Choosing Your Niche

Before you launch an AdSense website, you need to choose a topic that will generate a lot of traffic. That means conducting keyword research to see how many people are going online to seek out this kind of information.

When you start considering a niche, brainstorm a list of keywords that would be relevant to your subject matter. You want to choose topics with thousands of searches – like 10,000-20,000 per month.

If you can find keywords generating mass amounts of traffic like this, then you can go and find out how many products are being sold within that niche. The reason you want to see if the market has plenty of products is because these advertisers are the ones who will be advertising on your site through AdSense, helping you earn commission from every single click.

Start with a research tool like the one from Google at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal where you enter a keyword or phrase at the top of the page and then get results about search volume and Adwords bids.

Once you find a topic that has a large number of searches and a fair amount of Awords bids, you can start plotting out how you’ll build a mammoth website with all of the content that will appeal to this broad audience.

When you’re creating an information product, narrowing your niche can be beneficial, but you don’t have to do that with AdSense sites. Let’s take look at an example.

You could have a website called AllAboutBaseball.com with numerous sections that each had AdSense pages on them. You could have a Baseball Memorabilia area, a section to discuss the most recent games, a statistics section on players in each division or on every team, and a legends section. You could even have a Baseball 101 section that teaches people what the game is all about.

Expansion is the key to developing a profitable AdSense site. When you do decide to drill down within a niche, just expand it right on the primary domain. For example, the statistics section of your domain of ilovebaseball.com could be housed at stats.ilovebaseball.com. Make your website a one-stop-shop for all of your niche’s needs.

The more pages your viewers have available to sift through, the more likely it is that they’ll click on one of your AdSense ads and help you earn money for your efforts.

Creating Search-Worthy Content

When you sit down to create (or hire someone to create) your content, you need to keep in mind that Google is looking for those who scam the system. Do not try to create an article that sounds like this:

“Baseball is the best game because baseball is played a lot. I play baseball with my kids and they play baseball on baseball teams. Do you like to play baseball? Baseball is a fun sport.”

Not only will Google nix your dreams of getting a high ranking in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), but the goal is to get your visitors to keep coming back – to bookmark your site and come again, to generate more revenue for you.

People who feel your site provides value tell their friends about it. They add it to their link list and share it with others. They return often to see what new content you have, so you mustn’t disappoint them.

Search-worthy content does need to be keyword optimized, but don’t overdo it to the point that it’s not interesting to read, like the example above. Here is an example that would benefit your site’s purpose and fulfill the reader’s needs at the same time:

“Baseball is one of America’s bestloved past-times. If you’re in the market to begin collecting baseball memorabilia, then you may want to start by sending away for autographs of today’s big ticket draws to nightly summer baseball games, such as Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees.”

This is very dense with the keyword baseball, and it’s not even necessary to use the word that often. Choose one keyword or phrase for each page within your site. One page can be dedicated to a certain player, another to an article on autographs, and another to tickets.

When you conduct thorough research, you should be able to amass a list of thousands of keywords – and this gives you the ability to put thousands of pages within your website for better AdSense results. Use tools like Micro Niche Finder . When you use Micro Niche Finder, it allows you to continue “digging down deeper” within each keyword, which helps you expand your list of potential article topics.

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In 2009, with the youngest boomers just turning 45 and the oldest 63, we have boomers with young children, others with grandchildren, some with both, still some with an aged parent in need of care. There are boomers retiring, while others are going back to college or changing careers.

Some 50 year olds are empty nesters; other 50 year olds are still providing for their adult Generation X children. The situation is very similar in Europe, Canada and other countries. Boomers number some 450 million worldwide.

This is the only time a generation has been designated by its parents’ fertility rates instead of by the formative experiences that shape it, which is why we now have numerous cultural analysts, advertising agencies, and prominent news sources talking about Generation Jones, the name given to those born between 1954 and 1965 (1953-1968 in some countries), the younger boomers.

The Washington Post sums it up well: “Generation Jones has its own particular experiences, values, attitudes, and voting behaviors.”

Whether the label works or not, recognizing the differences in life stages and cultural references is important. It’s also important to remember that the cutoff dates are not set in stone. Many of those born near a cusp will identify better with the previous or later generation.

Marketing To Baby Boomers

Let’s take a look at some of the differences between the younger and older boomers, Baby Boomers and Generation Jones.

Baby Boomers, Born 1946-1954

Touchstones – In the United States, these include Howdy Doody; Woodstock; the Beatles; Vietnam; the assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.; Star Trek; Motown; political unrest; the first walk on the moon; social and drug experimentation; and the civil rights, environmental, and women’s movements.

Key characteristics – Boomers grew up in a time of dramatic social change and are associated with traits such as free spirited, optimistic, mold breaking, individualistic and social cause oriented. As a group they have been the healthiest and wealthiest generation.

Generation Jones, Born 1955-1964

This younger boomer demographic in the United States is made up of 53 million people, the bulk of the boomer generation (which peaked in 1957). Touchstones- in the United States include Watergate, the oil embargo, inflation, gasoline shortages, the Cold War with its threat of nuclear war, Ronald Reagan (very popular with Gen. Jones), and disco.

Key characteristics- Given huge expectations as children, they were confronted with a different reality as they came of age. Hence the name, which comes from the slang “jonesing” referring to an unrequited yearning. Gen Joneshas some of the 60’s idealism but is less trusting of government and more cynical than its older siblings, but not as cynical as Gen X. This generation pioneered computers and includes Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

In spite of the differences, there are still many things that the younger and older boomers share, and that you can apply to marketing.

Bridging the Gap Between Younger and Older Boomers

Advertising and Marketing: Almost 70 percent find ads increasingly crude and most won’t purchase when the ad is offensive. Only 23% find ads geared towards their age group. Still, they are more likely than younger groups to be motivated to buy based on an Internet ad. Also, boomers like bargains, but only on quality items,and they want to be made to feel special.

Sixty one percent want more product/service information- they want to read about products before purchasing. They think about the choices a product will give them rather than looking for quick fixes. Tell them why they need something and BS detectors go off. Instead, present the product/service, and let them give it the meaning. Make infomercials and other videos real; drop the storyboard and hype.

Boomers identify younger than they are, but not too much younger. Many ad agencies have advertised to boomers the same as they do to 19-25 year olds. Mistakes made in this area have been costly for some very large companies. Boomers say they just want to feel good at how much money they make, which hopefully you figure is about a decade younger.

They’re not brand loyal like their kids. They’re more likely to trust a friend than an unknown marketer. Boomers like things that reinforce the feelings of specialness they grew up with.

Internet Savvy: Seventy percent of adults age 50 to 64 are online today, only 12% less than younger groups. Fewer of them have broadband, but overall usage mirrors other age segments.They’re more likely than GenX’ers to use the web to gather information, nearly as likely to shop online, and they’re avid consumers of business and health related information.

Most have been online for more than 6 years. 82 percent use Internet beyond email. Almost one third are bloggers. More than 60 percent of baby boomers are avid consumers of social media like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, forums, podcasts, and YouTube. Boomers use social media sites to find long lost friends, connect with family, and for professional networking.

Income: Avoid affluent stereotypes. This is the wealthiest generation in history, but only 9% percent are truly affluent ($150,000 annual pre-tax income) and one quarter have no savings or investments.

Strong Desire to Remain Active: Favorite activities include listening to music, attending concerts and sports events, dining out, fitness walking, and camping. An Outdoor Industry Foundation study in 2004 reported 40% of people ages 45 and older say they’re looking for a new outdoor activity, and at the top of the list were backpacking/hiking, road biking, camping and paddle sports. Travel is also very popular with boomers. Adventure travel and exotic locales are of high interest, with comfortable beds, great food, and a nice view.

Well Educated: Over one quarter have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Socially Conscious: This drives buying behavior for many boomers. Seventy percent say they have a responsibility to make the world a better place.

Children: 28 million have kids in the home (children, step children or grandchildren). The boomers’ parental role usually extends beyond the time when a child is a minor. Boomers view financing a child’s college education as a parental responsibility.

Retirement: Top concerns are cost of health care, diminished social security benefits, losing their health, and not having enough money. Eighty percent intend to continue working in some form during their retirement.

Likes Nostalgia: Boomers seek creative ways that show more understanding of the culture than just 60s tie-dye and Woodstock. A good example: Bayer’s commercial where Leonard Nimoy (Dr. Spock of Star Trek), thanks to Aleve, successfully presents his famous “V” gesture painlessly with his arthritic hand.

Identifies With: Boomers associate with people like themselves, not the “gray haired, stodgy people over there.” Most don’t want to be called “seniors,” “aging hippies,” or “cougars.” Boomers consider the selves middle-aged, and “old” doesn’t come till 75. “Experienced” or “educated” is better.

Open to New Ideas: This generation broke the mold during every stage of life; this stage is no different. They’re open to a wide range of new home business ideas and experiences.

As you may have noticed, there are several things that make the baby boomer generation a good demographic for an online business or niche marketing.The key is understanding that this is a generation that won’t be herded, rushed, or won over by hype.

Respect the baby boomers’ desire for freedom of choice. In that freedom, they are redefining what it means to be old for the next  generation – active, adventuresome but thoughtful, contributors to society.

If you found this information useful consider joining my free membership with over $500 worth of bonuses inside.

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Pretty much everyone wants more money. If you were to ask someone on the street what they’d wish for if they had just one wish, I can guarantee the majority of wishes would involve money: a million dollars, a higher paying job, a substantial retirement account.

It’s fine to want more money, there’s nothing wrong with it, but the truth is that more money alone doesn’t do anything for anybody. It’s not really about the money when it comes right down to it. People don’t want more money just so they can stare at a huge bank balance all day.

If I were to ask you, “Why do you want more money?” what would you say? It probably wouldn’t be so you could spend your days counting stacks of dollar bills. It would probably be because of something that money would allow you to do or have.

People want more money because they have specific desires for what money can provide. They want to be free of debt. They want to spend three weeks exploring Tuscany. They want to pay for their kids to go to college. They want a brand new, fuel efficient car. They want to be able to retire early and know they have enough savings to pay the bills for the rest of their lives.

How To Attract Money

One of the keys to getting more money is to examine and change how you feel about money. Remember, like attracts like. So, when you think of money and having more of it and the lifestyle having money brings, how does it make you feel? Anxious? Hopeless? Stressed out? Desperate? Excited? Jumping up and down? Wealthy beyond belief?

How you feel about money can actually be keeping it (and the lifestyle you want) away from you. Even excitement about money can push it away. Yes, you read that right. Excitement about money can actually deflect money rather than attract it.

When you are able to live most ays in the mindset that being wealthy and living the lifestyle you want is a normal, ordinary thing, your life will begin to reflect your belief for and view of it. Likewise, if you think having a lifestyle where you work part time and bring in a million dollars a year is an exciting, random occurrence like winning the lottery, and that living paycheck to paycheck is normal for you, the Law of Attraction continues to bring that same old paycheck to your doorstep.

That’s what you’re projecting is normal and anything else feels like a fluke – an exciting, one-time stroke of luck. Instead of thinking, feeling, and living in abundance, you’ll be pushing away that lifestyle because it doesn’t “fit” you.

People who have an extra $50,000 per month to spend think of that as normal. It’s expected and wildly appreciated. This is the kind of mentality you need to create, that always having more than enough is normal. That going on vacation to Hawaii every year is normal. That being financially independent is normal.

You need to be in an emotional vibration that attracts and accepts money rather than repels and rejects it. That means feeling and believing with confidence that living in abundance is normal and factual, not exciting or scary.

If you want financial independence, you have to get comfortable with the idea of living a lifestyle that might not be such a comfortable fit right now. Once you feel comfortable with abundance, it will begin to flow to you.

Many people who teach the Law of Attraction say that you need to figure out how much money you want to live your dream lifestyle and then ask the Universe for that specific amount of money. What works for me, is that I always have more than enough for all of my wants, needs, and desires; more than enough to help others; and more than enough to save for future wants, needs, and desires. I never put a dollar amount on it because I know that whatever figure I come up with is putting limitations on unlimited possibilities, so why put a cap on it?
 
Refocusing your intent from “I want more money” to “this is what I want to be/do/feel/have” will also free up the Universe to respond to you in ways that don’t necessarily involve money – ways you can’t begin to imagine right now!

When you’re focused only on the $10,000 you need for a dream vacation in Italy, you close your eyes to the possibility that you may not actually need money to do what you want. Maybe you’ll win the vacation in a sweepstakes or you’ll receive the gift of plane tickets for a special occasion. Change your focus and you may be surprised at the ways you attract the lifestyle you desire with much less emphasis on money than you thought possible!

The major component to attracting what you want is gratitude. Be grateful for what you have right now, as well as  giving thanks for the money and lifestyle that you are creating. Gratitude and appreciation are the keys that open the door for an avalanche of good to come into your life. Use them often.

Money, in and of itself, is meaningless; it is simply a tool we can use to finance the life we wish to create for ourselves. When we focus on what we want to create and use the Law of Attraction to manifest this, amazing things happen! Always leave yourself open, available to more and you’ll soon learn how to attract money. 

To learn how to make money online check out 10 Ways To Make Money on The Internet 

If you found this information useful consider joining my free membership with over $500 worth of bonuses inside.

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There are several ways you can use cross promotions to increase your income. They’re handy for introducing new products or services.

For instance, when a customer chooses to purchase an information product for you, such as an eBook on Making Money on eBay, you can cross promote something that complements it – such as a software tool that lets them track their listings and inventory.

They also let you expand the scope of already established products. If a product you sell, such as a membership to your site, has items that would benefit your customers, you can cross promote them whenever the customer initially signs up.

Cross promotions are also good for helping your affiliates build their markets for you. You can offer items for your affiliates to cross promote, or they can use your product as their cross-promotion items they offer with their own existing products.

Cross promotions are great incentives for enticing joint venture partners. You can have a partnership with another business to cross promote their products and they do the same for you. Your customer benefits from the added value and opportunity.

When you embark in a cross-promotion campaign with a joint venture
partner, you are sharing advertising and promotion costs. Instead of buying ad space on someone’s site, they’re giving it to you.

It also reaps valuable referrals to your business. When you cross promote an item with someone else, you may retain that customer longer than just for one purchase – they may become a lifetime loyal  client of yours that brings more money into your bank account.

If you found this information useful consider joining my free membership with over $500 worth of bonuses inside.

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But not everyone has an endless stream of ready-to-publish photos at their fingertips. That’s why good stock photo sites are so popular. If you’re thinking about expanding your horizons, this might be an appealing option to explore.

With a decent digital camera, an eye for the interesting, and a knack for lighting and composition, you could find yourself with a successful new business. So, how do you go about building a stock photo business? What are the legal issues be you might face?

First, there are some legal issues that you’ll want to be aware of if you decide to get into the stock photography business. The biggest question is who has the rights to the photos or the images and what exactly can you photograph and sell without having to get permission?

It’s best to do your own research on the legalities of photographing the particular subject(s) that you’re interested. But, there’s some basic information that can set you on the right path.

Nature – If you’re photographing the trees, flowers, clouds, bugs, and birds that you see while on a walk through the park, you’re probably safe from facing copyright issues.

Photos shot on public property – If you’re shooting photos on public property, you may need to seek the permission of the governing authority that oversees that property, especially if there are security reasons. But, if you’re simply taking garden-variety photos, such as the nature photos mentioned above, it’s probably not necessary.

Private property – Don’t shoot photos on private property without permission of the property owner.

Buildings – You can photograph buildings that are in a public place or visible from a public place.

Works of Art – Often, works of art such as paintings, sculptures, statues, etc. are off limits if you’re planning to photograph them for a profit, unless you have permission from the copyright owner, which is usually the artist, not the owner of the piece of art.

Public Domain – Subjects that are public domain are those created before January 1, 1922. Copyright laws do not protect them.

People – If you’re planning on using a photo of a celebrity on your own site or to sell a photo that you took of a celebrity, you’ll need to have that person sign a release. People who aren’t celebrities are also protected from having a photo of them sold or used without their express permission. Be cognizant of the ramifications if you’re planning to include pictures of people in your stock photo site.

While using your own photography skills is an excellent way to create another stream of income, you’ll want to do thorough research before posting and selling your photos.

You should explore which photo categories you’ll want to sell. Studying established sites such as istockphoto.com, shutterstock.com, corbis.com, etc., will help you learn the ropes.

Pay close attention because you’ll need to have procedures and clear, strongly-stated terms of service established for your customers. You’ll need to build up a very large stock of digital photos to offer. Then, build your website and optimize it so that you start bringing in traffic.

Don’t forget to start a buzz about your new site by participating in discussions and forums, and submitting some good quality articles to directories on how to use photos to add impact to a website, sales page, or blog.

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But, while the Internet has its ethics problems, it also contains marketers who make tons of money, but do so with the utmost ethical values and attempt to help others along the way. In other words, making money online and greed can be mutually exclusive. If we wait long enough, we can tell the difference  between the two.

Those who use Internet marketing out of greed will eventually slip away. We may have to deal with them again under another name, but they’ll probably return with the same old greedy morals. Those of us who practice honesty and high ethics will remain as an example of all that integrity can accomplish.

Just as there are shady Internet marketers – there are also toxic Internet customers. These are a type of predator who wants something for nothing. They’ll purchase your product and then almost immediately call you a “scammer” and demand a refund. Don’t be swayed by these individuals – especially if you’ve offered a good product at a reasonable price.

Take the high ground — refund their money and continue down the road of Internet success. And remember, for each one of these negative moochers, there will be ten customers who will praise your work and inspire you to move on and create more.

Many Internet marketing ethics problems may arise because there are so few set limits (or regulations) about what you can and can’t get away with on the Internet. Those without integrity assume that if there’s no rule against something, then there are no holds barred. This affects all of us who attempt to run an Internet business with high values and honesty.

As the Internet grows in popularity and usability, it’s important that we develop some rules and guidelines that will serve us just as law enforcement serves our communities.Think about the enormous amount of information that we post on the Internet every day. Besides verbiage, there are archives of video, films and even audio that can be stored into infinity. This information can even be accessed from a cell phone, raising new questions of privacy and security.

Illegal and scamming Internet marketing is rampant and it will become increasingly difficult to decipher an honest marketer from one who is attempting to produce a shoddy product and then take your money and run. Now is the time when ethics and morals on the Internet should be carefully considered – especially for the future.

As you’re reading this article, thousands of new marketers are launching a business on the Internet, with no idea of the rules and their responsibility to uphold the integrity and honesty of their business. There are codes of ethics, such as the AMA (American Marketing Association) have posted on the Internet, but newbies aren’t required to read them, and there are no laws that uphold the ethical and professional conduct that the AMA advocates. (You can read the AMA Code of Ethics here ).

It’s vitally important that we all become participants in following this code of ethics to uphold the dignity of the Internet marketing profession. If we band together and live by what we know are rules of ethical conduct, we’ll better serve our customers. Some general rules in the AMA’s Code of Ethics include:

Follow rules and regulations that ensure that your customers receive an honest and fair-value product for their money.

Represent yourself and your product accurately.

Never present the work of others (in whole or in part) as your own work and benefit from it by compensation of any sort.

Respect the privacy of others in regard to accounts, passwords or any other private information.

Internet marketers who are merely out to make a buck consider the Internet as set apart from a society that must adhere to laws. As ethical internet  marketers, we should make it perfectly clear to others (especially newbies) that the internet is fast becoming a component of society and we owe it to ourselves and others to shape its control and content by setting high values. If not, it will surely come back to haunt us.

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How to build a membership site (go)
How to select a niche for your membership site (go)
How to promote a membership site (go)
The best membership site software (go)
Is a membership site right for you?

Membership sites can provide just the renewal income you are looking for. Instead of trying to continually capture new customers, you are catering to the needs of a loyal community who pay you a monthly fee to provide ongoing products or services – sometimes in the form of active participation by you.

Membership sites have been around a long time, but not everyone has jumped onboard. Some people view it as more of a hassle than a prospective goldmine of profits. You have to know the ins and outs of what it means to take on this responsibility and then continue it over the course of the year. It is not something you want to take on unless you can devote ample time to do it right.

If you fail to meet the needs of your members or subscribers, not only will your income dwindle as people begin to drop out, but the branding and reputation that you worked hard to build will crumble. The last thing you can afford to lose is your reputation.

Millions of people have subscribed to a membership site at least once, especially in the realm of learning the ropes about online marketing.But not all membership sites are built around the Internet marketing industry. Today’s trend is to build membership sites for specific niches, ranging from gardening enthusiasts to parenting to stock market traders.

The only part you have to consider is whether or not the niche has ongoing needs to be met and whether customers are willing to pay a recurring fee for that information. Not all membership fees have to be small. You might have a low membership cost for subscribers of a broad forum where you know you will be offering a lot of general advice to the masses, such as brides-to-be.

But if you choose a niche with limited appeal (such as stock market trading tips) where the information has to be highly targeted and updated, then you have the ability to charge much more. Some stock market forums have charged over $1,000 a month for their memberships, but the return on the investment was worth the cost.

Make sure you choose an evergreen topic where there is always an influx of new consumers. Your members can belong to a community with many perks, which are password-protected so that others cannot gain access to this privileged information. The members log in whenever they want to, or you alert them to the addition of new information, which should be on a consistent schedule.

The membership can be promoted the same way you would advertise any online venture. Draw traffic to the site, give them a taste of what you have to offer in the way of freebies, and then invite them to join for full access.

It may sound inviting to charge 100 members $20 a month for an additional $2,000 monthly income, but you have to make sure you can manage the upkeep of a membership site. You don’t have to limit the membership base, but some marketers do to enhance the exclusivity of what they have to offer.

You might also want to develop an affiliate program for your membership site. Many affiliates prefer to promote these types of sitesbecause it offers them a residual income, too. As long as the person they referred to you remains a paying customer, they get paid, too.

As you build a membership base, remember that you have ample upsell opportunities. Aside from the space within the site that can be used for banner and text links to affiliate programs and other offers you have, you can also use email marketing techniques with your subscribers.

Before you launch your site, have about six month’s worth of content ready – unless you are offering something solely based on a timely trend that has to be generated fresh each month. Having multiple months ready will alleviate the stress you feel of managing a large membership site and will give you ahead start on monetizing your latest venture.

You might want to outsource your content creation. If you choose a freelancer who has experience in the niche, then they may be able to help you plan for future content that will benefit your members.You want information that is worthy of a subscription payment.Don’t piece together data they can find for free online. Try to develop a unique slant or have so much information compiled in one place that they will be glad they committed to your site.

There are some ways you can launch a free membership site, such as creating your own private social network on Ning.com. But it’s better to host the membership site on your own domain and utilize a script that helps you manage the site’s administrative tasks.

Here are a few of the very best membership software you should consider when planning your launch strategy:

1. Rapid Action Profits Membership Package
2. aMember
3. VisonGate

Don’t let the thought of launching a membership site intimidate you. As long as you ensure the niche is viable and you are confident in your ability to run the site, you should be able to pull in a residual monthly income that sets the stage for more prominent backend earnings over the years to come.

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There are pros and cons to using a PLR product, so let’s cover what could benefit and hurt your business by using them. When you go seeking PLR content, you’ll find dozens of broad and nichebased membership sites catering to your needs.

What PLR Membership Sites Have to Offer

PLR sites have skyrocketed in number. With the motto Content Is King emblazoned all over the World Wide Web, it’s virtually impossible for a site owner and marketer to keep up with the insatiable desire for new information without a little bit of help.

Traditionally, marketers would go to a site like Elance or Guru and find reputable ghostwriters to create 100% original content. If you wanted to find a worthy writer, you’d be shelling out $20 per page or more.

With PLR membership sites, you pay a one-time monthly fee and then gain access to a whole host of niche articles. Each site differs in what they have to offer. Some offer PLR articles, with limits on how many members have access to each group. Others offer PLR eBooks, which you can brand and market as your own.

Some site produce weekly content, while others create articles and eBooks on a monthly basis. You may want to determine what your needs are and go with a site that can keep up with your demands.

The only thing you can’t do with the articles is sell (or give away) the private label rights to someone else. But why would you want to add to your own competition in the first place?

The Drawbacks to PLR Syndication

Originality is of course the primary issue. If all you do with your PLR membership is download articles and send them out virally, you’ll find they won’t be as effective until you brand them as your own.

Besides consumers being disappointed that you’re spamming the Internet with duplicate content, Google doesn’t like it, either. They penalize sites with duplicate content – so if you and 199 other people all have the exact same article that’s on your website, you could have your PageRank diminished.

It’s easy to brand your PLR content. First, add an opening paragraph to the content. Even if it already has an intro, tweak it to introduce your own voice and change it enough to convince the search engine spiders that it’s not duplicated from another site.

Second, tweak the ending the same way. Your conclusion should stand out among the other identical sites using the same articles. If you want to go one step further, switch out the keywords or change a sentence here and there.

The more you alter it, the more it helps to brand your name online, which is an important issue when marketing online and positioning yourself as an expert. You may be thinking, “If I have to change it, why not just write it myself?”

You can, if you have the time. Changing a keyword here and there using the “find/replace” option in Word allows you to quickly alter the content. And many of you can write an intro and conclusion to content that’s already established, but have trouble fleshing out topics on your own.

There’s Still A Lot Of Good in Securing Private Label Rights

With PLR access, you don’t have to wait for (or pay for) a ghostwriter to create your content – as soon as you sign up and log in, you can download what you need and put it to use as soon as you do some customization.

If you can find a niche that’s not heavily saturated, then PLR content will work even better for you because there will be fewer people using the same articles and eBooks.

You can put your PLR content to use in several different ways:

• Use them to fill up eZine or newsletter space.
• Take the eBooks apart and submit them to article directories in short, easy-to-digest chunks.
• Use them as free bonuses for your existing offers of membership sites or information products.
• Use them as autoresponder series emails to market to your list.
• Change the PLR eBooks so that they’re unique enough to brand them as your own information product.

There’s really no end to how you can use PLR content. Any way you’d use original content – blogs, viral articles, social networking site content like the modules on Squidoo or the pages within MySpace – you can use PLR material.

Where You Can Find PLR Membership Sites

I’m unaware of PLR membership sites that will give you more PLR content then PLRWholesaler. And it’s completely free! This is not the typical trash you often see online – this has serious value. It’s a lifetime membership to an excellent private label rights site. Here is what you’ll receive:

• Exclusive, Unique Software Available Nowhere Else!
• More Than 50 eBooks w/Private Label Rights!
• More Than 2000 Articles w/Private Label Rights!
• Video Courses w/Private Label Rights!
• Audio Articles w/Private Label Rights!
• And, really, much more…

=> http://www.plrwholesaler.com/download/clk.php?pid=2&a=24625

I guarantee you, no other collection of PLR products will do more for your business.

Or, search on Google to find PLR membership sites (just Google the phrase, “PLR membership” or “PLR articles”. Look for sites that have limited memberships available – or those who promise to create new batches of information should the membership exceed the allotted available spaces per batch.

For instance, look for sites that say only 200 people have access to the 400 articles on Parenting this month, or something similar to this. Too many members waters down the effectiveness of your content.

It’s okay to rely on PLR content for viral marketing and branding your business, since it is crucial to have massive amounts of content-driven pages, but don’t get lazy and fail to customize it to maximize its full potential.

Also, make sure that before you join a PLR membership site, you evaluate sample articles they offer for review. Is the author a native English speaker, or can you tell it was outsourced to another country for a cheap price?

Join for a short-term until you see the results of your marketing efforts using the PLR content and then sign up for a longer period of time, or upgrade to a membership with more perks if you feel it would serve you well.

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2. Drive Traffic to your Site with Private Label Rights

Setting Up Your Google AdSense Account

When you go to google.com/adsense, you’ll have to apply for an account and get it approved before you can start earning money with other people’s ads. First, they’ll ask for your website’s URL and language. Then they ask you to fill in your contact information so that they know where to send the money.

Here’s what you can’t do: You can’t entice or instruct people to click on your ads. You can’t click on the ads yourself.And you can’t place ads on an adult content site. People have lost thousands of dollars by violating Google’s rules and having their account shut down without notice so read the AdSense program policies carefully.

After you submit your request for approval, you should hear back from Google as to whether or not your site qualifies to run AdSense ads and Google search boxes. If you’re not approved, find out why and remedy the situation.

Placing the Ads on Your Site

Once your account is approved, log in and click on AdSense set-up. You can then create ad blocks that you’ll place within the HTML of your website – this is where the ads that are served from the Google servers will physically be placed on your website. You don’t have to be tech-savvy to do this.

You can open your web page in FrontPage (or any free HTML editor) and using the “Normal” view, choose where you want your ads to be placed and click on that spot. Then click on the HTML tab and wherever the mouse is currently at, ,paste it into the HTML code and click Save.

When you do a preview, you may not see the ads running right way.Usually there’s a 10 to 20 minutes lag between the time you submit it and the time it takes Googlebots to crawl your site and figure out what kinds of ads to show based on your subject matter.

They automatically know if your site is about baseball, to show baseball ads. If it’s about Internet marketing, then those kinds of ads will show up. Have you ever opened an email in Gmail (Google mail) and noticed the ads match something about your email?

For instance, if your email is from your “mom” then mother’s day ads might show up. If you sent an email to someone about your family tree or genealogy, then ads for those topics would be at the top of your Gmail account – it’s all a part of how Google defines relevancy and caters to the needs of your traffic.

If you choose AdSense for content,you’ll determine what size ad you want,the color scheme, and whether you want a block ad space or text links. After formatting them to look how you want,you can place the ads on channels.

Channels allow you to track and test your ads. You can see which colors perform best, whether placement at the top left corner of your site or on the right sidebar delivers more click-throughs, and which formats (links or ad blocks) visitors are attracted to more than others. When you select all of the specifics, you then see a box of HTML code, which you simply cut and paste into your website wherever you want it to be.

You also have the opportunity to use AdSense for search. If you choose to put a search box on your site, you can customize it so that it only lets them search Google, or search up to three other sites. You can also choose what kinds of results show up according to your site’s theme and track the performance of various search boxes by using channels again.

When you’re setting up your Adsense account, you can use a competitive ad filter that blocks your competitors from showing up within your ad blocks or search engine boxes. You don’t have to block the whole domain, but you can block one page if you wish.

As you continue building your website or blog, you’ll want to periodically run reports to see how your ads are performing. Then, to help you earn the most money from your content, test and tweak them on additional pages to determine which methods your visitors prefer.

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1. Niche Market Research with Google Experiments
2. Make Money With Google Adsense (Part 2)

As marketers, we use multiple traffic generating strategies to get the most out of our online efforts. One method you want to start using is Private Label  Rights (PLR). PLR content is content that is created by one person and sold to many marketers to use as their own.

For instance, a ghostwriter may write a batch of articles on How to Make Money at Home. Then the articles are sold to a certain number of marketers, who then have the opportunity to tweak and alter them or use them as-is, inserting their own hyperlinks to funnel traffic to their sites.

While some marketers mistakenly use the articles without any alterations, your best bet is to take the PLR package and make a few changes – just enough to differentiate them in the eyes of Google spiders and other search engines.

You can change the title, add a short introduction or conclusion, or switch the text around, sprinkling in a few sentences of your own here and there. This way your site isn’t penalized for duplicate content.

PLR packs are much cheaper than buying unique content from a ghostwriter. The ghostwriter benefits because multiple buyers grab their products, and the customer gets discounted pricing. After you get it and alter it, you’re ready to post it on the web to generate traffic to your domain.

Where to Use PLR Content

If you have targeted your niche on social sites like Squidoo or MySpace, then you can take your PLR articles and post them as blog entries to your social pages. For instance, take your PLR article pack and create different lenses on  Squidoo focusing on whatever the article talks about.

If you have two articles about dog care, and one is on grooming while another is about fleas, you could have two lenses focusing on different dog care topics, with both sending traffic to your domain or affiliate product.

Do you already use article directories to send traffic to your sites? If not, you can sign up for free at www.EzineArticles.com and www.GoArticles.com and submit viral articles that other publishers can pick up and use as long as they maintain the hyperlinks you place within the article and in your bio box.

Make sure you alter the PLR content enough so that it appears unique at first glance. You can also use Private Label Rights content on your own website. The thing you want to be careful about here is that Google scans your site to see if it has content that’s duplicated from another site.

You don’t want to knock your domain into the Google Sandbox just because you didn’t take the time to switch up the text to satisfy the search engine spiders.

PLR content makes it easy to get quick text for your site, but it’s not meant as a plug-in product. Some marketers are even using Private Label Rights articles as posts in forums. You don’t want to cut and paste the entire article, but you can use a PLR article and take a snippet from it while asking the rest of the forum for their opinion on it.

For example, maybe the article on dog care tells pet owners to take their dog to the vet as soon as they notice any scratching of the ears. You can post a comment in a dog care forum (where your signature file directs people to your domain) that sparks a discussion about how soon pet owners should react to unusual health concerns.

Where Do You Find Private Label Rights Content?

Private Label Rights are sold in many different ways. Some sites have memberships where you join and anywhere from 250 to 1,500 members all use the same content.

Some sites don’t tell you what niche content you’ll get for the coming month, so one month you might get dog care but the next month it’s diabetes. You can find sites that deliver just articles and those that create entire PLR packs for you – with eBooks, autoresponders, and graphics.

There are also no-membership sites where you can buy packs of five articles at a time for $5 and if you don’t see what topic you want, you submit a request form. Sites like these have no limit on the  number of people who can buy the packs, but you can see how many have purchased before you.

You can also find deals on PLR packs by going to Internet marketing forums where PLR writers gather.Private Label Rights sites are all over the place, so you can Google your niche keyword plus PLR and see if someone has created a PLR site just for your target audience.

Your best bet is to either find a PLR site catering to your niche, so that you know what topics you’ll be getting, or find one where you can custom-order your batches without having to sign up for a membership where you’re not sure if deliveries in the coming month will be worth your on-going investment.

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In fact, this concept is so widespread that it’s become abused and misunderstood by newcomers who think becoming an online success means logging on in a single day, launching five new businesses and waking up to a bank account full of money.

The Myth of Multiple Streams of Income

We all know there are a million different ways to make money online. You can launch your own products, become an affiliate salesperson, be a service provider, launch a membership site, or take a dozen other different routes to passive profits.

The problem comes about when an entrepreneur fails to monetize a single stream before trying to build the next one.They get too many plates spinning in the air and all at once, they come crashing down until the person finally gives up in despair, believing all Internet marketing concepts are just a scam.

It is true that you can and probably should develop multiple streams of income. It’s the most natural way to create backend opportunities for your initial product line. For instance, let’s say you begin by building an AdSense site on a niche topic – like gambling.

You start seeing a lot of traffic coming in. As your site begins to make money on AdSense, you then introduce affiliate products on things such as “How to Win at Poker.”

Instead of also starting something else right away, you want to focus on building your AdSense content up to levels that will boost your ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and also test which affiliate items have the highest conversion rates for you.

Once you see maximum returns on your investment so far, then you introduce a new element to our income stream. It might be a product that you develop on How to Play Nickel Slots and Win Big. This way, you get to keep 100% of the earnings and not split it with someone else.

Launching your own product takes a lot of time and effort to get it to take root successfully. At the same time, you have to be capable of maintaining your other income formulas – the AdSense site and affiliate revenue.

If at any time you focus on the newest endeavor and completely ignore the previous ventures, then your income will dip again until you provide some attention to it and run each one as if they’re separate businesses that each need a CEO in charge.

Jack of All Trades…Master of None

You want to take your multiple streams of income journey slowly, but not put it on the back burner forever. You have to get good at one thing – become a master at one thing – before you move on and try to tackle something else.

Anyone who tells you that online entrepreneurs have it easy is lying. Its hard work, but if done properly, it works and provides you with unlimited profit potential like no other business in the world.

Too often in the online marketing world, an entrepreneur will think he’s getting a great education by tuning into (and paying for!) what all the gurus have to say and staying abreast of changes in the online marketplace.

But how often do you get sidetracked and want to jump on to the “next big thing” before anyone else does it? You’re intimidated by saturation and don’t want to miss the boat while many other entrepreneurs go after the goldmine that’s yet to be tapped into.

Here’s where you can stay afloat above the crowds. You want to let everyone else make a fool’s rush to the new concepts while you stay focused and prepared to monetize your own efforts.

Compare your online business to a garden. You can’t plant seeds and expect to see flourishing plants the very next morning. First, you have to space the seedlings apart and give each one room to grow; you have to water and feed them on a regular basis; and, just as a gardener has to remove weeds that could jeopardize the health of their plants, you, as a cyberpreneur, must devote time in your day to evaluating your online strategy and tweak it so that you’re not spinning your wheels and impeding your success.

Don’t let product launches and new ideas get the best of you. Hold onto your wallet and save your purchase for a later date when your schedule is open to developing your next stream of income.

It’s too easy to see the next big thing on the horizon and invest in it just because you’re hoping to hit one out of the ballpark and have a million dollar day. Just keep reminding yourself, “Do I want to spend time and money and only to wind up back to square one in six months, or spend my time wisely and see substantial profits in six months?” Be a wise business owner and your efforts will pay off as others chase the instant profit mirage.

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The concept of the site is simple. You sign up for an account and then fill out a profile. You can make a list of your interests, add photos of yourself, and even include fun add-ons to your profile. Then you can look for other people you’d like to network with and add them to your list of friends.

Most people use these friends lists just to meet like-minded individuals and make friends, but marketers also use the site to get in touch with potential customers. It can be a great way to find traffic if you know what you’re doing.

Marketing on Facebook is a complex system that may take a while to master. You see, unlike most other social networks, Facebook has no problem with people using the site to network for business purposes and even do a little marketing. But they don’t like certain kinds of marketing, so you have to be very careful about the type of marketing you use.

You don’t want to get banned. You may spend a lot of time building lists of friends and developing relationships with them so you can market to them. If your account is banned, you’ll lose all of the friends you’ve built up and thus lose all of the work you’ve put into building the list in the first place!

Smart marketers know that time and money should never be wasted, so it pays to follow the rules. Why spend weeks building a large list of friends, only to destroy what you’ve built with a few big mistakes? It’s much better to play it straight and make money from your list of friends for the long term.

The basic premise of social marketing is to build a list of friends orfollowers, then network with them in order to build name recognition and get your links seen. In order for social marketing to be truly effective, you’re going to have to actually network with people. It’s not called a “friends list” for nothing!

You’ll need to actually talk to people, build relationships, and build trust. Basically, you want people to remember your name and trust you enough to buy whatever it is you are selling or recommending. This is true for any niche, not just marketing to other marketers.

Let’s say you’re building a list of friends in the golf niche. You’ll want to specifically seek out golfers to comprise the majority of your list, of course. Then you’ll need to actually talk to them about golf. Imagine for a moment that you’re not there to make money – you’re actually just a regular golf fan who wants to talk to other golfers about your passion.

This is the frame of mind you need to be in. You need to build a presence as if you’re just there to discuss your passion for the market you’re targeting, whatever that market may be. It helps if you’re really interested in the niche, because it will make it easier for you to interact and become trusted by the people you want to market to.

Pouring your heart into your interactions with people will get you friends who are loyal and trusting. They’ll feel the passion you have for the topic, and they’ll start to respect you as someone who really knows what they’re talking about.

This is key. If you want people to trust you and buy from you, they need to believe you’re really an authority on the topic. Most people are smart enough to know they should only take advice from someone who actually appears to have expert knowledge and experience on a particular topic

The point is, people buy from people they know, like, and trust, and they take advice from people they believe are knowledgeable about the topic. It makes little sense to do otherwise, because taking advice from someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about can potentially cause problems, and at the very least be frustrating.

One very good way to market on Facebook is to start groups. A group is filled with people who share a common interest. For example, if you’re in the golf niche you could start a group specifically for golfers.

You could even further focus the niche by building a group specifically for female golfers or professional golfers. The more tightly-focused the niche group is, the more effective it’s likely to be in selling products to that target audience.

Groups are great, because you can do almost anything you want with them. You can invite anyone on your friends list to join your group. They have no obligation to join, of course, but those who do are fair game for marketing.

As long as you don’t use the group to constantly spam members and you actually make the group a fun and educational activity, you’ll have a list of people who are proven to be interested in a topic and you’ll have permission to market to them. And, voila, you have the perfect seller/buyer scenario!

You’re also free to place links to your own websites and products on your Facebook profile page. Anyone who becomes your friend and looks at your profile can see those links, and they can follow them to visit your websites. Just don’t add affiliate links to your profile. Facebook doesn’t want people using their site to spam affiliate links.

One thing you should not do is spam your friends’ “walls.” A wall is the section on a profile where peoplecan leave comments. Some people will write on other people’s walls and drop links in. This is not only considered bad form, but it could get you banned.

If you want to make use of walls, you can just leave interesting comments regarding your niche, and people can become your friend if they like the post you made. This is a great place to show off your knowledge of your niche.

You can post interesting tidbits of information or answer people’s questions this way. To make money online through Facebook may seem a bit complex, but it’s actually very easy. The traffic potential is great, so it’s worth taking the time to learn how to do it the right way!

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People are asking questions like: Which methods work best? How will I get the fastest return on my online marketing efforts? Should I divide my marketing tactics into multiple methods or use one or two tried and true ways to drive traffic to my sites? Marketers feel anxious and want to know how fast they’ll start making money.

In the Beginning – A Few Words About Branding

Until you become well known in your niche, you have to work on becoming the go-to person for your consumers.Branding gets your name out there. It lets people know who you are and what you have to offer. It plays a major part in the success of your business.

Branding is not about your logo – it’s about you. How you present yourself and your business when strategizing for an Internet marketing campaign should be first and foremost in your planning before you even begin advertising.

Keep in mind that you have to achieve the goal of rising above your competitors so that you stand out in the customer’s mind, leading them to choose you over the rest. So focusing on your branding will greatly assist your marketing endeavors regardless of which electronic advertising methods you ultimately
choose.

Different Methods Deliver Different Results

Joint ventures and affiliate marketing are two profitable and fast-working methods of marketing your products that sort of work along the same wavelength. In a joint venture situation, you actually unite with another marketer and advertise via a list using email marketing campaigns.

You can set up a JV relationship and start seeing results as soon as your partner’s list receives the email and converts their readership into making a purchase. It might also be a situation where you blast your list with his product, and he does the same for you in return.

The partners equally share in the responsibility for each other’s products and services as well as the expenses and revenues. It’s a little more of a personal means of getting yourself known in comparison to other Internet marketing methods because it’s a more direct route to the target audience and you have a realpartner working with you that those on the list already trust.

This is more effective than a link to your business on some generalized website. Joint ventures can be a very lucrative method of getting a quick return on your web-based advertising endeavors. You just have to pick the right partner.

In the e-commerce industry, affiliate marketing is one of the most popular methods of web-based advertising – because it’s easy. The way it works is you join an affiliate network and you advertise your sales page using methods such as posting your link in forums, in signature files, through email marketing, and on the web using article directories, social marketing, and your own web content.

You don’t have to take time out for product creation or site development if you don’t want to. Using a site like ClickBank, you can get a free affiliate ID, link it in your sig file and start seeing sales instantly from whatever product you’re promoting when people read your post about it and follow through on your link.

The bottom line on how fast you’ll make money from affiliate marketing is that it all depends on how fast you can get the links in front of the eyes of your target audience.

Google AdWords can also deliver fast results. As soon as you set up your ads to run, you can experience click-throughs and sales in mere minutes. You’re probably familiar with term AdWords even if you haven’t begun your marketing endeavors yet because it’s basically become a household name – which is great for Google and could be for you as well.

AdWords is only one of the payper- click search engines. There are many of them, but Google is the premiere search engine, so many marketers focus on that system instead of branching out to others.

You determine which words you want utilized to activate a search engine result and ultimately drive traffic to your site. If you’ve ever performed a search via the Google engine, you may have noticed the ads in the column to the right of the page’s main result links. Those are Pay-Per-Click ads and are displayed as sponsor links in that right-hand section of the results page.

Advertisers pay to have their site links displayed in that area of the search engine results page and based on how click-throughs are achieved, rankings can increase based on that as well as how much has been paid for the listing initially – there’s actually a bidding process that takes place amongst marketers who want higher Google rankings, so your advertising costs could increase dependant on that factor.

However, if you’ve got what Google considers quality content (automatically determined through their algorithm) commissions could reach the higher end of the profit spectrum for you. Yahoo! and MSN are two more of the popular search  engine systems you will want to check out if you’re considering Pay-Per-Click advertising.

The Big Picture Overall

What you really want to do when exploring your Internet marketing options is to think in terms of the long haul. Making a quick buck can be an appealing benefit to many advertisers, but your real goal in all of this is to attract visitors who will ultimately become lifetime customers.

If you can afford it, try out several methods and give it some time in order to determine what’s working best for you and providing you with the most revenue. Then you can re-determine your choices based on the results because you  obviously don’t want to spend money on advertising that isn’t giving you a  decent return.

With most marketing on the Internet, it becomes a snowball. Your first sale grows into more, and soon you have many streams of income funneling cash into your account. The key is to focus on whatever generates the best conversions for you, and that, dear reader, takes time to test.

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We’re living in an exciting era.With just a little time and very little money invested, you can be on your way to making a fulltime income online.Internet marketing is the easiest way to make money online from home.

Everyone from teenagers to retirees are cashing in on the phenomenon. With new technology being developed, hundreds of ways to make money and an endless supply of buyers, Internet marketing can be your “golden goose.”

How To Make Money Online?

Internet marketing is a broad term for marketing products and information online. When most people think of making money online, they assume they have to open some sort of online retail store. While plenty of Internet marketers do this, the vast majority of them make their money from marketing ideas and information.

Starting an “offline” business usually cost a ton of money. Starting a retail business online however is definitely cheaper, but there are still costs involved. Marketing ideas and information to people has the lowest start up cost of all. Depending on how you run your online business, your monthly costs could be literally nothing per month, with several thousand dollars of profit.

One of the most popular methods of making money online is by becoming an affiliate for someone else’s product. Of course, this is just one of many, many methods that you can use online to make money. Even if you did decide to have a small website or a mailing list, you could have both for under $30 per month.

That can easily be made back with the sale of just one eBook. Anything on top of that is pure profit. Even the largest Internet marketing businesses have lower overhead than a small retail store in the offline world.

It’s no wonder so many people are realizing that working online is a perfect solution for entrepreneurs. The rewards in Internet marketing are exponential. The more you get to know the market and the methods for making money, the more you’ll be able to make.

You can find one idea and use several different methods to make money from that niche. Imagine having a half dozen profit streams from the same group of buyers! Let’s look at another example of how you can easily profit from working online:

Most people start their online businesses while they’re still working fulltime. The beauty of the Internet is that you can set up automated systems that can make money for you while you sleep and while you’re working for someone else.

For example, you know a lot about gardening. You have a lot of advice to give and feel that people could benefit from your experience. You write an eBook about the topic and then set up a small website to sell the eBook.

With just a few systems in place (basically a payment system and a delivery system) you’ll be able to automatically sell your eBook to anyone that visits your website.

The best part is that you won’t have to do anything after the initial set up. While it does take a little bit of time to set up these systems, once you do they’ll be making money for you indefinitely.

Many people concentrate their Internet business on setting up dozens of systems just like this so they can multiply their profits. I’ve talked about eBooks in both of these examples, but they aren’t the only ways to make money online.

You can make money online from displaying ads on a website. You can promote physical products and services and make commissions from their sales. You can even offer a service to others like graphic design or writing.

Since the costs of doing business online are so low, you can realize your dream of owning your own business. The variety of projects you can complete and the different niches you can market to will keep your Internet marketing career exciting.

The time involved is minimal when you compare it to a traditional business. How often is a store able to sell items while the owner sleeps? When have you been able to make a paycheck without even showing up to work?

The problem with owning your own business offline is that you often end up creating a new 9 to 5 job for yourself (or 5 to 9 job!). With Internet marketing, you can make money and live your life at the same time.

Your business won’t consume your free time, even if you’re running it in addition to holding down a fulltime job. Once you’ve had enough success to quit your day job, you’ll have even more time to do the things that you love to do.

Working online isn’t something that’s out of your reach. With the technology available today, even the least technical people can build a website and start making money online.

There’s no reason to delay your online success any longer. Internet marketing has opened up opportunities for so many people around the world. You can live the life you’ve always wanted to live and work for yourself from the comfort of your home, without spending a lot of time, energy and money. This golden goose isn’t flying away anytime soon, and has something to offer for everyone.

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Seth Godin has authored many best-selling books, including Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, Unleashing the Idea Virus, and All Marketers Are Liars. In one of his latest creations, called The Dip, he unveils a sensible approach to analyzing your success and progress.

It’s almost pocket-sized and a mere 80-pages long, but it packs a powerful message that not all marketers need to keep going if it isn’t working. It’s okay to quit, but you need to know when it’s going to better your success and when it would be wiser to stay the path.

Seth starts out teaching you why it’s important to be the best in your industry, in your market, and in your niche. This is where the dip starts out in life – you choose a path and to get to the pit stop, your going to have to endure some potholes along the way.

Some people will pass the dips with ease, like a driver behind the wheel of a powerful truck. Others will get stuck, spin their wheels, and give up. Some settle for where they’re at and never move anywhere.

Seth says that society rewards the exceptional. How can you be an exceptional marketer? You can adhere to ethical marketing practices. You can create top quality products and provide excellent customer service. You can think outside the box and attempt something unique.

The Dip will happen to you, if it hasn’t happened already. You got into internet marketing with excitement about the income possibilities and enthusiasm to work for yourself.

Then the Dip happens. You’re putting in the effort but not seeing the results. Think of the dip as the velvet rope keeping you out of a nightclub. You were all excited getting dressed up and going to the club, but once you got there, the bouncer said, “Sorry, you can’t come in.”

Will you wait it out and sweet-talk your way through the door or leave and go to another club? People who get in don’t follow the rules – they make new ones. They work the bouncer until he caves in.

It’s an opportunity to become better at what you do, not just get through it all. Be aware of your dips so that you can make a decision about pushing through or quitting before you waste time. If you recognize yourself as a serial quitter, then it’s time to read The Dip and get your focus back on track.

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Bottom line is this: your website is a tool to make money online and you need to make sure it’s being used to make every sale possible. Here are the Big 3 – your website’s reason for existing, if you will:

1) Bringing In Customers – That seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many sites were built for just that purpose only to fall dreadfully short of hopes and expectations.

So how can you attract new customers to your site and then turn them into customers who buy something from you? The answer to this question has two parts. First:

- Get your site noticed by making sure that it’s a visually appealing site with lots of good information.

- Get your site noticed by making sure it’s search engine friendly and that you’ve got some excellent-quality backlinks in place.

- Get your site noticed by branding yourself in several areas of the web – use social networking sites to your advantage.

Now that you’ve gotten your site noticed, and the customers are visiting it:

- Make sure your website tells each new visitor what you’re offering and why they need it in very clear language.

- Clearly let your customers see all of the benefits of making a purchase of one or several of your products and services.

- Make it easy for your customers to  complete a purchase. Show them where to sign up for emails and newsletters and give them a good reason for doing so (this will come in handy later).

- Make it clear to your customers that you are a trusted expert and that they can look to you in the future for other great products and services.

When your site brings in new customers and converts them to sales, you both win. Even if a customer doesn’t make a purchase, if you’ve made a positive impression, they may come back later and you might get another chance.

2) Bringing Customers Back Again – Once should never be enough.

You want you get your customers to visit you again and again. So once your customer has been at your site, and hopefully made a purchase, how can you bring him or her back?

- Customers that have signed up for your newsletter or regular update emails will always have your name stuck in their memory because you will be periodically sending them interesting and exciting emails and newsletters. This is perfect because they’ll think of you when they need something that you offer.

- You can bolster your retention by offering specials and promotions via these emails and newsletters.

- You can offer weekly Podcasts or a blog feed to your customers. Give them plenty of useful information about things that are related to your business, and special offers for subscribers.

- Encourage feedback in the form of forums or comments. You can also incorporate a contact form into your site where customers can send you a question or comment.

- Offer tutorials or exclusive reports to those who have purchased products as a special incentive to come back.

Part of getting your customers to stick around is just helping them remember your name over and over, and part of it is getting them excited about what you’ve got to offer.The last part ofthe equation is reminding them that you care and that they can look to you for assistance with what they need.

The third component of the Big 3 reasons for your website’s existence is:

3) To Add Onto Existing Sales – Whatever it is that you’re selling, you can bet that there’s something else (or a number of items) that you could sell along with it to boost revenue.

One time offers, cross promotions, and affiliate marketing will add to your revenue on existing sales and each of these methods should be considered.There’s probably a long list of items that would go with your product or service.

Focus on which of your products sell best and be sure to offer your customers add-on products with each sale – at the time of the sale. If you have products that are lagging behind in sales, pair them with something that may help bolster them as a special offer.

Use the information you have on what your bestsellers are and which customers bought which products to send out special offers in your newsletters and emails to your customers.

If your site isn’t doing each of these, or not doing them well, it’s time to ramp up your efforts and make a few changes. When these three elements are working, you’ll make more money and your customer retention rate will improve.

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Let’s face it, success is energizing. What does your family think about your online success? Sure, they are thrilled to see you at home, but what do they see? They see the back of your head as you face the monitor.

Are you at home but not with them? Does your family really have more time, or less, with you since you became an entrepreneur? Is this what you wanted? If your answers are at all vague, it is time to reassess your goals and get your life on the track you envision.

Leaving the 9-5 office job for working at home was supposed to give you more time with your family, more time for sports, more time for hobbies … just more time. Is that happening?

Think back to the reasons you wanted to work independently and answer these key questions with brutal honesty:

1.) What were the top three priorities that you would focus on if you had more time?

2.) How many of them do you have time for in your life right now?

3.) Are those still your life priorities? If not, revise your top three priorities list. Don’t just think about it – type it and print it out for a constant dose of reality.

Making your personal development plan work for you, while you work to support your family, takes as much planning and analysis as you put into creating a successful online business.

Now look at the seven elements of your life. Think of these as building block of various sizes that join to reflect who you are and what motivates you.

These elements are:

1. Mind: mental and emotional
2. Body: health and wellness
3. Spirit: connection outside my self
4. Financial: supporting self and family
5. Relationships: significant other, family, friends
6. Recreation: enjoyable activities, sports, hobbies
7. Community: involvement in helping others

If you want to go all the way with your personal development plan, then it is time to create a journal page (typed or handwritten) for each of these elements. State at least three goals for each element. They can be a mix of short-term and long-term achievements.

Short-term goals can be completed in less than six months. Long-term goals take from six months to ten years. Once you write these things down, you will have some direction.

Those random thoughts of, “Gee, I wish I could help with the beach cleanup project” or, “I need to start a walking program to improve my health” become goals that are turned into actions.

You can use this personal development plan in two different ways. You can focus on a different element for each day of the week. Or you can devote a week to each element.

Add notes in your journal about what you did toward that goal and how you felt afterward. Once something becomes a consistent part of your life schedule, like getting up and walking two miles before turning on the computer, then mark it off and add a new goal. Keep at least three goals for each life element.

The biggest obstacle to personal development planning is getting started. The next obstacle is committing to stay with your plan. Yet busy marketers do exactly this process for their work schedule, so why not for their  personal lives?

Could it be because you are so driven to succeed that you don’t see how you could make money by taking a ceramic class or playing touch football in the park with the kids? Well, here’s the surprise: you will make even more money by doing those things.

Toss away any notion that a personal development plan is selfish, because it is far from that. The more you grow as a person, the more you have of yourself to give to your family, friends and community. Sending a check to charity is easy. Giving your time and your attention is a prize of great worth, particularly to your family.

When your life has direction on several levels, not just in business, you are a more relaxed, creative, and energized person. Unless you use the freedom that being an independent businessperson brings, then you might as well get in the car and fight the traffic back to your old job.

Before, you had little time for personal development and you wanted it so much. Now you have the potential to take time for personal development, but it might be left to the wayside while you pave a path to online riches.

Here is your official permission to go for it! Even if you lose a sale from an impatient buyer who can’t wait a few hours for an answer, let it go. What was more valuable in the grand scheme of living: the two hours you went to your son’s soccer game or a few dollars from the sale of an ebook?

Some choices in life are just that basic. You have to take time to keep all of life’s elements in balance. Are you ready to get serious about a personal development plan?

Start with the process suggested here. If you need more structure or  monitoring, consider hiring a qualified life coach to keep you moving forward toward the life you want.

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Here’s what you should do – think of your passion, but also consider what variants of an online business are deal breakers for you. Whatever comes to mind as something you are interested in pursuing could be the point of entry into your business endeavor.

The great thing about Internet marketing is the vast number of opportunities available to pick and choose from when it comes to starting your own online business. Among ,some of the successful business people in the world today, Donald Trump is driven by doing the next ,great real estate deal. Marc Jacobs loves fashion. The late E. Gary Gygax was passionate about games.  All of these people love or loved what they did – and they made a success out of it.

If your passion is numismatism, then you probably know a lot more about coins than the average person. Think about setting up a website and writing about the differences in coins, what the date stamp means, grading, and whatever else is involved in collecting coins. Likewise, a hilatelist would have extensive knowledge of stamps and could easily author enough content to populate dozens of sites.

You have many options regarding your passion and how you could monetize it. Take your information and neatly package it together for mass marketing with direct links to your info product or affiliate links to other people’s products.

Engage in a buy-sell-trade environment such as eBay, Yahoo Shopping, Amazon, or your own site. If you want recurring income, then take your passion and make a membership site. If you think you know of a way to make other people rich, and you believe you can perpetuate it, then set up a multi-level marketing structure that would benefit all.

Many people will tell you that you should have actual experience in what you want to monetize, but that isn’t always necessary. While it can be a definite boon to your endeavor, you can always find people who are willing to do your work for you. As long as you can set up the mechanism, the details will fall into place.

A good business model involves providing resources other than just passion. You need to be able to answer the customer’s call of, “What’s in it for me?” Whatever your business plan involves, it will always help to have a good strategy as well as a passion for what you do.

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Instead of pouring your heart and soul into a niche that’s saturated, you can branch out and find other niches that are either untapped to date, or have a relatively low number of competitors.

Here are the top three things you need to look at when you research a new niche to see if it will provide the kind of success you’re seeking in catering to the online consumer:

Does the Market Have Needs?

When people go online to buy, they’re not thinking to themselves, “What products can I buy today?” Instead, they’re concerned with solving their problems, no matter how trivial they might seem to someone else.

A woman in her 30s might be looking for a skin care regimen. A 50-year old man might be seeking a way to stop snoring so that he and his wife don’t have to sleep in separate bedrooms. A proud mother might be looking for a way to get her baby started in baby modeling.

These consumers are sometimes seeking free information. But when they stumble on a site that offers exactly the solution they were looking for, it doesn’t matter if there’s a price tag attached to it – if it’s affordable, they’ll eat it up.When you’re looking for a niche to tap into, ask yourself what needs they have.

You may think that a billionaire with a perfect family may not be a good market to tap into. Or is he? Maybe he has all the money in the world to spend, but he just can’t find that one solution to help him shave a few points off of his short game on the golf course. You could provide that tip – and he’d be willing to pay for it. Everyone – even rich people – have needs to be met.

Consider people from all walks of life – parents, clergymen, teachers, siblings, students, etc. What needs does each group have that you could possibly create a solution for? Parents might need products or instruction guides to raise their kids. Clergymen might like spiritual guidance on leading a congregation. Teachers could use tips for getting more out of their career and handling students.

Address the possibilities by brainstorming a list of needs and wants because desires can be just as motivating as needs.

Is It a Paying Market?

The second most important factor is whether or not it’s a market that has money to spend for products and information. If you’re targeting extremely poor consumers but your product is affordable and a necessity, then there’s a chance they might still spend their money with you.

But if you’re offering a splurge item, then you need to cater it to those who can afford to buy on a whim. Some target audiences that have deep pockets are: Golfers (it’s an expensive hobby), gamblers (they throw money around on a chance), parents (even thrifty ones are willing to spend money for products to enhance their children’s lives).

Is your target audience willing to pay for your information? Tangible products are different because it’s a tool they can hold and put to use. But with an information product, the consumer makes you compete with the billions of websites that offer information for free.

You can combat the freebie competitors by offering a comprehensive product or one that has a slightly different slant not found elsewhere online. It’s an inconvenience for people to have to dig around in hundreds of websites to find what they need, so providing a thorough accounting of a topic could be worth their investment.

You can check the profitability of a niche by seeing how much competition there is for the most relevant keywords. If you look up a keyword through Google Adwords and it shows that it costs a lot to bid on that word, then chances are it’s a paying market – even if the number of competitors is great.

Does It Have Long-Term Potential?

You don’t want to choose a niche that will be gone when you wake up tomorrow. As you know, niches can be narrowed down again and again until your target audience is extremely small.

Targeting a niche concerned about the implications of a Bird Flu Pandemic might create a profit for you in the short-term, but will it sustain your finances for years to come? Probably not.

You can create products that are relevant to the market for years and do updates to them as the years pass if new information has come along. For instance, an eBook on child custody for dads is product created for a narrow target audience that would be willing to pay but it also has potential for longevity. There will always be child custody disagreements, and although laws change with the times, you can easily access your original information product and update it with current statistics and legal advice.

If you consider the three elements above you’re well on your way to making a lot of money online!

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A horrible new disease? What about the new movie, DVD or CD releases? When you start thinking along these lines, you can see more avenues for choosing good niches to claim your stake.

Think of Oprah Winfrey. Almost every day her show is something new and compelling – a world-class book, a new exercise or health program, or an important cause that she is bringing to light. People around the world watch her show religiously and hang on her every word.

When she features a product, a program, or a person on her show – the fame and fortune of the person or thing is guaranteed. Pay attention to what she does, because you can bet that people will be looking for that product or program, or a similar one, or for more information about the person she spent her afternoon with.

This is one way you can use star power to determine where to head with your own new products. There are other ways to get in on star power. When a new movie is released, especially if it’s a raging success, people will start looking for related merchandise.

Posters from that movie and items related to other movies the movie’s biggest stars have been featured in. Tickets and props, even costumes are fair game. The same principle works for the release of long-awaited classic or cult films on DVD, and new CDs by popular artists.

What about product placement in popular movies and music? When you watch a video or movie and a certain type of shoe is being worn, or a certain type of wine is being served, it will stick in people’s minds. (Look what Sex and the City did for Manolo Blahnik and Cosmopolitans!) Think about all the items that are associated with a favorite kid’s TV show or film that is gaining in popularity.

The possibilities are endless. Pay attention to what the stars and the newscasters are talking about and what they’re doing. Keep your eye on product placement especially in popular TV shows, videos and movies. People will be looking for anything they endorse, appear to endorse, or anything they deem important.

Track the top keyword searches on the main search engines. Look for trends – for example, if you find a spike in searches for a certain disease – maybe it was featured on a talk show or news show – you might jump on content and related sales for that. Think about mad cow disease – a couple years ago it was all over the news and people were frantically looking for information on how to protect themselves.

If you want to get a jump on the next niche trend, pay attention to what the rumblings are about on TV, the news, and among the stars. Do some quick keyword trend searches, and get moving to quickly capitalize on it!

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Although there is value in creating your own product, affiliate marketing is, in fact, not dead and there is definitely still a lot of money to be made. You just have to take the time to learn how to create a winning affiliate marketing campaign, then wait for the money to start rolling in.

There are three big components to effective affiliate marketing. The first component is focus. Many newcomers make the mistake of spreading themselves too thin across several different affiliate marketing methods. They may also try to post affiliate links for dozens of different products on the same page.

Focus comes in different forms. First you’ll have to focus on the niche that you want to market to. Then you’ll have to choose one to three products that you’ll be promoting to that niche. Finally, you’ll have to focus on promoting that site until you start to get a steady stream of affiliate sales coming in. Then, and only then, do you move onto promoting the next affiliate program or creating your next affiliate site.

The next component is creating value for your potential customers. When people read your article, visit your site, or read your e-mail course, what are they really learning? Make sure to provide actual value to your readers. Don’t rehash the points that everyone else does. Provide an honest review and give valuable information rather than a blatant sales pitch.

One of the best ways to create value is to actually purchase and evaluate (by using) the product or service that you are recommending. It’s hard to describe something that you’ve never experienced yourself. It will take a little bit of money to get the products or services, but the quality of your affiliate site or your article marketing will go through the roof. The extra sales will more than make up for your expenses.

Finally, effective affiliate marketing campaigns must focus on careful keyword selection .Without the right keywords, no one will find your site or your articles. Once you’ve selected the right niche market, develop a long list of keywords that will bring visitors your way.

Track how well your keywords are doing. Write an article around each keyword and submit them to an article directory. Add the keywords naturally into your website and increase the site’s search engine optimization(SEO). There are so many ways to use keywords and they are critical to the success of your affiliate marketing campaigns. It is worth taking the time to find and use them properly.

Affiliate marketing campaigns can make you significant money in the long term, but only if you create them right. Following these essential steps will help you create a long lasting and profitable campaign.

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There are sites, such as those listed below, that do offer content that is free for public use:

WkiBooks

WikiBooks has just about every sort of textbook you an imagine and the epresentation is that you can use ll of the information given there for free, and that it will always be free. Any derivation of the work created from the free work is also free.

Project Gutenberg

This is a place where you can get older literary works which are consider public domain in the United States. Any information offered there is free to the public

Penn University’s Online Book Page

Most, but not all, of the books listed here are free for public use.

US Copyright Search

Searching this site will tell you if a work is copyrighted in the United States.
If you’re in another country, then your country should have a similarly searchable database.

Wikipedia, et al.

Wikipedia and other similar sites will have content and images that are free for public use. These images generally fall into the Fair Use clause of copyrighted material and can be used on sites without restriction. As with all “wiki” sites, you must remember that the content is user-donated and, although there are often effective review guidelines and source requirements in place on the site, the material is never guaranteed to be 100% accurate.

These are not the only sources for public domain content or content that’s labeled free for use under the Fair Use Act. You can take the works and use them as is, or create your own products(yes, to make money!) using bits and pieces of the original work and it’s all legal!

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A

Printed material is scrutinized very carefully. Nobody wants to wait that long to publish their book. Not to mention the fact that by the time your book is on the shelves ready to be sold, your information is outdated. The methods you outlined and the resources you noted may be defunct. You must be able to stay current with the needs of your niche.

This is where self-publishing comes in handy. With self-publishing, you can start with a concept and, within a matter of days or even hours, you can have a product that’s ready to sell. No hassles, no rejections, no worries about anything.

With LuLu.com, you can get started right away. You can publish as many books at a time as you want and they can either all be shipped to you or they can be mailed to your customers directly whenever an order is placed. 

Getting started is very simple and you can get your book printed and shipped for less than $10 for the hardcover. There are no hoops to jump through and no people you have to impress. You simply upload the book to Lulu.com and they take care of everything for you once you have handled the actual product creation.

As an optional service, Lulu.com has three different packages that you can invest in for the production and sale of your book. For $350, the Marketing Pack offers you an original press release, $100 for Google AdWords, promotional materials, a listing on the Lulu Marketplace, your book visible in the Library of Congress, and a sample chapter to give to retailers to entice customers to purchase your book.

The other packages offer much more than that, including expert reviews, book formatting, custom cover design, free copies of your book, myour book in PDF format, and you can even get an ISBN for it. But, since this is essentially a Do-It-Yourself type of operation, don’t expect Lulu to do the marketing for you. You will have to do that by yourself.

Lulu.com is an innovating  site, it’s completely user-driven and user-supported. There is even a way for you to connect with other authors. You can talk live with a Lulu.com representative who will answer your questions and guide you through the process. You are in complete control over the entire publishing process and you can give as much control to Lulu as you wish.

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Any website can be set up to earn income. The site doesn’t have to be selling a product – it could simply be a site that people visit to find information on a given topic. If you have a website that’s popular, why not monetize it and bring in more money?

There are several methods you can use to monetize your site, and all have their merits. Let’s look at some of the most popular ways that are quite effective and not difficult to get started.

CPA

CPA, or Cost Per Action, is an advertising form that you can set up on your website. You can allow advertisers to place ads on your website and for each action associated with that ad that’s taken by a site visitor, you’ll earn money.

The action could be as simple as the visitor clicking on the ad for more information. It could be signing up for information through the ad, or it could be for making a purchase from the advertiser.

Different actions will bring different levels of income for you. If you have a high number of visitors to your site each day, you can see that a well-placed ad could make you some decent money.

CPA ads placed on your site offer a win-win situation for both you and the advertiser. They get sales, or collect customer information, and you get a paid a fee for letting them use your site as advertising space.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate Programs are one of the easiest ways to make money with your website. These are partnerships between a company that has something to sell, and the individual site. If your site generates a decent amount of traffic, you can attract affiliates to advertise on your site.

When your affiliate makes a sale from your site, you stand to earn a commission that can be between 5% and 25%. Advertisements usually appear as a small banner, and are fairly unobtrusive, but attention grabbing enough to get the reader to show interest.

Affiliate programs also let you make money online in other ways through clicks or impressions. What this means is that if one of your visitors clicks on the advertiser’s banner, even without making a purchase, you still earn a small amount. Some affiliate programs pay each time their ad appears on your site, whether someone clicks or purchases or not.

Build a List

A list of people who are interested in the stuff your website deals with can be a goldmine. If you’re monetizing your website, one way that everyone recommends is list building. Here’s why you want to do this:

A visitor to your site might visit one time only, or occasionally at best. If they become a member of your mailing list, you can contact them and bring them back to your site again and again.

If you’re selling your own product on your site, you can see why this is  important, but it’s important even if you aren’t selling your own product. Bring them back to find new info that you’ve added, so they get exposed to the CPA or affiliate ads that are on your site! If they click or buy, you’ve just earned some money. Or, promote things to them directly via email.

How do you build a list?

- Offer a free newsletter from your site. This is one of the easiest ways to build a list. Fill the newsletter with interesting and educational information, a bit of humor, and lots of personality. Make sure the newsletter is easy to subscribe to and lets your reader know just how subscribing will benefit them.

- Offer your visitors something with good perceived value for free, like an eBook or a set of how-to articles that pertains to your niche. Get them to sign up to receive this free gift.

- Write articles and submit them to online magazines and directories. You will establish yourself as an expert and bring even more attention to your site. More visitors means more names on your list.

Promote Somebody Else’s Product

This is sort of along the same lines as an affiliate program or CPA, but instead of inviting advertisers to use your site, you choose a product to promote and actively promote it yourself on your site by placing a link to that product where your visitors can see it and access it easily.

Say you have a website about organic gardening. You provide your readers with lots of really good information on organic gardening, organic recipes, and other related info. You’ve been getting lots of visitors and the numbers are increasing.

If you go to an Internet marketplace such as ClickBank, you can find organic gardening and related products that you can advertise for sale on your site. You earn commission on these sales, and because you’ve tailor fit them to your site, the chances of producing sales are good.

These are a just a few of the ways you can monetize your website. And if
you’ve been putting your heart and soul into providing good information to your readers, and it’s starting to pay off in increased visits, there is no reason why you shouldn’t monetize.

This is a perfectly legitimate way to increase your personal income. It won’t add a lot of time or energy expenditure, but the payoff could be great. Savvy Internet marketers and website owners know that monetizing a site is just another way to creatively earn.

All Internet marketers worth their salt will tell you that using any of the above methods is a good idea. Some will work better than others, depending on your site and the type of visitors you get. Among the suggestions, list building is probably the most important in the long run. So, take some time and review your options. It’s really not that difficult to make money online!

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Some say that Internet marketing is saturated, but in reality the Internet has far to go before it reaches its peak, and there are numerous opportunities for online marketers to take advantage of.

New ideas are coming to the market every day and the future looks bright for web-based entrepreneurs, both newbies and experienced. If you’re contemplating getting into online marketing and you wonder how far it will take you – in other words, can you quit your day job, the answer is that you should definitely jump in and promote your idea or business.

Don’t quit your day job before you’re consistently making enough to pay the bills, but do put yourself out there. Join online communities and subscribe to newsletters that keep current on Internet marketing trends. And don’t just join – read, research, participate, and ask questions.

The great thing about Internet marketing is that you don’t need to be a technical whiz. Most online marketers are willing to answer questions and give advice, and there are many good products and services that teach “newbies” how to get started, with step-by-step instructions on how to promote your business and get noticed.

Anyone willing to put in the time and effort can carve out a niche for themselves. The possibilities are truly endless and will continue to be for many years to come.

One report published recently by Spiegel & Grau says, “The Future of the Internet: A survey of technology thinkers and stakeholders shows they believe the Internet will continue to spread in a flattening and improving world.” And in a recent survey of online leaders, activists and analysts, the majority agreed that by 2020, the following changes could take place:

- Workers’ productivity will improve because of enhanced virtual reality settings.

- Global networks will thrive and costs will lessen. New Internet opportunities in a flattening world will be created.

- Even though technology will become more automated and “smart agents” will be proliferating, humans will remain in charge.

- New computer technology will encourage people to willingly or unwillingly disclose more information about themselves, gaining benefits even though some privacy will be lost.

- Global communications will use English as the universal language, but other languages, such as Mandarin, will become more popular.

- Broadband speeds will improve.

- The era of the (micro)blogger is upon us, and predictors say that because of that, there will be major changes in the news and publishing businesses.

- Government and health care will experience more transparency because of growing use of the Internet.

Along with the good, there will also be some bad news for the Internet. Some predict that there may be attempted attacks on the information infrastructure or the nation’s power grid. But, along with these threats, there will also be developing methods of keeping these disasters at bay.

Internet2 is the name used for the emerging technologies shaping the future. It works within the partnership of participating universities, government agencies and corporations.

The project creates applications that aren’t run on the Internet, but are developing the infrastructure that will support them. Currently, they’re working on improving services for the 21st century, such as interactive television, videoconferencing, virtual 3-D and more – all items you may be leveraging as a web-based entrepreneur.

With improving broadband speed comes the possibility for us and other professionals to produce information in a way we never thought possible. Now, our PCs are the main way that we access the Internet, but in the future we’ll be using more advanced Internet-enabled devices such as PDAs and phones that send and receive email – and also let you browse the Internet, as many people do already.

Would you believe that in the very near future, everything from your automobile to your home appliances will be connected to a global network, communicating with each other on a wireless basis? It’s true – and it’s coming soon.

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The conventional way of finding out which keywords work well for your niches has been to monitor your own ads, and the ads that competitors in your niche markets are running. This involves finding out who your competition is and watching where they fall in the rankings for sponsored advertisements.

You can see how they fluctuate, and you can see the ads they’re using as well as the keywords. This method works, but it can take weeks or months to get a really good read on what is working well for them and what’s not working. Meanwhile, you’re waiting to see results!

But there’s a very cool tool called Keyword Spy that you can use to find out which keywords are working in a matter of minutes. Keyword Spy makes it very quick and easy to learn which keywords you should be using in your PPC campaign and other ventures like SEO and article marketing.

Keyword Spy works by collecting and reporting data for advertisers that have been using a particular keyword. Take the keyword Vitamin B, for example. When you visit Keyword Spy, you can type in Vitamin B and get a listing of the PPC advertisers that are using that as a keyword for their campaign.

Besides a listing of those who are using that keyword, you can see how long each particular competitor has been using that keyword and if they have experienced growth or decline in their campaigns.

You can also find out what other keywords they are using. This can give you excellent insight into whether or not Vitamin B works well for keyword conversions, and what else might work too.

The Keyword Spy website gives you a huge advantage because you can quickly get a detailed look at one or more competitors in a niche and to find out what has worked well over a long period of time. This comprehensive overview even allows you to see seasonal fluctuations in keyword successes.

Once you do your keyword searches on Keyword Spy, you can then go to Google and check out where your competitors currently stand in the sponsored listings. This will give you reinforcement of the information you’ve already gathered. And again, the whole process takes little time, yet produces excellent results. This is a great bonus for your productivity and time management.

Keyword Spy can also be helpful with SEO and article marketing, even blogging. You can use the information gathered to enhance any of your project’s keyword lists. The results will be higher quality traffic and conversion rate. All you have to know is which keywords are working the best for those in your niche!

When you utilize the keyword knowledge you’ll discover by using Keyword Spy in all your areas of marketing – Pay Per Click, blogging, SEO, and article marketing, you’ll find that all of your projects produce better results in a shorter period of time. If you intend to use Keyword Spy as part of your Internet marketing toolkit, be sure to maximize its use and apply it to all aspects of your marketing – not just PPC.

With over one billion keywords searched every month, finding the best keywords to use for your website and campaigns can be a daunting task, leaving you to follow your competitors for weeks and months, experimenting with one keyword after another. You could easily spend dozens of fruitless hours on one PPC or article marketing campaign!

If you commonly watch your competitors, that’s great – you should pay attention to what they’re doing. But now you can watch them more efficiently and have your information gathered in one place. Find the keywords that are working for them and only use those that are making money for them.

Keyword Spy is a great tool for saving time and also getting a very accurate idea of which keywords and phrases are working right now. You can continue to use Keyword Spy to see trends not only in your established niches, but in those you might be considering jumping into.

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Not to mention that if you give away everything too soon, you have nothing left to follow up. Getting those names and emails into your autoresponder is pure gold. But you’ll leave nuggets on the ground by not having an interesting second or third offer.

Take your prime niche and jot down five ideas that you want to convey to an Internet reader. Next, pull three subtopics out of each of the five ideas. Now you have 15 topics or triple the options. You don’t have to tell everything you know on the first offer. Give good information that is well written, then end with a teaser for more. That prompts them to buy the next offer.

You may also use your autoresponder to deliver the three parts of one topic on different days. That keeps the subscribers’ anticipation level up. Don’t wait too long – send the next segment within 24 hours. You might even choose to stretch the information for 21 days or 30 days with a small piece of information oradvice for each day. Make certain each element hits their email first thing in the morning.

You want your information to be the most interesting, sought after email in a probably crowded in-box. Narrowing your niche also helps you to analyze what topic catches the most interest. If you send out several topics at once, you lose this advantage. Reading time is at a premium for everyone. So why send an eBook with chapters on arthritis, sleep disorders, herbal remedies, and restless leg syndrome if your lead is interested in arthritis only?

Even arthritis can be too broad of a topic. Break this down into subtopics that could be one eBook or individual special report on the basics of living with arthritis, herbal remedies for arthritis, exercises for arthritis sufferers, or finding new treatments for arthritis.

You can also use your  autoresponder for a survey. Place a short survey of three to five  questions about topic interests at the end of your eBook or report. Offer a something of value in return for their time to complete the survey.

Give it a try!

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Unfortunately, things haven’t quite worked out that way. The American Dream is crumbling. Pensions are being cut, retirement accounts are rarely what was expected upon retirement, and Social Security is going bankrupt. People are also living longer these days. With more people living into their eighties and beyond, we need a lot more money to carry us through life after retirement than we did a few decades ago. Inflation was skyrocketing in the first half of 2008 and with a government printing money to get out of the current recession, inflation is bound to become a huge problem again. In the early to middle twentieth century, families could live quite well on one income. These days, families with two incomes are barely making ends meet. Gone are the days of the single income household. And if something happens to one partner, the family’s stability could be ripped apart in the blink of an eye!

All of these things have culminated into a very harsh environment for retirees. As more baby boomers are retiring, they are discovering they just don’t have enough money to live on. Going back to work may not be an option for those who aren’t in great physical condition. Fortunately, many boomers are discovering they can actually start a new career and make money online, even if they don’t have the physical capability to go out and work at a standard job anymore.

The Internet has become a blessing to many retirees who thought they had no way to support themselves after retirement. In fact, some baby boomers are going into early retirement in order to start their own online businesses. They’re finding out they can enjoy their retirement by staying busy and can even make a lot more money from their home than they ever did working for someone else. They can pick a niche, become a leader, and set their own rules.

Some baby boomers spent years working in factories or chained to a desk all day to make someone else rich. Maybe they never achieved all of their career goals, and they’re feeling a bit burned out. Those people have the chance to experience the kind of success they were never able to attain during their careers. Working online allows the opportunity to earn an income that can support them through retirement, while providing the experience of true satisfaction with their success, proving it’s never too late to start making your dreams come true!

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Some domains are just sitting there waiting for you to dig up and find. There are lots of domains for sale some are just that – names but no website. These premium domains may have some assumed value, so their owners are holding onto them until a potential buyer wants it.

Other domains may already have some kind of site built on it. These sites can come in varying degrees of progress. The previous owner bought a domain, built a site, got bored and now wants to sell.

Or a previous owner bought the domain with the intention to get some traffic and some monetization and then resell. Many times these domain sellers are just tired of the project and want to move on.

Perhaps the previous owner had no idea about SEO traffic techniques – that all the site really needed was a few tweaks to convert a blah site to a profit puller. There is huge potential for someone who knows the process or can figure it out.

Where do you fit into the game of flipping virtual real estate? There are some questions to be answered first:

What are your skills? Can you take a domain from scratch and build up some ads and then resell? Can you by an existing domain that just needs a makeover with some ads thrown in and then resell? Do you have an eye for making a profit? Can you add some color, graphics, text (lots of text), and AdSense? Do you know SEO tricks that would make the site push up in the ranks?

With that in mind, let’s look at what’s involved in flipping websites. Like buying and selling brick and mortar real estate, you need to check out the neighborhood, so to speak. You can go to Site Point or Digital Point forums, two popular sites where you can find Virtual Real Estate (VRE) to flip.

Here, you can buy or sell at auction or “buy it now” all different kinds of websites at varying degrees of “finished.” You have to be careful here. Unless the seller has a good reputation, you may find yourself stuck with a domain headache.

A more profitable and often overlooked way to find VRE is to actually go domain searching for sites that are already indexed but that you can make an offer to the owner. Type your niche keywords into your favorite search engine and see what comes up.

What do you look for? Number one is the keyword in the domain. Sometimes the best way to go shopping for VRE is to just type in your particular keyword or phrase. Take a look at each site.

Does it have ads? What kind? Can you improve the advertising placement? How about the overall look? Is it old school HTML that could be improved with a blog template or other format? How about SEO?

Many older sites were thrown up as a marketing aid but without thought for SEO. Could you do some serious “fix– ups” and then resell that VRE for cash? Once you find one you’re interested in, look it up in WhoIs domain search so that you can learn how to get in touch with the owner.

Then contact them and tell them of your interest. Let them know you are serious about buying their domain and would appreciate them contacting you. Just how much the site is worth depends on a lot of things.

Ask the owner what kind of revenue the site generates. It’s typical to pay for
4-10 times the monthly income. Next, you can do some bargaining until you come to an agreement about the price. From there, you’ll need to do a typical transfer of ownership.

It isn’t nearly as involved as real estate, though. What’s great here, too, is that you don’t have to be Donald Trump to get a good deal! The fact is, savvy marketers are flipping websites for cash each and every day.

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While retailers slash prices just to get a sale and car dealers wait every day for someone, anyone, to darken their doors, Internet marketers continue to look for innovative and creative ways to keep selling and make money online.

But even Internet marketing isn’t completely immune to the ravages of a lousy economy. Marketers have to be on top of their game and make adjustments to keep the flow of cash from slowing to a trickle or simply drying up.

The savvy online marketer won’t wait until the going gets tough; he or she will be searching for ways and niches to bolster business right now. So, in this economy, what still sells, and what motivates a buyer to cough up a hard-earned dollar?

One thing that will always sell in a good or bad economy is hope. Hope to work from home online. Hope in the form of MLM programs with attractive compensation plans never goes out of style. Building a good, strong multi-level marketing business with a strong downline is especially popular during times of economic downturn.

Don’t be afraid to offer an MLM opportunity  to your marketing audience. When presented right, this economic climate can be one of the best times to build a downline. When the economy is good, it’s even better!

Another excellent product that sells well in slow economic times is a cheap form of entertainment. People go for DVDs instead of a trip to the theater, and they enjoy their own popcorn, a fancy popcorn bowl, and a new TV and DVD player to play the movie.

People will often justify the new electronic equipment because they are saving money by not going out to the movies. Even if they don’t get the TV, the DVDs will still be hot. Other cheap forms of entertainment that people will go for include bikes for the family, exercise equipment, games, books, skis, and camping equipment.

These can all be sold as durable goods that people will get lots of use and benefit from, and save money with in the long run. You can promote good health and exercise and family with these types of items.

Information products on how to save more money and get out of debt are always good sellers, but they do even better when the economy is poor. People are looking for good, solid information to protect themselves and to keep their situation from worsening.

 In the same vein, information about credit repair, credit scores, and how to build better credit usually rake in big sales numbers during recessions. How to make money is a popular topic for information products, too, whether it’s an eBook about part-time jobs anyone can do or how to start your own Internet business or how to make and sell your own homemade products.

A really good, comprehensive product on how to avoid foreclosure or bankruptcy would work well for people who aren’t being foreclosed on yet but are worried that they might not make it through the recession.

When people are stressed over the economy or their own finances, they often look for ways to escape, even for just a little while. Escapism can involve many forms of entertainment. As mentioned earlier, the home theater system and new library of DVDs will be an option that many people turn to. Programs like Netflix  will probably see a spike in new business.

Whether you’re comfortable with it or not, sex sells well during slow economic times. It’s a major way to escape for lots of people. Adult movies and paraphernalia sell well, as do books and magazines.

For women, cosmetics are one of the last things to stop selling when the economy is bad. The economy has to be really, really bad in fact for cosmetics to take a nose-dive. The more moderately priced items will sell better than the super expensive ones, but skincare and make up will remain very popular.

Health will always be a good seller too, and when the economy is kaput people are even more interested in stress reduction and those types of health solutions. Vitamin supplements that help to keep stress at bay and boost energy will be good for people who are trying to work extra hours to bring in more money.

An info product about good nutrition on a budget might work well, as would a quality product related to the use of natural remedies and supplements to stay healthy and lower medical costs.

Going along with stress reduction, try marketing info products that teach stress reduction techniques or yoga and tai chi DVDs and instructional books and reports. Along with health products, you can always turn to weight loss products. These sell well regardless of the economy. If you can combine health and weight loss, you’ll probably have a winning combination.

Dating seems to pick up when the economy slows down, too. This is probably a product of people wanting to escape a little. Someone to snuggle up with on the sofa can make you feel a whole lot better about life than if you’re sitting alone with a cup of tea and your cat. Dating how-to books and products that help you find the perfect date or partner usually do quite well.

At-home spa treatments are also a safe bet. People really want to pamper themselves, but either don’t have the money or won’t spend the money to go to the spa for a facial or manicure.

Special do-it-yourself spa treatments will be right up there with cosmetics. They are relaxing and pleasant and they make you feel like you’re doing something special and indulgent. Sometimes that’s a big deal when there’s not a lot of cash for non­necessities.

One important area to focus one will be the DIY repair and maintenance area. People will be trying to make everything last longer – washers, cars, garbage disposals, computers – everything.If you can give them a way to do basic repairs and maintenance on costly items, people will buy it. Do-it-yourself home decorating kits, tips, and information should also sell well. This is another area like cosmetics. If you can give your home a little face-lift on a budget, you’ll do it because it will make you feel better.

Information on frugal living will be popular, too. Not necessarily survival living, but just ways to cut back and stretch each dollar – how to reuse and repurpose items in the home, frugal recipes, frugal holidays and entertaining reports, even things like how to make your own frugal household cleaners and such.

You might get good sales from offering some survival guides. Things like how to grow all your own food or how to modify your home to be less dependent on conventional forms of energy will be attractive to a certain (and growing) audience. Certainly “going green” is a hot topic, and combining that with any of these suggestions should make a very successful information product.

Spiritual and religious items will also sell well. When times are tough, people tend to turn to religion or look for a meaningful spiritual source where they can find some inner strength. Even though this is a sensitive subject, and you certainly wouldn’t want to exploit it, people will be looking for information and products that offer something to hold on to, helpful guidance, and some hope from spiritually.

Remember that there will always be people out there with money to burn. Having some high-end products to market won’t hurt because there will be buyers for them; it’s just that the field has narrowed a bit.

Now that you have a good idea of what still sells, even in this terrible economy, you need to have a good understanding of what motivates your buyer when there’s not as much money to go around. Well, as we’ve already touched on, some motivators are the desire to escape and the need to find ways to make oneself feel good (like spa treatments, or using nice cosmetics). The need for hope is a huge motivator, too. That’s why you’ll see people looking for a good MLM business opportunity or a spiritual path to follow.

Right now, people are not as motivated by the idea of opulence and spending for the sake of spending as they are by what will help and what will work. Buyers are mostly feeling very cautious with their money, but will still spend on something they feel offers some real substance of one sort or another. You can still market to the rich, but be very aware of the need to market to the person who is looking for a down to earth value and who wants to spend smart – very smart.

Now, more than ever, buyers are looking for safety, security, and long-term guarantees. They are looking for both lasting solutions and ways to answer their need to make themselves feel better now.

Your Internet niche marketing plan can mix both elements of wanting some sort of instant gratification and wanting more security for the future too. Market products on how to live more frugally, save money, and make extra money. But market the spa-quality cosmetic line as well, for example, because there will always be buyers for the higher end.

Give people access to new camping equipment that will make family camping trips fun and comfortable – don’t forget to remind them about how much money they will save by camping close to home, and enjoying all the things that nature has to offer. Let them know how fun camping is as a way to have a less expensive, but still fantastic vacation.

Offer your customers access to DIY projects that will spruce up the house and make them feel like they’ve really accomplished something. And help them learn to entertain on a budget.

During this time of recession, give your niche audiences something of substance to spend their money on. Make sure it’s the good stuff at a good price. They won’t forget you for it and they will come back for more.

 The recession isn’t going to last forever. Right now is a great opportunity for you to bolster your business by adding a few more products to your list. The customers you gain during this time will likely be willing to visit you again when times are better, hopefully to make a bigger purchase.

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