10. May 2008 by admin.

This is just going to be a quick overview on a few good ideas for writing PPC ads.

First let’s take a look at the headline.  The tip?  Ask a question.  This will catch people’s attention and make your ad a little different then the rest.

example:  Want Better Sleep? or Need to Shed Some Pounds?

In the next two lines you should focus on a feature and a benefit.  This is classic marketing, and it’s no different in PPC ads.  Tell the person what problem you are going to solve, and then tell them HOW you are going to solve it.  Very simple but powerful.

One quick thing about the display URL:  leave off the “www.”  i.e. MakeMeLoseWeight.com instead of www.makemeloseweight. com .

Sorry, I told you this was going to be a short one.

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9. May 2008 by admin.

How do you go about getting your site indexed by Google (so it shows up when someone searches your keywords)?  Make your page, then sit and wait for a week or two until the Google spiders stumble across it?  That’s what I used to do too, but that is soooo old school.

 As noted in my earlier post, I just launched I’m A Broke College Kid, and I got it indexed in Google in just a couple of hours.  Now I’m going to show you how I did it.

 First off, it’s important to know a few things about how search engines (Google especially) work.  Search engines have programs called spiders or bots that are constantly combing the web and taking note of all the different content available.  They go to a site, record the text on a site to get a feel for what it’s about, follow all the links, and index it for the search results.  The search spiders visit “important” pages a lot more frequently than normal pages.  “Important” pages are pages that are very popular, add new content often and have many links pointing to them.

These highly spidered pages are the keys to getting your site indexed quickly.  Because spiders follow the links on the pages they visit, we can use these important pages to get the spiders to our site.

So here’s the pages I used…Go to Squidoo and write a quick article about your subject.  It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but make sure it contains some links back to your site.  If you don’t have a Squidoo accout, get one because it’s free.

Next go to clipmarks (again, free account).  After you download and install the simple clipmarks software, go back to your Squidoo page you created.  Clipmarks your Squidoo article and give it a title and description and everything, and you’re good to go.

That alone should get you indexed in Google in just a few hours.  Right now, clipmarks is getting spidered like crazy and you can use that to your benefit.

You can go further and use social bookmarking sites, other article submission sites and we forums to quickly build up your number of pages indexed in Google.

I hope you found this helpful.  Now you won’t have to wait around to get spidered in a week or two.

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8. May 2008 by admin.

Hey everyone.  I just launched a new site.  It’s ImABrokeCollegeKid.com. 

The site is full of offers for people to sign up to take surveys, watch advertisements, read emails, participate in focus groups, play games and more, all while getting paid to do it!  There is also a page full of free stuff that you can get just for answering some questions.

Please take the time to check it out.  It’s full of great stuff that anyone can do in their free time to make a few quick bucks.

ImABrokeCollegeKid.com

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29. April 2008 by admin.

While these tips are not really secrets, they do advocate the use of common sense. Many affiliates, who are hoping to make enough money to quit their day jobs, are over looking some of the steps that may be needed. If you plan on taking the shortcut to success you can easily find yourself in a section of past affiliates who eventually gave up when they were never able to see the fruit of their labors.

Pre-Selling - Taking the link given to you by your affiliate program and placing it around the internet will not make you rich. You will be lucky to receive even one commission check from it and you are more likely to be labeled a spammer than an affiliate.

Everyone who engages in online money making will tell you the same thing, get your own website. This website will allow you to have articles and other content necessary to bring in visitors and potential customers and it will help to keep their attention focused on the topic at hand, instead of an ad.

Targeted Traffic - Buying traffic from websites may or may not work depending on the company and whether or not you will be receiving real visitors to your site and not bots. Something else to consider is that you should be looking to target specific traffic niches. If someone is looking information on kittens, they probably will not pay attention to your site that has information on cell phones and electronics.

Unique Content - Another common sense rule that is often ignored is the use of fresh content. Taking articles from directories or stealing it from online will only hurt in the long run. First your website will suffer when the search engines gives out their duplicate content penalties and next the people that you have stolen content from will not be pleased.

They can write to your web host and even your internet provider to complain about their stolen content. It is really not difficult to write a few articles and you can also find online writers who you can hire. Remember that unique content is one of the ways that you will eventually receive targeted traffic.

Affiliate Links - Leaving your links unprotected can allow thieves to replace it with their own affiliate codes. Applying cloaking capabilities is not difficult and it can help you boost your commissions by stopping thieves and others from benefiting from your hard work.

Free Stuff - Everyone loves to receive free items and they are likely to signup to your newsletter just to get that free ebook that you have advertised. This will help you to grow your email list so that you can get back to your prospects as well as sending them fresh newsletters to peak their interests.

Marketing with Articles - Receiving links via article marketing is a well known solution and most online business owners have been applying this technique for years. There are tons of article directories but you should search for a list of the best ones. Submit your fresh articles and fill in your bio page with your information and website link, to get one way links back to your site. It’s free, simple and will boost your sites rating in a few short months.

Link Trades - Some affiliates and web site owners will purposely look past the obvious link trades. Some feel that if they shared links with other sites, they will be sharing the success. The benefits of link trades besides your rating and search engine optimization techniques is that you can receive new visitors from the other sites you have traded with. Another bonus is that even when someone searches for a particular website, yours can come up in the first few results pages simply because you have a link to that other website.

Trying many different ways to boost your affiliate sales can be difficult and at times tedious but it has to be done. Cutting corners means that you will not be as successful as you would, if you had only taken the time to do all the positive steps needed to be a top money making affiliate.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing | No Comments »

29. April 2008 by admin.

- XY7.com is a great affiliate network. It has many high-paying pay-per-action campaigns. Definitely one of my favorite affiliate networks. Try to get Randall as your affiliate manager!

Affiliate marketing has grown into a very important part of the world wide web. As the Internet becomes bigger, the online marketplace expands as well. The number of people on the web grows every day, and with it the number of consumers, buyers and potential costumers. In search of information, knowledge, solutions for their problems and interaction, people spend billions of dollars online to satisfy their needs and desires.

This has led to the development of affiliate marketing, one of the most powerful ways of creating a substantial income online. There are 7 absolutely great reasons why people choose affiliate marketing as their source of income.

1. B.Y.O.B.

Be your own boss. In affiliate marketing, you are can promote any product that you like, and in any way you see fit, just as long as you follow basic rules. You have complete control over your time and resources and you decide on how much effort will you put in it. You create your own schedule and you choose when and where you work.

2. High income potential

Affiliate marketing provides you with the tools with which you can reach millions of people online, which translates into an enormous marketplace with a huge income potential. It’s not hard to make money online, you just have to see what works for you and do a lot of it.

3. More free time working from home

As your income grows, you get the ability to spend more time with your family and friends. A high income made online means financial freedom, as well as freedom from the 9/5 job.

4. No selling skills required

Most people dislike the idea of selling something. That is why affiliate marketing programs are perfectly satisfied with sales letters that do the job for you. All you need to do is point the person in the direction of the sales copy.

5. Make money while you sleep

One of the best things about working in affiliate marketing is that you can wake up in the morning and find out that you’ve made a couple of sales while you were sleeping. There is nothing like making 500$ commissions before breakfast.

6. Unlimited number of products - multiple streams of income

You can choose to sell products from any niche market, from dog food to cars. There is no limit as to how many products you can sell, as well as no limit to how many affiliate programs you can join. This makes it possible for you to make money from multiple streams of income, creating a great financial security.

7. Fun, fun, fun…

O.K., maybe not that much fun, but you get the general idea. Considering that there are millions of different products online, in thousands of different niche markets, if you look hard enough, you can find products that you’ll be passionate about. With passion and interest comes the ability to have fun while performing tasks that make you money.

It’s all about your own flexibility and freedom. You are the most important part in affiliate marketing. If you take it seriously, and consider it as a business that you can grow and expand, you can be successful. If you want to know if affiliate marketing is for you, I urge you to find out fast. Because, one of these days you could wake up to the sound of money pouring into your account. And it’s not even time for breakfast.

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29. April 2008 by admin.

Promoting your business is a costly exercise. It takes money and time out of your business with no guarantee of a return on that investment. So for many small businesses, it is a gamble that they simply must take, yet can ill afford to lose.

However, there are a number of ways to get the ball rolling and reach your potential customers without laying out a fortune up front.

Get permission to put your prospects onto your email list and you then have a low cost database of customers that you can build a relationship with and market to over and over.

Here’s three ways to make first contact with your clients without breaking the bank.

Joint Venture
Get in touch with complimentary businesses and market to each others customer base. For example, a hair salon could create a special offer just for customers of the local fitness center, restaurant or nail salon.

In turn, the other businesses could make similar offers to the hair salons customers. This gives each business instant access to a highly targeted list, with the added benefit of an implied endorsement from the ‘host’ company. Of course, you choose your partners carefully.

Don’t Advertise, Inform!
People are bombarded with advertising, from the moment they wake up until they finally shut their eyes and sleep. They have become hardened and cynical to ads and can smell even the faintest whiff of a sales pitch from a hundred yards. So don’t advertise, inform.

It is now cheap and easy to create electronic information products such as short movies, articles or PDF reports that will position you as the expert in your particular field. While it’s possible to do this with a traditional printed newsletter, the cost of printing and postage could be prohibitive to smaller businesses.

Of course, you should put your contact details at the end of the message so that your viewer can get in touch. Now instead of you trying to sell them, the customer is coming to you to buy!

Just remember to include some information! Turn your report or movie into a pitchfest and you will lose any chance of making a sale.

Affiliate
It is possible to grow a sales team the size of a small army for zero outlay. Many bricks and mortar businesses are setting up online affiliate schemes that pay a referer only when a sale is made. Companies such as Shareasale make the process cheap and easy to do online.

Of course, affiliate schemes are not limited to the online world. Service industries such as restaurants or beauty salons have been running voucher and coupon schemes long before the internet ever existed. By keying your coupons it is possible to know who made the referral and a suitable reward given.

However you kickstart your marketing, it is vital that you capture the contact details of your prospects and then keep in touch. It takes an average of seven times more to acquire a new customer as it does to sell to an existing one. So you can slash your overheads simply by staying in contact with your customer base.

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29. April 2008 by admin.

VistaPrint - The best place for business cards, brochures and all your marketing materials.

Whether you are printing cheap business cards or premium cards, remember that the most important aspect of the business card is how you layout your information. There is no alternative for standard good design that is easy to navigate through.

Business cards are a business commodity. Its primary function is to get your contact information the hands of the client, and second do it in a way that appeals to them.

When having business cards printed, you should be careful to avoid both extremes of choosing to print specialty cards for their added appeal but are given away sparingly due to their cost. On the other hand, some may choose to print economically while foregoing print quality.

Offset printing allows you the best of both scenarios. It gives you full colored photographic quality prints for the price of a dime a dozen. With the proper layout, you can have expensive looking business cards you can give away without second thoughts.

Below is a methodical guideline you can follow in making the layout for your business card.

1.  
   • Layout: There should be a 1:1.618 proportion between the colored and non-colored area, or the graphic and non-graphic space.
   • Text: The smallest text should begin with a 9pt font size while the name directly above these texts should use a 14 or 15 pt font sizes. Your business name should use a 22pt text.
   • Use this proportion to come up with various formulas for your business card graphics and overall design.

1) Golden Ratio or the Fibonacci number :In simple terms, it was discovered that there are patterns in nature that account for their looking aesthetically balanced. The ratio is discovered to be 1:1.618.

Your 2×3.5 inch business card approximately follows this ratio, and so do most of the business card layouts, even though the conversion is often inexact. Follow this as a guide and use your intuition to make it functional.

1.  
   • You can also substitute the rule of thirds which is also another design concept and is a rough estimate of the Fibonacci number.
   • Perfectly centered designs are boring, thus the term dead center. The rule of thirds uses an asymmetrical balance that gives your design more tension and therefore more appeal. Simply create a nine by nine grid and place important elements in the four points created when the lines intersect.
   • You can also use the rule of thirds when trying to create divisions for your design. There is the bottom third, middle third and upper third. The bottom third can be used to contain your contact information, where your name is right in the middle of the lower third grid.
   • The middle third can hold the empty space which is important in giving your business card breathing space. If your text is on the right panel, you can place your graphics on the left. Remember to still observe the three point rule for vertical divisions. The topmost third can contain your business name and your slogan.

2) Rule of Thirds

Whether you choose to print cheap business cards, create a good layout to make it look like a million bucks. It combines having aesthetically pleasing cards that are easy to navigate at very inexpensive price.

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29. April 2008 by admin.

Odds are if you have a business you have a business card. I won’t even bother going over the benefits of merely having a business card because I’m quite sure every book on business will cover this point ad nauseam, so why bore you with the details? The question isn’t if a business card is effective but what kind of business card you decide to have.

Far too many people don’t put any thought to the benefits of a unique business card when printing theirs. Just think about how many businesses are out there, and now think about how many different kinds of business cards are being handed out at this very second. I could bet you somewhere in this world a business card is changing hands.

Don’t just settle for the basic and simple design. Use full color business cards; use something different, something eye-drawing. Think about what your company has to offer and try to think about how you can incorporate it into the card in a unique style. How many cards have you seen that give you nothing but a name in black and white with a phone number underneath it? Are you likely to remember it a few days later? The point of any business card is to give someone a reminder that you exist, but what’s the point of a reminder if they forget they have it? Make sure your business card is unforgettable.

Have fun with it. There’s no reason to push yourself in a corner by using a stuffy, run of the mill card. A full color business card will stand out when you hand it to a person, perhaps start up a conversation, and what else can you hope for when speaking to potential customers? The more interesting it is the better the chances are they’ll be intrigued. A business card says a lot about the person handing it out.

Make a card that flips into a mini brochure to give them additional information. Make a card that unfolds into a little map of the city with the path marked to your business. Own a pet store? Put a bright picture of a cat or dog on your card. Own a hardware store? Add a small ruler to the edge of the card.

The best thing any business can do is stand out. The days of simply having a business card are long behind us. As business card printing becomes cheaper and more affordable there’s no reason for any business to not have one. Now the task is making your card stand out, and nothing helps more than having a unique, full color business card.

>>The best place that I have found online to get business cards made (as well as all kinds of other marketing materials) is VistaPrint. I have been using VistaPrint for several years because of their cheap prices and quick shipping. I also like the fact that I can just upload my design, or use one of their templates and get it done quick.

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29. April 2008 by admin.

Some of the best things to sell on eBay are on eBay itself. The top sellers on eBay capitalize on certain strategies that most don’t know about.

First off, look to purchase auction items with no photographs on eBay. It is amazing how many auctions still take place without photographs. A lot of buyers are turned off by them, but here’s how you can profit.

Examine the listings and see if the seller offers an iron clad money-back guarantee and if his/her feedback is high (at least 15) with 99-100% positive comments. If so, you can snatch these items up at deep discounts and resell right away (with your own photographs, this time!). These items are one of the best things to sell on eBay.

Next, look at auction items that have misspelled titles or descriptions. You will often find that these auctions do not get a lot of bids since they won’t show up in the bidder’s original search terms. Plus, these sellers are sellers who just want to sell their item without a lot of effort. Many of these auctions end with no bidder. Follow up with them and offer them a low price.

Finally, look at bidding on items that are ending during the week at early morning hours, between 4 to 7 am, Eastern Standard Time. These auctions are closing when there are the fewest amount of buyers. You can make a lot of money from these auction.

Learn How To Make Money With eBay - $180 Value

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29. April 2008 by admin.

No matter how talented you are, if you host your craft sale in your garage or your basement, you can be sure no one is going to be crossing state lines to come buy your stuff. In fact, your customers are likely to be limited to family, friends and the people who live in and around your neighborhood. Online auction software is innovative software that increases your online exposure tremendously and enhances your profit making capacity.

Before going into the details, you’ll see that it’s much better than an online store and that it’s pretty flexible considering the formats available. I’m talking about software to build an online auction site. There are some interesting features for both bidder and merchant to take advantage of and of course if you do not want to host your own auction site you can sell your items through popular online auctions sites such as eBay..

Whether you make use of on online store or an online auction site, you will likely make profits from selling a product. With an auction site, however, your profits are likely to be higher as every item you sell will be subject to bidding between people who all wish to purchase your item.

In fact, you may even make profits that are much greater than the value of the item. Online stores, on the other hand, usually have fixed prices, limiting the amount of profit you can make to a pre-determined amount. There are several available types of auction software.

In order to optimize the use of an online auction site, most auction management software will be programmed either in PHP format or ASP format. If you have no technical knowledge, it’s always better to go for the PHP format since the company providing the software can easily support you. For more technically advanced users using PHP or ASP shouldn’t bother you.

Most of the software available today come with detailed instructions on how to use them, and do not require that you input any difficult code. You simply have to be able to read English and meet the hardware requirements. The following is what you may expect from online auction software.

Well for the merchant, several features will be important such as easy management, accounting, tracking, security and appearance. Just like a garage sale, the more attractive it is the more customers you might get.

Online buyers will be concerned with the security of their transactions, the product guarantees, and the ability to track their deliveries. Many people choose to bid for products online instead of in the real world because, by doing so, they are able to compare a much greater number of items than they would in real life.

Here is a good set of Free tools.  It’s an eBay for Dummies Toolkit, and it is loaded with free stuff.

eBay, one of the most popular of all online auction services, is an exemplary site to look at for ideas of how to develop your own online auction site. Not only do they have among the largest catalogue of products for buyers to bid on, they also have stringent security measures in place and offer buyers and sellers the opportunity to rate each other. This is probably one of its most innovative features as both parties are compelled to do their best so as to build trust with others who also use eBay to buy or to sell items. You can even open your own account and put up your own items for bidding.

No need to get intimidated at the thought of setting up your own online auction site. Just think of it as a more up-market garage sale, where you can make huge amounts of money everyday selling just about anything. All you need to do is make your site look professional with online auction software and you are ready to go.

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