10 Vital Tips for Choosing the Right Web Hosting Company

By : Amy Armitage

Internet Marketing. The Web hosting firm you choose can make or break your small business. Good ones can run things smoothly, are easy to reach, and fix problems efficiently. But bad ones can have more problems than they are worth, be unreachable at critical times, and bring your business to a screeching halt. Finding a good one is crucial to your success.

Here are some tried and true ideas for how to select a host that will save you money, avoid technical snafus, and build your online platform for the future.

1. Choose a Service that Primarily Does Hosting

Although it might be tempting to sign-up with a firm that provides an umbrella of services in addition to website hosting, a good rule of thumb is that if a company overly-diversifies its services, it won't deliver top quality in any of them (e.g. tech support, updates, maintenance, etc.)

2. Choose a Host with a Great Record for Online Security

Most secure hosts will provide SSL Certificates to guarantee your security. Without an SSL Certificate on your site, visitors may come and go without identifying themselves, and this could put your site at risk. Make sure your host implements best practices when it comes to maintaining security architecture, updating security software, and responding effectively to breaches if and when they do occur.

3.Excellent Technical and Customer Service Support via Phone

Does the host provide phone support around the clock? Or can you only email for help during non-business hours? You definitely want the option to call a staffer. Studies show that over-the-phone tech and customer support systems are vastly more efficient than e-mail support centers, on average.

4. Solid Add-On Services

A number of great web hosting companies provide little extras to make sites more effective and user-friendly. These can include image upload galleries, blogs, control panels, order forms, support scripts, databases, and embedded video features. When evaluating various firms, examine sample sites and note what value add-ons you like and what value add-ons you feel are missing in each sample.

5. Don't Rely on Numbers Alone to Make the Decision

Many hosts promise uptime approaching 100%. But there's no way of verifying that kind of claim. If your website goes down, for instance, the company can easily explain it away as a statistically insignificant outlier. Similarly, a potential host may brag about oodles of bandwidth and space on servers, but if your online small-business needs are modest, these numbers shouldn't be your incentive. Finally, be wary of online rating systems. These figures can be jiggered and rejiggered to make a web host look better (or worse) than it actually is.

6. The Right Price for Your Needs

Sure, you can find a service for practically nothing. But there is no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to web hosting. If you're paying a dirt-cheap rate, chances are that the host is watering down services in some respect. Perhaps the host offers minimal security protections or charges clients "pay per play" for technical support. Or maybe the site charges a sky-high maintenance fee or other monthly fee. The point is, you need to read the fine print and to price-compare before making a decision.

7. Flexible Features and Enough Elbow-Room

You have no idea how your online platform might evolve. That's why you need a hosting company that boasts flexible features, supports many different languages, offers linux and Windows options, and supports an array of scripts (PHP, Pearl, Java, etc.) A good rule of thumb for determining space is to "buy big". In other words, even if you don't have tens of thousands of files to upload and store, leave yourself some wiggle room to anticipate future growth.

8. An Easy-To-Use and Safe Shopping Cart

According to numerous estimates, U.S. and U.K. consumers will be spending nearly $150 billion per year online by the year 2010. Your site's e-commerce options should be simple, safe, battle-tested, and easy-to-use.

9. Protection Against Spam, Viruses, Trojan Horses, and the Like

Most creditable web hosting sites provide solid e-mail protection. Make sure to check for compatibility, however. For instance, if you use Microsoft Outlook, make sure that the host has the tools and services to shield your Outlook e-mail effectively -- without blocking key notifications from clients or suppliers.

10.Important Questions to Consider:

a. Does the host provide good references and testimonials?
b. Does the company employ best-of-breed firewalls and routers?
c. Has anyone filed complaints against the company through the Better Business Bureau or other organization?
d. What services do small businesses similar to yours use for web hosting?
e. Can the company provide any statistics to back up claims regarding reliability and technical support?
f. Can you use the host for a trial period before paying full price?
g. How expensive is it to upgrade or downgrade plans?
h. How do blogs and customer forums rate your candidate hosting services?

If Your Email Marketing Does not Work, Think Again Why?

Internet Marketing. Before you arrive at the faulty conclusion that email marketing doesn't work, let’s look at this from a different perspective for a moment that would make your emails ineffective.

First there's what you are writing in the body of the email. If this is your first attempt to get in touch with a prospect, what are you putting in the email? A dissertation? If it's longer than one or two paragraphs, it's too long. Look at your emails like an initial cold call. You need to laser in and deliver a compelling opening statement that's going to grab their interest and stimulate a conversation. Because there's no one to cut you off in an email or stop you from persistent pontification, people have tendency to ramble on and on in an email, giving the prospect the life story of the product or service they want them to consider. Keep it short and focus on the one or two benefits, opening up the opportunity to have a dialogue. That's it.

Second, are you sending attachments in the first email? No attachments! It's hard enough sending an unsolicited email to a prospect. Now you're adding more barriers and increasing the chances of your email winding up in their spam box or junk email folder. Some people have filters on their email that if an attachment is sent it automatically gets deleted. No attachment until that information in the attachment is solicited by the person.

Third, html or text? Once again, with all the email filters people use today, you will increase your odds by sending a text message only rather than trying to get fancy with formatting, graphics and pictures. The prospect really doesn't care about how beautiful your email looks; they care about the core message. Besides, they will never even get a chance to see your beautiful masterpiece in an html email if it's winding up in the trash.

Finally, you are using way too many spam words. As mentioned, the biggest enemy to email marketing or selling via email is the additional security that companies and individuals have on their network or computer. As such, the specific words you are using in the body of the email can be the culprit who is sending your email directly into the trash or spam box. In other words, you are using words that are often identified is spam and in turn, you email is getting flagged and deleted. Not even eye contact! The prospect is not getting a chance to, at the very least, see your email let alone read it and have a chance to respond accordingly.

Understanding Spam Filters to Avoid Your Emails Get Junked!

If you send email campaigns long enough, you will inevitably run into spam filter issues. On average, you can expect 10-20% of your emails to just get lost in cyberspace, mostly due to overzealous spam filters. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. If you want to avoid getting your emails junked by spam filters, you have to understand how they work.

Generally speaking, spam filters look at a long list of criteria to judge whether or not your email is junk. For example, they might look for spammy phrases like "CLICK HERE!" or "FREE! BUY NOW!". They'll assign points each time they see one of those phrases. Certain criteria get more points than others. Here's a sample of criteria from Spam Assassin, one of the most popular spam filters out there:

• Talks about lots of money (.193 points)

• Describes some sort of breakthrough (.232 points)

• Looks like mortgage pitch (.297 points)

• Contains urgent matter (.288 points)

• Money back guarantee (2.051 points)

• Why Pay More? (1.249 points)

It's easy to use "spammy" keywords in your email without even knowing it. Here are some common ways marketers unwittingly trigger spam filters with their campaigns:

1. Using spammy phrases, like "Click here!" or "Once in a lifetime opportunity!" too many times in your email. Sometimes, you can't avoid phrases like "FREE SHIPPING!" but use them sparingly, and don't do anything else risky.

2. Going crazy with exclamation points!!!!!!

3. USING ALL CAPS, WHICH IS LIKE YELLING IN EMAIL

4. Coloring their fonts bright red, or green

5. Coding sloppy HTML (such as by converting a Microsoft Word file to HTML)

6. Creating an HTML email that's nothing but one big image, with no text (since spam filters can't read images, they assume you're a spammer that's trying to trick 'em)

7. Using the word "Test" in the subject line (agencies run into this all the time, when sending drafts to clients for approval)

How Often (Frequency) Should You Send Email?

There's no quick answer to the frequency question. It depends on the goals for your email and the type of content you send. Some rough guidelines:

1. Mail at least once a month. Mail less often than this, and you risk being forgotten by recipients. Monthly is the bare minimum if you want to keep your brand or company name top of mind (a common email goal).

2. Let content be your guide. Look at what you provide readers and you'll get a feel for proper frequency. Analyze how often the information changes and how quickly readers must receive it to act on it.

3. Work within your resources. A daily email requires many more resources than a monthly. Better a well-done monthly email than shoddy weekly or daily. It's recommended to start with a monthly. Once that's going smoothly, they can think about moving to weekly. You need to walk before you can run!

4. Watch for trends. Declining response, open, and click-through rates can be signs of list fatigue. Though some decrease is normal, watch carefully and cut back frequency if you see a problem. Don't assume if the unsubscribe rate is stable you're OK. Many people prefer to forward email directly to their delete folder rather than unsubscribe.

Read Your Email Message Backwards to Avoid Common Pitfalls

Here are some common problems to look out for:

1. Misspelled words - It's a good idea to spell-check a document, but it's not enough. A spell checker won't catch every error.

2. Wrong word used - This is why a spell checker isn't enough. A spell checker will only flag words it doesn't recognize. It can't tell if a legitimate word is used incorrectly. Some words commonly confused: accept, except; your, you're; then, than; there, their, they're; cite, site, sight; lay, lie; loose, loosen, lose. Also, look out for a missing "r" in the word "your." It's easy to overlook a sentence such as "Visit our Web site now to receive you free copy."

3. Grammar error - Again, if you know you're not a good writer, have someone else check your writing for grammatical errors. Mistakes make you look bad.

4. Punctuation error - This is another area where you'll benefit from a review by someone who knows their stuff. If you're determined to do it yourself, purchase a good grammar or style book. One of the most common punctuation problems: Too many stupid commas!

5. Vague or confusing statement - Make sure every sentence is crystal-clear. You don't want your promotional message to raise more questions than it answers.

6. Illogical statement - Read over what you have written slowly. At the end of each paragraph, ask yourself: "Did that make sense?" Rewrite so that it does.

Get More Clicks With a Good Call-to-Action!

The call-to-action is a determining factor of your click-through rate. It is an important component of your email copy because it answers three important questions for the recipient. They are:

1. What you want them to do

2. Why they should do it, and

3. How to take that next step.

Whatever action you want your recipients to take, you can make it happen more often with a good call-to-action. First, decide what you want them to do:

1. Buy something

2. Sign up for a service

3. Fill out a form

4. Read an article or get more information

5. Visit your website or store

6. Make an appointment

Etc…

Then, make sure you incorporate these 6 characteristics to get the results you're looking for. Make your call-to action:

1. Visible - People read, react, make decisions and take action differently. Some make decisions right away ("You had me at hello.") and some need more details ("I'm from Missouri."). Place call-to-action links in the beginning, middle and end of the email so that recipients can click whenever they are ready.

2. Clear - Stick to simple words, short phrases, bulleted benefits and paragraphs of 1-3 short sentences. Include appropriate graphics and cut the clutter by making effective use of white space.

3. Compelling - Use action-oriented verbs and phrases: "buy now," "call today," "save" and so on.

4. Rewarding - Offer an incentive or reward for action. For example, "Act now and also receives...," or "the First 100 respondents will be entered into a raffle to win..." The giveaway, or prize, you choose should be closely related to your product or service. That way, you will be targeting customers who are interested in what you have to offer, not just the latest gadget.

5. Urgent - The longer an email sits in an inbox, the less likely it is to be acted on. Create a sense of urgency to get a more immediate response. Try limiting the offer to a specific time period, to the "first 50 customers," "while supplies last," etc.

6. Direct - Your call-to-action links should go to the appropriate page on your website with more details on the specific product or service you're promoting. If you don't have a website, the call-to-action might be store locations to visit or a number to call for an appointment.

Keep in mind that, in addition to repeating your call-to-action, you can vary your call-to-action to appeal to different types of buyers (and to fit your sales cycle). For example: "Click here to buy now" will naturally work better with loyal customers. The softer, "Click here to learn more" may be better for newer prospects.

How to Write Killer Email Sales Letter That Get Results?

Here are what we've found works best. Use these tips properly and your results will skyrocket.

1. Your email "from" sender line should be your brand name or company name and stay consistent. Use your own personal name only if that is your brand image.

2. Send emails only when you have something to say that will benefit the reader. No fluff. No filler. You must be relevant. If you can't be, don't send an email until you have something beneficial to say.

3. Start your emails with the specific benefit the reader can get from your message. You have no more than 3 seconds to pass the crucial "what's in it for me?" test.

4. The copywriting tone and language should be personal and conversational, instead of stuffy and "corporate".

5. Make a specific offer to the reader and, if possible, include a short deadline by which he must respond to get it.

6. Use as much copy as is needed to fully pile on all the benefits the reader will get by ordering, answer objections, create urgency, and close the sale.

7. Test your subject lines and offers on small segments of your list before you send the email to your entire list.

8. Include "Email this to a friend" service in all your communications for pass along and viral marketing.

4 Things Affiliate Marketers Need

by: Tabitha Palmer


Here's my response, along with some information on what it takes to be successful as an affiliate marketer and tips on how to make affiliate marketing work for you as an online home business. You may not think that having a home business provides as much security, but you won't get laid off and you won't be called back into the office, and you should almost always get along with the Boss. In my mind, all of this makes the idea of starting a home business all the more appealing. There are thousands of work at home jobs and home business opportunities on the Internet.

After a LOT of research, as well as plenty of trial and error, I have learned some very important things to look for in home businesses, work at home jobs, affiliate programs and all the other types of work at home business opportunities. My preferred niche is in affiliate marketing, this vs. traditional marketing is by far easier and more lucrative in the long run. You can build a higher residual and passive income this way. My opinion, of course, but try it out for yourself and see that I know what I am talking about.

Useful Tips

1) Starting a successful online business begins with research.

Look into every aspect of your business, Are you going to need inventory, storage, up front money? Websites, domains, and hosts are very important factors in research! The wrong web host and you are doomed from the beginning. Write it all down so you can look back from time to time. Research your niche, by that I mean what kind of business would best suit you and your needs. What are you good at? Think about this question before you go any further and write down your answers so you can research them.

2) Websites, domains, and web hosts are crucial in your success.

Like I said above, Most Internet businesses, that have a drive to succeed, focus all of their time and resources on building a great site, and then trying to drive tons of traffic to that site. I recommend staying away from Free web hosting for a business, Most free hosting has drawbacks such as they reserve the right to place ads of all kinds on your site, this looks very unprofessional and will make you lose business in the long run, so beware, free isn’t always good. Check out reviews on the host of your choice to make sure they have good credibility standards on the internet. I personally recommend Host 4 Profit as they have always had great customer service, and they, to my knowledge, are rarely if ever down like some hosts I’ve ran across in the past. Anyway, research this one immensely.

3) One of the biggest key factors in building a successful online business is traffic.

Only after you have chosen the right name and host for your business should you move to this step. There are many Free ways to get traffic on the web; Articles, blogs, free advertising sites there are plenty of, traffic exchanges like Traffic Swarm, Traffic G, etc. Making sure you get enough backlinks to your site makes the Big difference. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN will not pick you up if they can’t find you. Make your website available to be found by getting your link on everything you can, but always staying within the rules of advertising, otherwise you do more damage than good to your business. If you have NO traffic, you have NO sales. No sales equals No Business. You see the effect here.

4) Perseverance, it’s not something you can find online it’s something you have to find within.

I know you’re thinking now why did I put that in there. Perseverance is what you will need most when you start and try to maintain an affiliate marketing online business. When you work at home you get to set your own hours and granted you can even work while still in your PJ’s but at home there are constant distractions to stop you from staying on task. Someone will stop by, the kids will start fighting, emergencies arise, the phone never stops ringing, etc… You name it, it will be sure to happen. This is why perseverance is in my top 10 tips to maintain a successful online business. You must make it a point every night before going to bed to make a ‘to do’ list for the next day concerning your business. This strategy has helped me most of all and it keeps me on task.

Secret Search Engine Optimization Strategies: How to Turn Keywords into Conversions

By : Derek Gehl

Are you focusing your search engine optimization efforts on getting tons of traffic from the search engines?

If you answered yes, then I am about to tell you something completely different from other Internet Marketers.

Forget about getting tons of traffic from the search engines. Get LESS traffic that converts MORE!

The Secret to Turning Keywords into Conversions is to Keep Your Keywords Focused

For example, if your site sells an all-natural remedy for acid stomach problems...

You start to do your keyword research and you discover that the keyword phrase "natural remedies" has 288 daily searches. But it has over 2,000,000 sites competing for it.

While the phrase, "acid reflux natural remedies" has 67 daily searches with just over 11,000 competing sites.

Do you want to spend all your time and effort trying to optimize your website for the first keyword phrase?

You may get more searches, but you'll never know how many of those searchers want to buy your stomach acid remedy. Not to mention the HUGE number of competitors the keyword has!

Or would you go for the second term, which only has 67 people searching for it -- knowing those 67 people are looking for EXACTLY what you offer? And, it has a MUCH lower competition number to boot!

Obviously, the second term is better!

Sure, you might get less traffic -- but the visitors you DO get will be MUCH more likely to buy your product.

Why You Will Make More Money with Less Traffic That Converts More

People search the Internet to find a solution to a problem and not necessarily to buy something. So what problems will they solve by coming to your website?

Think of a keyword as a "problem statement" that someone would type into the search engines.

When you can match your keywords to the exact problems they're trying to solve. You'll attract the BEST visitors to your site so you can focus all your optimization efforts on them!

Here are some more keyword research tips that will help you turn keywords into conversions…

Top Search Engine Optimization Tips for Finding Highly Focused Keywords That Will Bring the Absolute Best Buyers to Your Website:

Check your server logs. See what keyword phrases people are actually using to find your site. If there's something relevant that you've overlooked, build a page focused on that keyword phrase.

Also look for keywords that are causing people to leave right away because they're not finding what they're looking for. Ditch those keywords immediately.

Look for "intention." Say you sell cross-country ski equipment. People can come to your website looking for different things.

For instance:
They're looking to buy a specific product
They're looking for product reviews
They want information on how to get started in cross-country skiing
They want used or discount equipment
They want to know what kind of equipment will be best for them
They want to know what's new and hot in cross-country ski equipment

Same products -- far different intentions!

If you optimize a page (or pages) for each different problem people are trying to solve, you'll give them what they're looking for…

That means they'll stay on your site longer -- and you'll have a better chance of getting them into the sales process.

Check out your competition. What keywords are your competitors optimizing for, and on what pages?

You can spy on them by going to their websites and looking at their code!

In your web browser, just go to View on the main menu and click on Source or Page Source to "look under the hood" of any competitor's site. Then you can see what they're doing right and what you could do better.

Find your best keywords with pay-per-click advertising. This is the fastest way to find out just how well different keywords perform.

Pay-per-click lets you run ads based on two or three different keywords at the same time. This enables you can track which ones convert best. Make sure the ads click through to pages that relate directly to the keywords.

Focus your SEO efforts on the specific keywords that describe EXACTLY what problem each page solves. Don't be tempted by more general keywords with higher traffic numbers. They'll never send you the traffic you want.

Follow these search engine optimization tips and you will turn keywords into conversions.

Keywords: how to make money online, how to start internet business, ways to make money online, internet marketing course, online marketing course, internet marketing training course, web marketing course, how to start an internet business, e business strategy, online small business course.

Promote Your Business Free Online

by: Tsuyoshi Suzuki


It is rather interesting that most people do not take free online marketing tools seriously. With the free marketing tools that I am going to list and explain here, you can create a whole online marketing strategy that will generate the amount of traffic needed for your website to start generating sales. If you have ever wanted to discover how you can use the BEST online marketing tactic to promote your Web Site for free, now it's your chance to learn the amazing tactic that I'm using on a regular basis to generate tons of instant visitors to my Web Site(s).

Free online marketing strategy you can create full aggressive campaigns to generate traffic and sales without having to spend any money. These are just a few free Internet marketing methods that can increase your web traffic by leaps and bounds if you spend the time to implement and manage them. Are there any free systems that work? Yes, I’m please to say that there are and I’d like to introduce you to free marketing methods that really work and that you can implement on your own.

This is not to tell you that you are better off only focusing on plain free Internet marketing techniques. As you read this discussion of some of the free and near-free marketing techniques available today, you may want to consider trying them for yourself. Anybody planning an online marketing campaign should look very carefully at the so-called free marketing tools and options, the effectiveness of some of the techniques will surprise them.

Instead of all the headaches and extra work that has to go into mini sites, many smart online entrepreneurs use free marketing articles. Much of the free online marketing is just a big waste of time, and often generates a ton of mail soliciting YOUR business. One of the best ways to get free web site marketing is to get your web site’s link, with title and description, placed on other websites.

Another way people use these free methods are to embed their affiliate links and product links into them so that readers will click on them and thus get more website traffic to their websites and make money when these get converted into sales. Another benefit of online marketing articles is that it helps to generate more links and traffic to your website. The power of article marketing is obvious, and if you are a website owner, you should certainly be using it to drive free targeted traffic to your website.

One of the best and most powerful ways to drive targeted traffic to your website and to make sales is through Article Marketing. The next way to drive free targeted traffic to your website is to include a link to your site and small ‘hook’ in your signature. Each article you have published is excellent advertising for your website as at the end of your article you will have printed an 'about the author' section (also called bylines), this advertises you and your website and builds free traffic to your site and credibility for you if your articles are of good quality.

Remember: People (customers and employees) + Package (your Face to the Customer) + Brand (who you are) = Marketing Success. Online marketing articles are one of the best ways to market your business on the internet.

Internet Marketing And A Future Financial Focus

by: Scott Lindsay

One of the prime motivations for Internet marketing is that you don’t want to be in the same place you are right now - in 12 months.

In every business the predominant idea is to set goals that help you conduct business smarter, learn lessons faster and bring more business to your site.

The problem is many entrepreneurs tend to stay focused on their bottom line and to product fulfillment issues. By doing so they may indeed find themselves in the same place 12 months from now. They may also find their business has declined in total sales revenue.

How is that possible?

This is an interesting question especially when, from all appearances, the business owner IS paying attention to their business and that the sales are brisk. It can also seem baffling when it appears that the business owner is busier than they have ever been.

The problem may be that some of the details of business should be delegated to other employees, especially if the business is of significant size.

The sad truth is some business owners are spending too much time in the mailroom and not enough time in long-term strategic planning. Online business grows as new ideas are developed and implemented.

It is not unlike an architect spending all his or her time developing the entryway of a new luxury hotel while failing to draw up plans for the rest of the building. It looks nice from the outside, but the inside is in disarray.

What this means, in the broadest terms, is that you need to pay attention to all aspects of your online business. If you don’t feel adequate to manage certain aspects of the business then find someone who can. When you neglect certain aspects of your business you will almost always run the risk of a loss of long-term business. You will also be subjected to feast or famine cycles where you may have more work than you can handle for a period of time and not enough work for an equal or greater length of time.

It’s a given that you find your business to be an important part of your life. You have invested a lot in the success of your business and that investment is too great to simply allow glaring marketing omissions to go unchallenged.

Sometimes business owners adopt an out of sight - out of mind mentality. They avoid those things that are not on their immediate radar. They push back all those things that are not fires to attend only the tyranny of the urgent.

Internet marketing is one of the very first things to be cast from view for many businesses. The reason this is true is because the role of marketing seems to have little intrinsic value for those online shops that are currently doing a brisk business. It appears to be a sign that they did everything right and can move on to the role of bean counter.

Learn the art of balancing your business interests and include marketing as a prime component for achieving future goals.

How Does Internet Marketing Work?

by: Tsuyoshi Suzuki

Introduction

Internet marketing is a component of electronic commerce. Internet marketing is by far the fastest growing advertising method for all companies in this day and age. Internet marketing is about people knowing each others interests, values and preferences. Internet marketing is becoming one of the highest return-on-the-investment strategies these days.

Engine

For the most effective Internet marketing, you'll want to make sure your site is listed in the following search engines and directories:DMOZ. What I can't emphasize enough is that you take the time to find the right search engine submission category, and if your business is regional or local, make sure you submit there instead of the main areas. Also be sure to read the search engine submission guidelines carefully. If after a few months you find that your site is still not listed in the search engines, go through the search engine submission process again. Effective Internet marketing Effective Internet marketing starts with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and is comprised of optimizing the content, specific keywords, and over all design of your web site in order to ensure that your site attains maximum exposure to search engines. Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other major search engines use search engine software known as robots. Once a site is submitted to the search engine, the robots, also often known as search engine crawlers or search engine spiders, analyze the content of a site as well as other search engine criteria such as the accuracy of the website coding (ie: clean coding) to establish content relevance and overall website relevance.

Site

Internet marketing does not simply mean 'building a website' or 'promoting a website'. Somewhere behind that website is a real organization with real goals. Internet marketing strategy includes all aspects of online advertising products, services, and websites, including search engine marketing, public relations, social media, market research, email marketing, and direct sales. These include e-commerce, where you sell goods directly to consumers or businesses; publishing, where you sell advertising; and lead-based sites, where an organization generates value by getting sales leads from their site. At one time, Internet marketing consisted mostly of having a Web site or placing banner ads on other Web sites. Since most home-based businesses don't have a physical location, a Web site provides an inexpensive means for prospects to get to know what you do or what you sell and can even be a "storefront" for selling goods and services directly.

Conclusion

Internet marketing is any legal activity intended to bring traffic from a search portal to another Website. Internet marketing is becoming one of the highest return-on-the-investment strategies these days. The decision to use Internet marketing as part of a company's overall marketing strategy is strictly up to the company of course, but as a rule, Internet marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of nearly every company's marketing mix. That's why Internet marketing is all about networking and communication.

Effective Internet Advertising

by: Tsuyoshi Suzuki

Free internet advertising is one very important method for promoting your products and services to thousands of free ads. You've probably found this article because you did a search for "free advertising" on an internet search engine. If you have taken the time to research search engine placement, methods of obtaining a high search engine ranking, or Internet advertising, you have probably heard of Google Adwords.

Two of the most popular and successful advertising techniques on the Internet are pay per click campaigns and natural search engine optimization campaigns. If your company is not competing at the level it should be, perhaps it is time you looked into focusing more of your time and efforts into Internet advertising techniques that are successful. You will not only get the best results with a carefully designed system for generating Internet advertising for your blog, but you will also be able to sustain good results over a long period of time, which is what serious business and successful entrepreneurship is all about.

With a good well designed selling system in place, not only will you be able to get the best results while generating Internet advertising for your blog, but success will be virtually guaranteed. This difference with blog advertising rates is important because in the print media world, ad rates can not go below a certain point because if they do, the publication will cease to be profitable. In the print media, space is limited by the cost of production which keeps ad rates high and makes the balance of content versus advertising critical to the financial success of any print publication that relies on advertising.

Free internet advertising makes it easy for you to put free ads on several of the premier quality web sites whenever you want, for free. You know that you are visiting the forum merely for the free advertising for your website but it is better not to make this obvious if you want other members to react well to your advertising. Internet forum etiquette demands that you spend a little time "lurking" ie logging in at the forum and reading previous and current threads before you even think of starting to use the forum for advertising.

Whether you write your own articles or pay a ghostwriter to write your articles for you, the combined cost of creating and distributing your article is far less than the value of advertising that you will receive in exchange for the reprint use of your article. When you write articles that are consistent with the topics that your potential clientele will read, you are able to consistently target the people you need to reach with your advertising. If an advertiser is already paying 20 cents per click and your blog Internet advertising rate card charges them what works out to about 5 cents per click and there is a promise of the same or an even better conversion rate, you have won over that advertiser.

I have been paying for traffic and one of the best sources of targeted traffic is through pay per click search engines (PPC) or pay for placement search alternatives like Google adwords or Yahoo Sponsor Listings, formerly Overture. Google adwords and Yahoo Sponsor Listings are the kings of pay per placement search engines. And if you are in a highly competitive niche, the cost per visitor in pay per click search engines is pumping up day by day.

4 Key Points to Cover When Writing Your Article

by : Claude Pelanne

Article writing should be part of the mix in traffic building strategy of any internet marketing program. Articles have the benefit of driving traffic of qualified motivated visitors to your site if you offer quality information that offers a solution to their problem. This will have a direct bearing on how the search engines rank your site and your rank will determine the volume of visitors you will draw to see what your site has to offer.

Writing your article requires some research and careful attention to good, solid content. It also requires that you cover key points to ensure that your readers finds you and stays with you for the present and well into the future.

1. Quality Content

Your first and most important step is to commit to your reader and his/her underlying need or problem. The reader should be finding what they are looking for in the content of your article and should take away the satisfaction of a solution that will make his or her life easier. What you want to get on your end is not just customer satisfaction, but customer loyalty. You want that visitor to look to you as trusted resource to whom they can return anytime they need information or a product that will satisfy a need.

Write for your audience and write using content that has substance. Use a natural style that reflects your personality and natural approach to people. Be who you are and that will translate into a comfortable tone and style that makes you a non threatening and trusted source of information. Proper grammar, correct syntax and well structured sentences are a given. If the article calls for it include facts, figures, statistics, charts and any kind of visual imagery to prove your points. All of this will establish your authority and build confidence with your audience.

2. Keywords and Keyword Phrases

Your article should be very clear as to the purpose and intent of your product, service or solution. Keywords and keyword phrases play an important role in showing you know what you are talking about and are offering a solution. Your reader will be typing those keywords and keyword phrases when they set about looking for the product or service to help them with a need they have. So your article should use these keywords and relate directly to the purpose of your Web site. Each page of your Web site has to be keyword or keyword phrase driven. That helps your reader find what they are looking for. Your article should point them there with keywords and keyword phrases linked to the page with the solution.

3. Keyword Density

Keyword density refers to the use of keywords and keyword phrases in the copy of your article. The presence of these keywords and keyword phrases allows for the search engines to find in your articles markers that will rank your article and put it in front of a Web visitor who is looking for that information. If someone is looking for copyrighting information and your article has the right density of that term in its title or paragraph content, chances are that reader will find you in the search results and click to read your content.

How often you use the keywords and keyword phrases is a matter of judgment. Over use of keywords or keyword phrases will look like a spam message and turn off your reader and the search engine. Too little use and you will not be found in the search process. A rule of thumb is 2-3 keywords per 500 words of content. Something in the title of the article, maybe two mentions in the body of the text. The main point is to use your keyword density wisely and you will reap the benefit of increased authority and trust.

4. Article Signature

Articles are obviously posted in blogs and newsletters but they are also submitted to article directories for more general distribution. This allows for you to get widespread recognition throughout the Web and increase your reach and potentially increase your traffic. It is a great way to establish affiliate marketing program and brand yourself as an expert.

One thing to bear in mind is that article distributors and directories are becoming more strict about writing original material and about self promotion. An increasing number will not allow any material you may have bought from an article reseller. Many do not allow any mention of affiliate marketing or affiliate links in the body of the content. So you will not be allowed to use anchor text to cross sell an affiliate product. You can still have keywords and keyword phrases but you simply cannot link to an affiliate site. This leads to the following point.

There is one area where directories still allow links to appear and that is in the signature or biography box where you present information about yourself. This is where you can put links, usually no more than two, to your affiliate product or service. Now again, some directories will not allow a raw affiliate link. They will allow a link to a site you own. So you can link to your own site or sites and simply forward to an affiliate site from there. That is why it is important you write a signature for your articles that will link to your solution based site. That is what sends you traffic and grow your internet marketing program.

These are four important elements to cover and understand as you design your article marketing plan for your affiliate marketing business. Master these and you will see results in the growth of traffic to your site and growth in profits in your bank account.

How to Increased Click-Through Rate (CTR)?

Here are some guidelines:

1. Include a feature, a benefit, and an advantage in the opening. This needs to be used in a subtle way, but in the opening you're really doing a small marketing job for this issue of your email newsletter. Highlight an article or two that are important, explain what you're providing the readers that they won't get elsewhere, and tell them what the benefit will be. A great example is something like "Nokia and Sprint announced second quarter earnings today. Learn what our Wireless Week experts say about the results, and what effect you can expect them to have on the industry at large."

2. Put the email newsletter in the context of your readers' day. This goes hand in hand with the last point. Your readers are busy, and if you can make a compelling case for why they should stop what they are doing and take a few minutes now to read your email newsletter, you'll get them in. We recommend editors reference important events, upcoming trade shows, or other things that say to the reader "You will find it worthwhile to stop and read this email newsletter now, because the information in it will help you stay on top of your business."

3. Keep it fresh. Don't craft a "perfect paragraph" and use it issue after issue after issue. One of the keys to success is to keep the copy fresh and highlight items in that issue of the email newsletter. If you use the same generic language repeatedly, people will stop reading it and it'll be a waste of your time.

4. Keep it short. This is critical. We recommend no more than two to three sentences -- just enough to get them interested and pull them in to read the rest of your email newsletter.

Try it out and see the results! This is just one of the simple things you can do to engage your reader and optimize your CTR.

8 Proven Points To Make A Home Business Website Profitable

by: Juhani Tontti

It is a miracle how the most successful home business websites have so much in common, despite of the fact that they look so different. This cannot be a co-incident.

One common feature is that these successful sites are likable and somehow easy to use. Everything looks so clear, so it is easy to judge whether you like it or not.

They look so simple, that I often ask, what special they have and how they have become so successful? It seems that the simpler and the more user friendly the site is, the better chances it has to create big sales.

Very clearly one big success factor is that the finetuning work should concentrate to take away all the unnecessary elements and non-selling links.

1. Winning Element: Attention Grabbing Title.

The title is absolutely the most important element of the site. It should contain the promise and to describe the content of the site.

A Great Title informs in a catchy way that this website includes the benefits about this topic.

The headline should be written well and it should stand out from the rest of the copy. It also should be the first element, which catches the visitor attention in seconds, because if it does not do that, the visitor continues the surfing.

2. Winning Element: Well Written Copy.

The Internet is the information highway, so the role of the copy is very important, this is the world of the words. The copy should draw the readers attention immediately to the benefits your offer give to him.

The style is important and the target is to build up the trust from the first contact. The copy should make the reader enthusiastic about the benefits but it should not use hype style overpromises, because they will destroy the trust.

3. Winning Element: Easy Site Navigation.

This is the technical must, because nothing drives the visitors away faster than the bad navigation. The site structure should be clear and logical, so that the visitor knows all the time, where he is and to where he could go from here.

The menu should be the same on every page and clearly accessible and also easy to understand. The terms should be clear, despite of the fact that you may want to use internet home business keyphrases.

4. Winning Element: Call To Action.

After the copy has presented the main benefits it is the time to call the reader into action. The clearnes is important. The visitor hates the situation, when he does not know, what to do next so it is better to call him to action and not to leave him guessing? Action is everything and we have to call the reader to do that.

One good way is to lower the bar, i.e. to offer a cheap or free trial opportunity for some weeks, before the reader will buy the product. The efficiency is the better, the more often you call the reader into action.

5. Winning Element: Images.

One picture tells more than thousand words. You should include photos of every product you sell, because they make the products more real, than the copy alone.

To make the navigation easier, you can use thumbnails instead of big images, which link to larger images. This speed up the page loadings.

6. Winning Element: Optin Form.

Most of the internet home business visitors needs at least five contacts before they will buy. It is important to get the website visitor`s name and email address in the early stage, because otherwise they can leave the site and you will never see them again.

In this process you have to give them a gift, an email course, a free e-book or something like that, which again will sell your offer later on. Now you can send them messages during a long period of time, which clearly makes the process more productive.

7. Winning Element: About Us Section.

The idea of every internet home business site is to build trust over a long period of time. This requires that you tell enough about yourself and give your contact information for further questions.

All big home business brands are build by stories, so can you also do. The idea of the story is to give enough information about you and to show that there is a real person working for the customers. This shows people that there is a real people behind the business.

8. Winning Element: Site Freshness.

People and search engines love unique, fresh information. A successful home business website goes through regular changes and additions. The visitor sees immediately that it is up to date.

It is useful to look the competing sites in your internet home business niche, because they are a great source of new ideas. Another idea is to make sure your site can stand out from the crowd.

The marketing is very important but the key is still the quality of your internet home business site. It makes the people to come back and it is the real place, where they can reach you and your offers.

How To Write A Good E-mail Subject Lines That Works?

Here are the 5 tips:

1. Ask a question. One of the best ways to get a reader's attention is to ask a question. But like a trial lawyer questioning a witness on the stand, make sure it'll get you the response you're looking for. "What's the best way to grow your business?" is a great subject line for business owners. After all, what business owner wouldn't want to grow his or her business? Or let's say you run a health club. An e-mail with the subject line, "How can you lose 5 pounds in one month?" would certainly be compelling. It's important your question be relevant to your audience.

2. Be a tease. A clever subject line can be enticing. When it's done right, reader curiosity is piqued. They want to know more--and they'll open your e-mail. Writing a teaser-style subject line requires some creativity, and your content needs to deliver. A company that sells high-definition TVs could use the subject line, "You're not going to believe your eyes" as a teaser to introduce a new addition to their product line.

3. Tell it like it is. Often, what works best is to say exactly what you want your reader to know. Examples of this straightforward approach are, "Sale on all sweaters this weekend," "Master jazz pianist plays live this Friday" and "The seven secrets of a profitable business." This just-the-facts approach works especially well when you can appeal directly to your audience's interests. It's also the best approach to use when you send a newsletter.

4. Remember "WIIFM". When a person gets your e-mail, the first thing they consider is "what's in it for me?" They have a decision to make. Do they open your e-mail, leave it for later or delete it? If there isn't something about the subject line that lets them know why it's worth their precious time to see what's inside, then the choice will be clear. Keep WIIFM in mind when creating every aspect of your e-mails, including the offer, content, images--and most definitely the subject line. It's all about them. They know that; just make sure you know it, too.

5. Get personal. The more you can make each contact feel you're speaking directly to them, the more effective your communication will be. Whatever style of subject line you use, you can make it personal by using the word "you." Professional copywriters know the secret of using this powerful little word. Just look at the advertisements, mail and e-mail you receive. A few examples are, "Find the right swimsuit for you," "You can save 50 percent on travel," and "You'd look phenomenal in a custom-tailored suit." "You" is ideal, but "your" works too.

Not sure which approach is right for you? Try them all, and then show a friend or colleague to get their feedback. Pick the one you believe will be most effective for your audience. Whichever approach you choose, it's always worth spending the time and effort to write a great subject line. Because if your readers don't open your e-mail, they'll never have the chance to read the important message you've created for them inside.

Internet Marketing And A Future Financial Focus

by: Scott Lindsay

One of the prime motivations for Internet marketing is that you don’t want to be in the same place you are right now - in 12 months.

In every business the predominant idea is to set goals that help you conduct business smarter, learn lessons faster and bring more business to your site.

The problem is many entrepreneurs tend to stay focused on their bottom line and to product fulfillment issues. By doing so they may indeed find themselves in the same place 12 months from now. They may also find their business has declined in total sales revenue.

How is that possible?

This is an interesting question especially when, from all appearances, the business owner IS paying attention to their business and that the sales are brisk. It can also seem baffling when it appears that the business owner is busier than they have ever been.

The problem may be that some of the details of business should be delegated to other employees, especially if the business is of significant size.

The sad truth is some business owners are spending too much time in the mailroom and not enough time in long-term strategic planning. Online business grows as new ideas are developed and implemented.

It is not unlike an architect spending all his or her time developing the entryway of a new luxury hotel while failing to draw up plans for the rest of the building. It looks nice from the outside, but the inside is in disarray.

What this means, in the broadest terms, is that you need to pay attention to all aspects of your online business. If you don’t feel adequate to manage certain aspects of the business then find someone who can. When you neglect certain aspects of your business you will almost always run the risk of a loss of long-term business. You will also be subjected to feast or famine cycles where you may have more work than you can handle for a period of time and not enough work for an equal or greater length of time.

It’s a given that you find your business to be an important part of your life. You have invested a lot in the success of your business and that investment is too great to simply allow glaring marketing omissions to go unchallenged.

Sometimes business owners adopt an out of sight - out of mind mentality. They avoid those things that are not on their immediate radar. They push back all those things that are not fires to attend only the tyranny of the urgent.

Internet marketing is one of the very first things to be cast from view for many businesses. The reason this is true is because the role of marketing seems to have little intrinsic value for those online shops that are currently doing a brisk business. It appears to be a sign that they did everything right and can move on to the role of bean counter.

Learn the art of balancing your business interests and include marketing as a prime component for achieving future goals.