Learning the Tricks of Free Classified Advertising

Online free classified sites offer a risk free, no cost solution to promote your businesses and sell products and services. Advertising in free classified sites can be time consuming and frustrating if you do not know how to successfully profit from these sites. Knowing the right tricks and tips of online free classified ads will separate you from the hundreds who post thousands of ads without getting any results.

All free classified sites are not created equal. You should focus on a few good sites and post your ads regularly in those sites only. Your starting point is Google search. Go to google.com and search for "free classifieds" and "free ads". From the search result pages, visit 10 to 15 sites and register in those sites. If a site asks too many questions during the registration process, abandon the site and go to the next site. Why should you have to provide all your personal information for the site's benefits? Good sites will only ask minimal questions to setup your account so that you can edit, delete and renew your ads. Also, look for sites that will allow you to post without any registration.

Write a precise ad using 80 to 100 words. Write about benefits of your products and services for ad viewers. Try to think benefits in terms of generating extra income, improving health and relationships and providing a sense of good feelings when they use your products and services.

Write a concise, interest grabbing, key words filled ad title with action words that asks the reader to do something now. If you are promoting an affiliate product and many ads are also about the same affiliate product, write your ad title and ad copy differently than others so that your ad stands out in the crowd.

If you are selling personal items, like used cars, cameras etc., provide details description of the item, its selling price, and your contact information. If you are promoting an item to make a profit, do not try to sell your products or services in the classified ad. Use the free ad to lead to another site or your affiliate site where you can provide more information to make a sale.

In classified sites, most recent ads are listed on the top of the ad search or ad listing pages. Some free classified sites have paid premium ads which are displayed on the top of the listing pages, followed by the free ads. Avoid those free sites that accept premium listings. In free classified sites, your ads will be buried deep in the listing pages as more ads are posted in the same category. To keep your ads fresh and on the top of the listing page, renew your ads every couple of days.

Do not spam by posting your ads in all categories. Post only in a few relevant categories, preferably using different ad copies and ad titles. If the site has regional sections, e.g. US states, cities, or countries and your target is to reach every region, post in 10 to 15 regions only. For the search function of the site to pickup your ad for display, you do not have to post in all the available regions. This will save you time.

Always use photos or banners in your ads. Make sure that the size and dimensions of your image files are within the site's acceptable limits. Otherwise, the site may not display your images in your ad at all. There are a few free sites where you can create your banners or you can use your affiliate banners. If you are using the picture of a product, take the picture using a good digital camera and then convert the image to jpeg format and reduce the dimensions prior to uploading.

Using the simple techniques mentioned above, you should be able to minimize your online free advertising effort and increase responses from your ads. Remember, your ad title and ad copy should stand out with action words and pictures. You should regularly post your ads to keep them fresh and on top the listing page.

Your Blog: An Easy Alternative to a Website

These days, it is much easier to create a website than it used to be. In general, website-creation programs are much simpler to use - and you also have the option of signing up with an online web host with easy-to-use page creation tools.

But the biggest change has to be the advent of the blog.

"Blog" is short for 'web log'. Blogs started off as a way for people to create an online diary. Bloggers would simply log on, tap out a paragraph or two giving their thoughts on life and the universe (and everything in between); click 'publish' and that was that. Their words were live on the Internet for anyone to see. The big appeal of a blog was that it was interactive: readers were welcome to add a comment on any post, with a link back to their own blog or website.

Gradually, bloggers started to want more. They wanted easy ways to upload photos, and extra pages on the site - just like a 'real' website. They wanted a range of themes, to better express their personality or business.

Programmers everywhere came to the party, particularly with WordPress, a well-known open source. Now, if you want a website/blog, it's possible to:

* Sign up with a web host with CPanel for a low monthly fee

* Install WordPress with just a few clicks of the mouse, using Fantastico on your website's CPanel

* Either use one of the pre-installed themes, or browse the various themes available at WordPress (and on many other sites) to choose one that suits your personality or business

* Upload the theme you want to the wp_content folder, using a simple FTP program (such as WS_FTP or Cute FTP)

* Start posting your articles or comments

* Add extra pages to your site (if you want to)

Now that you can add separate pages to blogs - just as you can with a standard website - many people are turning to them as their preferred way of building a website. By using various plugins, it's possible to do pretty well anything you want.


=== What Are "Plugins"? ===

Plugins are extra features available for your blog to make your life easier. You can get plugins, for example, that will:

- help you block spam

- make it easy to upload and sort your photos

- ping the search engines so they know when you've added new content

- insert Adsense blocks so you can earn money from your blog

There are quite a number of plugins available now - take some time to find out what they will do.


=== Help With Using Wordpress ===

While Wordpress is not the only blog software available, it is an excellent choice because (a) it's free; (b) it's relatively easy to use; (c) it's open-source, and therefore has a lot of people working on it constantly to make it better, and (d) there are quite a few 'how to' sites on the Internet showing you how to make the most of your Wordpress blog.

One of them is Guido Stiehle ("The Jungle Marketer") who offers an excellent free tutorial (with video tutorials) that will show you, step by step, how to set up and use your blog. You can find other providers by simply typing 'how to use Wordpress' into a search engine.

Spend an hour or two browsing, and you'll see why a blog is a very viable option for establishing your presence on the Internet.

How to Boost Your Revenue With Google Adwords

Google Adwords is the most sophisticated and popular pay-per-click advertising system on the internet. Unlike regular search engine listings, which are listed for free according to "relevance," as defined by the particular search engine involved, Adwords are small text ads which usually appear to the right of the unpaid listings. Advertisers bid on specific "keywords", which determines where the ad is displayed. However, unlike other search engines, where placement is completely determined by the amount of the bid, Google uses a complex calculation which also takes into the account the popularity of the ad as well. Thus, an ad which gets clicked on a lot can end up in a better position than one with a higher bid. That's how Google rewards the ad for relevancy, so it pays to create an ad that will invite clicks.

Advertising with Adwords has many advantages. First, the ad is displayed immediately, as opposed to waiting for sites to show up in regular listings, which can take months. Second, they can be highly targeted, meaning you can make sure you're only paying for clicks by customers who are sincerely interested. Third, Adwords allows you to run several ad campaigns simultaneously, so you can test the results and experiment on the fly to constantly improve the quality of the ads. You can even track the "conversion rate," or the actual number of sales generated by a given ad. This is extremely precise marketing.

The first step is to come up with the best possible list of keywords. This is extremely important, because if you bid on the same ones everyone else is bidding on, you will end up with very expensive clicks. You can use any of the many keyword search tools available (wordtracker.com has a popular one) to determine which keywords have lots of searches but not too much competition. If you bid on enough low-cost keywords, you can do as well or better than if you had placed an expensive bid on a popular term. You can also place a limit on your budget, so that you can control how much your total expenditure is per month. You can also specify certain words you do not want included, so that you don't attract a lot of clicks from people looking for something related that you don't offer.

The ad itself consists of four lines: a title of no more than 25 characters, a description with two lines of up to 35 characters each, and a line for your url, also limited to 35 characters. The title is what really attracts attention. It should include the keyword you're targeting, and should be as striking as possible so as to stand out from the crowd. If it's truly attention-getting, it could end up getting more clicks than other, duller ads higher up on the page. Some suggest that it should be in all caps, and include a price if possible.

The description should include the major selling point of your product, and also include enough information to discourage clicks by unqualified customers. Make sure they know what you're selling and what to expect, as well as what sets you apart from the competition.

Finally, make sure the URL listed takes them to the most relevant page in your site for what they're looking for. Make sure the link is up to date and functioning correctly.

That's it in a nutshell, although the nuances are quite a bit more complex than we can deal with here. Many resources are available on the net which go into greater detail. But now that you understand the basics, you should be armed with the information you need to explore one of the most potentially lucrative marketing tools on the

Mentorship Programs - Are They a Good Investment?

Mentorship programs are becoming increasingly popular on the Internet. Usually, they require a significant investment of money and time - but are they worth it?

Imagine this scenario.

You get out of bed early (as usual), sit down at the computer and open your email program. As you watch a flood of emails pour in, you feel overwhelmingly tired. This is understandable: you're putting in hours and hours at the computer. You've tried one income-earning method after another; you've worked on building your list; you've uploaded a ton of content to your sites. Surely it should be getting close to 'pay off' time? Yet the income level never seems to go up...

It's definitely one of those "Should I just give up and look for a real job?" days.

Then an email header catches your eye. It says "Don't Use Johnny Marketer's New Software Before You Read This!" You realize it's a subject line deliberately crafted to get attention, but it's also from one of the marketing 'gurus' that you actually trust. You are pretty sure that there's substance behind this bold statement.

Jaded as you might be, your interest is piqued. You'd been thinking of buying this new software. You've been trying not to put too much on your credit card, but if it helps your bottom line... Hmmmm, you'd better check this out and make sure you are not wasting your money.

You open the email and find a short paragraph advising you that this information is essential reading for any would-be buyer. There's a link directing you to read the rest of the story on the website. You click through... and you find a credible explanation of why you shouldn't use this software before you learn a few essential facts. In essence, your trusted guru is explaining that without key knowledge that surrounds the use of this software, your chances of success go way down. It's a brilliant product, he admits... but there are five essential techniques that will guarantee better results. He's going to explain the most important one in detail.

And he does. He also briefly lists the other four techniques. You have enough understanding of the Internet to know that this is really good stuff. You'd love to have the other four techniques fully explained, but this valuable information is available only to those in his mentorship program.

You sit and think. You click a link and read the details of the program. It runs for a year and you are guaranteed an in-depth analysis of your current situation and a step-by-step plan for growth. You will find out the best current software and approaches to use. It sounds perfect for where you are now. However, it costs big bucks.

You mull it over some more. Your mind goes over the struggles you've had to date, and the thought of a helping hand is incredibly tempting. You could really do with that objective overview of your business. Your hand hovers over the mouse - and finally, you click through and sign up.

Will this be worth it to you? It could be - but this depends on several factors.

1. The Promise: What does the mentor actually promise to do?

- Is there a guaranteed figure or result, or does he just promise to work with you and show you the way?
- Is there a safety net if he doesn't deliver?
- What exactly does he require from YOU in order to achieve what he promises?

2. Credibility: Do you have good reasons for believing that your mentor will deliver the goods?

- Does he have a background of success himself? Is he living what he preaches?
- Have you purchased other lesser-priced products from this person? Did they deliver?
- Has he coached others to success before you?
- Does he have the ability to TEACH as well as DO?

3. Your Own Work Ethic: Will YOU deliver the goods?

- Are you prepared to work hard to make the most of your time?
- Can you take direction? Do you usually work well with others?
- Are you willing to believe that an experienced marketer can see your business path more clearly than you can?
- Can you stick it out for the full year?

4. Can You Afford It?

- Can you afford the payment without unnecessary hardship?
- Can you afford the time?
- Can you afford the emotional investment?

A good mentor can save you days, weeks and years of errors and frustration. A bad mentor can result in your losing money, time and even your health. Before you sign up, evaluate the program and your mentor carefully. If you decide to commit, be prepared to work hard to achieve the results you desire.

Are Big Ticket Private Label Rights always a good idea?

As an online marketer you are always looking for fresh new products to promote. One of the fastest ways to acquire new products is to purchase Big Ticket Items with Private Label Rights (PLR). PLR Big Ticket Items usually start at around $147 for a range of 5 to 10 e-products that have not been previously released on the internet.

PLR Big Ticket Items provide you with a wide range of options in order for you to grow your online business, but are they really worth it?

Consider the Positives:

With PLR Big Ticket Items you buy an instant “business in a box” solution. This requires you to do no work on creating the product, and in addition these big ticket items typically come with a web site, professional sales pages and graphic images.

You receive a number of products that you can resell immediately after setting up your payment processor. All that remains is for you to market your products.

If you have an existing mailing list centered on your niche products, your financial outlay to purchase the PLR big ticket items can be viewed as an investment in which you can immediately make significant gains.

Further, with PLR content you typically have the right to use and repackage the content in any way that you can – depending on the rights and restrictions that come with the package when you purchase.

This provides you with a lot of flexibility when offering your product to end users. For instance, you may brand the products with your own (or affiliates) name and website. Although you cannot claim copyright to the product, by repackaging it with other PLR products you may be able to create a whole new product with a higher perceived value.

Consider the Negatives:

Although you purchased the products with the right to do anything with the content, you do not own the copyright. Even if you are encouraged to put your name on the product, you are unable to copyright it unless you make significant changes to the product itself, so that it becomes quite unlike the original product.

Another factor that you need to consider is that a limited number of other marketers will also possess the same PLR Big Ticket Items. This amounts to a small amount of competition.

There is also likely to be restrictions on the sale and use of the products. These are usually introduced to preserve the long-term value of the product in the marketplace. While this limits your marketing methods, it also stops other marketers from introducing too much competition and reducing the overall value of the product in the market place.

As the PLR products are introduced into the marketplace, some marketers may purchase products with Master Resell Rights, so you will be competing with a higher number of marketers than the original “limited” number who purchased the products with Private Label Rights.

Your Strategy:

Now that you know the benefits and risks of purchasing PLR Big Ticket Items, let’s look at your strategy for acquiring the products.

1. Are the products in your niche?

Don’t even consider purchasing the products if you think that you will be unable to resell them, or if you don’t plan to use them.

2. What level of Rights do you need in your business?

Do you need to own Private Label Rights for what you want to do with the products, or can you purchase them individually from other marketers with Master Resell Rights?

3. Understand the restrictions.

You may be attracted by the ability to own content that you can do anything with, but check out the things that you can’t do. For example, some common restrictions are that you are unable to resell the item on auction sites, or you must meet a certain price criteria.

4. Is the price affordable?

Don’t rack up credit card debt in order to get the products. Spend wisely!

5. What is your expected rate of return on your investment?

If you are spending $147 (or more) to purchase PLR Big Ticket Items, when do you expect to get that money back? How much profit do you expect to make once you’ve paid off the initial investment?

6. How do you plan to market the products?

A marketing plan is essential to knowing how to make money from any product that you promote. If you are purchasing PLR Big Ticket Items then it is important to consider how to market each item prior to purchase.

7. Can you include the products in Membership Sites?

8. Do some keyword research.

Are the products as popular as the owners claim them to be?

9. Will you add value to your website, your customers and your affiliates if you purchase the PLR big ticket items?

10. Can you give the products away for free?

If so, consider that the market may become flooded with the same products in the next 3 months by other marketers using this approach to gain subscribers,

Are PLR Big Ticket Items for Everyone?

Using your strategy, you will need to determine whether purchasing the PLR Big Ticket Items will enhance your business model and make it attractive. Beware of being caught up in a buying frenzy in order to claim the ‘latest to market’ products, especially if you have no plan to market them.

However, if you carefully consider your strategy then purchasing PLR Big Ticket Items can provide you with some heavy hitting products and tools that can seriously boost your online income, without the enormous time and effort required to create your own products.

Making Money with Affiliate Links And Google Adsense

One of the most frequently asked questions of all time is, "How do I make money on the Internet"?

If you have been trying to make money on the Internet for even a short while, you have undoubtedly heard quite a few names being thrown about. It seems as if everyone sees themselves as an expert and everyone who is anyone knows everyone else who is someone. It is like a marketing guru clique. And they make you think that if you do not know somebody, you will always be a nobody.

You have probably encountered product launches, audio and video streaming, teleseminars, and joint ventures, etc. The gurus that are selling these products and services are making money hand over fist. In all fairness, these products and services are genuine and valuable to the folks who buy them.

But what most of them will not tell you is that there are thousands of people on the Internet making thousands of dollars a month without spending a lot of money. They do not fly to every seminar in the country just to make contacts. They rarely do joint ventures, because frankly, no one knows who they are. They literally sit in front of their computers in their underwear, click a few links, and wait for the money to roll in.

How do they do it? Affiliate links, Google Adsense, and content.

Take Google Adsense, for instance. Search engines love good content, the more, the better.

When you create multiple content pages on your website, the search engine spiders crawl the site, then follow each link to more content, which helps raise your rankings.

How does this make you money? By placing Adsense ads on every page. As readers click through your pages, many will also click the Adsense links. Every time they do, you make a commission from Google. It can be anywhere from a few cents to several dollars.

They do not have to buy anything. Just clicking the link makes you money. The more people you drive to your site, the more people will click the links, and the more money you will make.

Now all you need is content. If you are a good writer, you can write your own. But most of us are not.

One option would be to use articles written by others. Go to any of the popular article directories and you will find thousands of articles. Most can used free of charge as long as you include the resource box with each article. Since you are not promoting your own product, this is a very viable option.

The major downside to using other peoples articles is that the reader will view them as the expert and likely click the link in the resource box instead of the Adsense links, and you lose money.

However, the best option is Private Label Rights articles. Just a little editing can turn these articles into your own creation. The reader will view you as the expert, since you are not competing with another writer.

You can also include your own resource box with a link to an affiliate program, so whether they click the Adsense links or your affiliate link, you have increased your chances of making money. And you have done it without a single product of your own.

Making money on the Internet is not as difficult as some would have you believe. As with any business, give the people what they want and they will keep coming back.

The Use Of Private Label Articles On Your Site.

Regular users of Private Label Rights content are delighted to see more and more PLR sites appearing. The proliferation of such sites has, however, given rise to a new problem - the overall quality of the articles users pay for. Good writers are snapped up fast and given ongoing work. Regrettably, some PLR site owners seem to be only concerned with getting a batch of articles uploaded no matter what the quality.

Competition, as we all know, is a GOOD thing. Quite a number of PLR users are now making a practice of signing up to check out the quality of what's on offer in a new site. If they like it, they stay. If they don't - they vote with their feet, or more appropriately, with the 'cancel this subscription' option at PayPal.)

Your Rights as a PLR Site Subscriber
_________________________

Don't feel that you have to accept the articles you get no matter what the quality. You are entitled to get articles and/or ebooks that have been proof read and edited to correct grammar and spelling mistakes. It is the responsibility of the PLR site owner to check that the articles are of an acceptable standard.

PLR users expect to have to tweak and change an article to create unique website content. They should not, however, have to edit every article. We all expect an error to creep in here and there - but an entire batch of articles written by someone whose language is quite obviously NOT English is not acceptable. Nobody wants to have to copy-edit every one of 20 articles before turning them into an e-book!

What You Can Do If You Are Not Satisfied With the Quality of PLR Content.
____________________________________________

The first and most obvious option is to cancel your subscription. However, you would be doing everyone a favor if you took the time to contact the site owner to explain why you are not happy. Copy and paste a few examples from the articles to demonstrate the errors.

In the past, PLR site owners have sent back batches of articles to be corrected and/or rewritten when they are not satisfied with the job. In extreme cases, they cut their losses and just hire a new writer. Any PLR site owner who wants to build a profitable and well-regarded business will be interested in working with you on this - they don't want to lose customers!

If you can't get any satisfaction, move on. Sample the content of several sites. Ask for recommendations from friends or other publishers before you sign up. (Look for more than one satisfied customer - never forget that some reviews are there solely to get you to sign up via the reviewer's affiliate link.)

Find a Site to Satisfy Your Personal Needs
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Different sites offer different things. Some sites offer articles and completed e-books, sales letters, and well-produced graphics. Others provide only articles and a few bonus products.

If you are a competent graphic designer and know your way around programs like Photoshop, graphics may not be important to you. (Indeed, you may prefer to create your own graphics so your site looks different to everyone else's.) Some sites offer 'extras' like web hosting and autoresponders, plus ready-made AdSense sites. If you are just starting out, you may like these all-in-one solutions.

Check out the following:

- What you get for your monthly subscription - articles, e-books, e-courses, AdSense sites, graphics and sales letters.

- The quality of the articles that are immediately available - general style, grammar, and spelling.

- Is the content original (not copied from some other source)?

- The regularity with which content is posted. (Check out the forum, if there's one available. Are there constant complaints or queries about when this month's content will be available?)

- The range of topics covered. You will find that some sites specialize in one subject area, while others cover a broad range of topics. Are you using enough of the monthly content to make it worth your while? There's not much point in being able to access 200 articles a month if you can use only five of them.

It's common for PLR users to belong to more than one site. An example: $250 a month spread between four to six sites comes to only $3,000 a year - which is an excellent business investment compared to the cost of hiring your own writer. Well-written, carefully-edited PLR articles are usually well worth the monthly fee. Take the time to assess the content of any PLR site - and stay with the ones that believe in quality control.

How Not To Use Article Marketing

Article marketing seems to be the latest rage and with good reason. It's by far the best free method of promoting your business and increasing your sales and opt in subscribers.

By submitting your articles to article directories, article announcement lists, and ezine publishers, you accomplish several things.

First, you establish yourself as an expert in your field. Readers are more likely to listen to you if they feel you know what you are talking about.

Second, by attaching a resource box to your article, you are giving the reader a link to your website. If the reader is impressed with your knowledge, they will likely click on your link to see what it is that you are offering.

Third, you increase your search engine page rank by providing a non-reciprocal link to your website. Search engines seem to give extra weight to non-reciprocal links in their page rankings.

But many marketers are not comfortable writing their own articles. They just do not know how to put their thoughts into words. Or worse yet, they do not have any thoughts worth printing.

That is why private label articles are in such high demand these days. There are several of these services available and more seem to be popping up every day.

Therein lies the problem. Depending on how these articles are used, the results can be good, bad, or downright ugly.

The Good: As stated previously, private label articles, when used correctly, can give the non-writer a big advantage over other marketers. They can increase your traffic, sales, and opt in subscribers. That is good.

The Bad: A common mistake made by marketers using private label articles is getting lazy. They simply copy and paste the article and submit it, as is, with no personalization.

At the very least, you should change the title. Most article directories require that your article be approved before they are posted. But do you really think they read every article that comes in? Not likely.

They get dozens, even hundreds of submissions every day, so it's unlikely that your article will actually be read.

But most directory software will automatically search their database for duplicate titles. If the title of your article matches one in their database, yours will be rejected.

So do yourself a favor and at the very least, change the title. It might also be a good idea to change the wording in the first paragraph.

The Ugly: Many marketers load so many links in their article that it becomes one long ad. This will not only get you rejected, but eventually banned if you do it often enough.

A good article contains useful information to the reader whether they buy your products or not. Give them good content and you will increase the chances that they will click your link in the resource box.

Private label articles are a great tool, but do not get lazy!

Strengthen Your Website Content with Online Database Access

Website content, as articles, has taken center stage as web publishers scramble to differentiate their online offers. As both the quantity and quality of articles have accelerated, so too have online directories. These directories often resemble mere lists, but they can be powerful content additions that serve to deepen the value of the overall selling proposition by helping users in locating critical, related resources that for the visitor is otherwise much too time consuming.

On today's websites, it is not uncommon to find online databases designed to provide the data-hungry website visitor with more comprehensive database management functions which are far superior to list-style directories. At a minimum, we find web-driven data pages that include search and display functions which facilitate quick and easy manipulation of back-end SQL databases. Many sites also include options to add, edit, delete, print, and even download data directly from the database to the desktop, all enabled with multiple levels of login/password security. While this is not revolutionary, the technical expertise required to build database-driven web pages has been the domain of more sophisticated online publishers who not only owned the back end database outright, but possessed the required expertise to build and maintain such access for their loyal constituents.

But that has all changed. A flurry of new, low-cost desktop tools have entered the scene, leveling the playing field for the budget-strapped internet marketer who, until recently, was limited to throwing in a basic "telephone book" style directory in an attempt to bolster his value proposition.

Three such tool categories warrant a closer look:

Web data extraction tools costing less than $400 enable web content, as "repeating data", to be easily extracted to MS Excel, MS Access, or virtually any SQL database in high volume. This data serves to build, or at least augment the publisher's's new online database. (Ideally, one should first obtain permission from the website owner before scraping large volumes of data).

The next challenge is to manipulate the collected data now resident in multiple files, and often in disparate data formats. Though list processing applications have long been available, lower cost tools now offer powerful merge/purge capabilities without the need to import and export files in the process. Some simple routines and the data is ready to upload to the database on the host web server.

Finally, the publisher builds the web pages which access the database. Perhaps most exciting is the arrival of a wide variety of desktop code generators, many which are open source, that allow a non-programmer to build customized web pages that rival the database search, display, add, edit,delete and download capabilities previously reserved for the more technical publisher. No longer is the web publisher required to know a single SQL command to accomplish this feat. Amazingly, most of these tools generate pure PHP or PERL code. All that remains is to upload the generated code to the host database and the project is complete. The website now houses a "living, breathing" database, to the extent that the publisher desires to maintain fresh data.

One of the more common, and simple applications of database-driven web pages is to build versatile Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages. Questions and answers can be queried by category (e.g. pricing, product) or keyword (e.g. sporting goods), while enriching the users support experience.

How can such newfound capabilities be monetized? The possibilities are plenty. Limited datasets can be made freely searchable and viewable for casual visitors, though it's usually wise to request that the user register even if membership is free. The idea is to prime the pump, getting casual users to thirst for more comprehensive database access. Extended and full database access can be reserved only for paid members.

Never has a publisher had such power to build data-rich content that can serve to immediately strengthen his unique selling sales proposition. In the old paradigm, he who owned the data held all the power. Today, data is everywhere for the internet entrepreneur. By applying the latest database tools, any website publisher can now cement the most loyal of customer relationships by ensuring that his customer has a reason to keep coming back.

Web visitors have a difficult enough time sorting out the perceived sameness of online offerings. For the content builder, there are few better methods to establish and lock in immediate credibility with customers than to implement an easily accessible database that underscores the site's overall content theme.

Market Your Online Business For Less

Business can get expensive. If you are like most people starting an online business you may quickly find your savings tapped and your credit cards maxed. That is, unless you know how to market your online business for free - or nearly free.

There are many ways to market your business, but not all methods deliver the same results to every business. While you learn your way around the online business world it makes sense to start with the cheap or free methods of marketing before spending a lot of money on a system that will not work for you.

Here are three methods for marketing your business for little or no cost. Some will work better than others and some will take longer to show results. Find out the costs as well as the Pros and Cons of each method.

MARKETING METHOD ONE: TRAFFIC EXCHANGES

Traffic exchanges are very popular for new online businesses. They can be free or charge a monthly fee. The way they work is that each member views other members websites, usually for a specified period of time, to build credits. Their sites will then be displayed to other members depending on the number of websites they have viewed.

PRO: Usually free. Lots of traffic quickly.
CON: Traffic is not targeted so usually works better for businesses that appeal to a wide audience. Viewing other members websites is time consuming.

MARKETING METHOD TWO: ONLINE FORUMS

Forums are online communities that discuss specific topics. There are forums (or discussion groups) on just about any topic you can think of. You can find these by doing a search for 'forum' and your topic. Or you can go to Google and search the Groups for your key word or phrase. Forums are usually free to join.

Most forums do not allow commercial solicitations. The focus is on exchanging information. Be prepared to add useful comments to the discussion and follow the posted rules. You may be allowed to attach a signature to your comments. Put your website in the signature to attract the search engine spiders and send visitors to your site. Develop a reputation as an expert on your topic and give free advice when possible to build credibility.

PRO: Targeted traffic. Builds credibility
CON: Have to be careful not to be labeled as "spam". Must spend time answering questions and posting comments. Depending on where you post and what you say you may or may not see a lot of traffic initially.

MARKETING METHOD THREE: NEWSLETTERS

Start your own newsletter right away. While this does not bring traffic to your site it does take advantage of the visitors who do come. The code for collecting emails can often be obtained from your host provider for free or an autoresponder service which is free or paid depending on your service.

Have a place for visitors to enter their email address and name. Send them a free report or email once a week with tips or news about your topic. This will permit you to build a relationship with prospects as well as grant you permission to contact them again with your offer. It often takes up to seven contacts before a prospect will buy, so don't let them leave without getting their email!

PRO: Permits you to contact interested prospects again. Builds relationship with customers and potential customers.
CON: Effort is needed to provide quality information on a regular basis. Does not attract new visitors.

Each of the marketing strategies outlined above are proven to work. What works best for you and your business will depend on various factors such as; what your business is, what time you can spend marketing and what information you can provide. Start using two or all three of these methods and you will be creating a solid marketing foundation for your business.

How to get Your Business Noticed

Many people will tell you that to get your web site noticed you need to 'optimize' your site for the search engines. You are then led up a path where you have to keep changing your web site as the search engines change their ways of listing things. As fast as you 'optimize' your site, Google and the others have moved the goalposts, meaning you have to keep optimizing over and over again.

Now consider some facts. Most people in the world are not users of the Internet. Let's repeat that. The vast majority of people who you want to reach don't use the Internet. It doesn't matter how well you optimize your web site, they simply will never find it.

Here's another fact. Some of the best Internet marketers make most of their sales 'offline'. They sell their books, CD-ROMs and so on at seminars, workshops and conferences. Indeed, for many 'Internet marketers' these 'offline' sales represent the bulk of their income.

So what do these facts tell us? They show us that 'offline' promotion is more important than online promotion. You may be able to optimize your web site to get high rankings in a search engine. But that doesn't mean you'll reach the vast majority of people who could buy your product or use your information.

This was confirmed recently by one study that showed most people go to an Internet address (URL) after having read it in a newspaper or magazine, been given it by a friend or colleague, or having heard it being mentioned by someone speaking at a meeting or on TV. In other words, it seems that significant numbers of people who get to your web site will do so having heard the URL somewhere outside the Internet.

You can get many people visiting your web site, even if you are not ranked highly by the search engines. You can do this in two main ways:

1. Write articles for use in regular publications - newspapers, magazines and so on. Always include your URL in the article and you'll get millions of people to notice your web site address.

2. Speak at every opportunity. Make presentations to business clubs, chambers of commerce, local societies - you name it, you should speak at it. Every time you speak, announce or your web site address.

Although these are the two principal ways of gaining offline publicity for your web site, don't neglect your business stationery, posters, car stickers and so on. The more your web site address is visible outside the web, the more visitors you will get regardless of how kind the search engines are to you.

How to get Targeted Traffic to Your Website!

Everyone who has a website knows that to have sales you must have traffic, but not just any traffic it has to be targeted traffic.

What is Targeted traffic? It is simply visitors to your website that are interested in what your website is about. For example, people interested in buying jewellery will find jewellery websites interesting.

How do I get targeted traffic I hear you ask? The following are tried and tested methods:

Forums: Subscribe to forums that discuss your topic. Answer questions and join in the debates there. Become an expert in the field. Then with each article reply you write have a discreet link to your website in the signature file. What can be placed in your signature is often determined by the forum moderators. Do not spam the forum or you will be stopped from posting. This is one of the most productive ways of getting free traffic as those who click your link have already read and liked your style.

Linking from/to other websites: Contact website owners that have similar but not competitive websites to yours, ask them for a reciprocal link from their website to yours. Be sure to select your link partner to match closely your customer profile. Software programs such as Arelis are very helpful in this process.

E-Zines: Contact e-zine owners that have your target readership and buy advertisements from them. Be sure to have a test run to see that the return on investment is sufficient to cover the costs involved. If you are buying an extended run of advertisements haggle with the e-zine owner over price. You may save a considerable amount.

Newsletters: When people visit your website offer them something of value for free if they sign up to your newsletter (like an e-Book). Your newsletter should be written tightly geared towards your topic. It should be published regularly at weekly intervals.

E-Books: Often used, these are usually free informational books for your clients and for others to give away free if they leave your links in the book itself. You can place links back to your website in the books you sell or give to your clients.

Joint Ventures: Contact online marketers looking for new products to sell. They often have large mailing lists with eager to buy customers. Normally they are willing to email their list for a cut of the sale price. This works particularly well with informational products. It has several advantages. It can give a very sizeable boost to both your sales and mailing list within a very short period.

Buy Traffic: This is probably the cheapest in terms of time and most expensive money wise. It gives a traffic boost normally within 30 days. What are you buying? You are buying traffic from expired domain names which the company selling the traffic has bought. They are domain names still registered on the search engines which get a considerable amount of traffic. The previous domain name owners have either lost interest in the name or simply forgot to renew the registration. This means that the traffic from the expired domain name is simply redirected to your website. This is usually high quality traffic as only websites with traffic such as you want is redirected to you. As always, a test run to see if this traffic is suitable should be undertaken.

When you combine these techniques and apply them consistently over time you will find a rich source of targeted traffic coming to your website. This, combined with quality products will ensure the success of your online business.

7 Reasons Why Seasonal Marketing Sells Products

The celebration of Thanksgiving is approaching and later on will come Christmas, then New Year's, Saint Valentines Day and so on...

Now, what is so special about each celebration? They all increase the selling of products. There are many reasons why you should consider seasonal marketing to promote your products, including the seven which are listed below:

1. People tend to buy more products during seasonal celebrations than the rest of the year.

2. People are determined to purchase products, so it is easier to persuade them to purchase a product you offer (assuming of course you are doing it the right way).

3. Most purchases concern gifts to others, therefore quality is what matters while price is less significant.

4. The time of celebration is limited and specific. Therefore people cannot leave for tomorrow what they need to buy for the celebration. They must act in a timely manner. This urgency is a huge advantage to marketers trying to sell products.

One other motivating factor for buyers is that seasonal products are limited and something they have in-mind may not be available in the stores at a different time.

5. People connect seasonal celebrations with their childhood. That makes them more emotional and as you might already know emotion is the key factor that makes people buy a product.

6. It is not always necessary to offer a celebration related product to increase your sales. Even a valued Internet product like software or e-books can be a valued gift.

7. Marketers do not have to invent new or never before used methods to create interest in seasonal products. The old traditional marketing techniques are effective and can still be applied. People want to buy because of the "celebration". In fact, many people may not see their purchase as buying at all, but as an act of making someone (including themselves) more happy.

Naturally, seasonal marketing may use different strategies to promote products. Instead of offering a product discount try the following:

- Offer a portion of the price of your product to charities and make people feel they contribute to this charity themselves.

- Try a special offer like "purchase one product and get the other at half price" or "purchase one product and get another free to offer as a gift".

These types of special offers can very easily increase your sales volume.

So, do not hesitate. Start promoting your products (or affiliate products) now. And don't forget, once a celebration ends, there are many others right around the corner. People are always looking for reasons to purchase gifts for others or for themselves.

Writing Articles that Captivate Your Readers

You've heard it time and time again: if you want to get your name out there, write articles and allow them to be freely reproduced (with a resource box pointing back to you, of course). Largely, that is true. A well-written article can:

- help you build your profile as an expert

- draw traffic to your site, and

- help you to build a database of potential clients through associated e-courses or a newsletter.

So far you probably haven't heard anything you didn't already know. What YOU are likely to be struggling with is the process of actually writing the article. Sure, you can come up with the content - but how do you really grab those readers? How do you keep their attention all the way through? And most importantly, how do you make them want to come back for more?

Let's assume that you understand the basics of constructing and editing an article (it has a beginning, middle, and an end and you know how to check the grammar and spelling.) Most of us can manage that. But if you're not content with simply "getting something out there" - if you want to WIN readers - then you need to start thinking about what they want to know, rather than what you want to tell them.

Put your readers first - every time. Give them what they want, and they'll be queuing up to read anything you produce. Give them something bland (or worse, blatantly self-serving) and they'll blast by you so fast you'll be spinning in the back draft.

The following four steps will give you a blueprint for writing articles that captivate your readers - whatever the topic.


== 1. Find Out What Your Readers Really Want ==

Sometimes you'll know what they want because you're an expert in the field, and understand the problems. If you don't know the subject area well, you'll have to do more research. Look for forums on your topic and see what people are discussing. What are the problems that need solving? Can you provide an answer? ("If they have a headache, give them an aspirin.")


== 2. Start With An Attention-Grabber ==

Spend time working on your opening. Try to avoid trite questions like "Have you ever wondered why so many people find it difficult to lose weight?" Firstly, it's dull. Secondly, it's not targeting the person reading the article - what do they care about the difficulties "many people" have with losing weight? They only care about THEIR weight problem!

Try to come up with an opening paragraph that gives the reader that warm "Hey, this is about me!" feeling right away. Better still; try to generate a rush of excitement - "This could be the answer I've been looking for..."

Example: "The diet gurus make it all sound so easy: to lose weight, all you have to do is expend more energy than you take in. Huh! If it were that simple, the "Big People" stores would be out of business in a heartbeat. Luckily for those of us who are tired of diets, gyms and dull group meetings, there is a back-to-basics way to tackle this. A way that won't cost you a fortune or leave you feeling deprived."


== 3. Write As You Speak... Then Edit! ==

The sample opening above also illustrates the importance of the tone you use in your article. You need 'meat' in each article, of course, to make it worth reading - but make sure it's not indigestible!

You're better off writing your article in a natural, relaxed style that's akin to normal conversation. It doesn't matter if the first draft is a little too informal - you can fix that when you edit. Naturally you don't want to irritate your readers with a too-breezy style, but too-formal is worse. Readers may want facts, tips, and strategies, but they hope to be entertained, too! Let your personality shine through.


== 4. End On A High ==

What's one of the biggest problems with most articles? They fizzle out! Writers often don't know how to end on an upbeat note. They either just stop dead or they come up with a trite ending like: "So what are you waiting for? Get started today!"

The beginning and the end of your article are the two parts that make the biggest impression. Start by creating a feeling of anticipation... and leave them feeling satisfied (or excited) when you finish.

If you are offering advice to help them solve a problem (like obesity) gives your readers a reason to feel optimistic and good about them. Don't make rash promises... but do offer hope. If you are giving hints on marketing or business, sum up the benefits of acting on your tips. You can also experiment with using a pithy/humorous quote, or giving readers a specific action to get them started. Be creative - and don't rush it.

Here's a final tip: create an article-writing cheat-sheet for yourself. Divide it into beginnings/middles/ends and add more useful strategies as you think of them. (For example, using the tips in this article, you might write: ENDINGS - end on a high, offer hope, use funny quote, suggest action to get started.)

Do this, and you'll be steadily cranking out articles that everyone wants to publish!

Why Blogging is Essential to Your Business

In the 'good old days' - about three years ago - you used to keep in-touch with your customers using phone calls, email messages and face to face meetings. Nowadays the world has changed. People expect even more frequent updates, yet it's nearly impossible to meet with every business contact on a regular basis.

Thankfully, blogging has come to the rescue. Setting up a blog on your web site - and having an associated RSS feed - means you can keep in constant touch with your clients and potential customers. Plus you don't have to email them and they can get your latest news without having to visit your web site.

So how does this all work? A blog is really a fancy name for a web page that gets updated regularly. It's nothing special. There are several methods of writing 'blogs', but they are nothing more than computer programs which allow you to easily update a web page. Far and away the easiest way to start a blog is with a website called blogger.com.

However, for keeping in touch with your customers, RSS is the key. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What this means is that your blog can be automatically delivered to people who want to read it - you don't have to send it to them and neither do they have to come and collect it. All they need is the address of your RSS Feed and their RSS Newsreader can do the job for them. There are several RSS readers available and new web browsers incorporate the ability to read RSS feeds and keep them updated.

Whenever you add new content to your blog, the RSS Feed automatically gets updated in everyone's Reader program or web browser. That means you are guaranteed to be able to keep in touch with clients and prospects. You don't have to do anything other than produce the content. Equally, you don't face the problems of email filters and anti-spam programs blocking your email. Furthermore, people tend to read RSS Feeds because they have subscribed to them whereas they tend to ignore non urgent emails.

As you can see, there are several advantages to Blogs and RSS Feeds. But it doesn't stop there. Search engines love them. That's because blogs provide fresh and new content - precisely what searchers are looking for. Hence the search engines are actively pushing blogs higher up the search engine ranking. This means if you don't have a blog for your business, you are seriously reducing your chances of a high search engine ranking. You need a blog nowadays to get noticed by the search engines.

So, blogging is essential. Not only does it improve your web presence, it also means you can keep in touch with clients and prospects more easily. And all the marketing research you can find will tell you that keeping in regular touch with your customers is an important component in gaining new business. So get blogging!

Are You Using This Internet Marketing Secret?

If you are trying to sell a product or service on the Internet, then you are probably doing so through an affiliate program. You signed up as an affiliate (usually for free) and they gave you an affiliate ID (user name or number). They may have even given you a basic marketing package which includes text ads, banner ads, and solo ads with a link to your affiliate sales page. All you have to do is use these tools to get traffic to your affiliate sales page.

Well that sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? This process actually works too, except that your probability of converting your traffic into sales is very, very, very low. In other words, you may have to have thousands of people to visit your affiliate sales page before you ever see your first sell. Now those aren't very good odds, are they?

Unfortunately, that is what most people do. They spend a lot of time, effort, and money getting all of those people to that affiliate sales page and then they finally make a sale and earn a referral fee or commission. But wait, it can get even worse. Let's say that you made one sale and earned a $10 commission. That's great, right? Well not really, because in the terms and conditions of your affiliate program, you don't actually get paid until you have accumulated at least $20 of commissions. So get back to it and get another sale and finally get paid. Good grief!

Don't quit! Internet marketing is a great way to make extra money, but you have to know some of the secrets. Here's one. "Don't advertise your affiliate program directly." You must use a four step process.

Four Step Process

1. First, you must provide something of value. The easiest valuable thing that you can give away is information. An informative email course, special report, or ebook are all great ways to give away free information.

2. This step goes along with the initial step above. Don't give away your free information until you get an email address. You must capture the name and email address of your prospective sale in order to be able to implement the next step.

3. If the information that you are providing is good and helps people, then you will earn some trust. If someone gives you some information that saves you time, money, or effort; then you are going to closely read anything that they send you - as long as the information is still valuable. This is why it is so important that you get that name and email address before you start giving away your information. Now you can keep the information flowing through an occasional email to your prospect.

4. Finally, if you have been providing valuable information and earning trust from people, it is much more likely that they will buy something that you recommend. This is especially true if you can convince them that what you are recommending will help them and that it is worth their money. The easiest way to do this is to recommend something that you have actually purchased and use yourself. Just tell them how it helped you and why you think that it was worth what you paid for it!

SEO - Natural Linking Strategies

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be the difference between a small, barely profitable or visible website and a traffic magnet website. There are a lot of ways, both good and bad, to influence the search engines. Some search engines react to certain strategies better than others. Some even have conflicting strategies that they react to. To document all of these things would require a significant number of pages and research that goes beyond the scope of this article.

However, there are a number of things that can be documented that will work for most if not all search engines. And let's face it; there are really only 3 that make a difference between a successful and an unsuccessful SEO strategy. They are the big three: Google, Yahoo and MSN. These three search engines in any given month are responsible for over 90% of all internet searches.

So, what is this article about? It's about what you can do as a website owner that will influence the search engines using commonly accepted practices of linking to other websites (outbound) and getting website links (inbound) back to you. There are basically 4 strategies that a website owner usually will employ to increase their website value in the eyes of the search engine. They are reciprocal linking, one-way linking, multi-site linking and directory linking. A website owner should not think that using just a single strategy is the right answer - sure it will help your SEO but it won't be the Best answer. The Best answer is to employ all 4 techniques and to do it naturally.

Each of the four linking strategies has specific descriptions that can be summed up as:
1. Reciprocal Linking = Site A links to Site B, Site B links back to Site A
2. One-Way Linking = Site B links to Site A
3. Multi-Site Linking = Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, Site C links to Site D, and Site D links back to Site A. Could be 3..N number of sites involved.
4. Directory Linking = Site Directory A links to Site A

That seems simple enough but it takes time and effort to perform all 4 strategies and most website owners aren't willing to spend the time or don't have the time to spend on it. As a website owner, SEO needs to be one of the highest priority tasks that you need to address, just after Order Processing and Fulfillment and Customer Service. Without free traffic from the search engines, other traffic generation strategies that usually require payment must be engaged.

Now doing the 4 strategies above is great, but it gets even harder because you have to do it in a way that doesn't trigger the search engines to enforce a penalty upon your website. No one except the search engine engineers know all of the exact penalties but we have some good theories for some of them.

The first is the rate at which links are created. There is a certain threshold for creating links that is too fast. It's possible that the threshold is a sliding scale and is related to the age of the website according to the engine. For example, a young low-traffic website should not normally be getting 1000 links a month whereas an older website that gets a lot of traffic could be OK to get 1000 links a month. As you progress in your linking strategies make sure you keep this in mind, especially if you are thinking about buying links.

The second is that having a link to every site that links to you will likely reduce the value of the links. In other words, if all you ever get is Reciprocal Linking, you will likely move up the SERP's (Search Engine Results Page's) but you won't reach your sites full potential. Having a mixture of all 4 strategies will appear more natural to the engines.

The third is having all inbound links to your site on "linking" pages will make those links less valuable than having a natural link on a contextually relative page for a percentage of the inbound links. The higher you can drive this context percentage, the better your website will rank. These types of links are often some of the most difficult links to generate an exchange for because it requires more time and effort for both website owners.

The fourth is to have links inbound from all different ranking sites. If all you have linking to you is page rank 6 and 7 sites then you are likely to be sending the message that you purchased your links and that is not natural to the engines. Some would argue that purchasing links for driving traffic is just fine and it is. However, you should not expect the search engines to give those inbound links very much weight when calculating your SERP positions. It is significantly more natural for you to have a large number of rank 1 and 2 inbound links and a decreasing number of inbound links as you move up the page rank scale (0 - 10).

The fifth is to have the text of you inbound links varied. It isn't natural to have every website that links to you to have the same text on the link description. The natural tendency would be to have a certain percent be the sites name, but after that it should be a wide variety of description. Your link text description is a key factor for how your site/page will rank, so make sure that you keep that in mind as you specify your preferred link text description on your website.

Finally, it would be best for a good percentage of your inbound links to appear within the text of a page that appears natural for the reader of that site. And for those links to not all point back to the home page of your website. It's most natural for a good high quality link to appear in the text of a page and have it point internally within your site.

So, when you begin or continue your SEO activities keep all of these things in mind and don't be impatient. Impatience could incur penalties or worse. Your website could end up in the "sandbox". It is rumored and becoming more concrete that Google supposedly uses a sandbox that questionable sites are put in until they have aged to a point that Google no longer feels that they are being manipulated. Many of the search engines use similar protection schemes to eliminate spam sites and manipulation sites to keep their SERP's from being cluttered.

15 Tips to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

There are many factors that make blogs much better than normal WebPages including the speed at which blogs are indexed, ability to submit to blog directories & normal directories, pings and track backs. All these little things can help drive more traffic to blogs. Here are 15 popular techniques you can use:

1.) Create at least four keyword posts per day. Most of the top blogs such as Boing Boing, Daily Kos, and Instapundit (with literally tens of thousands of visitors per day) publish an average of 30 small 100-150 word posts per day according to "Secrets of the A-list Bloggers: Lots of Short Posts" by TNL.net

2.) Submit to My Yahoo! When you submit your own RSS to My Yahoo it is indexed by Yahoo.

3.) Submit to Google's Reader. When you submit your own blog RSS to Google's Reader the Google Blog Search will index your site.

4.) Add a relevant link directory to your blog and trade links like a demon possessed! Although it may take more time than simply submitting to a search engine one time, this method is perhaps the best way to drive traffic to your site. Use software such as Zeus to speed up the link trading process.

5.) Use ping sites like ping-o-matic. Ping your site every time you add a new post.

6.) Submit your blog to traditional search engines such as AltaVista, and MSN.

7.) Submit your blog to traditional directories such as DMOZ. Directories (particularly DMOZ) increase relevance with Google. DMOZ is very picky, but what do you have to lose by trying?

8.) Submit to as many RSS Directories and Search Engines as possible. This is a simple but repetitive process that can be done with software such as RSS SUBMIT.

9.) Comment on other blogs. Do not just leave short, lazy comments like "I agree." Leave well thought out replies that will force readers to wonder "who wrote this?"

10.) Use track backs. If there is a blog that you refer to or quote and it is highly relevant to your subject, leave a track back. It increases your link popularity and may even score a few interested readers from the linked site.

11.) Go offline. Use newspaper ads, public bulletin boards, business cards, even stickers to let as many people as possible know your blog exists.

12.) Ad a link to your blog in your e-mail signature block.

13.) Use Groups (Usenet). Find a relevant group on Google groups, Yahoo groups, MSN groups or any of the thousands of other FREE group services and find like minded people and talk with them. Make sure your use your blog URL like it is your name.

14.) Use Forums. Forums are one of the best places to go for advice. Go to forums and find problems to solve. Make sure you leave your blog name, but be tactful about it; some forums get annoyed with those who selfishly drop a few links to their own site and leave.

15.) Tag your website. Tagging is a new idea that has erupted across the web. Sites like Del.icio.us, Technorati and many others have a social feature that allows you to place your article under keywords or "tags" that everyone interested in that tag can see.

Although these are some of the most popular ways to drive traffic to your blog, do not limit your self to tips and lists. Use your imagination and you will come up with thousands of ways to drive traffic to your blog!

Google Page Rank Prediction

This tool does what it says, it predicts your future Google PageRank.

How to use this tool:

1. Enter the exact website address of the page you want to check the prediction for into the text box. (eg. www.iwebtool.com/tools)

You can enter up to 10 different websites to check the prediction for. After entering the first address, press Enter and enter a new address on the new line.

2. Click the "Check!" button

The results will provide a prediction of the future PageRank however this should not be considered as the precise page rank that Google will give a site. However, this tool will give you a fair idea.

Are You Using Affiliate Marketing Secret?

If you are trying to sell a product or service on the Internet, then you are probably doing so through an affiliate program. You signed up as an affiliate (usually for free) and they gave you an affiliate ID (user name or number). They may have even given you a basic marketing package which includes text ads, banner ads, and solo ads with a link to your affiliate sales page. All you have to do is use these tools to get traffic to your affiliate sales page.

Well that sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? This process actually works too, except that your probability of converting your traffic into sales is very, very, very low. In other words, you may have to have thousands of people to visit your affiliate sales page before you ever see your first sell. Now those aren't very good odds, are they?

Unfortunately, that is what most people do. They spend a lot of time, effort, and money getting all of those people to that affiliate sales page and then they finally make a sale and earn a referral fee or commission. But wait, it can get even worse. Let's say that you made one sale and earned a $10 commission. That's great, right? Well not really, because in the terms and conditions of your affiliate program, you don't actually get paid until you have accumulated at least $20 of commissions. So get back to it and get another sale and finally get paid. Good grief!

Don't quit! Internet marketing is a great way to make extra money, but you have to know some of the secrets. Here's one. "Don't advertise your affiliate program directly." You must use a four step process.

Four Step Process

1. First, you must provide something of value. The easiest valuable thing that you can give away is information. An informative email course, special report, or ebook are all great ways to give away free information.

2. This step goes along with the initial step above. Don't give away your free information until you get an email address. You must capture the name and email address of your prospective sale in order to be able to implement the next step.

3. If the information that you are providing is good and helps people, then you will earn some trust. If someone gives you some information that saves you time, money, or effort; then you are going to closely read anything that they send you - as long as the information is still valuable. This is why it is so important that you get that name and email address before you start giving away your information. Now you can keep the information flowing through an occasional email to your prospect.

4. Finally, if you have been providing valuable information and earning trust from people, it is much more likely that they will buy something that you recommend. This is especially true if you can convince them that what you are recommending will help them and that it is worth their money. The easiest way to do this is to recommend something that you have actually purchased and use yourself. Just tell them how it helped you and why you think that it was worth what you paid for it!