web hosting tips guide

The majority of entrepreneurs that work from home can remember the days when their home office was brand new. It all looked so professional with the newly bought equipment and furniture. There was very little clutter or mess. Several months later, we look around to find areas crowded with stacks of papers, disks and files from our daily work; it doesn’t look so tidy or professional anymore.

To work properly it’s not only important to have your office organized but also to have plenty of space in the office itself. Having room to work will help keep you motivated and inspired to complete your daily tasks. It helps you stay focused on what you’re doing instead of becoming annoyed at all the clutter around you. Here’s a few tips to keep your home office spacious and functional.

1. Get rid of all the clutter. Anything that doesn’t serve a purpose or is required for your day-to-day work has to go. Old memos or drafts of work past their sell by date? Get rid of them. Any paperwork that’s not needed gets sent to recycling. Simple.

2. Mounted cabinets are a great way to tidily store office items. A medium or large sized cabinet will hold more stuff and keep papers from piling up into small mountains on the floor and your desk. Having them wall mounted means your floorspace isn’t eaten up by yet more office furniture.

3. Non-work items. Look at your desk. How many of those items are actually required for your work and how many are just useless accessories that got left there over time? Get rid of the items that don’t serve a purpose.

4. Your desk shape plays a huge part here. Having a desk in the shape or a U or L will give you more room because you can sit “into” the shape of the desk giving you more room than you might imagine. Use the small drawers of the desk to store additional office supplies like pens, staplers, stamps and so forth.

5. Tidy up the wiring. If you’re using a computer and a phone there’s going to be wires hanging all over the place behind or underneath your desk. Not only does this look bad but it can be dangerous – people can trip over these things. My dog loves getting herself caught up in any loose wiring and trying to drag computer equipment off my desk.

6. How much light is in the room is also important. Good lighting will make any office appear more spacious. Always let in as much natural light as possible. In the evenings have plenty of floor or desk lamps to make sure you’re not sitting in the almost black of night while you’re trying to work.

7. Shelving can also be very handy. One or two large shelves in your home office will give you space for printers, fax machines and files. I personally keep my printer on a shelf away from the desk. Why? Because it eats up too much space and I can still reach it from where I sit.

Using any of the above tips will give you more space in your home office. That space allows you to mentally and physically breathe in that room and get the most out of each working day. You owe it to yourself and your business to do this.

Creating your own small business website can be a scary thing to do. It requires some planning to get it right and make Google sit up and take notice of your site at first glance. Small business website search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the keys, but all too often, astute business people leave the creation of their websites up to a family member or a friend who happens to know something about it. This is strange, for they wouldn’t dream of letting the same people build their bricks and mortar store or office.

Of course, getting an expert who fully understands small business SEO to build your website is not likely to come cheap, but it may be the best solution if you are starting out from scratch. However, this article is aimed at those small businesses that already have a website, but are disappointed at how poorly it performs. If you’re frustrated because your website appears on page 42 of the Google search results, and no one is visiting your website, here are 7 things you can do to quickly improve your results.

1. Create an Effective Website Title Tag, Description Meta Tag,
and Keywords Meta Tag

The most important part of any website page (in the eyes of the search engines) is the title tag. The title is enclosed between the opening title tag: and the closing title tag: . It is located in the head section of an HTML document, or web page. You should use your page’s main keyword in your title. Try to use your main keyword near the beginning of your title, and perhaps again near the end. But always strive to make your title readable, and not obviously keyword stuffed.

Your description tag plays an important role in SEO for your local small business. This tag is used by most of the search engines in their listings, so you need to spend some time getting this right. The description tag looks like this: and it is also found in the head section of your web page.

Something brief such as, “Acme Incorporated, Makers of Blue Widgets,” gets the message across, but you could do much better. Try to list benefits rather than features, and use your main keyword in your description as well. Keep your description reasonably brief, but not too short. Something like, “Acme, Inc., Makers of the Strongest, Most Powerful and Affordable Widgets on the Planet” is better.

Like a headline for an ad or sales flyer, your description may take time to develop. Start with a list of all of the benefits your product or service offers and then try to write 20 different descriptions for your site based on those benefits. Test your descriptions by reading them to your customers, employees or others familiar with your business. You’ll find out which description resonates most strongly with your potential prospects – and that’s good for the search engines and for your sales.

The keywords tag, again found in the head section of your web pages, looks like this: . The keywords you choose for your page are important, because they tell the search engines what should be found on the page. Google and all the other search engines present search results based on relevancy – how relevant your web pages are to the keywords and phrases your prospects are searching for.

Keep your keyword phrases to less than seven and don’t repeat the same words. For example, if you have two keyword phrases, which are, “blue widgets” and “bright blue widgets,” you should only include unique words after including the first “blue widgets” keyword.

Curious to know what your Title, Description, Meta and Keyword tags currently look like? Here’s a simple tip – just go to any page of your website, then click on “View Source” or “View Page Source” from the “View” menu. There you’ll be able to see exactly what your tags are telling Google when they crawl your site.

2. Optimize Your Website Copy

Your website copy consists of the words on every page of your site. Try to make it interesting and informative. One simple way to arrange your articles, or informative pages, is to use a simple three-step format. Begin with an introductory paragraph that tells your visitor what you are going to tell them. Then in the next two or three paragraphs, tell them. Finally, wind up the article by telling them what you just told them.

This may seem overly simple, but it works. Speak to your website audience as you would to a seven-year-old child. Don’t patronize them, but lay it out clearly in simple steps using straightforward language that anyone can understand.

When writing your copy for each of your pages, make sure to focus on one or two keywords per page. If you are selling widgets in all colors and you also sell thingamajigs, then widgets should be on one page and thingamajigs on another. Keep it simple for your customers and the search engines by focusing on one idea per page and your customers will thank you for it, and Google will thank you too.

3. Establish an Acceptable Keyword Density for Your Website Copy

While optimizing your website copy you also need to establish a keyword density that is acceptable to the search engines. Opinions differ, but somewhere between 2% and 5% is probably about right. This means that for effective small business SEO, your main keyword phrase should appear around three times for every 100 words.

Where your keyword appears is important too. Try to use your main keyword or phrase twice in the first paragraph, once in the second paragraph, once around the middle of the article, and once again near the end of the article. Try to start and end the first paragraph with your main keyword if possible, but don’t force it. Always aim for copy that is readable before copy that has perfect keyword density.

4. Create Quality Back Links to Your Website

Increasingly, the search engines are giving added weight to the number of quality back links your website has. It used to be that reciprocal linking was quite acceptable, and it still is, but now Google and the other search engines give higher credibility to one-way back links as far as your search engine rankings are concerned.

And it’s not just any back links either. You need to have quality back links, or back links from sites that are similar to yours. It’s not much good getting a back link from a site about butterflies if your site focuses on racing cars. With Google, it’s all about relevance. You should also strive to get back links from so-called authority sites. These are sites that the search engines deem to be an authority on their chosen subject. They tend to be quite big and to have been around for some time.

5. Use Local Directories Effectively

If you are marketing to a local market, then make use of local directories. How do you find them? If, for example, you are located in New York, then go to Google and search for, “directory” + “new york.” This will return a list of all the local directories in that city. You could even try searching for, “blue widgets directory” + “new york,” if you are marketing blue widgets.

Once you find a suitable directory, submit your website to it. People do search on local directories, so even if your product has worldwide appeal, there’s a greater chance that you will get the sale if someone finds you in a local directory over someone else located in another continent who can deliver just as cost effectively or as quickly.

6. Create a Proper Site Map and Google Site Map

Every website should have a site map. This is merely a directory of all your site’s pages with links to every one. You should have a link from every page of your site back to your site map, and your site map must be updated whenever a new page is added.

A Google Site Map is also a site map, but one that is in a special format that Google can easily spider. It has the great advantage of allowing Google to instantly “see” your site and evaluate it. It can be a very useful tool in getting Google to index your site more quickly than otherwise. For more information on creating a Google Site Map, go to: http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/.

7. Add Fresh Original Content to Your Website at an Acceptably Measured Pace

Your website should never be considered finished. It should always be a work in progress that is constantly expanding with fresh and original content. The easiest way to do this is to add new articles on specific subjects on a regular basis. One article a week is the least you should aim for, but don’t add content too quickly either. Dumping 100 articles a day into your site will ultimately work against you, because the search engines look for organic growth – in other words, growth that seems natural. Since it’s not likely that you were able to write 100 articles in one day, Google and the other search engines will see this as unnatural and will count it against you in your page ranking.

SEO for your local small business is easier than you might think. Getting Google to fall head over heels in love with your small business website is not rocket science. You only need to implement a few simple things on a regular basis, and over time Google will notice and your page rank – and your placement with the search engines – will start climbing.

Coming to the point in your business where you can begin to think about quitting your full or part time job is an exciting time! Don’t let the excitement cloud your judgment. Begin by thinking carefully about this next big step. Here are 7 things you’ll want to consider when quitting your job becomes a possibility:

1. Money – You knew this one would be in here, right? It’s so important that you take the time to figure out exactly how much money you will need to work from home full time. There have been many an entrepreneur who’s skipped this step and succeeded but you don’t need to take that chance. Plan ahead to make sure you will make enough money to support yourself and your business.

2. Time – now this one is obvious but you need time to run your business. Some moms get an idea in their head that they will be able to work around their kids (at naptime, after bed, etc) and still create a thriving business. This is not a realistic way to think. If you have young children, plan to have a child care provider take care of them while you focus on your business – you’ll get more work completed and be much less stressed this way.

3. Set a Schedule – Before you get into the day to day of running your home business set up a schedule of work hours that you and your family can respect and live with. Print out the schedule, have it laminated and post on your fridge or other prominent place so everyone knows when you will be occupied with business. Family and friends seem to have a hard time with the fact that you are actually working and can’t stop anytime you feel like it for phone calls, outings, etc, so setting them straight from the start will help you get your work done efficiently.

4. Leave that Door Open – When you let your work know that you’re leaving, do it properly. Make sure you give the appropriate amount of time to find a replacement and leave on a good note whenever possible. You never know when you might need your job back or a good reference so always leave that door open.

5. Money Saved – It’s always a good idea to have money in the bank but when you are quitting a job this becomes more important than ever. Tuck away two or three months worth of pay and you can be sure you’ll leave work with some peace of mind.

6. Taxes – As a small business owner you will be responsible for paying your own personal taxes at the end of the year. The best way to prepare for this is to put 25-30% of your income into a separate account for when the taxman comes knocking.

7. Time to Enjoy – Where’s the fun in working from home if you don’t take time to enjoy what you have created for yourself? Make sure that you don’t book yourself so solid that you have no time for anything but work. Working from home is about working smarter, not harder!

As you know there are many things to consider on our journey toward working from home. The list above should give you some things to start thinking bout. Whatever you do, make sure to set yourself up so you have the best possible start to working from home and you’ll be so glad you did. Best of luck on your new work at home journey!

You don’t need to be a professional copywriter or have a huge vocabulary in order to write a good sales letter. If it’s your first time to write one, all you need to exert is a bit of time and effort and you’ll sure to produce a good sales letter in no time.

7 Things that Distinguish a Good Sales Letter from the Rest

A Good Sales Letter is Easy on the Eye.
Whether it’s an email or an actual letter, reading it must not be difficult for anyone with relatively good eyesight. Firstly, the font size must be at least 11 but no greater than 13 because anything more would take up too much space. Use special fonts only for emphasizing certain points but the main body of your content must still be written in easily understandable font like Times New Roman or Arial. Choice of colors is also important. Use dark ink for light backgrounds and vice versa. This may seem like common sense stuff, but you’d be surprised to know just how many people have continuously violated this rule!

A Good Sales Letter is of Appropriate Length.
There are unwritten rules regarding the appropriate length for sales letters, and they depend on factors like the number of times you’ve already corresponded with your recipient, the objectives of your sales letter, and so forth.

In most cases, nothing more than a one-pager is a must if it’s your first time to contact a prospective customer. You could definitely write more if your reader has indicated an interest in receiving more news and updates from you in the future, but just how much will again depend on what you’re talking about and how well you know your target readers.

A Good Sales Letter Does Not Beat around the Bush.
It will always have a few lines dedicated to showing courtesy and appreciation towards the reader, but it will afterwards mince no words in saying what it has to say. If it has a buy-one-take-two offer in mind, the sales letter must state this directly. Time is a precious commodity, and a reader will appreciate it if you show your understanding of this concept by writing only what you have to write.

A Good Sales Letter Has a Personalized Touch.
Readers often like it better when the letter is directly addressed to them and most especially when they are old or existing customers already. Addressing the letter directly in their names make them feel special and appreciated. And you can validate this feeling by signing the letter at the end with your own name or the highest official in your company.

A Good Sales Letter Acknowledges the Competition and Defends its Position
Good sales letters are not written by people who prefer to bury their heads in the sand. These people are aware that whatever they’re offering, rival companies surely have something to counter with as well, and they don’t hesitate to acknowledge this. Rather than pretend that their readers would not be aware or interested in the counter offers of other companies, these writers address these issues directly and defend their products and services to the best of their ability.

Simply put, a good sales letter shows why you still have to choose the products and services it’s offering over others!

A Good Sales Letter is Not All Talk!
Good sales letters are not all talk. If you’ve got claims to make, you better make sure you can support them with solid facts and figures that are certified by valid and reliable authorities. A good sales letter gives readers a reason to believe in them!

A Good Sales Letter Gives You the Chance to Opt Out
And lastly, a good sales letter always offers you the chance to NOT receive other similar updates in the future. This may seem a disadvantage at the start, but it actually proves you’re confident your reader won’t opt out. It’s reverse psychology in a way!

No matter how good a sales letter you have, remember that writing it will do you no good if in the end, it doesn’t fit the needs of your target market. A good sales letter will always need the things listed in here, but it has to be somewhat customized according to your target market’s preferences. What those are will, of course, depend if you’ve already correctly identified who your best customers are in the first place!

There are thousands of web hosts around today with thousands of plans to choose from making what was once a simple procedure seem like a daunting task for both newbie and pro alike.

Whether you’re looking for your first host or looking to move on to a better one there are 7 simple steps you must follow to succeed in choosing a great host.

1. Platform
The first and most crucial step in choosing a web host is determining the platform the web server should run, usually a choice between Unix/Linux and Windows.

Your choice is largely determined by your website and the technologies used to create it, generally a website created with Microsoft technologies (ASP, VB) will run on Windows servers while most other sites using open source technologies (PHP, Perl, Python etc) will run on Linux based systems.

2. Features
Once you’ve chosen your platform the next step is determining the features you’ll need from your web host. Take your time with this step as the feature lists of web hosts are getting longer and longer every day and while some plans may look similar on the surface, a good look at the feature lists may tell another story.

Only you can determine the specific features you’ll need, but some key things to keep an eye on are:

Disk Space
Bandwidth
Backups
Uptime
Money Back Guarantee
Domains Allowed
Databases (Number & type)
CGI, PHP, Perl, Python, SSI
Cron
Email accounts

The list goes on and on, just remember to take your time and make sure your new web host is going to provide you with everything you need.

3. Cost
Often this is the only thing people consider when choosing their first web host, funds are usually tight and on the surface most hosts look very similar. Sometimes you get lucky and choose a good host, but more often than not it turns out to be a horror story.

I can’t stress enough that choosing a web host based on price alone is asking for trouble, remember that the cost of your web hosting is more than just the monthly fee, think about the total cost of ownership. TCO includes lost sales due to downtime & slow speeds, downtime rebates, extra bandwidth charges, setup costs, extra feature costs, and your monthly fee.

Many hosts will require you to pay yearly to get the best price available though there are some that allow you to pay by the month and still get the best price, it’s really a matter of personal choice as to what payment method works best for you.

4. Customer Service
Customer service is another aspect that is often forgotten about until it is too late, something breaks and you need it fixed and those wonderfully handy sales people who were more than helpful in taking your money are now nowhere to be seen, all the while you’re losing out on sales every minute.

You shouldn’t settle for anything less than 24/7/365 service, your website needs to be running all the time so it’s no good if your hosting company doesn’t work during the holidays. Don’t take the web hosting companies word for it, they all claim 24/7 support but few back it up with consistent performance. Be sure to test them out at various times of the day and night via phone, email and live chat if they offer it.

5. Support
An extensive knowledge base or faq can be a real time saver as well as being an indication of the level of customer service support and expertise you can expect to receive. Spend some time browsing the support sections of the website and see for yourself the level of support provided.

Are questions in the knowledge base answered thoroughly? Are real solutions provided or are they just “cut and paste” replies?

6. Longevity
Do a whois on the web host’s domain name and find out the creation date, anything less than a year ago and the risk that they won’t be around next year increases. They could be a great host, but considering more then 95% of new hosts go out of business within a year that really isn’t something you should be taking a chance on.

7. Uptime
It’s a fact of life that a web host cannot be online 100% of the time, servers need to be rebooted for security and software updates and any web host that doesn’t get updated faces the increased risk of being successfully hacked.

99.9% uptime guarantees are pretty standard in the industry however a guarantee is only as good as how it is defined and the company behind it. Look for no less than a full months free hosting should they not meet their guarantee, a prorated refund based on the amount of downtime is virtually worthless. Say you pay $10 for a month of hosting and your site is down for 24 hours. They will refund you for one day of downtime which ends up being about 33 cents.

There you go, 7 simple steps for choosing a great web host. It’s not rocket science, just a little research and investigating that can save a lot of heartache in the future.

So, you’ve decided to start a home based business. Congratulations, and welcome to the high energy world of entrepreneurship. I have owned and operated my own home based business since 1994. While is takes some time to learn, one of the fastest ways is to role model someone who is achieving their goals. I learned fast that having a success coach or mentor will help you succeed at much faster pace. One of the biggest thrills of owning your own business is the flexibility of your work time, deciding when to work, go to the beach or spend time with your family. The financial rewards can be numerous. The nice thing about owning your own business is you get paid what you are worth.

Now that you’ve decided to start your own business, you might be thinking “How can I become successful, what does it take and what do I have to do?” These seven secrets will help:

1) set up a separate working area in your home. All you need is an area that you can maintain your focus in and get your work done. I remember a person whose home based business was doing 7 figures a year say to me,” Ron when I work I work, but when it’s time for family time it’s time for family time, you have to separate the two.”

2) Set Goals that you want to achieve in the coming year. Make your goals crystal clear, put them up on the wall, and set annual, quarterly and monthly goals. The clearer your goals are the better chance you have of achieving them. Put up a Vision Board in your home office, look at it everyday and see yourself accomplishing your goal.

3) Your third step is marketing. Decide who your target market is, what is the best way to reach them. Determine the best way to attract your target market. Who is your ideal client? Invest at least a week and go to your local library and read some books on marketing to see what the experts are doing. I myself invest in one marketing book at month to keep up to date on current marketing trends.

4) Time management is crucial to the success of your home based business. We all have 24 hours in a day but how you invest them will determine your success at the end of the year. A good thought is to work on your top priorities when you are the freshest, so you accomplish the most towards your goal.

5) Network with other like minded people. One of the fastest ways to grow any business is to promote Joint ventures with people who can introduce you to your best clients. I’ll never forget one of my first joint ventures that resulted in a 6 figure income in 90 days, the feeling and financial rewards are what make owning your own business exciting.

6) Look the part. If you want to be treated professionally, act like a professional. Set up a separate bank account for your business. Have a dedicated phone line and fax line for business. Outsource the creation of your marketing materials so your business has that high tech look.

7) Automation is the key. Learn how to become a prospecting machine. The number one things most successful home based business has are good high quality leads. Have automatic systems in place to help you identify and attract your ideal client. Target marketing is where your profits are at. Focus on adding value to the life of your clients and you will be reward handsomely.

These seven secrets will jump start your home based business in a hurry.

One of the most difficult things for network marketers is to increase your targeted website traffic. There are many ways to do this including paid advertising which does work. If you are just beginning, you may not want to try this as you still need to test whether your lead capture pages and sales pages convert.

Many internet Marketers Fail Online Because they Do not Know How Or What To Do To create the targeted website Traffic Needed To Make Their Site Successful. This article discusses seven proven methods that will help you increase your targeted website traffic.

1. Article Marketing

A guaranteed way to increase your targeted website traffic is to write original and keyword optimized articles for your web visitors. Article marketing, as it is called, will bring you repeated targeted website traffic that already wants to know more about your products and services.

There are several ways you can promote your articles:

* submit them to major article directories such as ezinearticles.com,goarticles.com and article dashboard

* Use an article submission service such as isnare or article marketer

* Use a semi-automated article submitter such as Article submitter Pro or Instant Article Submitter

* Trade your articles directly with other webmasters.

2. Blogging

Frequently posting original useful content to a personal blog will also help you increase your targeted website traffic.

The articles you post on your blog can have links back to your other websites which are called back links. These back links help improve Page Rank in Google.

3. Classifieds

* Craigslist
* US Free Ads
* eBay

4. Linking

Not all links are created equal. There are many methods to get incoming links. First you should submit your site to all of the directories in your subject area. Second, look for similar, but non-competing sites that you can trade links with. Many sites have automatic linking software that will look for a backlink and then add you automatically. Linking with similar websites will also increase your targeted website traffic.

Other ways to increase your links include:

* Link Exchange Services (such as Link Vault or Link Metro)

* Purchase Links (from webmasters or a link broker)
* Lists
* Co-Registration Lists
* Joint Venture (other marketer’s email lists)
* Opt-in List (requires you to build your own list first…)
* Safe Lists

5. Advertising

* Ezine Advertising (advertise in various newsletters)
* Pay-Per-Click (such as Google, YPN, MSN Adcenter etc.)
* Offline Advertising (flyers, direct mail etc.)

6. Social Media

# Social Bookmarking

* Social Multi-Media Networks
* Podcasts (publish your own podcasts)
* YouTube
* Google Video

# Social Networks

* Squidoo
* MySpace
* AdlandPro
* Direct Matches

# Social Voting

* Digg
* Reddit
* Netscape

7. Forums

Forums are an excellent way to increase your targeted website traffic As you respond and start topics in forums, you become familiar and trusted. Never blatantly advertise your products. Most forums allow a signature which is a space under your posts where you can place links to your websites.

Consistently using these methods will help you increase your targeted website traffic. The internet marketer with the mostlinks and targeted website traffic wins.

Have you ever thought about starting an internet business? It could really be as simple as opening a Yahoo Store, or on the other end of the scale, as complicated as building your own, professional, dynamic, e-commerce website. Regardless of your approach to internet business, to ensure the success of your business, you need to know of, and apply the following 7 key points.

1) Demand–

Lets say for instance, that you have a really amazing product, and a website that looks like a million dollars–but what if you have no demand for your product? In saying that, you aren’t going to be left with a sword in a gun fight. In the online world, there are many ways to advertise and generate demand for your product. There are the choices and possibilities of advertising in Ezines, joint ventures, affiliate programs, referrals, and even as simple as encouraging word of mouth. Remember, without demand, what do you have? No sales. Where does a business without sales end up?

2) Order–

Its all well and good to have visitors to your website, but they don’t do anything for us unless they become a customer. However, its not as easy as it first appears. Now, once your visitor has turned into a customer, you need to ensure that them becoming an actual customer, is as easy as possible. A straightforward and simple ordering process will do wonders for your business. Less clicks and less time it takes for a customer to complete his or her order, the better it is.

3) Payment–

If there was any part of your business that you would not want to get wrong, it would be this–how payment is actually being transferred between you and your customers. Generally, when taking into account online businesses, the most popular method is credit card transactions. Not only are they an easier and quicker method than most other forms of payment, but it also goes to a psychological level. Credit Cards exude a “buy-now, think-later” attitude. Taking this into account, as a business, you’d be making more profit and sales if you accepted credit cards. However, in saying that, it would also be a wise decision to use alternative methods of payment. After all, the easier it is for your customer to find ways to pay you for your product, you’ll see a more efficient increase both in sales and customer numbers.

4) Fulfillment–

Now payment has been received from your customer, the path isn’t clear just yet. This is a mistake often made by new businesses. Your products need to be delivered, remember! Generally, if you sell digital products, the industry standard is for the product to be delivered instantly; generally through a download link. Your customer expects this, so ensure this is in place. Physical products require more attention to detail; namely physical delivery. Ensure that your customer is informed every step of the way. Communication is essential. If at all possible, send your customer a means of tracking the product through the course of its delivery. Feeling insecure is something your customer should never have to experience.

5) Service and Support–

A good and trusted business will always endevour to provide and utilise excellent customer service support. To a decent extent, your online business customer support will determine whether or not you get repeat purchases, or if your customer requests a refund. The support abilities of your internet business should be efficient as possible; after all, this is the industry standard. At the least, a well-structured and timely e-mail support service should be available to the customer. The more professional your online business becomes, so should your support methods. More advanced methods such as utilising online helpdesks, FAQs, live chats, a ticket system, a knowledge base, will help greatly; these are just examples, there are more support methods out there which you can use.

6) Security–

The internet business world is filled with people who are honest, trustworthy, and are willing to do everything to help the customer. But, on the other hand, the opposite is also very true. And as such, the internet community at large are getting more aware of ways to protect themselves from the internets less desirable people and activities. Namely, E-commerce frauds.

Because of this, it is upto you and your business to ensure that your visitors are protected, and to prove to them that they can trust you. Simple things, such as using a secured server to process your payments, can help more than is seen on the surface. A digital certificate can also help your business, so purchase one if you can. Physical mailing addresses, and even a phone number where your customers can contact you. Whatever you can do to provide your customers with some piece of mind.

7) Community–

Your online business has begun to flourish, and you have now received more than just a few sales–by now you should be thinking about starting a community. A community in any sense is about belonging to something; in this case its no different. Use your customers as a community development team for your product. Use their suggestions and comments to develop and change your product(s). Not only is this an excellent way to increase product ideas for your business, but with every new product release or update, you’ll see an increase in sales ratios, and you will also have built a loyal customer base.

Well there you have it! Utilising and practising these 7 keys will not only help your online business grow and flourish, but will also ensure your customers are happy, too!

Of all the home based business opportunities that you will find on the internet it’s not that often, if at all, that you’ll come across one where you can start making money without having your own product to sell, or without having your own website, or even without having any contacts or doing any marketing whatsoever.

But there is, and for the un-initiated it’s called Joint Venture Brokering.

In more simple terms and cutting through the fancy name Joint Venture Brokering is essentially where you find a product on a site and match that product with experienced marketers who will, and in most cases actually want, to sell the product, making you money from the “brokering” of the sale.

To be a successful Broker you will need to follow some basic tricks which I have outlined for you as follows:-

Trick One: First off, just kick back, relax and make a list of all your favourite hobbies, pastimes, interests and passions. Ask yourself:

·What are you interested in?
·What are you passionate about?
·What subject or topic do you have a lot of knowledge about?
·What do people ask your advice on?

You may be worried that you do not have any specialist knowledge but you need to stop and think of your life experiences. List the jobs you have done and the hobbies you have pursued or the volunteer work you may have done, all the subjects you have some interest in.

This way you will not only make money online with your brokering business but you’ll enjoy working on it too!

Trick Two: From your lists in Trick One, you now need to find the websites that cover your interests etc. You then drill down these sites to find a niche market that you can broker for. For example, you may be passionate about Sports, for which there are plenty of websites. But you need to dig a little deeper and find out what exact sport niche you want to get into. You may have a particular interest, in golf for example, so this is the market you would search for suitable products to broker for.

Trick Three: Next, by using search engines and Directories find a web site that has a two-tier affiliate program for the product you are looking to broker. A two-tier affiliate programme has the first tier of commission the same as in a regular affiliate program. The difference is the additional tier(s), whereby marketers also earn a commission on sales generated by people they referred to the program. A best two-tier program will be one that:

·Offers better than $10 commission per second tier sale.

·Provides the marketer with ready to go marketing materials like email promotions, articles, adverts, banners etc.

·Has cookie tracking system for their affiliate program, which means that even if the marketers you try to broker deals with don’t sign up on the day you contact them, but sign up months later, you will still get the credit for the sales they make months down the line.

(This is for the product you will be brokering)

Trick Four: Is to build up a list of website domain names related to the products in your niche market saving the list where you can easily locate it.

These are potential site owners that you will be able to approach and broker a deal with. These are your marketers.

Trick Five: Using the Google search engine type in “(your niche market) ezine” to find thousands of sites, in your niche market that have ready-made email lists to promote to. These will be sites that publish, or are linking to another site that publishes, an ezine in your niche market.
These are your marketers.

Trick Six: Start going through your lists from tricks four and five and emailing the website owner or ezine publisher/owner trying to broker deals getting them to promote the site you are brokering for. This trick in itself would take you months to broker all the deals available, yet each and every deal could be worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars to you.

Trick Seven: You have now learned THE trick of making money on the internet without having your own product to sell, or without having your own website, or even without having any contacts or doing any marketing whatsoever.

Enjoy your newfound wealth and income streams and all the freedom that comes with them!

An associate program is an online marketing method used by a lot of small and large scale electronic businesses to generate additional sales. The method involves making a deal with another web site whose content is often related to that of the main merchant’s website. Simply put, the associate web site posts advertisments for the merchant web site, and also offers it’s readers links to the merchant website. For each person who purchases items from the merchant via the associate link, the associate gets a commission. From this simple system, associate marketing has grown rapidly to become larger and more elaborate so that today, entire books are written revolving around creating and operating successful associate programs. Here are 7 basic criteria that both merchants and potential publishers should take into consideration when choosing or designing an associate program.

Compensation System – there are different types of compensation, and associate programs often use more than one in combination when making a package to offer to their merchants. The smallest and simplest types get paid a small, fixed amount every time a viewer from the associate page clicks the merchant’s link and gets redirected to it’s website. Others are strictly commission basis and require actual successful sales to earn a percentage. A well designed compensation system should be fair for both the associate and the merchant.

Publisher Type – the type of associate program is very important in marketing. There are different categories, most notably Product Review Sites, Loyalty and Rebate Sites, Comparison Shopping/Online Directories, Cross Merchant Associate Sites, and Personal Forums/Blogs. Choosing the right type of publisher to get as associates can allow a merchant to tailor different marketing strategies to suit.

Program Compatibility – this is a natural consideration to take for any web based endeavor. The compatibility of the associate web site’s programming with the merchant’s web site is extremely important. Imagine if, for example, the merchant web site could not be properly displayed on certain browsers that the associate web site actually supported! To this end, both merchants and associates are advised to make their web sites compatible with as wide a variety of different programs as possible.

Marketing Approach – this is one area where marketing can get a bit sticky. While there’s nothing wrong with advertising through the use of reviews, personal recommendations, and web based graphic ads, some associate web sites use more aggressive marketing methods that may actually give the merchant a negative reputation. For example, rampant spamming and pop ups can get really irritating for most people and can cause both an associate and merchant’s web sites to get registered as “spam” on someone’s firewall. Needless to say, this is counter productive.

Niche and Demographic Coverage – special interest niches and certain demographics are always the target audience of a certain merchant. Because of this, the associate programs chosen should cater to the same groups. This does not need to be an exact match; for example, a publisher of fire arms magazines can approach magazine review web sites, gun enthusiast forums, and the personal web sites of gun shops as viable options to take as associates.

Online Interactivity Options – associate web sites MUST have a certain amount of online interactivity for users. If it exists simply for the purpose of advertising affiliated merchant web sites, an associate web site would quickly run out of traffic going through it. Good associate programs keep the interest of their visitors through various means, like having discussion boards, offering reviews and helpful articles, and publishing downloadable monthly e-magazines.

Multi Tier and Two Way Affiliate Marketing – these two types of associate programs differ slightly from normal associate programs because they extend beyond the regular merchant-associate type of relationship. They actually involve multiple associate websites connected via links to each other. Multi tier marketing is often seen in referral programs like multi level marketing, and in this case associates can also gain commissions by recruiting to and linking with other “lower tier” associate web sites. This provides larger exposure for a product. In two way affiliate marketing, two or more merchants act as each other’s associate programs, so that both offer their own sets of products and at the same time provide links to each other’s web sites.