Have you been reading about Internet marketing success stories? Have you ever wondered  how even absolute novices become so successful ?

Internet marketers earning $700 dollars a month and within four or five years making over $800,000 a year in profits.How do the successful online enterprenuers go from just a few dollars or better still ZERO income to several thousands in just a number of years?

Where did the additional sales come from?

Just think about it.

Where did all the traffic that seems to be non-existent come from?

Where are all the new clients from?

How come the sales keep increasing year after year?

They must be doing something different. Yes of course they are doing things differently and more so rightly but don’t forget that in addition to that there are now more people than ever having access to the internet on a daily basis. Presently, in almost every corner of the globe you are likely to be able to link up to the internet even in places where you least expect it. Thanks to the advent of telecommunication companies providing that facility on their networks. You don’t need a computer to access the web; just a phone may be enough.

So just imagine the client base…MASSIVE.

But bear in mind that even if you are employing all the “top-notch” techniques….it will still take time and effort to reach majority of them to ramp up traffic and sales. The top-notch techniques being:

- Provision of a valuable product or service that is in demand
- Search Engine Optimization
- Article marketing
- Email marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Utilizing Web 2.0
- Participating in joint ventures
- Blogging
- Optimizing keywords
- Targeting social media
- Link exchanges
- Networking

As long as you offer something that is valuable and in demand….there will always be plenty of hungry customers who would want what you have.

But remember, it won’t happen overnight

As a new year takes off, many have drawn up new resolutions, some within reach, and others totally outrageous.

But the most common challenge most people have in achieving them is the word impossible. Most people start the journey and then take a u-turn thinking I can’t do this, this is too difficult. It is too impossible.

You know what? Life would definitely be so much better if we could all do away with self-doubt and self-limiting assumptions. If everyone had that impossibility mentality, there would be no inventions and no breakthroughs in human accomplishment.

If you told someone 100 years ago that it was possible for one to view and talk to another live on a different side of the globe, they would laugh at you. If you told them you could send a document in seconds to another miles apart, you would be considered crazy, but through sheer perseverance and desire these are now possibilities.

Don’t allow yourself to be subdued by your perceived limitations. Remember that no one breaks past what  he or she deems impossible. Aim high and work hard to attain those goals. As you steadfastly progress, you will begin to realize that the impossible has just become a little bit more possible.

This brings to mind the story of a lady who once worked in the retail section of a departmental store. She could best be described as an introvert, reserved and always kept to herself.

She went to a physician one fateful day after being convinced by a friend to cultivate the habit of having regular medical checkups. What transpired changed her life forever.

She was diagnosed of having a malignant tumour in the brain and was told she had some few weeks to live.

Expectedly she became distraught and depressed and did not leave her room for days. After much sobbing and brooding  she  decided that if she was going to die she would not do so in that miserable state but rather with laughter and joy .She would rather cram the best part of her life into those few weeks and live life to the fullest.

She withdrew all her life savings, quit her job and intended to literally live life on the edge, free from all inhibitions.

She had fun and to cut a long story short, she found to her astonishment she could do things she would never have even dared to consider. She realized she had a remarkable ability to convince and build relationships; a natural talent for cookery - being able to stir up top-shelf recipes in record time  and an enviable public speaking dexterity, just to name a few.

And interestingly, as the seemingly dreaded day drew close her physician called to apologize for a wrong diagnosis due to a faulty machine. What a blissful day that was.

As to what became of her, your guess may be as good as mine. She set up her own restaurant and coupled with her new found talent for salesmanship and oratory she became  one of the most sought after chefs in town.

The point worthy of note here is the fact that she had hidden potential and loads of it .She decided to leap out of her comfort zone and dared to do the impossible in her own world. In her case it was after there seemed to be no other plausible options.

Let me ask you now, what are you waiting for? Why are you still entertaining the ‘I can’t do it spirit’? Take that bold step and you would be surprised what you can do.

If you just dream towards a goal without working towards it you will end up disappointed and disillusioned. 

Thomas Edison once said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. For one to accomplish his or her dreams there has to be faith (possibility mentality with no fears), hard work and discipline. But remember, that 1% has to be a think-big dream, and not some easily accomplished one.

So in 2010, dream on friend, think big and dare to be different.

Happy New Year

What is RSS?

RSS (also known as “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”) is a format  employed  to publish regularly updated content—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video. The ‘syndication’ in RSS means republishing an article that comes from another source such as a website.

RSS provides a means of publicizing updates about websites. It may or may not include a summary and images of the latest posting. But those that provide summaries (thus Rich Site Summary) allow users to scan through the article so that they could decide  if they want to access the website source. The RSS feed usually contains the title of the update originating from the website. It is also usually the link to the website source.

What are the benefits of RSS?

RSS gives benefits to both readers (users) and web publishers.

1.            It gives you the latest updates.

Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updates site learn about the latest as soon as it comes out.

2.            It saves on surfing time.

Since an RSS feed provides a summary of the related article, it saves the user’s time by helping s/he decide on which items to prioritize when reading or browsing the net.

3.            It gives the power of subscription to the user.

Users are given a free-hand on which websites to subscribe in their RSS aggregators which they can change at any time they decide differently.

4.            It lessens the clutter in your inbox.

Although your email address will be required to enjoy the services of online RSS aggregators, RSS does not use your email address to send the updates.

5.            It is spam free.

Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates thus your privacy is kept safe from spam mails.

6.            Unsubscribing is hassle-free.

Unlike email subscriptions where the user is asked questions on why s/he is unsubscribing and then the user would be asked to confirm unsubscribing, all you have to do is to delete the RSS feed from your aggregator.

7.            It can be used as an advertising or marketing tool.

Users who subscribe or syndicate product websites receive the latest news on products and services without the website sending spam mail. This is advantageous to both the web user and the website owner since advertising becomes targeted; those who are actually interested in their products are kept posted.

What are the drawbacks of RSS?

The disadvantages of RSS use are brought about by its being relatively new technology and some user-preference concerns.

1.            Some users prefer receiving email updates over an RSS feed.

2.            Graphics and photos do not appear in all RSS feeds.

For conciseness and ease of publication, RSS feeds do not display the photos from the original site in announcing the update except for some web-based aggregators

3.            The identity of the source website can be confusing.

Since RSS feeds do not display the actual URL or name of the website, it can sometimes get confusing on what feed a user is actually reading.

4.            Publishers cannot determine how many users are subscribed to their feed and the frequency of their visits. Moreover, they would not know the reasons why users unsubscribe which could be important in improving their advertising.

5.            RSS feeds create higher traffic and demands on the server.

Most readers still prefer the whole update over a brief summary of the entry, thus they still access the site.

6.            Since it is a new technology, many sites still do not support RSS.

How do I start using RSS?

There are two things needed: an RSS feed and an RSS aggregator or reader. The RSS feed comes from an RSS-supported website. There are also websites that provide a list of RSS feeds of different websites. An RSS aggregator is used to read the RSS feed from the source website. It scans and collects data on latest RSS feeds from the worldwide web.

An aggregator comes in two forms: a downloadable program also known as desktop aggregator and an online or web-based aggregator. Downloadable aggregators may require payment before they can be acquired, while internet-based aggregators are usually free of charge. All you need to do is to register an account then you are ready to use their services. Both versions allow you to customize or choose which RSS feeds to enter. Paid aggregators are usually chosen by more experienced users and they usually allow more freedom in customizing feeds.

1.            Choose an RSS aggregator to use. For beginners, web-based aggregators are recommended since they are usually user-friendly

2.            Scan the homepage of your target website for the RSS or XML button. It contains the RSS code you need to enter in the aggregator. Copy this code.

3.            Paste the code (which contains the URL of the website) in your aggregator. There is a space provided for pasting the code.

After you have done these three easy steps, you can start reading the RSS feeds coming from the website. New postings appear as they are published real time at the source website.

There are literally millions of people making a comfortable living off the internet from home with more people joining the train like never before.But many newbies unfortunately jump on board with some preconceived ideologies which distorts the logical course of  progress thereby resulting in disappointment and stifling the drive to continue in this rather rewarding endeavor.

Some myths about Internet marketing that should be disabused from the mind.

1. I will be making so much money in record time I will be able to fire my boss in a matter of days.

The truth is making money online is not an overnight business. It takes time to build a business online but unlike normal brick and mortar an internet business requires less time and money to manage than even a small offline venture and the results are realized a lot faster.

2.  It’s too late to start. The industry is already flooded.

The truth is it is never too late to start. Just imagine, there are millions of restaurants, electronic stores, pharmacies around the world. Is it too late to open another one? The number of people accessing the internet now exceeds 1 billion and the number keeps rising every single day and with phone users being able to stay connected to the internet even without a computer the opportunities of do business online has been magnified exponentially.

3.  I can  put in  only a few minutes of work each day and make millions.

I am sorry you might be greatly disappointed. Just like any other business the more effort you put  in the more rewarding it becomes. The first few weeks or months would require a lot of time investment which would eventually pay off  rewardingly in later years.

4.  Just build the website, publish it and buyers would start rushing for your stuff.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! This is one of the most costly mistakes new internet marketers make. They think that once they build their websites the over a billion website users would start rushing in.

This may have happened in the early days of the internet when a few people were selling online  but not now when the competition is tight. Building a website is just the first step in doing business online,you have to learn how to promote your site and drive traffic to it.

Drawing traffic has become very achievable with the advancement of technology as resources in terms of tips,techniques,know-how are readily available and tools in the form of softwares and scripts have become very affordable.

Remember there are over a billion users presently online.So when you think about the potential customer base, your imagination may be the only limit.

The best recommendation I can give to anyone wanting to start doing business online is ‘It may sound too good to be true but it is very real and so many people’s dreams have become reality as they are now living the good lives they had always yearned for. Don’t be left behind. The business opportunities on the internet are endless.

For more resourceful online money making tips visit  www.top-tips-and-answers.com

To your success.

I guess you may have realized its been quite a while since I updated my blog.it was a deliberate risk I took purposely to prioritize the internet marketing tools I employ . I have been utilizing article submission in my online business for sometime now and I am very familiar with its successes but sometimes one cannot be sure which marketing tool is the most effective. I  occassionally dare to try out exercises just to be utterly convinced and with this one I must confess I was totally elated at the end.

It is an open secret that the search engines are very unfriendly to sites which are not frequently updated -any hard earned rating would appear to plummet after a while.But from studies  it has been realized that un-updated sites can still enjoy huge traffic with backilnks.

In my case I decided to submit just a few articles with backlinks in my author resource to a significantly reduced  number of article directories with ratings I randomly chose just to observe its influence on my ranking. I had decided  to just try it for a couple of weeks  whilst working on my other  several money making sites.

To my astonishment I observed my rankings were improving  considerably and that even gave me the impetus to linger on with the trial. Considering the number of articles submitted and recipient directories the performance of this technique has proved to be exceptionally impressive and has actually jumped to the top most marketing tool I have decided to employ.

Article submission by all standards is a ‘MUST EMPLOY’ marketing technique for every aspiring internet marketer but therein lies a catch,the content must be UNIQUE and ORIGINAL.

You must not do without article submission.Submit your articles to several article directories, let your voice be heard and be respected as an authority. You can get one of the most sought after ‘article submitter softwares ‘  on the web at onlinebizbay at a heavily discounted price.

Article Submitter is EVERYTHING you need to start driving insane traffic to your web site .

Why has affiliate marketing never been so popular before as it is today? Probably because its huge benefits has become more evident to many people wanting to make money online.

Today affiliate marketing is not only considered as another means of making money but as a primary source of huge revenue.The merchant advertises at a low cost but gets a wide popularity whilst the affiliate sees it as a great potential for making easy money.

But the question is - Are all affiliate programs the same ?do some affiliate marketing programs make more than others and which one will be most beneficial to you?

There are different types of affiliate programs.

1. Pay per click(PPC)
This is the most popular of all the affiliate programs probably because it is the easiest way to make money. With PPC, the merchant pays the affiliate for referring a visitor to his site. When a visitor clicks on a merchant’s banner or text ad on an affiliate site the latter is paid a certain amount even if the visitor does not make any purchase. The amount paid per click is very small and an affiliate needs a significant number of clicks to make an appreciable income.

2. Pay Per Lead
This type of affiliate marketing is utilized by insurance firms and other companies that rely on leads. Here the merchant pays the affiliate when the visitor he refers fills an application form or any similar form related to the business. Compensation for this type of affiliate marketing is fixed and is  usually higher than that for PPC.

3. Pay per Sale
In the pay per sale type of affiliate marketing the merchant pays the affiliate if the visitor he refers purchases a product from the merchant’s site. Compensation is usually a percentage of the cost of product.

4. Single-Tier, Two-Tier and Multi -Tier Affiliate Marketing

This type normally depends on the levels or depth to which affiliates are paid.
In single tier, affiliates are paid based only on direct referral sales. In other words purchases made by customers he directly refers generate commissions.
In two tier affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid not only on direct referral sales but also on sales generated by referrals of his affiliates.
In multi-tier, the affiliate gets commission for sales on different tiers.

5. Residual Income Affiliate Marketing
In this type of marketing the affiliate is not paid only once for sales generated by a referred customer but also gets commission anytime the customer visits the merchant’s site and purchases a product.

Different merchants employ different affiliate programs which work best for them and each one usually lists the benefits you may derive.

Some of the affiliate programs  pay deep down different tiers and may require a substantial  investment on your part so you need to assess your needs first.
I don’t think it would be fair for me to recommend the best affiliate program as people have different needs and interests.

The choice of a program that would be most appropriate for you actually depends on you.

To your success

Bizinspirer

Before I delve into the issue of building competitive websites let me touch on a subject of concern which has made affiliate marketing so attractive.

There is the myth that affiliate marketing is a get rich quick scheme and that one can become rich overnight. If you entertain such a belief I am sorry you might be disappointed .There may be some who are fortunate to make it big in the shortest possible time but that is just a handful. Majority don’t find success with affiliate marketing and those who do so labour for it.

Affiliate marketing demands hard work, patience and perseverance. Don’t get me wrong, affiliate can be tremendously rewarding for anyone but trust me ,it demands time investment ,knowing the right products and the right strategies, without these your efforts may be fruitless.

Now back to business.

If you want to go into affiliate marketing you should consider owning a website, not just any website but a professionally looking one as first impression always counts. If you don’t know how to develop one and you don’t have time on your hands, it would be better to outsource it but before you consider that it would be prudent to check on the various page generation tools and quick launch sites available on the internet. They make website development very easy even for the technologically challenged.

How do you go about building an affiliate website that would stand out from the crowd?

First you must have already decided on the theme of your website, the products or services you will be promoting - this would give you a fair idea of the layout of your web pages

The next is to choose a domain name and webhost. The right choice of a domain is critical to your success. The domain should have keywords which are consistent with your niche as it contributes significantly to drawing visitors to your website.

For hosting, do a little research on the quality of service, support system and the uptime guarantees. There are many webhosts claiming optimum service, Check client reviews for unbiased assessment before purchasing.

Now that you have your domain name and host, you can start creating pages. It is very useful to hop around the various affiliate websites and study the designs and features that attract you as a visitor. Learn and incorporate them into your site - copying ideas is no sin, as the adage says ‘no man is an island’.

If you are not well versed with designing, you can readily purchase already made templates and do some tweaking but I would advise that you put a little effort into learning basic html and web design. It would give you confident control of affairs on your website. Affiliate marketing is a long term venture and you need a good grasp of basic web technology in order to maximize profits.

The key to drawing visitors to your site is quality content .It is a component you must pay serious attention to, in fact in my opinion it should be top priority second to the appearance of your website. The reason why people come to your website is content and if they don’t find it, they would definately go somewhere else.

Write interesting articles concerning your niche. Let visitors acknowledge your expertise, an attribute which would cultivate trust in you. If you already have your affiliate programs insert the links in the articles but with caution. Loading your articles with so many affiliate links would betray you as attempting to exploit your reader. Be circumspect and focus on providing valuable information pointing to vendor sites where necessary. Remember that poor content means low readership, no sales and ultimately no commissions.

Write product reviews on the products you are endorsing. the best way to that is to have a first hand experience with the product itself. It would place you in a better position to provide additional information of value to would be buyers.

Don’t place too many banners on your website. It can be very distracting and may eventually compel the visitor to skip to another site for more interesting stuff. Moreover, banners are not the means of advertising.

 So in synopsis,owning a website as an affiliate is strongly recommended but what matters most is how you build it. The quality of your website makes the difference.

To your success

Bizinspirer

For many the desire to control the income they generate appears very much out of reach.In this era of a distressful economic recession where redundancies have become the order of the day the thought of riches alone for some people calls for an analgesic  and more disappointedly  no matter how much energy is injected into the usual 9 to 5  jobs ,the returns at the end of the day does not commensurate with the effort expended. Perhaps this is the reason why so many are venturing into one of the most popular businesses  on the internet presently -affiliate marketing.

But why this business in particular? It has become very evident the ease with which one can make money in this type of marketing. There are no bosses to report to,no deadlines to meet ,requires very minimal  or no monetary investment and one can make as much they desire depending on how much they want to put into it.

The potential rewards of affiliate marketing are enormous but to be able to succeed one needs to have some requisite qualities. There is a lot of competition in affiliate marketing and to be able to rise above the rest one must be adequately equipped. Below are five qualities of a successful affiliate marketer.

1.  Willingness to learn and be trained

The challenges  in affiliate marketing can be very intimidating if one is not willing to learn the tricks of the game. One’s desire to know it all gives him a greater edge and better chance in the business than he could ever imagine.

2. Willingness to invest time and effort

Initially the results may appear disappointing after all the envious testimonies from those in the business. Although several weeks or months may pass by without good news, it is the persistent drive to make it and  the continuous  employment of  different strategies that finally pays off and the rewards far more than  compensates for all the time and effort invested.

3. Self Determination

The will to conquer affiliate marketing in my opinion is the utmost. If one has the determination to overcome all the challenges faced then there is no limit. The ability to motivate oneself  will take the affiliate marketer to greater heights.

4. Discipline

If one is committed to doing things with all the energy he can muster then he will be able to achieve all that he has set in his heart to do. In affiliate marketing, discipline is an asset one can’t do without.

5. Optimism

The adage that says that ‘thinking positively does wonders  applies very much in affiliate marketing and any other business. A positive mentally is very crucial as there are times when some sweat stained efforts don’t yield the desired returns. Negative attitudes easily discourage initiatives which would have hitherto generated remarkable benefits.

The ingredients for success in affiliate marketing are manifold but all depends on the marketer. With the right qualities, right attitude and right strategies success is inevitable.

By Gavin MacDonald

Thanks to Google,the new ‘google suggest tool’ which firefox has incooperated has become a convenience which many have embraced wholeheartedly.

If you are not familiar with ‘google suggest’ it is the feature that automatically displays related search terms as you type into google search box. It has been designed to make searches faster and easier for users.

Below are some key benefits of google suggest.

1. Offer suggestions

Google suggest guesses what you are typing and offers suggestions in real time thus for normal internet users it is very efficient in helping formulate queries.Besides that on some occasions you might try to use google to navigate to a particular website, if google thinks such is a case it might list the site and take you directly there when you click on the link.

2. Minimizes spelling mistakes

Since the explosion of SMS many peoples’ ability to spell correctly has been hampered due to the rampant use of shorthand , i guess to reduce cost.Google suggest does a good job by providing the correct spelling of words.

For instance if you mistakenly type in ‘panle’ instead of ‘panel’ the tool would provide the latter as an option as well as generating a query asking ‘Did you mean panel’ offering you the user the opportunity to make the right choice.

3. Reduces typing

Google suggest can be used as an autocomplete tool. Instead of typing out long tail words such as ‘hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian’, just typing ‘hippopo’ generates a list of suggestions which includes the desired word thus minimizing the need to type out all the characters.

4. Uncover words you don’t remember

You want a particular word but you don’t seem to remember. You know the first few letters but you just can’t put your finger on the rest. Google suggest can be very handy by displaying a list of words which may contain your desired word.

5. Search Engine Optimization

From a SEO point of view,google suggest tool provides an overview of how often specific keywords are searched.It shows besides each keyword/phrase how many times they are searched thereby giving an idea of the competition.

This feature is a valuable attribute in that you can utilize it to optimize your websites for targeted keywords.

One impressive finding I have also made is that google does not display adult searches in the listings and I highly commend them for that. At least this puts a lid on the inadvertent detour to adult sites by minors.

To learn how to use google suggest to find the best keywords for your products and services watch Bill Myers short tutorial on the subject.

In my opinion google suggest is a very resourceful tool,try it out and lets hear your thoughts in the comments.