Work from Home Base

Want your website to have a better position on search engines?  One way to bring up your rankings is to use Pay Per Click, which is a low-cost option for advertising your website that can not only increase traffic, but when done right, can give you a great return on your investment.

The basic premise of pay per click advertising is that you advertise on specific search engines by choosing specific keywords that, when searched, your site will appear.  You determine how much you are willing to pay each time that someone clicks on your website.  Logically, the more you are willing to pay, the higher your site will appear with the keywords you choose.

There are hundreds of search engines that offer pay per click options.  Of course, the major search engines require more per click to get higher in the rankings, but many offer low cost pay per click opportunities.  There are search engines based on themes where you may be able to hone in more directly to your type of business or you may look at the major search engines to go global.  How much you invest and where you do pay per click is certainly up to you.

However, if you are not familiar with pay per click advertising, then you may want to consider taking it slowly so that you can test out your investment.  Jumping right into Google or Overture may require a larger investment with little payoff since you have not developed your pay per click skills.  Make sure you ask good questions from the search engine before you decide to use pay per click.  For instance, find out how many searches per month are done at that site and what partners and affiliates the search engine has.  Also, do you have to advertise on the partners and affiliates?  Is there fraud prevention and how does it work?   Can you opt out of having your listing appear in other countries?  Does the search engine have published terms of service available to you?  Asking the right questions can save you headaches later on, should you have a concern.

Read the rest of the article here: Pay Per Click - A New Way to Get the Word Out on Your Website.

Download the Free Quick Start Workbook (Free $97 Value!) and receive valuable tips, strategies and techniques designed to grow a very successful Home Based Business.

Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established online marketer who specializes in helping people start their very own Home Based Business. He has also created dozens of articles such as MLM Leads and Make Money Online.

I grant permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way.

Exposed - the truths and lies about Internet marketing. Dispel the myths once and for all, revel in your new found wisdom. Learn what it takes to run with the new breed of marketer.

A long time ago you decided that working all the hours God sends every week and being away from your family just has to be wrong. You know what? It is. There is a way to right this wrong and it has to do with the Internet. But you knew that already. So what is the next step?

You have been looking online in the search engines and maybe in the newsgroups and you have seen plenty of opportunities. Most of the hype you read sounds much too good to be true and most of it is. However, there are some real opportunities out there. You just have to know where to look. Don’t follow the other sheep, work it out for yourself. 

Where do you look? Who holds the keys to this bountiful virtual treasure chest? Do you have a chance at success?

From here on in we’ll confirm some truths and dispel some lies which you’ll find all over the place online.

Lie: I can earn amazing sums of money online really quick. I can quit the 9-5 within weeks!

Truth: Pure hype reigns supreme on the Internet. The claims of huge downlines, 6 figure incomes overnight and massive mailing lists with no effort are complete drivel. Nothing is easy to make a go of and online it’s no different. It’s possibly even harder to make your fortune online since the rules are always changing. Staying on top of and driving these changes is where your success will come from.

Lie: Working your online business is easier than working the 9-5.

Truth: Making a true success of your online business is, more often than not, a whole lot harder. You are directly responsible for the amount of money you put in the bank at the end of the month. You will need excellent time management skills and organizational skills. Possibly the hardest thing is the motivation. To get up every day and motivate yourself to switch the computer on, knowing you have to get down to some hard work can be very tough some days.

Lie: My time is my own. I can work whenever.

Truth: Your time is your most precious commodity. There are daily demands on your time from your family and the business of everyday living. Real life carries on regardless of whether you have a spreadsheet to prepare or not. Managing your time actually becomes a delicate balancing act. You cannot ignore your family if you’re working at home - and anyway, one of the reasons you wanted to work at home was to spend more time with the family, right?

Lie: My children will enjoy the extra time I can spend with them.

Truth: Still with this time thing. Yes your kids will be happier to see you more around the place but they will also become confused as to why you can’t play with them more and may even come to resent this. The delicate balancing act is indeed a thin tight-rope walk and you’ve got to be a masterful acrobat to pull it off. It can be done however and this shouldn’t put you off.

Lie: Build it and they will come.

Truth: Whilst this may have been true in the very early days of the Internet with the most basic of search engines driving traffic, these days nothing could be further from the truth. Building your website and getting it online puts you on the first rung of the ladder. Getting enough traffic to make your website profitable is your next goal. There are many places online which claim to be able to do this for you, only 2-3% of these places will be worth your time.

Lie: The Internet is just one big playground for scammers.

Truth: The Internet, with it’s anonymity, is indeed a fertile breeding ground for the more unscrupulous among us. While scammers get all the press there are plenty of real people like you making some nice piles of coin from the Internet perfectly legally. The information revolution is upon us and you better get onboard.

Lie: All my friends and family will want to join me.

Truth: Your friends and family will think you’re completely mad. While you may find one or two people who’re open to your dreams and visions, most will simply ridicule you so be ready for that. They may not talk about you openly but they will think you’re wasting your time. Ignore them and prove them wrong. You can do it. Success is sweet.

At the final analysis, if you want to work at home on the Internet, become truly financially and spiritually free then the odds are not stacked in your favour. This being said, with the fire of determination burning inside you, with the strong desire to enjoy a life of no money worries and more quality time with your family then you will succeed. It takes time, effort and hard choices but you can do it.

Just do one thing every day to improve your position and that’s all it takes.

Here’s to your ultimate success!

Riley.

This Article focuses on time Management, on getting your Product, developing, and Promoting your product.

“Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money but you cannot get more time.” - Jim Rohn

Earning an income on the internet is a process that in broad terms involves three stages:

1. Getting your product (acquisition)
2. Developing your product presentation
3. Promoting the product

In this article, “product” means any tangible product, digital products (eBooks and software) and services such as membership sites, web design and development, hosting, “print on demand” for eBooks, fulfilment for orders and so on.

By necessity you will spend time in each of these stages. Each stage will involve a learning phase and an action phase. It’s important to identify clearly what stage of development you are currently working on and to focus on completing that stage.

1. Getting your product (acquisition).

Choose between your own product and an affiliate product.

This will involve identifying a demand using for example surveys or the popularity of search terms.

Key Point: Once you have your product you can stop spending time looking at other product possibilities for the time being.

2. Developing your product presentation.

Once you have chosen your product you will need to develop a presentation.

This will include your website primarily and can also include autoresponder sequences and a newsletter.

Key Points: Once your website and presentation process is completed you can move on to the promotion. You can always improve the presentation but once your presentation is “presentable” you should move on to promotion. Don’t get caught up trying to make things perfect. Good, yes; perfect, no. The reality is things can always be changes. It does not matter if you have the best product in your niche and the best presentation if nobody knows about it. Give your presentation your best shot and then start promoting.

3. Promoting the product.

No matter now good your product and presentation are, you must get your presentation in front of your intended audience or nothing happens.

“We have to become better at promoting what we do than doing what we do.”

This is where it is also important to be clear about what stage you are in. Remember, time is limited, so if you have already chosen your product and developed your presentation it is not productive to keep looking for products or spending a great deal of time “tweaking” your presentation.

Time can always be spent tweaking sales copy, images, layout, web presentation, upgrading or trying new software, investigating new product opportunities (before the current one is complete), improving design skills, keeping up with the changing web “standards”… The list can seem endless.

Key Point: Time is better spent developing a clear promotional strategy and putting it into action. Only when you are seeing results from your promotional activities should you consider altering your presentation (such as modifying headlines and sales copy) to assess how that affects conversion of prospects to customers.

Here are some examples:

- Write two newsletters each month
- Run a solo ad each week
- Purchase 500 double-optin subscribers each month
- Conduct a Pay Per Click campaign with $x budget each week/month
- Make three new Blog entries each week
- Create ten new web pages each week

Here are a few tips to keep you on track:

1. Name your project

You may name your project as a final name of the product or you may just give it a code name that means something to you.

2. Understand what part of the three-step process you are in: Acquisition, presentation or promotion.

Here is a simple question to ask yourself to check if you are on track with your time budget, “What is this activity designed to do?” or perhaps, “What is the outcome of this activity?”

This will help you to identify if you are spending time in the wrong area at the wrong time.

3. Set up checklists to make sure everything is covered. Focus on completion.

4. Promotion: Clearly define your action steps.

5. Track the results or your promotional campaign in terms of traffic, click through rates, subscribers and purchasers. Include costs of conducting your campaign and compare that to your sales to determine your return on investment. It is only by tracking the results of the promotion that you will know how to effectively change the presentation for further testing.

A spreadsheet is an invaluable tool as a template for specifying your promotional campaign and also for tracking results, costs and return on investment. Adding in columns for each day of the week allows you to allocate your time so that all your promotions are covered in a time effective manner. This becomes your business gauge by which you assess the effectiveness of your promotional campaign.

Understanding the three stages of the business process and the stage you are in, using checklists and tracking your results using business gauges are the proven ways to maximize your time, your effectiveness and your profits.

One reason many people like a home based business is because it allows them to operate on a small budget, and Google AdWords now offers a way to place contextualized online ads within that budget. 

Google AdWords is the most popular way on the internet to run contextual ads.  These are the advertisements on the right side of the search results page.  There are a number of reasons for the popularity of the program, the first of which is the fact that there is no minimum buy with Google AdWords.  Before programs like this existed, it would cost a home based business owner thousands of dollars to buy a targeted advertisement or even a keyword buy.  Now you can run or test an advertising campaign for under $10 per day.  And, if done correctly, can reap an excellent return on your investment.

A great aspect of Google AdWords is that it is simple and fast to set up.  It is an easy process as you log in, pick your keywords, put in a headline and a short body copy, then add a destination link.  At the end, you put in your keywords and phrases, that when searched, your ad will appear.  Google AdWords even has tools to pick out different keywords and phrases so that you know how often those keywords are searched.  This tool can also help you develop a good search engine optimization strategy.

Besides being simple, the results are almost immediate.  While it will probably take you less than 15 minutes to set up, it takes approximately 20 minutes for your ad to appear on Google AdWords. 

Another great alternative with Google AdWords is to use a pay per click method, where you do not have to pay unless someone actually clicks on your ad.  Google even offers protection from an overzealous individual clicking over and over on your advertisement.  There are daily maximums and built in protections.

You can also bid for placement with Google AdWords.  If you have a popular keyword, the bid per click may be fairly costly, but with more obscure keywords, the rate is lower.  If you set a maximum cost per day, this will help you remain within your advertising budget. 

Having a tough month?  Google AdWords also allows you to stop or pause your campaign at any time.  So whether you are in a budget crunch, or your ads are bringing in more business than you can handle, then the program allows you to stop for a period of time.

Read the rest of the article here: Google AdWords and Your Home Based Business Advertising.

Download the Free Quick Start Workbook (Free $97 Value!) and receive valuable tips, strategies and techniques designed to grow a very successful Home Based Business.

Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established online marketer who specializes in helping people start their very own Home Based Business. He has also created dozens of articles such as MLM Leads and Make Money Online.

I grant permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way.

This is not difficult. Quickly and easily find the probability of success for any online homebased business opportunity by simple arithmetic.

Strike Three

There are about three big opportunities per lifetime. Like baseball, if you miss all three, you are out. Do you remember the last online homebased business opportunity you missed? Did you miss Microsoft? Did you miss Yahoo? Did you miss Google?

Couda, shouda, wouda

Why did you miss out? Was it lack of knowledge? Was it indecision? If it was lack of knowledge, you can forgive yourself. You can not know what you do not know. There was nothing you could do about it. If it was indecision, there was something you could have done.

Convergence and Opportunity

Oportunity is the fruit of Convergence. Peter Drucker defines opportunity this way:

“Opportunity in the market place is because of a process of convergence of forces that were previously not together.”

The idea of forces coming together, converging, is stronger than the business itself. The essential forces Peter Drucker did not individually identify as converging will be enumerated and discussed in this article.

There are five essential forces that must be present for any successful online homebased business opportunity. This article will describe these five essential forces that must be in place for any online homebased business opportunity to be successful. These five essential forces apply to any online homebased business opportunity. They are universal, abstract, and independent of business type. They apply from academia to zymology.

A simple analytical method to evaluate these essential elements and arrive at a numerical figure of merit will be presented. The method is strong, impersonal, and reliable. You will arrive at a numerical rating for the relative strength for the Probability of Success (S) for any online homebased business opportunity you care to evaluate. Reducing the evaluation to a number between zero and 100 gives you a powerful, impartial method to evaluate or compare any online homebased business opportunity. This will remove emotion from the decision process.

Convergence of these five essential ingredients is absolutely essential for success. All five forces must be present simultaneously. In other words, they must all converge at the same point in time for the same business venture. They must all be in the right place at the right time to create a successful online homebased business opportunity.

These forces are the essence of all businesses, regardless of product. They are like the spokes in a wagon wheel. If one spoke is missing, the wheel breaks down. Each factor dramatically affects the success of any online homebased business opportunity.

Without the convergence of these five forces there is no online homebased business opportunity. If there is no convergence, there is nothing you can do to make the business a success. No amount of hard work and no amount of money will yield success.

Opportunity presents itself only when all these forces are in simultaneous alignment. One force is not considered more important than the others. The order in which they are presented is no indication of their relative values. They will be discussed in random order.

You Decide

This method is not buried in concrete. Feel free to make your own assessments of relative importance. When you finally establish a value, stick with it. Be consistent so comparisons can be made between one online homebased business opportunity and another. For example, if you decide leadership has a maximum value of 2 or 5, stick with it on any online homebased business opportunity you wish to evaluate.

It will be convenient if the sum of the maximum values allowed always equals100. In this case, Leadership has been arbitrarily assigned a maximum value of 2. All you need to do is decide if the leadership of your proposed online homebased business opportunity deserves a zero, 1, or 2.

Evaluate Five Factors

1. Company (C ) (Maximum = 20)

Company Management (Maximum = 10)

Leadership (2)

Confidence or trust (2)

Experience (2)

Honesty (2)

Influence (2)

Company Financial Stability (Maximum = 10)

Assets (2)

Cash (2)

Credit Rating (2)

Visibility (2)

Technology (2)

Many start-up online homebased business opportunities do not have the financial assets to sustain their own growth. A viable online homebased business opportunity must have very deep pockets or be owned by a company with very deep pockets, preferably a parent company that has already gone through the growth cycle and has the funds to support the new growth.

2. ProDucts (D) (Maximum = 20)

Leading Edge Product Technology (Maximum = 5) R&D Proprietary (No other place to get it) Competitive

Product Quality (Maximum = 5) Quality, like Reliability, must be built into the design and process. It cannot be “tested” or “worked” into the products.

Product Fills a Recognizable Need (Maximum = 5) There should be a clear need for your product or service. If there is no need, there is no demand, and there is no opportunity. There may be very little demand for 78 rpm vinyl records.

Consumable (Maximum = 5) If the product is not consumable, there is no additional market after the initial sales and there is no opportunity.

3. Trends (R) (Maximum = 20)

Demographic Trends (Maximum = 10) As individuals, we can not create a demographic trend. We can only recognize it and take advantage of it. The “Baby Boomers” are the largest market in history. Starting immediately after WWII, 76 million babies were born during the period between1945 to 1964. When the first of these babies were born, a powerful demand for baby products materialized. Companies like Johnson & Johnson and Gerber’s made huge profits. As these babies started shaving, Gillette started making huge profits. As they learned to drive, the Ford Mustang was in demand. As these babies began to have babies, the Mini-Van became desirable. If your online homebased business opportunity is positioned in front of the Baby Boomers, assign the full value of 20 to Trends.

Economic Trends (Maximum = 10) Individuals do not create an economic trend. Individuals have no control over economic trends; however certain businesses are sensitive to economic trends. Real estate is sensitive to interest rates. In times of economic downtrends a low number would be assigned. Cosmetics, on the other hand, are virtually immune to economic downtrends and would be assigned a high number. People will give up eating to look good and feel good. If your online homebased business opportunity is immune to economic trends assign a high number.

4. Timing (T) (Maximum = 20)

You have no doubt heard the expression that in real estate the three most important factors are Location, Location, and Location. In an online homebased business opportunity, the mantra is Timing, Timing, and Timing.

If one force is more important than the others, perhaps timing is the most important element of success. Timing, like trends, is also beyond your control. Like trends, you can only recognize timing and take advantage of it. There is nothing you can do to improve timing. It is either there or it is not. If timing is present assign a high number based upon the following criteria.

A. Formulation Phase: (Maximum = 20) This is the phase where research and development are just completed. Production and initial marketing efforts begin. This region is characterized by slow, deliberate growth. As an agricultural example, this is the time for planting. It is defined as the region of the growth curve where income from sales is less than $50 million per year.

This is the time to get into any business. It requires forethought and knowledge. It does not require speculation. It requires due diligence on your part to study the online homebased business opportunity and arrive at your estimate of the strength of the five essential force ingredients of a successful online business venture. If you identify that your online homebased business opportunity is in the formulation phase, assign timing a value of 20.

B. Critical Mass Point: The critical mass point is defined as sales of $50 million per year. This is the point which will determine ” When”. This is the point when your labors will begin to yield fruit at such a great rate you will be unable to contain them. From this point onward, the curve rises ever so steeply. This is the time to act quickly and decisively. If you are not on board at this time, your online homebased business opportunity will quickly leave you behind. If you identify that your online homebased business opportunity is at the critical point, assign timing a value of 20.

C. Momentum: Momentum is defined as sales greater than $50 million per year. If you have exercised your desire, ability, and motivation, you have already become a participant before your online homebased business opportunity reaches momentum. You have exercised your choice and are now in position to enjoy the fruits of your labor. There is nothing you can do to stop the momentum which is now building beneath you. It is beyond your control. It is like a giant wave that carries you to the pinnacle of success. There may be some who grab onto an online homebased business opportunity as it speeds by them, but they must act quickly because the exponential growth eventually decays exponentially as the wave crest rises higher and higher until the opportunity diminishes. For example, you could buy Microsoft stock now, but the big opportunity is already over and it will never come back again. If you find your online homebased business opportunity is just starting into momentum, assign timing a value closer to 20. If you find your online homebased business opportunity near the top of the curve, near stabilization (defined below), assign timing a number closer to one.

D. Stabilization: This is the area where the exponential growth has died out. Momentum has dissipated. The business is mature, stable, and secure. The curve is relatively flat, and growth has slowed to a value similar to the development phase. The online homebased business opportunity has gone. It is passed. It is over. There is no online homebased business opportunity. If you find that your online homebased business opportunity is in stabilization, assign timing a value near zero and start looking for another online homebased business opportunity.

5. Compensation (K) (Maximum = 20)

Leverage (Maximum = 10)

If you trade time for money, you will never get ahead by investing one increment of your time for one increment of income. You will remain in the very treadmill you are trying to escape. You will get by, but you will never get ahead. If you want to get ahead, you must find a way to multiply your efforts. That is done by leveraging yourself. J. Paul Getty stated this clearly when he said:

“I had rather have one percent of a hundred people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts”.

If you have no way to leverage yourself (e.g. fixed salary) assign leverage a number near zero. If you can leverage yourself, assign a number closer to 10.

Multiple ways to earn income (Maximum = 10)

Sales Profits (1) When you can profit from your own sales efforts, assign a value of 1, otherwise zero.

Override (1) If you receive override compensation on the efforts of others, assign a value of 1, otherwise zero.

Matching (5) If you can receive matching compensation on the efforts of others, assign a full value of 5.

Residual (2) If you can build your equity to the point that you have residual compensation from your previous efforts, assign a value of 2.

Perpetuity (1) If your equity is yours to sell or will to your survivors, assign a value of 1, otherwise zero.

Sum Them Up

Define the Possibility for Success (P) as being totally dependent upon the sum of the five prime forces required for a successful business (above). Notice that it has nothing to do with you. The only thing you will do is evaluate each ingredient and assign it a strength value. This will depend upon the research you conduct to gain information about the five essentials for the particular online homebased business opportunity. Assign each one of the five ingredients a value from zero to 20 according to the instructions presented above. (Naturally, 20 is the ideal, strongest value.) You have determined all the values for C, D, R, T, and K. Repeating, you have evaluated each force ingredient separately and arrived at your evaluation of its relative strength.

Add up all five of your separate evaluations.

P = C + D + R + T + K

For example, if all five ingredients are present in your online homebased business opportunity and each is individually evaluated as being 20, then:

P = 20 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 20

P = 100

Let us further define a Multiplier (M), as a figure of merit derived from your desire, motivation, and ability to succeed. Let M be limited to a number between zero and one with zero being the worst case and one being the best case. Note that this multiplier is entirely dependent upon you, not the online homebased business opportunity. Determine this multiplier number by self-evaluating your desire, ability, and motivation. Notice that the multiplier number does not depend on your time. Too many people say “I don’t have the time.” That means you are “too busy chopping wood to stop and sharpen the axe”. Successful people do not have time—they make time. Ideally, you want to rate yourself as a “1″, not a zero. But unto thine ownself be true.

Compute the Probability of Sucess

Define Success (S) as:

S = M(P)

If you are a “one” and not a “zero”, and all five ingredients of your online homebased business opportunity are present at their full value, there is no gamble since:

S = 1(100)

S = 100

Having completed your “due diligence,” failure is no longer an option or possibility. The probability for success is 100 percent. Your success is assured. It is no longer a question of “If”. It is simply a question of “When”.

Get on board this online homebased business opportunity fast.

Use this procedure one each online homebased business opportunity that you wish to evaluate and compare.

Many people get into a home based business because they want to do what they love.  Yet, there are a number of things in having a home based business that makes it more of a business than a pleasure.  Yet there are some simple rules to follow that can make your home based business more enjoyable even in the harder times.

First rule of home based business success:  there is nothing so bad that it won’t look better tomorrow.  Scarlet O’Hara said it best that “Tomorrow is another day.”  Many times you will feel like you are just sitting still and not getting anywhere.  Don’t give up and be patient.  Each day you work hard will make it a little better, and things are sometimes clearer in the morning.

Second rule of home based business success:  keep who you are out of what your business is.  That means keep your personal identity separate from your business identity.  Many people who love what they do become so enmeshed in the work that there is no separating one from the other.  We all need to find things outside of our jobs to give us a sense of self-worth.  This way, if things get stymied or difficult, your happiness doesn’t go with it.

Third rule of home based business success: “I think I can.  I think I can,” should become your mantra.  We all see the roadblocks in front of us, but remember that there is always another route.  Don’t let others’ limitations stop you from your goals.  And for that matter, don’t let your own self-imposed limitations stop you.  Think of another way to do it.  Take control of your business - don’t let it control you.

Fourth rule of home based business success:  set realistic expectations and really think about what you want.  Ever heard the saying, “be careful what you wish for”?  If you set a goal make sure it is really what you want.  Sometimes we set goals that we think we should want, and then we get there and don’t know what to do with the result. 

Fifth rule of home based business success:  stand by your decisions.  After all, who knows your business needs better than you?  No one.  Sometimes a lot of things happen that make you second guess yourself, even though you are making a great decision.  Learn to drown out the extra noise and distractions so that you know you are making the best decision for your business to reach the goals you really want.

Read the rest of the article here: 5 Rules for Home Based Business Success.

Download the Free Quick Start Workbook (Free $97 Value!) and receive valuable tips, strategies and techniques designed to grow a very successful Home Based Business.

Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established Six Figure Income earner and one of the top online marketer’s. He specializes in helping people start their very own Work at Home and Home Based Business on the internet.

I grant permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way.

There are multiple ways to drive traffic to your website. You can use pay per click, search engine optimization, email marketing, ezine advertising and many more.

One of the strategies that has been neglected in the past but is now taking more and more importance is how to build quality content and use it to get more traffic to your website.

If you have quality content, you can profit from that in several ways to increase your traffic. Here are 4 ways:

(1) Use content to attract the search engines

Search engines love good content and if your site has it, you can profit from that to gain exposure in them. How? You just need to optimize your article with proper relevant keyword phrases related to your content.

(2) Submit content to article directories or article banks

Some websites are in constant need for your valuable content. By submitting your content in the form of articles to the article directories, you increase your chances in getting your articles published on other websites. Many people go to these websites to look for articles which they can reprint for free in exchange for a link back to the author’s website. With this marketing strategy, you will increase your traffic because your author bylines at the bottom of your article will generate clicks to your website url.

(3) Submit content to ezine editors related to your industry

Ezine editors are in constant need for information to publish in their newsletters. If you can produce quality content and submit to them on a regular basis, you will receive massive exposure. Imagine your content article is published on several ezines each with only 1,000 subscribers, that adds up fast. Now there are even some big publications with tens of thousands of subscribers. That’s definitely huge publicity at no cost.

(4) Use content to get repeat visitors

Without any doubt, content is king on the Internet. People go online to look for information and if your site has good content, you will get repeat visitors and people will stay much more longer on your site, building trust and increasing your sales potential.

To find content, here are some tips:

(1) You can hire someone to write an article for you for instance and pay a fee for each article.

(2) You can write your own content if you have the necessary skills.

(3) You can use other people’s content on the condition that you give them proper credit and a link back to their website. If you are submitting articles to article directories or ezine editors, of course this should be your own content that you have written or content that you have paid for to get.

There you have it. Use your own content or other people’s content to start driving more traffic to your website. It will pay off in the long run if you continue to build content.

MLM, or multi-level marketing, is a legitimate and potentially lucrative way to have your own home based business.  By directly selling products while creating your own upline downline, you can work your MLM business part-time, from home, and at in your own hours.  Even with all the potential for making money, you should decide, though if an MLM is for you.

Many people are blinded by all the benefits of an MLM when determining if this type of business is right for them.  You don’t need to have a college degree or any experience to get into the industry.  The products are already manufactured and are usually shipped by the company directly to your customers.  Plus, you choose your hours and your work location.  In fact, many people with an MLM business work from home.

Other benefits of MLM include that your income is leverage, so you continue earning commissions on a single effort.  You do not need to come up with your own business or marketing plan, because the company does it for you.  Also, recruiting and training systems are provided for you by the company.

Despite the numerous benefits, MLM businesses do come with some downfalls.  For instance, you usually start of marketing to family and friends.  This can create some friction and alienation, especially among people who are more acquaintances than close friends and family.  The work is selling, so you need to have a pretty strong backbone, as many people will tell you, “no.”  Therefore, it takes a lot of effort and motivation.  In order to make the most potential income, you need to continuously recruit new representatives.  Plus, many MLM businesses require that you purchase a certain amount of product each month or quarter, adding in a financial commitment.

So weighing out the good and bad, is MLM for you?  Well, if you are a self-starter with a lot of energy and motivation then it is a good start.  If you have leadership skills and can set goals and meet them, then MLM might be for you, too.  MLM people have great people skills and are self-starters.  They have strong powers of persuasion and can influence people easily.  They also have an ability to guide and encourage others to work the program. 

Read the rest of the article here: MLM - The Good, The Bad, and Your Home Based Business.

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Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established Six Figure Income earner and one of the top online marketer’s. He specializes in showing people the Best Home Based Business and the Best MLM on the internet.

I grant permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way.

A blacklist, as the name implies, is a list of people or companies who have met with the disapproval of others. In
the online world a blacklist refers to those people who have been marked as responsible for generating spam in a very big way. Blacklists are also known as blocklists.

Blacklists are used to combat spam in a very specific way. When spam is reported to one of the relevant spam fighting organizations the IP address the spam originated from is added to a banned or blacklisted IP addresslist. An IP address is the unique location of you or your website on the Internet - think of it as your “home address” online. To put it simply every www.domain.com Internet address has a matching IP address. Any email coming from your website domain also has a corresponding IP address. If your IP address is present on a blacklist then you’re potentially wasting your time sending email to customers.

Why are you wasting your time? Modern spam blockers come with the most common blacklists installed and/or allow you to import updated blacklists into your spam blocker. This allows to you block a huge amount of spam but you may also, potentially, block legitimate email. Blacklists are not foolproof.

There are two types of IP address:

Dynamic - changes every time you connect to the Internet. Most commonly used for dialup Internet access. Spammers love these because they’re very hard to track and 100% disposable.

Fixed/Static - All websites, most large companies and some individuals use fixed IP addresses. This can cause huge problems if they’re reported for pamming.

When an IP address (dynamic or fixed ) is reported for sending spam it’s added to a blacklist. There are three different types of blacklists:

Temporary
An IP address placed on a temporary blacklist will have email coming from that IP address blocked for several hours. After a few hours the offending IP address is removed from the blacklist.

Permanent
When an IP address is added to a permanent blacklist any email server configured to block email from this list will never receive email from that range of IP addresses again.

Comprehensive
This is the most damaging of blacklists. Not only does it block a single IP address it also blocks the IP addresses next to it. For example if the IP address 192.156.66.67 was added to a comprehensive blacklist then all IP addresses close to 192.156.66.67 will also be blocked. This can be a huge problem for those website owners using virtual hosting because if your host has ever appeared on a blacklist then you’re also on the same blacklist, by default, because of the shared hosting from the same IP range.

It’s important for all website owners to check whether or not they’re on a blacklist. You’ll need your IP address (available from your webhost) and you can check your blacklist status at: www.mail-abuse.org/cgi-bin/lookup

Blacklists are a necessary evil due to the volume of spam being sent each day but are not an exact science. Take a few moments from your day and ensure that your website or email address is not being blocked.

If you had asked me two years before my wife and I began our home catering business whether I would consider being my own boss, I would have laughed out loud and scoffed at the idea.

The company I worked for seemed to be doing well and I was recognized for the “creative genius” that I was. I was contented as a Web Developer in a multi-national corporation, lost in my own world in cyberspace. The pay was alright and there wasn’t any reason to think of other means of income. Looking back, I realized that I was in a comfort zone and being there shut my eyes to all the opportunities that were knocking at my door. Things were about to change though. 

The signs were classic of a company in trouble. Emails instructing us to take cost-reduction seriously, profit sharing withheld, no year-end bonus, a freeze on all pay rises. Then, it was crunch-time. There was talk of “staff re-designation”. One year later, it became a full blown staff elimination exercise. No retrenchment benefits, no nothing.  

My wife didn’t really think I was serious about the company being in trouble until I started having the “classic” symptoms of Middle-Aged-Man-With-Job-Threatened-Syndrome. I couldn’t eat or sleep worrying about how we would make ends meet on my wife’s salary as a kindergarten teacher, which wasn’t much. The stress and fear were taking its toll on my health.  

It became clear that there was no way the company would keep me for more than a year and with job applicants half my age working for even lesser pay, my wife and I did some serious talking. We came up with a couple of ideas we thought we could do to earn extra cash and prepare us for the tough times ahead. We eventually decided to start our own home catering business, cooking and delivering dinner to people who were either too busy, didn’t have the time or the liking to cook.  

Armed only with the confidence that my wife was a great cook, we started. Our first obstacle turned out to be our minds. We were so caught up in our comfort zone for so long that every little decision seemed like a monumental task. At the back of our minds, we didn’t want to be in the position we were in. We struggled with the fear of change and the unknown, but we carried on, telling ourselves that even if I did get another job, it was only a matter of time before the same cycle would repeat itself. We HAD to take this step and take control of our lives and our earning power.  

We made countless mistakes in our first six months, but let me tell you… when we got our first customer, I felt such relief I slept like a baby that night. It was my first night of peaceful sleep in a year. It wasn’t the sixty dollars profit that we made. It was the fact that we had finally started to chart our own destiny, free from the whims and fancies of corporate management.  

A year into our business, the inevitable happened. I was approached by my company to discuss “re-designation”. I told them that I knew what they meant and I was prepared to leave. I was the last one in my division to finally say goodbye. Thankfully, my wife and I saw this coming a year ago and readied ourselves for it, so when the time came, we just let go and set our sights on our home catering business. 

It’s been almost two years now and we’ve gone through some really trying times learning the ropes of managing a home business. We’ve had to adjust our attitudes and daily lives but we’re doing fine, and our financial situation has gone from hopeless to healthy. What started out as a way to earn extra money has turned out to be our main source of income. 

I hope my sharing gives you the encouragement and inspiration to NOT LOSE HOPE. I wouldn’t recommend waiting until you were in trouble before you considered starting your own home business, but maybe like us, it takes a storm to help us break free of our comfort zone.