As any successful businessman will confirm, having a great product or service is just the beginning. After all, in this day and age, everything comes down to marketing. The more creative you are in your marketing efforts, the more successful your business is. There are many ways to promote your business without spending a fortune. In this article I will describe one of the most powerful tools on the Internet - ecards!

Ecards (electronic greeting cards) are a great example of efficient marketing on the internet. You have a service open to the Internet users. The ecards they send from your site invariably contain promotion for your company, products or services. They are advertising tools that are immediate, inexpensive, personalized and although sent via email, S.P.A.M.-free.

This form of Internet marketing is extremely effective. More than 50% of the U.S. population and 85% of all Internet users visit a greeting’s site annually, according to research firm Jupiter MediaMetrix. Why not use even a small percentage of these potential clients to you advantage? OK, BlueMountain.com has more than 100 million unique visitors each year, but even with less numbers, the potential is there. Remember, with each sent ecard from your site you have at least two potential clients!

If someone utilizes the ecards service on average only twice a day, in the period of a year the service is advertised approximately 730 times. Multiply this number by the number of registered users and you get yourself a healthy advertising stream. Recognizing the huge potential, in 1999 Excite@Home Corp. paid $780 million for the purchase of BlueMountain.com. How much would you pay for that type of advertising?

No need to answer — you can have an ecard site for a lot less. The concept is the same, and you can use it just as the big boys. You can build a database of qualified prospects and use ecards to:

• Promote - promote products and services
• Brand - create company awareness among your client base

• Invite - invite people to seminars and events
• Remind - send appointment reminders

• Inform - send Client appreciation memos, Recruiting/hiring notices, etc.
• Reference - send Birthday wishes, Holiday greetings, Thank You’s, etc.

OK, so now you know you need an ecard section on your site. What do you need next?

Content:

Custom content: If you have a larger budget you can have an well-known artist create custom animated ecards for you. On average, a Flash animated ecard costs $350.

Leased content: A much cheaper way to obtain high quality content is to use the services of a company like Cardsup Greetings (http://www.cardsup.com). Their ecards have been used by such sites as Yahoo Greetings, Regards.com, ecards.com, etc. For a very reasonable price you will get:

GREAT CONTENT for your existing web site, made by some of the best animators/cartoonists in the business.

TIMELY UPDATES — you will receive monthly Flash ecards! Each month you will get from 5 to 30 additional ecards at no cost.

SCREENSAVERS — you will receive all additional animations as screensavers too, and you will be able to sell them to your customers.

Ecards software:

There are a lot of very good ecard programs on the Internet. I highly recommend the following:

• MyPostCards Platinum (http://mypostcards.com/platinum/)

About The Author

Dessy Oundian is a the marketing Guru behind etoon.com — one of the largest searchable cartoon databases in the world. Find T-shirts and other custom apparel, get information about licensing our cartoons or send e-cards.

Internet Secrets Revealed! Six Easy steps to build a website to success.
How to start a business or improve an existing business.

Do you have dreams of working for yourself or improving your company’s sales? Are you frustrated by all the hype about the Internet or have found that there’s too much confusing information, so you’ve decided to forget about it?

Ever think the Internet revolution is passing you by? Ever think that you don’t know enough about the Internet to attempt to create a website to enhance your existing business or start a new business? Well, if you’ve had these feelings then you need to take comfort in knowing that it isn’t as difficult you may have thought.

Would you like to know secrets that the "big boys" don’t want you to know? Do you need the following information to help your business succeed? If you take the time to actually read this roadmap for success and apply these ideas, you’ll make a far bigger income than the ones who read this and then hit the "delete" button.

Follow these 6 steps to improve an existing business or to start a new business.

1. Quality websites are not complicated and don’t take long to build. Keep it simple and don’t add a lot of frills that can cost more money. Remember that communication with your website builder is key and it doesn’t have to be in person. I’ve had several websites built and I’ve never met the builder. There are many to choose from, but a place to start is at www.wwwhelper.com.

2. Picking a domain name is very simple. It isn’t scary and can be done in a matter of minutes. This site will help you find out if the name you’ve chosen is available and how to register the name for yourself or your company. The address is www.godaddy.com.

3. Your next step is to have someone host your website. This terminology simply means that your site needs to exist somewhere. You will need a company to host your website and there are many companies that offer this service. A couple of these types of companies include www.yahoo.com.

4. Now you need help with traffic. This is Internet jargon for getting people to visit your website. This can turn into a maze of opportunities so let’s just keep it simple to start with. The following can provide information on auto-responders, ad-trackers and targeted leads and most importantly can be automated to save you time. There are so many possibilities here that it is hard to say with confidence where to begin. Ask your website builder for information and be very careful of spam campaigns.

5. If you are running an existing business or planning a new business you know that marketing is essential. More than that, tracking your marketing will help assure that your efforts are paying off. A company that can help you do that is located at www.google.com. Once on the Google website go to advertising programs and then Google Adwords to register to set up your marketing campaign. Tracking is available with this program.

6. Stick to it. You must know that all good things come with time. This plan is not magic because it relies solely on your determination and willingness to succeed.

I have written many reviews relevant to business and marketing. You can find this information at http://www.candidreview.com

Quit your job, pack up and restart your life online. Create a website selling your talent and latest invention. To jumpstart the motor, spend a few hundred dollars on an online marketing course teaching you how to turn your business from a home based venture into a million dollar enterprise in half a year. But after one year in business you are nowhere close to being the online marketing guru that your course promised, you are tipping the scales on the wrong side of bankruptcy and it finally dawns on you that it was never meant to be this way. You were meant to have had a fledging business by now, customers spanning the globe and a virtually unstoppable money-making machine. Sounds familiar?

I have heard this story time and over, unfulfilled promises and lost dreams on the internet.

The reason that so many of us, even after hearing of such scams still put our foot forward and get caught in this web is the lure of easy success and quick money. We are drawn to this proposition of the perfect deal that we can only dream of. Such stories of wealth and success will always hold our sway and each story by some internet guru detailing how they were able to make a killing on the Web with the new formula for success that they just discovered brings a familiar tingle each time we happen to read it.

What such people seek to have us believe is that if we had their secret formula behind us, we would be making the same money on the internet in no time. With this twisted idea of reality we end up believing that achieving success in Cyberworld is as easy as buying a success formula, leafing through the pages and having it rolling in. Sad to say, the reality is a bit different, it is a harsh world out there.

I will share some insights that I have learnt in my time on the Web. Just like achieving success elsewhere you need to work hard and consistently to produce any viable results. Learning the truth about online marketing and success will take time. Unless you are the baby wonder who learnt how all your multiplication tables overnight, you should be prepared to spend some time learning and applying this knowledge before success comes knocking on your door.

I remember reading in an article written by a leading internet marketing guru "Earning money via the Internet is EASY, and it is also an extremely SIMPLE process."

This is as far away from the truth as can be. I do not wish to discredit anyone already making their fortunes on the internet but I would like to convey a clearer picture of the truth than these marketers would have you believe.

After the initial stage of learning and experimenting, it is quite possible that you might start making some nearly effort-free cash on the Web, this however, calls for great input in terms of targeting the right market segment, planning, following up on potential customers and good customer support. In simple terms, you will need to master the principles of marketing before you start making the windfall that your marketing guru’s course promised. I hope that you have the patience it takes to learn, and the diligence to apply your knowledge, but most importantly if you have the heart to seek for success, and rise when you stumble, it shall be yours.

About The Author

Charlz Wachira, the Online Marketing Alchemyst, runs http://www.e-gnorance.com, an online venture aimed at marketing entrepreneurial endeavors online. He also writes on a variety of issues related to entrepreneurship, e-commerce and online marketing. He can be reached at charlz@e-gnorance.com

Developing an ad Campaign for the Startup E-business

Online advertising has changed over the years. Some believe the internet came premature and advertisers did not know how to react at first. Methods went from blind and deceptive links, to targeted pay-per-click search engine advertising. Along the way, very few people developed effective advertising campaigns. Some now believe a good conversion ratio requires numerous visitors, while others believe concise and targeted ad delivery is effective. When it comes to the startup E-business, I favor targeting strategies and affordability, from start to finish.

Start with an Advertising Guideline

If you think online advertising is easy, most people find it’s not. Few companies develop a successful model. Recent research from the GartnerGroup showed, "75% of all E-business start-ups fail". Becoming one of the 25% requires a planned, targeted, and efficient advertising campaign. Starting a campaign with a strict guideline can help increase the chances of a successful campaign.

An easy way to create a guideline is by addressing a simple question. What do I want to accomplish? Put a lot of depth into the answer. Who will be your customers? How much money should be spent overall, or each month? What are the key values or conveniences that are going to be promoted? In combination, make this the advertising guideline. Place considerable thought towards it with every aspect of the campaigns development.

Focusing your Advertising Efforts

It’s no secret, people shop online. A recent poll conducted by the National Consumer League showed 55 percent of consumers with Internet access, either at home or work, shopped online. This shows a 10 percent increase, from surveys conducted five years prior. 56 percent reported, "They shop online for the convenience".

This information provides some key factors that are important to starting an ad campaign. First, the internet maintains a large market share of shoppers. Also, it tells why most people like shopping online. With this in mind, considerable effort should be directed to online advertising. On the other hand, don’t rule out conventional advertising. There is still a portion of the market share shopping elsewhere. Also, advertisements that are online should focus on the convenience of the Website, products, or services being promoted.

Advertise in the Right Places

To find places to advertise, it may be best to consider navigation of the internet. In a research report published by Michael Day and Traugott Koch of UKOLN Metadata Group, they found the internet works best using Classification mapping, for finding and retrieving information. Their research concluded, "Classification schemes vary in scope and methodology, but can be divided into universal, national, general, subject specific, and home-grown schemes".

Based on their findings your website, product, or service, may fall somewhere within one or more Classification Schemes. On a grand scale, classification may start with directories such as the ODP or Yahoo! Directory. Consumers browse these directories, and some believe search engines use them to classify the relevancy of Web pages. On a smaller scale, Websites you are placing an advertisement may have their own, "Home-grown," scheme. Try to identify the classification at work before advertising. For example, advertising Home Decor on the Automotive section of a website, may not be as effective to advertising in a Home Improvement section.

Targeted Advertising to Stay Competitive

Targeting is the art of minimizing your advertisements to the people who are most likely to become a customer. If done effectively, it will produce results with minimal advertising expense. These savings will enable you to offer products or services at a competitive rate while maintain a profit margin.

Identifying a target audience may be the key factor between profit and loss. In a report published by Jose Luis Moraga-Gonzalez (Assistant professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and research fellow of the Tindergen Institue), focusing on Internet advertising, he found, "firms that were unable to target their ads to different consumer segments found a Zero-profit equilibrium exists". On the other hand, his research revealed, "If firms employ targeted advertising, they can obtain positive profits".

Some general targeting segments are: Age Groups, Homeowners, Renters, Single Men or Women, Couples, Couples with Children, Regions, Type of Employment, and Income Grouping. Depending on the offering, it may be a good idea to initially target one of these groups, until your business becomes established.

Starting your ad campaign

After placing some thought into the factors mentioned above, you should be ready to launch an effective and affordable advertising campaign. If finances are tight, start small. Look for affordable solutions such as link exchanges, free search engine submission, directories, and online classifieds. Once a campaign is active, monitor the results of advertisements carefully. This will help ensure awareness of good places to advertise your products or services in the future. By using thought, planning, and consistency ad campaigns will become more effective over time.

About The Author

Michael Medeiros is the owner of Mjmls.com. Mjmls offers free advertising solutions for business, products, services, and property in the United States.

Potential niche products exist all around us, but how do you decide which ones are likely to be worth pursuing?

Here’s a quick method that will give you a pretty good indication without having to spend large amounts of time and money on the task.

Step One:

This is a fairly obvious step - find out if other marketers are spending advertising dollars in that niche.
If they are, you can be pretty certain that it’s a profitable niche.

Why?

Because savvy marketers “don’t” spend money on advertising that doesn’t show a profit.

You can check this out quickly on “Pay Per Click” search engines like Overture and 7search where advertisers pay each time someone clicks on their listing.

Let’s check out an example.

For demo purposes I’m going to search on the keyword “snoring” because I have a project in progress on the
subject of “how to stop snoring without surgery”.

Now go to http://www.content.overture.com/d/ and type in “snoring”. When you arrive at the results page click on “View Advertisers’ Max Bids” at the top right of the screen. A new window will open up asking you to enter a code to access the information. Enter the code and submit it. On the page that comes up you will find the bidding range for our search term - the higher the top three bids the more profitable (and competitive) the niche is likely to be.

In this case the top three bids on Overture (at time of writing) for the keyword “snoring” are : $1.50, $1.47 and $1.46 - based on this we can be pretty sure that there is a viable market for niche products on “snoring”

Step Two:

OK now let’s take this a step further and find out what search terms (keywords and keyword phrases) are being used to find our niche subject on Overture.

Go to : http://inventory.overture.com/ and type in “snoring”. This returns a list including :

snoring 27352

stop snoring 8211

snoring cure 3308

snoring remedy 2366

cause of snoring 2186

snoring treatment 1233

snoring solution 1133

snoring problem 800

prevent snoring 623

… and a whole lot more. The numbers indicate the number of times that each of those keywords/phrases have been requested in the previous 30 days.

Step Three:

Next we need to find out how many competing sites there are for each of our keywords/phrases. We’re going to do
this on Google - but first we need to decide what number of competing sites is acceptable for our niche subject.

As with any subject, opinions differ widely.

Rosalind Gardner (Super Affiliate Handbook) does not consider anything under 100,000 competing sites to be a viable niche.

Jimmy D Brown (Nicheology)suggests 30,000 - 100,000 competing sites to be the ideal.

At the other end of the spectrum Andrew Williams (Keyword Results Analyzer - Word Tacker Version) looks for niches with 1,000 or less competing sites for each keyword/phrase.

For our example here I’m going to use Jimmy Brown’s criteria : 30,000 - 100,000.

Now go over to http://www.google.com and start entering the keywords/phrases from your Overture search, taking note of the number of sites which are displayed. (Enclose your keywords/phrases with ” for specific results, e.g. “snoring cures”).

Here’s the Google results from the list above :

snoring 977,000

stop snoring 121,000

snoring cure 3,850

snoring remedy 24,100

cause of snoring 2,310

snoring treatment 6,660

snoring solution 21,100

snoring problem 18,500

prevent snoring 3,510

So what does this tell us now?

The first keyword “snoring” is a non-starter. The term is well outside our competing sites criteria at 977,000
and a far too general.

There are no individual search terms in the 30,000 - 100,000 range, but that doesn’t rule it out as a viable
niche, the term “stop snoring” isn’t too far out of the ball park and we can combine some of the other
keywords/phrases to meet the criteria.

Result - we probably have a viable market niche.

Step Four:

Finally we need to check the ratio of “supply” to “demand” for our keywords/phrases to make doubly sure the niche is worth pursuing.

Here’s how we do it. The formula is :

Google Results(Supply)/Overture Results(Demand)

The lower the ratio the less competition. Here’s an example using our keywords/phrases :

snoring : 977,000/27352 = 35.72

stop snoring : 121,000/8211 = 14.73

snoring cure : 3,850/3308 = 1.16

snoring remedy : 24,100/2366 = 10.19

cause of snoring : 2,310/2186 = 1.06

snoring treatment : 6,660/1233 = 5.40

snoring solution : 21,100/1133 = 18.62

snoring problem : 18,500/800 = 23.13

prevent snoring : 3,510/623 = 5.63

So do we have a viable niche?

Based on the figures I would say the subject has pretty good potential. The niche is tightly focussed and the level of competition is low, so it’s worth pursuing.

Will the niche make money?

The answer to that question will be down to how effective our marketing is.

One final note : This system has it’s limitations. If you’re really serious about this Niche Marketing stuff you should invest in some specialist tools which will provide a more comprehensive range of keywords/phrases than Overture returns.

Copyright © 2005, André Anthony Niche Market Know-How

André Anthony owns and operates Niche Market Know-How a resource for beginning Niche Marketers. Visit http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com today to find strategies, tips, tools, products and resources for effective niche product creation and marketing. Get his Niche Market Know-how Mini Course here: http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com/course.htm

Major marketers in the United States have recognized the importance of the Hispanic Market since the early 1990’s. Back then, only Fortune 500 companies with multi-million dollar marketing budgets started targeting this promising vertical segment through Hispanic TV, radio, and print advertising. Although still in its infancy, Hispanic marketing proved to be a crucial facet of many campaigns as marketers realized that Hispanics consume a disproportionate amount of certain products and services in relation to their discretionary income. This is especially true for industries that provide a connection to friends and family back home- such as telecommunications, wire-transfer services, and travel related services.

Back then I was part of a newly developed Hispanic Marketing Team at AT&T. AT&T had realized that targeting this emerging vertical would mean access to customers who spend almost twice as much as the general market on traditional long distance. Although AT&T had been somewhat successful in reaching this market through traditional media, it had not made any significant inroads in reaching Hispanics through direct marketing.

My challenge at AT&T was to develop new and innovative strategies to reach Hispanics in order to curb the attrition that was occurring as a result of major competitors’ aggressive efforts in this market. One of the most valuable lessons that I learned was that in order to acquire and retain these valuable customers, you need to present them with culturally relevant information in their own language. It was not enough to translate materials that were designed with the needs and interests of the general market in mind. This revelation proved to be a very profitable one! Once we started developing culturally relevant copy in Spanish targeted at these specific segments, we managed to stem the attrition from the competitors and our direct mail response rates went through the roof. Hispanics were not used to receiving mail in Spanish that had them specifically in mind. It was not unusual to have response rates of 5% to 10% when traditional general market response rates were only 1% to 2%.

Although much has changed in this market over the last ten years- with the advent of the internet as a new medium to reach this segment- many things remain the same. Hispanics still want and need Hispanic-relevant content and copy in order to make informed purchase decisions. The internet hosts a wealth of opportunities to access cultural markets in the same way that the direct marketing of the early nineties did. But a strong internet marketing presence poses one major advantage over the old strategies: it provides your company with unlimited access to the potential customers you’re looking for, as well as the ones who are looking for you.

Many companies are NOT yet jumping on the band-wagon with Hispanic relevant internet content because they perceive the Hispanic Market as being unreachable through this medium or not technologically savvy. This couldn’t be farther from the truth and recent studies have proven it. In March 2004, a study by AOL revealed that 14 million plus Hispanics in the United States are using the internet. Moreover, about 20% of that number had just connected to the internet in the six months prior to the study! When the Study surveyed Hispanics who were not yet online they found that over 50% of them expected to have an online connection within the next couple of years. These numbers are staggering. The Hispanic Market is surfing the web in increasing numbers, and only companies that cater to their specific internet habits will reap the benefits of this lucrative segment.

So how can YOUR business capitalize on this phenomenon?

Above all, you have to know your market. This means understanding who your potential customers are and how they use the internet. The Hispanic market spans over a huge demographic. In order to attract traffic and custom-tailor your content, you have to be familiar with your target market’s countries of origin, language preference, income level, and a number of other varying factors that may pertain specifically to your product or service. If you aren’t an expert in this field, make sure that you perform very thorough research, or hire the services of a professional web marketing firm that specializes in the Hispanic market.

Don’t waste your efforts or risk your reputation- you will only attract customers from a particular segment if your message rings true to them. Go for the "low hanging fruit." The Hispanic market has reached critical mass and is there for the taking for those companies that are smart enough to realize it. If you do it right - you will reap the benefits.

Rick Caraballo is the author of this article and the CEO of Avance Web Marketing- http://www.avancewebmarketing.com, a South Florida Web Marketing Firm. An expert in Hispanic Marketing and E-Business Services, Rick has over 20 years of marketing and business experience, including VP of Marketing and Business Development for an internet company, as well as executive marketing positions at companies such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and First Data. Rick has an MBA in Marketing from Baruch College in NY.

It may not rank as a killer like heart disease or cancer, but the rush by many to participate in internet marketing could be putting them at risk of developing serious health problems both in the short and the longer term. The aim of this article is to help you avoid those effects and to prosper - painlessly!

In recent years, internet marketing has shot to prominence, both for its obvious successes like Amazon, Last-Minute.com etc and because of its accessibility to ordinary mortals like you and me. However, this accessibility comes at a price. As people who are often holding down a full-time job take on the additional workload of creating an "alternative income", something must, inevitably, give and all too easily it can be your health.

In the early days, the internet seemed to be for big companies with big budgets. Websites would cost thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars to build and the hardware and technical knowledge required to host them was also extensive. Very quickly, however, savvy entrepreneurs realised that this route to market was infinitely less expensive than traditional "bricks and mortar" business. People started piling on the internet bandwaggon in droves and a whole new market sprung up to provise the structures and services they would "need" to build their successful empires.

Internet marketing was born.

Many a fast buck was made in those early days by unscrupulous self-proclaimed "gurus" who promised instant mega-profits for little or no effort, and many fell prey to them. Indeed, such "instant riches" schemes still exist, as they do in more traditional forms of marketing, it is simply just as much easier for the scammer to sell his services in the internet as it is for everyone else!

The very accessibility of internet business has meant that many who would not have otherwise considered setting up for themselves have done so, and it is these inexperienced business people who have become the lifeblood of the "internet marketing" system.

Such people are generally not endowed with family-provided trust funds and have to work for a living. This means that they must hold down a job whilst creating their empire and it is this extra commitment and the time it entails which can lead to health problems.

Some of these health effects are more obvious than others - poor posture, lack of keyboard (and mouse) skills, inappropriate workstations and badly set-up equipment can all have serious effects on the muscles, bones and associated tissues that must support our efforts. Like kids that spend hours on end playing video games, Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) from performing mundane, repetitive tasks such as mouse-clicking in the same position for prolonged periods of time can have disastrous effects on joints and muscles.

Whilst many (though, by no means all) employers now understand the importance of ergonomic workstation design, this is much less likely to be implemented at home - even by those who know better, and a little time take to reorganise your computer desk can generate huge long-term benefits in terms of mobility and pain-free computing.

Similarly, poorly situated monitors, older VDUs and bad video settings can all contribute to eyestrain and even permanent eye-damage. Considered by many to be the most valuable of senses, vision is not to be messed with and the first sign of problems should herald a visit to the opthalmologist post-haste for a check-up. Just having your monitor at the right height, properly located in relation to light sources and correctly set-up can help prevent many of the potential problems and a simple pair of glasses can not only correct for imperfect vision, but reduce glare and reflection-associated strain on the eye muscles.

The fact that many would-be internet marketers take up station at the end of a full working day is also cause for concern. For many, the working day is already far longer and more stressful than ever before, and returning home to even more work can be infinitely more stressful, especially when partners are involved (or rather, NOT involved) and may not understand both the motivation and the time required to generate returns online.

The learning curve can be very steep for internet ventures. Not only is there the requirement to be creative in generating something new and unique, but the technicalities involved can be demanding, even for those with moderate or better computing skills. Web authoring, website promotion and campaign management are all relatively specialized skills that take time and effort to learn, sometimes keeping even the most family conscious internet marketer at the computer until the small hours (and beyond). When you add in the international dimension and emails (and potentially calls) arriving at all hours, the potential for extra stress is considerable.

However, perhaps the biggest danger for would-be internet marketers (and perhaps the easiest to ignore) is the requirement to give the body some appropriate fuel from time to time. Vast numbers of the population (in fact, virtually everyone) are already undernourished (if overfed!) as a result of eating poor quality food with low, if any, nutritional value.

As an example, the US now consumes so little food containing omega-3 fatty acids, which can’t be made by the body, that in 25% of the population, blood levels are so low they can’t be measured. given that this is a major component of brain and nerve tissue, is it any wonder that psychological and psychiatric "disease" are on the increase?

It is easy to head straight for the computer without considering eating first, then to spend all night there without budging, or worse, snacking on "non-foods" that are a principle cause of all chronic disease today. Few who have seen the film "Supersize me" would be prepared to argue that fast-food is an appropriate form of nutrition, let alone "good for you"! Neither are chips, cakes, pastries, sweets or virtually anything else that comes in a packet, box or cellophane wrapper, and none is a substitute for a healthy, home-prepared and nutritionally diverse meal.

Of course, a further danger of such unhealthy eating, combined with prolonged periods of inactivity is the ever-increasing American waistline. Those who are sat at a computer are (generally speaking, for non-contortionists) not, at that time, physically active. Spending all night online when one could be otherwise engaged exercizing (either alone or with a "partner"!) is unlikely to help you maintain even a current level of fitness, let alone lose weight or get fitter.

Internet marketing is a "softly, softly catchee monkey" game. The trick is to ensure you are still around and able to hold the monkey when he is caught! That means taking responsibility for your health and doing what you can to both maintain and improve it.

Brian Adamson
Natural Health Information Centre
Next article: Physical and mental fitness for internet marketers

Make Money by giving away our FREE brandable E-book - "All About Natural Health"

Since I own my own business web site and have looked for many ways to advertise cheap and for free, I have noticed how many sites there are out there that will try to get you to either join or buy advertising in one form or another. There are sites out there that will promise you the moon if you either join their "viral marketing" scheme or site that will cause your email box to become inundated with email ads from others who have fell for this.

But there are plenty of offline and online ways to get free or cheap advertising without joining these things and risking a backed up inbox or having your email address splattered all over the net for any desperate advertiser to get hold of. And here are a few.

Magnetic signs:
How many times have you seen a car that obviously belongs to a real estate agent or a plumber with his or her ad on the side of it? This is a good and inexpensive way to be a rolling billboard for your own web business, wherever you go.

Flyers:
How many times have you visited a shopping center or mall and came out to your car to find something on the windshield? This is a good idea, but in some cities and parking lots it may be illegal to do this, so check it out with the business and you local city office first.

Free enterprise:
Many convenient stores, drug stores and grocery stores, etc. have bulletin boards you can place flyers on. And if not, some may even let you place a flyer ad in their window. Just be sure and ask first.

Free online classifieds:
There are lots of free classified ad sites on the web, some you have to sign up for, others you don’t. Just write your ad and keep it on your computer then simply join, copy and paste your ad every where you can find a free classified site on the web.

Link exchanges:
I know many people already know about this, but some newbies to the internet actually don’t, and I have visited lots of new sites who aren’t doing this yet. So if you’re new to the web and have a site, join a link exchange site and open a links page and go to town trading links with other business web sites! (This is also good for the search engines for link popularity)

Business cards:
I know most already do this, but sometimes it slips our minds to hand a card to the convenient store clerk or the person behind the counter at the dry cleaners. Also put them on the bulletin board in the break rooms of manufacturing companies. You can also place them on counters (after asking) in stores or businesses that may be pertinent to your business (for example if you sell home decor or furniture, place them on the counter of an insurance company or a real estate agency). But don’t expect a clothing store to put them on their counter if you sell jeans and shirts, they are your competitors (sacrilege!).

T-shirts:
Have a t-shirt printed up that has a small ad and web address for your business on the back of it, because it will be seen better than on the front. People are always looking at others as they walk away or if they’re standing in line behind you at a checkout counter or at the bank. You could even have some printed up for friends and family. But make it a cool color that will go with a good pair of jeans or shorts so people won’t hate to put it on.

Pens:
I have heard (and seen) that lots of businesses have their name printed on pens. Personally, I’m not real crazy about this, because I myself hardly ever actually read the pen I’m writing with. But that doesn’t mean nobody does. So I leave this one up to you.

Bumper stickers:
Have a bumper sticker with a smart quip or saying printed up and pass them around to your friends. The car behind you or them at the stoplight will no doubt read it. (Examples: STOP HONKING AND START SHOPPING AT http://www.yoursite.com - or - IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE WAY I DRIVE, THEN STAY AT HOME & SHOP! http://www.yoursite.com)

If you think about it long enough, you can come up with all sorts of other ideas like this. Just make sure that if it involves other businesses or their property, always ask! Because the last thing you want is to be professionally embarrassed or humiliated! Good luck!

R.L. Young is the owner of National Wholesalers, a wholesale website to businesses and the public and to help those who would like to have their own home business. Mr. Young began web marketing in the fall of 2002 with many experimentations and much research in web marketing, advertising and sales; including studies with affiliate web sites, and always learning more
Visit his site at http://www.natlwholesalers.com

Welcome,

Over the past five years I have learnt many tricks to gain visitors.
Many are great and some are negative, even getting me excluded from major search engines. For your benefit I have comprised a list of six free, easy and simple ways that may double or even triple your visitor count within Three Months.

1: Get listed in free directories:

Dmoz.com (Open Directory Project) is one of the top places to get listed, if you get your site listed. Up to 20 other websites copy their directory, you now have the opportunity to have your link on many more websites.

2: Find out your competitors link popularity:

Do a simple search on google and find out who your competitors are. Then go to linkpopularity.com and try to get your website included on many of the sites you find.

3: Find quality and reliable links:

I have found that less than 1/10th of my visitors come from search engines. Quality links are the key; websites with a large volume of customers are often your best ally. Related websites to your own site is generally best, this is often said for a better search engine ranking, but I advise related sites purely for a targeted audience.

4: Find out where your competitors visitors go:

Alexa.com is a brilliant website, when you find your major competitors you can search their domain on Alexa.com. You can find out a lot of information about their visitors, where they come from, how many visit and best of all what other sites they visit that are related to your competitors.

5: Get yourself a signature:

Many people ignore the idea of a signature in their email, this can often be a great idea. People will see this link can often visit, you may not agree but one more visitor is better than none.

6: Setup an affiliate program:

Currently I am in the process of getting my own affiliate program custom built. There are many major reasons for getting your own affiliate program. The most important reason is, allowing other websites advertise your products for you. This has to be a brilliant idea, even though you are paying them you are only paying them from sales that they have helped generate, otherwise you would not have had these sales.

I do not recommend working too hard at trying to impress google, my main website only has a medium PR of 5. I have not optimised this site for google nor do I intend to. I have had many issues with google and they will find any excuse to exclude anyone from their index. Google make their own rules, you cannot defend yourself. Even so I still recommend submitting your website to the major search engines, do be careful to do so only once.

Good luck with improving your visitor base, I cannot guarantee these techniques will improve your traffic. Although I have tripled my visitor count in three months, I am very happy with my results. Even within the past week my site is receiving an average of 10 customers more per day, without any extra work.

Copyright 2005 Private Mail Services

Steve is the owner and operator for Private Mail Services. http://www.private-services.com

We endeavour to keep your personal life totally safe and private.

© Private Mail Services 2005 - http://www.private-services.com

“It’s a labor of love.” That’s how I’ve always described my content-based website. Until the last year or so, what I meant is that my website paid me in love more frequently than it paid in money. And if visitor compliments and good karma paid the mortgage, that would have been fine.

I knew I enjoyed and was very good at helping others and communicating in the online world. What I needed was a way to help others online that also brought in a steady paycheck.

When I found a direct sales company to work with, this all began to change. My direct sales business quickly became my highest - and most promising - single stream of income.

As a website owner, you have contact with a wide variety of people. Direct selling and network marketing allow you to monetize the networks that you have created with others. And as a content-based website owner, you are an expert at the largest network the world has ever known: the Internet.

Direct sales allows you to leverage the efforts and ideas of other people, so you’re no longer in business by yourself, looking at each month separately. The work you do today will benefit you for years to come. And you earn money to the degree to which you help others earn money for themselves, and that is truly
a labor of love.

What to look for:

A good product.

First and foremost, you need to truly believe in what you are selling. You need to believe in the company mission and the products. Other considerations: It’s ideal if the products are exclusive; and even better if the products are also consumable, so you make sales from repurchases.

A niche market.

As with everything online, you will be most successful if your products fit a niche that people go online to search for. It pays to research and anticipate social trends.

Strong online component.

Ideally, your company will allow you to make online sales. Many direct sales companies have a provision that all advertising must be “blind,” meaning that you are restricted from mentioning the name of the company or its trademarks. If that’s the case, make sure that the company also offers a personalized website that you can link to from your content-based site, so you don’t lose your online leads. And make sure that you read the fine print of the consultant provisions, especially as it pertains to online promotions.

Many direct sales companies are now offering replicated websites so each representative can promote an individual online presence. A few direct sales companies even have shopping carts alongside these websites so you can make sales online, too, with the product dropshipped from the home office.

Relatively new company.

You want people to sign up in your downline, rather than the person down the street, it’s important that the market isn’t saturated.

And because you will be a long-distance support person, make sure there is team training in place - or set it up for yourself. You don’t want to have to reinvent the wheel each time you recruit someone. I have a 14-day basic training course by autoresponder, for example, that each new consultant starts receiving right away - and our team has a very large (and growing fast) online message board for sharing ideas.

Keep in mind that the most important factor in long-term direct sales success is that everything you do be easy for your downline to duplicate.

Most direct sales and network marketing businesses thrive on word of mouth and personal relationships. Not everyone in your new downline is going to be an expert at online marketing (In fact, most of them won’t be) so make sure you work the business the same way that they will. That means you’ll probably want to also expand your business in your own offline community, just as your downline will - so that you can be an effective trainer. If you can train your downline how to be financially successful, you’ll become financially
successful, too.

Where to Look

I found the company that I work with through a solo ezine ad, which promoted low start-up, low pressure, and a strong support team - three factors that directly contributed to my success with the business. So it pays to keep your eyes (and mind) open when you are working online.

You can also research your options with the Direct Selling Association at http://www.dsa.org. The DSA is designed to help make sure direct sales organizations follow ethical business practices and good customer service.

When you have found the company and team that’s right for you, you’ll know it.

Happy hunting!

About the author:

Susie Cortright is the creator of the award-winning online magazine http://www.momscape.com as well as a team leader for a rapidly growing direct sales company. Learn about the company
she chose here: http://www.momscape.com/direct-sales