Home Business

Choosing a Web Host

2008-03-12T14:12:00.003+01:00

There are literally thousands of web hosting companies in the industry carefully consider these key points to ensure you make the most well informed decision possible.

1. Server Space

First, think about how much space your site will take up on a server. Unless you are planning on running a software repository or an image gallery, the files that make up your website will probably only use between 1 and 5 megabytes of disk space. Don’t be tempted by offers of large space capacity, chances are you'll find an even better deal on an amount of space more suitable for your site size.

2. Data Transfer Allowance

Though you may be convinced that your site will be the next Amazon or Yahoo and receive a gazillion visitors a day, you really shouldn't need an extremely high data transfer allowance unless you're running a software download site or a large image gallery. A five or ten gigabyte bandwidth allowance is usually plenty enough for a small to medium sized business or personal site.

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Editor note

Aweber autoresponder
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3. Technical Support

A very important point to consider when choosing a web host is the types of technical support offered by the company and how easy they are to contact when you need them. Ideally, a company should offer 24/7 toll-free telephone support and email. I have seen companies that do not even offer a telephone number on their website. You should look for a company that is very easily accessible in your time of need. Nothing is more frustrating than being in the middle of working on your site and needing an important piece of information to finish the job and not being able to contact your hosting company to find it out.

4. CGI-Bin Access

No matter what type of site you are planning on running, chances are you will eventually need to install some type of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script, your hosting account will need to allow you to install and run them. This requires access to a special folder on your server called "CGI-Bin". You should also be sure that the account you choose supports the language in which your scripts are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.

5. Up-Time Guarantee

Another very important issue in determining the value of a hosting company is how often and for how long their servers "go down". No matter how good a deal you get on server space or bandwidht allowance, or how wonderfully the company's tech support takes care of you, your site can't receive visitors or produce revenue if the machine on which it is hosted is not up and running.

6. Email Accounts

Again, like data transfer allowance and server space, some companies will offer you loads more email accounts than you will ever use. Some offer hundreds or even unlimited email accounts as a selling point. This is an important factor if you are Bill Gates and have thousands of employees, each who need their own email box, but not such a big deal if you're just one person or a small company. You should be okay with 10 or 15.

7. Reputation

This is probably the most important factor to consider when choosing a web host. Do your homework. Pay attention to any negative feedback you may hear or read about a particular hosting company. Check out any discussion forums that allow people to discuss and critique various hosting companies. Ask specific questions about any company you might be interested in using to see if anyone else has had any negative experiences with them.

Aweber autoresponder

Cross promotions

2008-03-08T17:48:00.003+01:00

Cross promotions are not a new idea. They have been
used by businesses for a very long time. For example,
a real-estate company may promote a certain lawyer to
close a sale, as the lawyer will promote that agency
in his firm. The system is somewhat similar to the
primitive barter system, where people traded items
rather than using money. How can anything primitive
fit into the online world of Internet marketing? Very
easily. Cross promotions are, simply stated, a trade
of advertising space. Instead of paying for
advertising space on a site, you would place their ad
on your page and yours on theirs. There are many ways
to use cross promotions in your internet business that
can be an effective and cost efficient way to
advertise.

One way is to use link exchanges. This is very
effective when doing cross promotions with a company
that is similar to yours, however you should be sure
and never link to a page that is in direct competition
with yours. One of the best things about link
exchanges is that some search engines are factoring in
hits from the sites that are linked to your page to
when determining the ranking. Therefore linking to a
more popular site, can not only increase your
advertising, and traffic, but also increase your
search engine ranking.

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Editor note

Autoresponder for business
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When customers or potential customers subscribe to
your ezine you can use this as an opportunity to use
cross promotions. On the same page that the customer
subscribes to your ezine, make available the
opportunity to subscribe to another company’s ezine.
You can even exchange ad space in ezines, and provide
recommendations for those whom you cross promote with.
You might even want to exchange column space in one
another’s ezines.

Writing free articles that inform customers or
potential customers with information that is useful
and accurate can create a reputation for you and your
business. Soon readers will come to know you as an
expert on the subject. In these articles the author
uses a byline to help promote his site. Bylines can
be a way to use cross promotions as well. You can use
part of the space in your byline to recommend
another’s product.

If you have been considering writing an ebook, a joint
venture could mean increased profits for you and the
person you are partnering with. Cross promotions
through ebooks are an excellent way to allow for a
wider topic and to promote both your business and your
partner’s business. The ebook should contain
information that will benefit both businesses and
still be helpful to the reader. A good example of
using cross promotions through an ebook is to a site
selling used video games partnering with a site
selling gaming devices. These are two subjects that
would interest the same reader and most likely lead
the reader to both sites.

You should keep in mind that the recommendations that
you make are a direct reflection of you, so choose
your cross promotional businesses carefully. Also
keep in mind that it would be nice as a shopper to be
able to link from one site to another as a way to
“shop around.“ Since this is usually not beneficial
to you, never link or recommend a site that is in
direct competition with you. Instead, recommend those
who are similar, such as health and life insurance.

Increase your business by using an autoresponder

Getting Started: Creating a Business Plan

2008-03-07T22:59:00.004+01:00

You're excited. You have a great idea for a profitable
online business. Maybe it is an original idea that has
not been marketed online before. Maybe you have come
up with a new spin on the ordinary. Whatever it is
that has influenced you to start your online business,
be sure that you have a plan before you begin. This is
not the time to “pick it up as you go”. These are some
basic things that should be included in your business
plan.

The business summary should give a brief description
of the entire business and is an integral part of the
overall business plan. After you have completed the
business summary you should begin to list the
objectives or the goals that you want to accomplish
through the business. Next and perhaps most
importantly, you should develop your marketing plan.
The marketing plan will address all the specifics of
the business. When developing the marketing strategy
you should consider the following:

The target market. The target market is the customers
that you expect to see visiting your site. For example
will your product be more appealing to college
students or those who are in retirement?

Consider the competition for your product when
determining the marketing strategy. Choose a product
that will be seen as unique and useful. Visit sites
that are offering the same or similar products. Find
out the cost, and how they are marketing their
product. Finds out the pros and cons of their business
and try to improve your product based on their flaws.

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Editors note

How to make money using autoresponders
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Research the various methods for advertising online.
You should become educated about search engines and
how they work since each one is different. Also be
sure that you know how to submit your site to search
engines. You should be prepared to spend a small
amount of money on advertising, but the profits that
you will gain from the advertisements will prove to be
money well spent.

Think about pricing. Again, look at the competition
and see what similar products are selling for. Pricing
can play a big role in the success of your product
since selling a product well below the average price
may lead customer to think that there is a problem
with the product or that it is not of the best
quality. However, pricing items too high could also
detour customers.

Determine the shipping method. Be sure that you know
how products will be shipped so that you can have
shipping details clearly posted on your site. If you
are shipping things of great value, you should
consider providing shipping insurance. Also think
about shipping outside the country that you live in.

Think about the different methods of payment that you
will accept. If your business does not accept credit
cards, you should be ready to give up half if not more
of your sales. If you decide to accept credit cards
will you use a merchant account or will you use a
third party credit card processing center? Both will
help you get started and the third party processing
center will handle all of the business so you don’’t
have to. You should decide which you will use and also
if you will accept checks or money orders. It is
essential to have a secure server when taking credit
cards.

These few things will help your online business to
become a great success and also provide you with peace
of mind knowing that you have thoroughly thought about
and planned for the opening of your online business.

Aweber a great autoresponder

Five Proven Methods for Internet Marketing Success

2008-03-05T22:59:00.003+01:00

There are hundreds of ways that you can promote your
online business or website, some more effective than
others. These five proven methods will help you to
generate traffic to your site and also to generate
income into your wallet.

1. One thing that appeals to everyone is “free.” If
it is free people will take it. Think of the samples
of cheese given away at grocery stores. Do you really
want a small piece of cheese? Of course not! But you
take it simply because it is free and someone is nice
enough to offer it to you. The same principle applies
with information or services offered from your
website. You can send out free newsletters or offer a
free trail period. One popular thing that is being
given away now are free credit reports or free PC
scans. These freebies are what we in the marketing
field like to call teasers. After running the free
credit report or PC scan we alert the customer if
there is something found on their credit record or PC
and then offer to show them what it is or repair the
problem for a price. This can be an effective way to
get information to your potential customers, create
sales or to generate traffic to your site.

2. Your website contains information about a service
or product that you are very knowledgeable about. You
can use this knowledge to generate traffic to your
site by writing articles in your area of expertise and
having them published in an ezine or an article
information site. The most effective way to use these
articles is to write them for free and ask in return
that the publisher allow you to include a byline. A
byline is a very short summary of the author, their
credentials and their website. Your byline is a way
that readers will come to know you as an expert on the
topic and will in turn come to trust your site as a
source of credible information.

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Editors note

Click here
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3. Some search engines will allow a website to
purchase their ranking. This is an excellent Internet
marketing technique in that it is effective and
inexpensive. In the pay-per-click programs, website
are only billed for those who actually visit the page,
unlike banner ads which may be seen by millions but
only used by a few. When using the pay-per-click
program you are asked to choose keywords and when
those are entered your site will appear and if the
surfer chooses to view your site, you are billed for
that click. Many pay-per-click programs will offer
other benefits as well, such as updated lists of
commonly used keywords.

4. You should remember that others are in the same
boat as you. You can choose to network with those who
have similar marketing ideas. When networking you
will be able to share links and refer customers to
each other. You should always be very cautious when
choosing a networking partner as everything that you
recommend is a reflection of yourself or your product
and therefore, you should be certain that your
networking partner is a reputable source of
information.

5. Simply because your website is online, doesn’t
mean that all your advertising should be. Advertise
in newspapers, TV, the radio or you can even send out
a press release to get your information to thousands
of people all over the country.

Autoresponder

Using Autoresponders to Increase your Traffic

2008-03-04T21:58:00.006+01:00

Autoresponders are a perfect way to increase traffic
to your site. They can save many valuable hours by
automatically answering emails concerning frequently
asked questions about a service or product or by
sending a welcome letter to new members of your
program. There are many ways that autoresponders can
help your business. One of the most important is
their ability to track the effectiveness of your
promotions. Since autoresponders are one of the most
popular marketing tools available today, they are
being used by a lot of different kinds of business and
websites. Some of these take advantage of the system
to use the autoresponders in a negative manner. You
should be aware of some of the “Golden Rules” when
using autoresponders.

Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder Address When
Submitting to Search Engines.

Since you will most likely submit your site to search
engines such as Google or Yahoo!, directories,
classifieds, and free for all sites, you should be
made aware of the fact that these sites commonly use
an autoresponder as well. If you were to use your
autoresponder to contact these companies, their
autoresponder will reply to yours and so on and so on.
Thus creating a cycle of autoresponses that will
flood your email box and theirs as well.

Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder to Subscribe to
Ezines or Discussion Forums.

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Editors note

Check out the autoresponder on the net
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Since most of the time an Ezine will send you updates
and new information regularly, your auto responder
will send them a message each time. In a discussion
forum, every person in the discussion forum will
receive your auto response. This can be irritating
and most of the time you will be unsubscribed. It is
often hard for the administrators of the forum or
ezine to determine who is using the autoresponse and
therefore it is simply common courtesy to never use an
autoresponer in this manner.

Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder to Take Advantage
Of Unsuspecting Individuals.

Some very unprofessional companies will use
autoresponders to respond to an automated message
when this is done the address in the “from” field will be
automatically subscribed to their mailing list. This
is a extremely un ethical use of autoresponders and
those who do it are in jeopardy of creating a very
negative image of themselves and their company.
Rather than promote their service or business, this
usually leads to people becoming very upset and
spreading a negative word about your company rather
than a good one.

The Internet can be a great place to do business and
autoresponders can be an excellent way to save time,
however when used in an unprofessional way, they can
lead to frustration and aggravation for others. Your
company will suffer the loss of much business if you
choose to participate in these abusive practices. The
appropriate use of auto responders can generate a
large amount of business, while inappropriate use can
drive away that business.

The autoresponder on the net

Designing A Website That Sells

2008-02-29T23:05:00.004+01:00

Would you buy meat from a grocery store that left the
bad meat in with the good meat or wasn’t clean? Would
you buy a car from a sales lot that had dented
automobiles on the front lot? I wouldn’t and neither
would you. Your website is your grocery store; your
car lot. You must have an atmosphere that is pleasing
to buyers. One that tells that buyer that you are not
an amateur, but instead a trained, seasoned
professional. Your site is a direct reflection of
your product and that is why that having a well
designed website can make or break your sales.

The first thing to keep in mind when designing your
website, is “surfability”. Take a few minutes a look
around at several web pages. What makes them
appealing? Were there some that you closed out of
immediately? Why? Take notes and do your research.
Keep in mind that when a person visits your site they
have a goal in mind. They are either seeking
information or shopping for a product. Give the
person what they want without having to search for it.
Be sure that all the information on your site is
relevant to your product. Make the buyer think that
they need your product to solve their problem.

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Editors note

CLICK HERE
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Your main page serves a very specific purpose. It
should be an avenue by which the customer can shop
your site. It should be easy to view and load very
quickly. This is your first impression and we all
know that first impressions can either close the deal
or loose the deal. Make it simple. It is best to
have links that are easily viewable by the reader that
will navigate them to where they want to be. Tables
are often a great choice when deciding on a way to
design the main page of your site. Your main page
should load very quickly, chances are if it takes the
page more than ten seconds to load even on a 56k
modem, the customer will click away to save time,
hoping to find the information or product elsewhere.
To increase the loading speed of your main page you
should avoid large graphics or excessive graphics. To
many banners or special effects can cause a page to
load slowly as well.

To make your web site more appealing to the eyes, you
should stick to mild colors. If your site is a
content site where the user will be doing a lot of
reading, it is best to stick to black and white.
Color can be added when using tables, as a way to
brighten up the page, but remember to keep the overall
look of the page professional and appealing to the
audience that will be visiting most often. Since
screen resolutions vary among monitors, it is a good
idea to set the pixels to a standard 800x600. You may
also choose to set the tables in your web page to span
a percentage of the page rather than a set number of
inches. This will be sure to accommodate all screen
sizes. You should remember that a lot of Internet
users will not use the same browser as you, and
therefore you should be sure that your site looks as
good on other browsers as it does your own. You can
do this by downloading several browsers through which
to look at your page.

Be aware of the fact that the overall look of your
website is a way to make money. The appearance of the
site, if designed properly, can be an excellent
marketing strategy for your product or service.

2008-01-20T14:56:00.003+01:00

Like many successful Internet Marketers, I've been using articles to drive targeted traffic to my websites for far more years than I care to mention. When I look back even just four or five years it was relatively easy to get a keyword rich article to rank highly in the Search Engine results Pages. It was easy then because there was very little competition within many of the niche markets in which I was operating.

It's certainly much more difficult these days, unless you know some of the advanced tricks and techniques...

Things that you can do to get more people to read your articles.
Methods that will virtually guarantee that people who read your articles are almost certain to click those all important links in your resource box.
Tactics that help your articles to get a higher search engine rankings than even your closest competitors.
Tricks that increase the profit that you will make from every one of your articles.
Secrets will make your readers desperate for you to give them even more articles to read.

And now you too can have the opportunity to use these powerful strategies and tactics because I've decided to reveal them to a strictly limited number of lucky people...
I've written a special guide that explains each of the techniques that I personally use to profit from article marketing. This no nonsense guide gets straight to the heart of my strategy, provides detailed descriptions of each step and includes a flow chart that will help you to understand how it all fits together.

See What's Inside

What is Affiliate Elite?

2007-11-20T19:42:00.000+01:00

Affiliate Elite is a system that makes sorting, organizing and filtering potential affiliate programs an absolute breeze. The program imports the latest ClickBank and PayDotCom affiliate programs daily, allow you to sort by keyword, date added, category, Clickbank ID and more. It also allows you to see trends and easily pinpoint which programs you will want to promote and which ones to avoid like the plague. This saves time which of course saves money.

Of great benefit is finding every keyword that profitable marketers are using or your competition is using. I have to admit that this was one I actually thought was going to be a waste of time until I tried it. The system creates an extremely powerful list and includes all the ad copy the person is using plus their position.

You can see what keywords are actually making people money. Affiliate Elite has a very powerful AdWords spy tool that will run on a scheduled basis. You simply enter your list of keywords and let affiliate elite do the rest. It then will run for as many days as you want and track which keywords are being bid on and which ones are not. It will then start to show you an extremely powerful list of words that are being used by the same companies for extended periods of time.

These keywords are most certainly money makers because advertisers do not like to waste money. The second best part is once you have identified which sites are using which words for extended periods of time, then you simply can go back to the reverse search and find all the words those sites are using and watch those as well.

So is Affiliate Elite worth the money, I would say so.

Affiliate Elite

Changing the Face of Internet Marketing

2007-11-19T22:31:00.000+01:00

Affiliate Elite is this the way forward for today's marketeer?

This new software will have your competition wondering what hit them. Fnd keywords they use in their Adwords and PPC campaigns. Affiliate Elite shows you what to promote - facts & figures - where to go and so much more.

Affiliate Elite is 4 projects in 1

- Find profitable affiliate products to promote
- Reverse Google search
- Analyze Adwords Competition
- Find super affliates

So what do you think?

Check it out NOW before your competition does