is that you never have to tweak your web pages to change your position in search engine results, as you must do in a typical SEO campaign. What you do have to do in a pay-per-click campaign is pay a fee.

Another advantage is the simplicity of the pay-per-click process. You just bid and you're up and running. It doesn't demand any specific technical knowledge, though the more you know about search engines and keywords, the easier - and more effective - the process will be.

The downside is that pay-per-click is essentially a bidding war. A higher bid than yours will lower your position on search engine results. This means that you will have to raise your bid to regain your position - which can obviously become quite expensive, especially if you are bidding on a popular keyword.

In order to determine if pay-per-click is a cost effective form of marketing for your business, you must do some computing to figure out how much each visitor to your site is worth. You can compute this value by dividing the profit you make on your website over a given period of time by the total number of visitors for that same time period. For example, if your site made $5,000 in profits and there were 2,5000 hits, each visitor would be theoretically worth 50 cents. The basic formula is profits divided by visitors.

The figure of 50 cents per visitor is the point at which your business breaks even. The idea, of course, is to show a profit, not to merely cover your costs. Therefore, you are aiming at a figure less than 50 cents per click.

Be aware that the most popular keywords often cost considerably more than 50 cents a click. The only way around this is to bid less for these phrases or you will be
paying too much for each individual hit.

The key (pun intended) to success is to learn everything you can about search engine keyword research. The good news is there isn't a limit to the amount of keywords you can add to your bid because additional keywords do not add additional cost. This translates into a lot less hassle for you because there is no need to optimize your site to index a particular set of keywords.

Obviously, some keywords are much more effective than others are, but they will not cost you anything except time to set-up your account in your pay-per-click bid. Of the popular search engines that offer pay-per-click, one called Overture provides an online tool that will give you the data on how often particular keywords are entered into their search engine. They also offer suggestions for keywords after you enter a description of your site.

In pay-per-click, this written description is crucial. You must understand that the object of your description is not to generally attract visitors, but to be as specific as possible so that only those visitors who are likely to buy your service or product go to your site. You must use expert marketing copy to guarantee that your description is both precise and enticing to attract the most ideal candidates to your site. This description is your most powerful tool to insure that your bid is profitable.

Another essential element of pay-per-click advertising is that you constantly monitor your bid. It is very important that you bear in mind that the results of the top search engines providing pay-per-click advertising, which are Overture and Adwords Select, usually appear on other popular search engines. Because of this, the competition for top ranking is intense, and very often you will find that the bidding price balloons too high for pay-per-click to yield a profit.

If this happens, it is advisable to withdraw your bid on that particular keyword and try another one. Remember: when you pay too much per click to make a profit, you are in essence losing the bidding war.

Since losing is not acceptable, you must have a plan in place to closely track the effectiveness of your keyword. It is advisable to monitor your keywords on at least a
monthly basis.

Not only is careful monitoring important, but the analysis of visitor behavior can produce invaluable knowledge about consumer motivation, habits, and trends. Expert monitoring and consumer analysis is essential to your overall business needs, and will also insure that your pay-per-click campaign is a success.

Additional Reading: Pay Per Click Profits

Keyword Articles and Traffic

If you have even a passing interest in the topic of articles, then you should take a look at the following information. This enlightening article presents some of the latest news on the subject of articles.

Keyword articles are one of the most successful ways of promoting your website and attracting targeted visitors.

With the huge boost in the number of businesses marketing on the internet, gone are the days of just adding your site with a explanation of your product or service and sit back and watch the traffic roll in.

Daily we have to keep have to watch closely some of the new technology and methods to optimize our web sites to ensure that we receive enough traffic to help our business. This requires either an expert to do it for you or you have to keep up with an ever-changing technology.

Today we are competing with thousands perhaps millions of sites all offering related products. We are becoming dependant on the search engines like Google and Yahoo to promote our websites but to achieve a share of the traffic it is important that we know how to strategically place keywords or phrases on our web pages.

Truthfully, the only difference between you and articles experts is time. If you'll invest a little more time in reading, you'll be that much nearer to expert status when it comes to articles.

One of the most effective tools to market your site is the use of keyword articles. Words or phrases that people type in a search engine are called keywords. It is important that the keywords you use are not only pertinent and descriptive for your site but also they must have a high number of searches. A keyword that is only searched for a few times a month is not going to increase your traffic.

Another aspect to watch is if your website has a lot of competition then strategic keyword placement is very important. When someone types a keyword into a search engine the search engine uses an algorithm to sort out the most pertinent web pages from the database and then ranks them and then displays them. Tactical placement of keywords then becomes a factor in how high your website is ranked. The higher the ranking you have a better chance of your website being viewed.

So choosing the right keyword becomes very important. There is software today than can help you analyze keywords and which ones are the most effective and get the most searches. When trying to decide on keywords try to put yourself in the place of the person searching. If for example my site sells holiday accommodation in Greece and I am looking for a holiday in Greece work out what you are looking for.
Using software designed to analyze keywords this will tell you how many times it is searched for and the number of competing sites and also the ratio of click through to the number of searches. Avoid using very general keywords like holidays Greece. You need to target or narrow your keywords to products or services.

Once you have found the best keywords for your site you can further reinforce the efficiency of your keywords by including keyword articles that describe a holiday or the benefits of a holiday apartment in Florence. Again using the keywords in the title of the article and in the first paragraph. The keyword can also be used in the text of the article but don’t saturate the article.

Is there really any information about articles that is nonessential? We all see things from different angles, so something relatively insignificant to one may be crucial to another.

Not a writer? You can subscribe to Private Label Publishing and receive royalty free articles each month to use to drive traffic to your website.

Domain Name Registration

So what are domains really all about? The following report includes some fascinating information about domains--info you can use, not just the old stuff they used to tell you.

When a website is created, it is necessary to create a domain name to establish an online presence. It does't matter if it is for business or another venture. A domain name will establish you or your business and that is where you will be contacted.

Choosing an appropriate domain name is essential to your business. You want a name that will reflect your business, something that is professional, yet catchy enough to grab the attention of search engine visitors. The name that you choose will directly impact the success of your business.

There are companies on the Internet that will create a website, and find the perfect domain name for your business. However, the cost of these services is usually quite high, and even then, it is not guaranteed business.

If you find yourself confused by what you've read to this point, don't despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish.

Some of the major search engines such as Yahoo and Google offer a step by step guide to building a website. They offer several different packages at different rates. The main differences in these packages are the sizes. If you're just starting out, the smaller package would be the best choice. The payments are smaller, but so is the space on the site that you create. It is always an option to upgrade at a later time.

If you are an established business, and already have clients, then it is probably a good idea to purchase a larger package. Although the larger packages do cost more it is not too much more. The advantages are that you get more space for your website, and also more email addresses.

There are several choices of extensions. There is yourname@yourbusiness.com, org, .net, .biz.

Some experts believe that by using the extension .com it give a website more credibility. However, more and more you are seeing websites with other extensions.

There are thousands of companies that you can purchase a domain name from at very inexpensive rates. The experts also believe that by purchasing your domain name from the company you are web hosting from is a mistake. It creates enormous problems if you decide to switch web-hosting companies. Very often companies will choose a web hosting company that offers a better rate and better services. Personally, I like purchasing domain names from GoDaddy.com

When choosing a domain name, keep it short and use keyword that describe your business services. If the company name does not describe your services, do not use it as your domain name. It tends to confuse and frustrate the potential client and they will find another site. Also, Google offers a page rank system, which ranks the website for content and by name. If you use the company name as your domain name, and the content does not have anything to with the domain name, then your website will receive a very low ranking.

The Basics On How To Start Making Money With Adsense

The best course of action to take sometimes isn't clear until you've listed and considered your alternatives. The following paragraphs should help clue you in to what the experts think is significant.

Adsense is considered as one of the most powerful tool in a website publisher's arsenal. It enables a person to monetize their sites easily. If used properly, it can generate a very large and healthy income for them. However if you are not using them rightly and just maximizing the income you squeeze from it, you are actually leaving a lot of money on the table. Something all people hate doing.

How you can start earning money with Adsense can be done easily and quickly. You will be amazed at the results you will be getting in such a short period of time.

Start by writing some quality content articles which are also keyword incorporated. There are a lot of people given the gift of being good with words. Writing comes easy for them. Why not make it work in such a way that you will be earning some extra cash in the process.

There are actually three steps to put into mind before you begin writing your ads and having an effective Adsense.

1. Keyword search.
   Find some popular subjects, keywords or phrase. Select the ones which you think has more people clicking through. This is actually a keyword selector and suggestion tool that some sites are offering to those who are just their Adsense business.
   
2. Writing articles.
   Start writing original content with keywords from the topics that you have achieved in your search. Take note that search engines are taking pride in the quality of their articles and what you will be writing should keep up with their demands.
   
3. Quality content site.
   Build a quality content site incorporated with Adsense ads that is targeting the subject and keywords of your articles and websites. This is where all that you've done initially will go to and this is also where they will prove their worth to you.
   

It seems like new information is discovered about something every day. And the topic of adsense is no exception. Keep reading to get more fresh news about adsense.

The proper positioning of your ads should be done with care. Try to position your ads where surfers are most likely to click on them. According to research, the one place that surfers look first when they visit a certain site is the top left. The reason behind this is not known. Maybe it is because some of the most useful search engine results are at the top of all other rankings. So visitors tend to look in that same place when browsing through other sites.

Some of those who are just starting at this business may think they are doing pretty well already and thinking that their clickthrough rates and CPM figures are quite healthy. However, there are more techniques and styles to generate more clicks to double your earnings. By knowing these techniques and working them to your advantage, you will realize that you will be getting three times more than other people who have been previously doing what they are doing.

Finally, Adsense has some excellent tracking statistics that allows webmasters and publishers to track their results across a number of site on a site by site, page by page, or any other basis you wanted. You should be aware oft his capability and make the most of it because it is one powerful tool that will help you find out which ads are performing best. This way, you can fine tune your Adsense ads and focus more on the ones being visited the most rather than those who are being ignored.

Another thing you should know. Banners and skyscrapers are dead. Ask the experts. So better forget about banners and skyscrapers. Surfers universally ignore these kinds of ad formats. The reason behind this is that they are recognized as an advert and advert are rarely of any interest that's why people ignore them.

To really start making money with Adsense, you should have a definite focus on what you wanted to achieve and how you will go about achieving them. As with any other kind of business ventures, time is needed coupled with patience.

Don't just ignore your site and your Adsense once you have finished accomplishing them. Spare some time, even an hour, making adjustments to the Adsense ads on your sites to quickly trigger your Adsense income.

Give it a try and you would not regret having gotten into Adsense in the first place.

That's the latest from the adsense authorities. Once you're familiar with these ideas, you'll be ready to move to the next level.

Additional Adsense Resources: AdSense Revenue Exposed

Why Digital Products?

Are you a small business owner? Are you looking for ways to generate more income through your business? Why not sell digital products from your website?

Robert T. Kiyosaki, author of the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" books, T. Harv Ecker, author of "The Millionaire Mind", and so many other "guru's" will tell you, the key to a truly passive income is making your money work hard for you! Rather than you working hard for your money!

Think about it. You have all this information on your industry. How could you use that information to help others, and at the same time generate income for your business. Depending upon what business you are in, you could sell:

• ebooks
• software
• podcasts
• online courses
  

If you are a speaker or coach, think about how you can deliver your own content to your clients in easily downloadable digital products. You can also "burn" those digital products onto a CD Rom and see the "physical" product at your speaking or networking events.

Creating products doesn't have to be a time consuming, expensive proposition. You can start with writing articles that you can, later on, develop into chapters or tips for an ebook. Audio products can be created with your computer, converted and placed on your website as an incentive to subscribe to your ezine, or as passive income for your business.

I've linked an additional resource, but if you ever have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Debra

Additional Resources: Digital Selling Power

North San Diego County Score Breakfast

This morning was the North San Diego County Score breakfast featuring Sherri Petro of VPI Stategies speaking on Tips for Successfully Planning While Working in the Moment. Here is a photo gallery of the event.

The Score Women's Programs Breakfasts are held the third Friday morning of each month at the Olympic Resort. You can find more information at Score's San Diego website.

South Orange County Score Breakfast

Wow, we attended the Score Women's Program Breakfast in San Juan Capistrano. Approximately 110 women attended the kick-off breakfast featuring Heather Lee Battey of Spiritual Fitness.

Heather shared the trials and tribulations in starting a homebased business that generated $480,000 in sales last year. It was a fabulous networking opportunity, with women from a very diverse cross section of industries.

Score will hold their next breakfast in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, April 7th.

Check out the photo gallery of displays.

How to Use Ebooks for Marketing and Promotion

There are innumerable ways to use ebooks to promote
your business and drive quality traffic to your
website. Once posted on your site, you can turn them
into a daily course, which brings your customer back
to read the next chapter. You can use them as a free
gift for making a purchase or for filling out a
survey. Put your ebook on a disc, and you will have an
innovative brochure. Blow your competition away by
inserting the disc into your sales packages.

The most effective marketing products are those that
are unique. Copyright your ebook, and immediately, you
have a powerful tool that you, and you alone, can
offer to the public. People will have to visit your
site to acquire your ebook, which increases the flow
of quality traffic and the potential of sales and
affiliate contacts.

Make sure that you keep your ebook current. Update it
frequently as the market and trends change. Add new
advice and techniques to show your prospects how your
goods or services can enrich their lives. By
constantly keeping abreast of new trends and
techniques, you can continue to see profits from your
ebook for years after your original creation.

Another phenomenal advantage of ebooks is that you can
test their marketing potential without putting out
hardly any cash at all. You can even produce an ebook
one copy at a time, each time you receive an order,
eliminating the need for storage and inventory. By
this method, you can gauge the saleablity of your
ebook, and make adjustments as necessary until the
orders start pouring in. Ebooks allow you to learn
about your market and customer habits and motivation
over a period of time, without risking your precious
financial resources. They also provide you with an
invaluable way to gather marketing information, which
you can use in many different facets of your business.

Use your ebook to discover what the specific goals and
problems are in your specific industry. Then figure
out how to solve these problems, and publish an ebook
with this invaluable information. This will increase
the value of your business, upgrade your reputation,
and get you known as an expert in your field.

You can extend the value of single ebook by breaking
the book down into chapters for a serial course, into
special reports available on your website, or into
audio or visual tapes. Ebooks can be broken down into
several different promotional materials by excepting
some of the articles and using them to promote your
product. You can include a catalog in your ebook to
promote all the products or services you sell. You can
include a thank-you note for reading your book and an
invitation to download a trial version of your
product. Or you can include a form for your audience
to contact you for further information or with
questions, thereby building your business
relationships and your mailing list.

Using ebooks in this manner helps to cut the cost of
individually producing separate promotional materials.
You can use a single ebook to entice new prospects and
to sell new products to your current customers.

No other medium has this kind of flexibility and
ability for expansion. Think of your ebook like a
spider spinning a beautiful and intricate web. Now go
and create that web, and see how many customers and
prospects you can catch!

Additional Resources: 147 Killer Epublishing Strategies