Affordable Online Business Strategies
Archive for January, 2010
Deceptive Emails And Fake Gurus
Jan 30th
Just the other day I received an e-mail that really irritated me. It wasn’t unlike a lot of e-mail messages that I get, but for some reason it really made me mad. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t from a marketer who I respected.
The e-mail in question told me about how I could get some sort of auto income system for only seven dollars. He went on to say that he couldn’t believe that this information was being given away for only seven dollars. He went on to explain how the author of this information was someone who had come to respect, and how I had better click on the link and get to that page before he decided to pull the offer for all of this information for only seven dollars.
Since I respect this marketer so much, I naturally clicked on the link to see what this was all about. The link led to a sales page, which is what I expected. I started reading the sales letter, and it was well written and intriguing. Apparently, I was going to learn the secrets of how I could set up systems that would generate thousands of dollars all month. All I had to do was learn his methods, set everything up once, and sit back and wait for the commission checks start coming in.
For seven dollars, I was thinking it would be worth it to find out what this was all about. What I found instead was that the information that was being offered was not available for seven dollars. Seven dollars got me a seven day trial and a membership site. After the seven days, I would have to pay $47 a month for the next six months to get the whole auto income course.
What bothered me about the e-mail was that it said that I could get this information for seven dollars. From a so-called Internet guru. I get these types of misleading e-mail messages all the time, back expected better of this guy. I don’t understand why people think that being deceptive is a good way to keep subscribers.
I don’t have a bad opinion of the guy who site I went to. As I read his sales letter, he never indicated that I can get this whole course for seven dollars. He didn’t do anything deceptive, and the information he presents looks pretty good. I may think about joining his membership site.
But I’m not going to stay on the guru marketers mailing list, because it’s obvious that he’s not really a guru, but a creep. There are too many people out there using any way they can to get people to click on links. For me, do it once, and you’ll never do it again. That’s my rant for today, and I feel a whole lot better.
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Getting More Power From Your Links
Jan 29th
Getting links to your site is a powerful way to get better rankings for your web pages. The best kind of links are one way links from sites that have a good search engine ranking. Instead of talking about how to get these one way links, I wanted to talk about the importance of the anchor text you use when you get the links from these sites.
If you’re going to start getting links to your site, you need to have a plan. What you often see is a link in a resource box or on a site that simply says “Click Here”. That’s not a very effective way of getting links to your site. Neither is using your web site address as a link – www.yoursite.com.
The idea is to use the keywords you want your pages to rank for in your text links. If your site is about the Nintendo Wii, then you would be better off using that keyword phrase as your link. If you have pages related to the Nintendo Wii on your site, use the keywords for these pages when you link to them. Using keywords in your links will help your site to get better rankings for the keyword you’re going after.
Keep in mind that you will be better off if you select more than one keyword or key phrase to use in the links for each page you’re linking to. This gives you the opportunity to potentially get ranked well for more than one keyword phrase. I’m not suggesting that you try to get ranked for several different keywords for each page. Instead, use your main keywords and variations that are closely related.
For your Nintendo Wii site, you would use “Nintendo Wii”, and you could also add variations such as:
Nintendo Wii Games
Wii Games
Wii Console
Wii Video Game Console
Wii Fit
Nintendo Wii Console
You’re targeting the Nintendo Wii along with keyword phrases that are related to the Nintendo Wii. You wouldn’t waste your time targeting more generic terms such as:
Video Games
Video Game Consoles
Cheap Video Games
Discount Video Game Consoles
To wrap this up, remember that your link has more value to your rankings if it is a text link that includes the keywords that you are targeting for your site. Avoid using the web address or “Click Here” as a link. It’s still a link, but has less value. And it doesn’t take any more time to use links that will help your rankings.
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4 Things To Consider If You Decide To Sell MRR Products
Jan 28th
An attractive way to make money online is to have your own product. If you don’t have a product, you can buy a product that you can sell and keep all of the profits. These are called Master Resale Rights products. Some of these products allow you to sell the products as is and keep all the profits, while other products also allow you to pass along the resale rights to your customers. Always read the terms before you purchase a master resale rights product.
These products are enticing because most of the time they are complete products and come with a sales page, download page, and all of the graphics you need, including any product covers. All you have to do is edit the pages with your order links and upload them to your site. You can’t alter the product in any way, but it is a complete product ready for sale.
There are a few things to keep in mind before you decide to use these products.
1. How long has the product been available? If it has been around for awhile, the information may be out of date. This is especially true in the Internet Marketing niche. If that’s not the case, you need to see how many competitors there are. Do a search for the product name and see if there are a lot of sites promoting it. If the market is saturated, move on to another product.
2. How much can you expect your customers to pay for this product? Some Master Resale Rights products have a recommended selling price. Don’t rely on that to make your decision of whether or not to purchase it. Do a search for the product name and visit some of the sites that come up. I have found that a product that has a recommended selling price of $27 is being sold for less than $10 all over the Internet. So your profit potential is really limited, and you’re really limited on how much you can afford to pay for advertising and still make a profit.
3. How many copies of the product have been sold? If you go to a site that sells master resales rights products, you’re probably never going to know how many people are selling a product. The better master resales rights products are the ones that limit how many people have access to resell the product. You will usually pay more for a product that has a limit on the number of copies sold, but you have a better chance of making sales.
4. Competition. The one main drawback to master resale rights products is that you are selling something that a lot of other people are selling, Everyone gets the same product to sell, the same sales page, the same download page, and the same graphics. It’s hard to stand out from your competition.
Products that come with master resale rights are not always a good choice. You’ll probably make more money promoting affiliate products instead. In a lot of ways, promoting both types of products is really similar. I personally stay away from these products.
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How To Make Sure Your Site Looks Good To Everyone
Jan 27th
Here’s a nightmare that you want to avoid at all costs. You create a few pages for your site, or you create a brand new site. You lay out the graphics just the right way, and you dress up your text so it flows and is easy to read.
Then you preview your site in your browser, like what you see, and upload your site. And then, after a few days, you’re not getting the results you expected. You check your statistics, and yes, you’re getting traffic. But you’re not making sales or getting new subscribers,
What can happen is your website does not look the same in all browsers. For example, let’s say you use Internet Explorer, and your site looks fine before you upload it. So naturally, you think everything is okay. You upload your site and get on with other tasks.
What you may not realize is that your site does not look good in Firefox or Google Chrome. Your header may not look right, or your tables may not line up correctly, or graphics may be missing. Maybe your links aren’t working correctly. These are all things that you can test and fix easily.
So the first thing you should do every time you create a new page for your site is to make sure it looks good in several different browsers. Firefox and Google chrome along with Internet Explorer are all free to download and use. So it’s easy to preview your sites before they go live. If you’re using scripts on your pages, you may have to wait until you upload your pages before you can view them.
It’s a good idea to view every page as soon as you upload it to make sure it looks okay. If not, you’re going to have to do a little work to find out what’s causing the problem. Make sure to check that all of your internal links work correctly, and all your external links are going where you want them to go. It doesn’t take much for a webpage to be faulty.
There might be missing tag, missing angle bracket, graphics put in the wrong directory, a misspelled link, or a graphic that’s too large for the table that is inserted into. Another potential problem is using tables and fixing their width as a percentage instead of as a pixel width. What you see your screen resolution will not be what your visitors will see if they use a different screen resolution. Try to keep your table widths fixed at pixels instead of percentages.
The good news is that this is an easy thing to fix. The bad news is that if you don’t fix it, you could be losing sales and subscribers without even knowing it. Wasted traffic. Wasted time. Wasted effort. Make your life a lot easier by previewing your webpages in a few different browsers so you can rest assured that your websites are working for you. To your success.
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How To Get The Most Out Of Every Piece Of Content You Write
Jan 26th
Something a lot of us struggle with is constantly coming up with content for our online businesses. This is especially true if you are writing and submitting articles, adding content to your blog, or sending out a newsletter. Coming up with ideas can be hard yet it’s something we have to deal with. Whether you’re writing your own content, or paying for the content, you want to get the most out of it.
The good news is a you can use your content in more than one place. For example, if you write an article and submit it, you can still get more use out of it. You can use the article on a page on your website. You can use the article as a blog post. And you could use the article in your newsletter. And you don’t have to use the exact same content either.
Write a 500 word article that you want to submit an article directory. Once you’ve written and submitted the article, you could expand the and add more information, and create a new page for your website. Put up some ads, and a link to a product you are selling, or an affiliate product, and link to this page from your resource box. Or you could just rewrite the article and put up on your web page and decide not to link to it from the article directory resource box.
Use the article on your blog. If you want to make a shorter post on your blog, you can break the article up into two parts giving you two blog posts. Or you could edit the article down to make it more suitable for your blog. Again, you could rewrite the article to make a unique.
Use the article in your newsletter. If there’s a chance that your subscribers see the article on your website or on an article directory, just rewrite the article.
Let’s not forget Web 2.0 sites. These sites are great for getting traffic to your money pages. In that article that you’ve written would be perfect for these sites.
This is my favorite way of getting the most out of every piece of content you write. Once you get a few articles written on a topic, guess what? Now you have all the material you need to create a nice report. Put all the articles together in one document, convert it to PDF, and you get a product that you can sell or even give away as a freebie to your subscribers or as a bonus for signing up to your list.
Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed with the idea of having to create loads of content for your sites, blogs, newsletters, and web .2 .0 sites. Reusing all of your content can make your life a lot simpler. Especially when you’re first starting out and have a hard time sitting down at the keyboard and getting an article written. It’s a lot easier to get yourself to write you know can use the material in more than one place.
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How Giving Away A Free Report Can Get You New Subscribers
Jan 23rd
I was going through a course on list building recently, and something got my attention. The teacher of the course said on one of the videos that if you have a list, you should be making $1 per subscriber per month. So if you had 1,000 subscribers, you should be making $1,000 a month from the offers you send out. With that in mind, it’s obvious that having a list is VERY IMPORTANT!
So getting subscribers is the main objective. There are a lot of ways to get subscribers, but I wanted to point out a way that doesn’t get mentioned very often, and it doesn’t have to cost any money.
You’ve probably repeatedly heard that you should create a freebie to get people to sign up for your list. With so many people trying to get subscribers, you really need to offer a freebie. You can include some affiliate links in the report to get some additional revenue, so you can profit at the same time.
Here’s how you can make it even better so you can grow your list without any effort on your part. Oh, and by the way, this is not new, or my idea. It’s just something that I am going to use on a new list I’m starting, and I wanted to share it with you. I’ll also keep you updated on the results I’m getting.
For this project, let’s create an ebook. It doesn’t have to be very long, but it does have to be valuable. It could be a few articles you’ve written or had written for you that you compile into your ebook. It could be a list of resources related to your market – free products, forums, blogs, other email lists.
What you do is to write an offer to subscribe to your list at the front AND back of the ebook. Write a mini sales letter with the benefits of being on your list along with a link to your optin page.
You may be wondering why you would take the time to put in a link to your optin page when the person reading the ebook has already subscribed. The reason is that once someone gets your free ebook, you are going to tell them that they can give it away to their subscribers and web site visitors. Now they have a quality freebie that you have written that they can give away – with a link to YOUR optin page. You get free distribution of your ebook and new subscribers without lifting a finger.
Let’s recap. Create your freebie and make sure to include a link to your optin page. Once someone subscribes and downloads your free report, make sure to email them and encourage them to give this report away to as many people as possible. The only other thing you might want to do is to send them to an optin page that offers a different freebie than the free report they already have! Give it a try and see what happens.
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The 4 Free Software Tools I Rely On
Jan 22nd
When it comes to my online business, there are some software tools that I’ve found to be essential. In this article I am going to show you 4 software tools that I can’t live without and tell you why. I’m also going to show you where you can get these tools. They are all free, but don’t let the cost trick you into thinking that these tools aren’t worthwhile.
1. Xheader.
Header graphics are almost a must-have element on any web page. In the past, you had to know how to do it yourself, pay someone to do it for you, or purchase and learn how to use software so you could make them yourself. Not anymore. With Xheader, you get software that comes with over 500 templates in several categories that you can choose from. Select a template, add text and any graphics you want, add text effects, and you have a professional header. This is not some kind of “Lite” software that has the option to get the “Pro” version. There is only one version, and that’s Xheader. You can learn more by clicking here.
2. Kompozer.
Now that you have a header graphic, it’s time to create the web pages that you’re going to use it on. You can pay a lot of money for some web design software – sometimes several hundreds of dollars. There’s no reason to do that because you can create really nice web site with Kompozer. This is free, open source software that you can use to create web sites quickly. It’s a WYSIWYG web page editor – What You See Is What You Get – so if you can use a word processor, you can easily learn how to use it. There are help files that will answer a lot of questions, and there is a forum that you can access when you go to the Kompozer page. There is no advertising, and never any option to upgrade to a paid version. Free and powerful. Get it here.
3. Open Office.
Creating small reports, articles, and ebooks is a big part of online business. So you need a tool that will make it easier. So you need a tool that will make it easy to write and format your content, including adding graphics, as well as the ability to turn your content into a PDF file. And a tool that would make it easy to create PowerPoint slides would be good as well. If the tool would open Microsoft Office documents as well, it would be great.
The software that does the above and more is called Open Office. It is free software that can take the place of Microsoft Office. It can create PDF files, slide shows, spread sheets, and a lot more. As a marketer, you can create as many PDF files as you need, all with Open Office. It’s a big download, but it’s something that I wouldn’t want to be without. Get Open Office here.
4. FileZilla.
Once you’ve created your header graphics, and have your web pages looking good, it’s time to get them to your hosting account. FTP software makes it easy to upload your files up to the Internet. But which one should you choose? For me, the choice is easy – the free open source software called FileZilla. FileZilla will upload all of your web pages, graphics, PDF files, video files, and anything else you can think of. No ads, no cost, easy to use. It doesn’t get any better than that. Get it here.
There you have my 4 must have software tools. They are all I need to create professional web pages and sites, header graphics, PDF ebooks and reports, and upload them to my hosting account. These tools are powerful and free, so go check them out and see for yourself.
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Here's How You Can Get Professional Header Graphics For Free
Jan 21st
A really big problem for lot of people when they get around to creating a web site is getting graphics. If you could have only one graphic on your web pages, it would be the header graphic.
The problem is that you have to know how to do it, pay someone to do it for you, or buy software that you can learn to use to do it. If you know how to do it, you’re all set. If not, you have to spend some money to hire someone, or pay for and learn how to use the software so you can do it yourself. And no matter how you do it, remember that a badly designed header can do more to harm your business than help it.
Here’s some good news – now you can get your hands on free software that includes over 500 graphic headers in several categories. These headers don’t have any text on them. That’s where the software comes in.
It’s called Xheader. Now you can create incredible header graphics with this software that look like they were professionally designed.
It all starts with the over 500 header graphics that you can choose from. Select one in the software, and then you’re ready to customize it for your site. With Xheader, you can put any text on the header that you like. You can choose the size, font, color, and multiple effects of the text.
You can also add any graphics you want to the header. Add your picture, a picture of your product, or any buttons that you want. You can make the header any size you want, and save it in a web friendly format. There are no limits to this software. Create as many headers as you want.
I’ve been using this software since it first came out, and it’s amazing what you can do with it. And yes, it is absolutely free. You get the software and the header graphic templates for free. There is no option to buy the full version, because you are getting the full version. No One-Time-Offers, no popup ads, no hassle.
Besides being free, it’s easy to use. There are a couple of videos that you get access to so you can learn how easy it is to use this software. Click here to read more about Xheader and get your FREE copy.
Quick Cash From New Subscribers
Jan 20th
If you’re building a list, you need to generate traffic to your optin page. Some of you may decide to spend some money on advertising to get subscribers. While it’s true that building your list is a good investment, it would be a lot better if you could make some money up front so your advertising costs are covered. A way to make money before you warm up your list and start sending out offers.
There are two opportunities that you are presented with every time someone enters their name and email address and subscribe to your list. The first opportunity is on the page your new subscribers are sent to immediately after they subscribe. Here’s the first opportunity that you can use to make money right away.
When you set up your autoresponder and get the code you need so visitors can enter their name and email address, there is a page that they will be sent to after they hit the submit button. The service you use will usually have a default page that they are sent to that tells them that they have successfully subscribed. These default pages are very basic but useful.
There is an option to direct a new subscriber to a page of your choice after subscribing. Here’s where you can make money right away. Create a page that informs them that they have successfully subscribed, and then offer them the opportunity to take a look at some of your products. These can be affiliate offers, or they can be offers for a product of your own.
To make this work, the offer has to be really enticing. You could offer a substantial discount if they buy right now. Or you could offer a bonus that is not available to people who buy from the sales page.
Here’s your second opportunity to make some quick cash. After someone subscribes, they will get an email with a link that they need to click on to confirm that they want to subscribe to your list. Again, most autoresponder services have a default page that is very basic and informs them that they have successfully confirmed their subscription.
On this page, you would probably want to make a different offer. You could offer a substantial discount on a product. You could make this a one time offer. If they don’t buy from the page they’re on, they will miss out on the discount, and will have to pay the regular price if they wait to make a purchase.
It’s a good idea to make your offer one that is relatively inexpensive. They don’t know you yet, and they may be reluctant to spend a large sum of money up front. So concentrate on lower cost offers.
This is a way to make some cash while you’re building your list. It’s easy to do, and you can be sure that everyone who subscribes will see the pages that you create and will see your offers. Not everyone will be interested, but there’s a good chance that you can generate enough cash to pay for any advertising costs. And if they become a customer and are happy with what they’ve purchased, they’re more likely to buy from you again. Try it out and see what happens.
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Do You Know Your Perfect Customer?
Jan 19th
Targeted traffic is the best traffic. We all know that. But it can be a challenge finding our target market, and sometimes we get it wrong. That’s why market research is so important. The whole idea of market research is to first find out if there is a demand for your product, and find out where your market can be reached.
A mistake that can waste a lot of time is to fall in love with a product, and promote it with the idea that if you like it, everyone will want to buy it.
A close relative of mine made this mistake. They decided to get involved with a company that sold nutritional products. They looked through the brochures and went to a couple of representative’s meetings, and was really interested. The products claimed to fix just about any health related problem anybody had. One of their premiere products was a weight loss package that promised effortless weight loss.
My relative was hooked. They decided that the products they were selling were so awesome that everyone needed them. In fact, they went so far as to say that no one could afford NOT to buy and use these products. She was sold.
As time went on, she got a few people interested, but it wasn’t as easy as she had hoped. She was sold on the products, but she wrongly felt that everyone else would too once they found out about these products. She had invested a lot of time and money in this business, only to end up with bottles of supplements and a big credit card balance.
What does this have to do with market research? Easy. Instead of trying to sell to everyone and convince them to buy your product, it’s a lot easier to find the people that are already looking for what you’re selling.
A key to doing this is to come up with a profile of your perfect customer. What are the characteristics of the people who would be interested in your product. What other interests do they have. What problems are they trying to solve or what do they want to learn more about? Where do they go online? What newsletters and blogs do they read? What web sites do they visit? Are they willing to spend money online?
When someone comes to your site, or comes across one of your offers, it should seem like you are speaking directly to them. One on one. If you have a profile of your perfect customer, it’s easier to relate to them. You’ll be able to write your marketing content just like you were talking to them across the table over a cup of coffee. And since you know what they want, you don’t have to sell them, you just have to show them what you have to offer, and let them take the next step.
You’re not going to get very far in business if you don’t sell products. But if you try to convince people to buy your products, you’re going to have a harder time of it than if you know who you’re talking to.
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