Can Craigslist Improve Your Business?

The answer to this question is yes, no and maybe.

It all depends on the way in which you utilize Craigslist. If you're a savvy Internet marketer and are able to identify the target audience and create sales copy which draws the reader in, you may find advertising on Craigslist to be incredibly profitable. On the other side of the coin, if you do not do your research and take a spamming approach to advertising on Craigslist, you are not likely to see the results you would like. A lot of the result depends on you, so take the time to do it right.

There is certainly the great opportunity to gain financial benefit through advertising on Craigslist. Advertising for all products and services is free on Craigslist, making it extremely cost effective. Additionally, Craigslist already receives extensive traffic with approximately ten million visitors generating four billion page views each month. That's a lot of eyes who can view your ads! While Craigslist offers so many advertising benefits, these benefits may be wasted if you do not do your research and evaluate the competition.

Research before Posting on Craigslist

Advertising on Craigslist is similar to advertising in many other forms of media. Despite the existing heavy traffic flows to the website, successful marketing campaigns require extensive research. This research should provide you with insight into where to post the advertisements to most effectively reach your target audience, how to word the copy of the advertisement to make it most appealing to that same target audience and which relevant keywords should be included in the advertising copy to make it likely for members of the target audience to find the advertisement easily when searching for products and services offered by your business.

Research such as this can be conducted either online or offline. One of the most effective forms of this type of research is to have members of your target audience fill out marketing surveys. The answers provided by the participants should provide you a good idea of what the they are seeking. Incorporating this information into the marketing campaign can make it noticeably more successful.

Evaluate the Competition on Craigslist

The search feature on Craigslist is an invaluable resource to evaluate your competition. Studying the competition is important because it can help you to learn how you can be more successful. This increased success can be a result of determining successful aspects of the competitor's marketing strategy and implementing these strategies as well as determining faulty aspects of the competitor's marketing strategy and avoiding these strategies.

To get a good idea of your competitors who are advertising on Craigslist, use the search feature to search for keywords relevant to your own products and services. You will likely receive search results including advertisements from competitors. Next, carefully analyze these ads to determine how your can not only create better products and services at more affordable prices but also write more engaging advertising copy.

Many wise Internet marketers have the reasoning skills necessary to properly analyze the advertisements for competitors but they often falter when taxed with the issue of creating better advertisements. This is when knowing the ins and outs of writing excellent copy comes in. Words, even only a few, are powerful and can either get you the click you want or send that potential customer away, never to be seen again.

Craigslist is an excellent resource for any smart Internet marketer. Go where the people are and present them with advertising copy that succeeds to build trust and confidence. You'll quickly see the traffic and the profits rolling in.

Tony Thomas is an online entrepreneur who enjoys sharing his experience with other online business people at http://www.mybiztools.net

Learn to write Web copy that draws people in with "Make Your Words Sell." Get this excellent resource at http://www.mybiztools.net/myws.htm

What is Article Marketing

Article marketing is a means of using articles to generate traffic to your website. You achieve this initially by writing articles containing useful content, relevant to the topic of your site, and then submitting them to article directories. If your writing is sufficiently compelling, readers will want to know more about what you have written, and will click on the link you provide to your website.

Article submission does two things. Firstly it provides you with the opportunity to persuade the reader to find out more from your website, as inferred above, and it also provides you with a one way link back from the article directory. The higher the page ranking of the directory, then the more credit the search engines will give you for the link. Engines such as Google take your link popularity as a significant factor when calculating where your webpage should be listed in the index for the specific keyword your page relates to.

Your Article Must have Merit

However, it does not stop there. Should the visitor consider that your article is of sufficient merit to warrant them using it as content on their own website, they are entitled to copy it so long as they include your name as author, and your authors resource box, complete with webpage URL. You then get a one way link back from all the sites that use your article, and also visitors that click on your link from these sites.

Thats the theory, but how about the practice? In fact it is slightly more difficult that that. The article has to be well enough written to be accepted by the directories first, though from what I have seen that is not too difficult. Some directories are quite liberal as to what they call writing. It is not the directories that are the problem, it is the readers. People have a certain standard that they expect of internet writing, and if they feel that it is not met then they will click away from the article.

Dont Try to Fool the Reader

The article must also be of interest and relevant to the theme. You dont get people clicking to visit your website unless they find your content of interest and feel that your website could be of potential use to them. So write about what you know, and dont try to fool anybody. Many people who access your article will know more that you about the topic, and will spot any inaccuracies immediately. Be accurate and try to provide information that will help them. Visitors to your website want to be helped, have a question answered or a problem solved.

Your resource box is also important. Dont say too much about yourself: readers are not interested in your life history. Just tell them that they can find out more on your website. Provide them with a link a page in your site that deals exactly with what you wrote about and preferably with the same title, so that when they get there they will start reading.

Use Anchor Text where Possible

If you provide a link to a page within your site, rather than just the home page, it is regarded as of being more important to a search engine, especially if that link is provided by means of anchor text. That is text that indicates the topic of your web page, rather than being just a URL. You can do this if html is allowed. If you dont know how to use html, just write something to the effect more information on this topic can be found on my web page This Topic.

Write that exactly, inserting your own website and page URL, and your resource box will have This Topic as a clickable link. The search engines will associate your web page as being connected to This Topic, and that will improve the listing of that page.

Article marketing is a powerful way of using articles to promote your website, increase your traffic, and improve your search engine listings. Do it well, and you will see a significant difference in traffic to your site.

More information on the use of article marketing to promote your website and get increased traffic can be found on his webpage http://www.article-services.com/articlemarketing.html

Powerful Article Marketing - Discover 3 Marvelous Ways to Jump Start Your Article Marketing

Though there are numerous traffic-generating tools that have been introduced over the last couple of years, article marketing remains to be the best method in driving quality, organic traffic to a particular website. This is the reason why webmasters are making this technique their primary marketing tool to augment the number of their visitors and improve their page ranking on major search engines.

One of the elements that can greatly help article marketer to succeed in this method is identifying the ways and avenues where they can have their articles published and possibly re-distributed. Because contrary to popular beliefs, articles can be submitted to other websites aside from articles submission sites like EzineArticles.com.

Here are the 3 other ways on how you can market your articles in the world wide web:

1. Create ebook using your articles. There is a huge demand for ebooks these days and you can meet this need by compiling all your articles to create an informative, compelling ebook. You can use this as a giveaway to convince people to join your email marketing list or as viral marketing tool. Let your recipients know that they can share the ebook to their friends and family members for free!

2. Convert your articles to email marketing content. Though autoresponders, you can send useful, informative articles to your client base to either inform them or persuade them to support your products and services.

3. Post your articles on your website. This will not only make your website a great source of information, but it will also make your site search-engine friendly. Just imagine the amount of traffic you can drive to your site when online users search for keywords that you have on your website content.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

Affiliate Marketing Without A System Is Like Playing Golf Without The Clubs

Its never been a better time to be an affiliate marketer, with the combination of millions of new people coming online every year and the new found trust in purchasing online, the opportunities are limitless! Yes, there's competition, but all you need to be, is a little better than the next affiliate marketer and 90% of affiliates don't make anything.

Affiliate internet marketing is creating new millionaires every year! How would you like to be an online millionaire working from home in your pj's? Affiliate marketing is one of the cheapest and fastest ways to make huge cash online, for several reasons.

1. Easy and fast start up, with little or NO cost.

2. You do no need your own product

3. You do not need to be a super geek!

4. You don't need an office, just use your bedroom, you're also allowed to wear your PJ's while at the office!

5. No employees

6. No overheads

7. The products you promote will all have their own sales system, built to sell, sell, sell, all you need to do is drive traffic to the offer.

8. No dealing with customers (you may have the best product in the world, but there will still be unhappy customers)

9. The product owner deals with refunds so you can just get on with the job of promoting the product.

10. Eventually you will have product owners begging you to promote their products and offering you unbelievable commissions to do so.

An affiliate marketing system is essential, once you have your system, repeat, repeat and repeat, most affiliates fail because they start promoting with a system, get no sales in the first week, then quit, Doh! Relentless determination is what you need, put that ingredient with a great system and success is guaranteed.

People attempt affiliate marketing and at the same time try and reinvent the wheel! You really don't need to. There are super affiliate marketers who have made all the mistakes and have systems in place that work. Once you have a system that works, you are set for a very exciting time online.

There are people making millions in affiliate marketing commissions, with niche affiliate marketing. The two things they have in common are determination and an incredible affiliate marketing system.

Once you have a successful system, you can start repeating the process again and again, pretty soon you will find product owners searching you out and offering you obscene amounts of cash to promote and sell their products.

The next stage from here is when you create your own product and you move on from the super affiliate status to the super affiliate guru status! A super affiliate guru is someone who all affiliate marketers turn to for advice and guidance. The reasons are many, but the main one being, the super affiliate guru will have an amazing affiliate marketing system.

If you are considering affiliate marketing or are already marketing as an affiliate, you're in the right business. Good luck.

Linden Huckle is the owner of SuccessFountain.com Let Linden show you how to launch 6 automated affiliate income streams, that all provide monthly residual income: http://www.successfountain.com

Six Article Marketing Mistakes You Must Avoid

Although more people discover the power of article marketing every day, many fail to learn some simple techniques to optimize their writing and maximize the effectiveness of their article marketing campaigns. The following paragraphs will reveal six critical mistakes that must be avoided if you want to reap the full fruits of your article writing efforts.

The first three mistakes fall within the category of "Guideline Awareness." The rule of thumb is to be familiar with the guidelines of the directories where you submit your articles, so that you can better use them to your advantage.

Mistake #1: Failure to Use Hyperlinks in Article Body

Some article directories will not allow any hyperlinks in the body, but most will allow from one to three. Convert your target keywords to hyperlinks to the extent possible; this will bring your website direct traffic through clicks and it will help to improve your site's search engine rankings for that keyword.

Mistake #2: Ineffective Use of Author Resource Box

The author resource box, sometimes called the boilerplate, is an area where you can sell yourself. This is important, because the article itself should not be used for overt advertising, only for teaching and informing. Use your name, or a pen name; over time, people will associate the mane with the topic, and you will be established as a trusted expert in your field. Once they trust that you know your stuff, they will not hesitate to visit your site and buy your product or service.

Mistake #3: Article Length - Too Short or Too Long

Webmasters, bloggers, and newsletter publishers are constantly in need of fresh, original content. That is what makes article marketing so powerful. When someone picks up your article and publishes it on the web or in a mass-email, it multiplies your exposure. However, many people write a paltry 100 words to submit to an article directory, which amounts to little more than a dictionary definition of their chosen topic. At the other end of the spectrum, some people will submit works of more than 2000 words; on the web or in a newsletter, that is an epic-length tome.

Opinions vary as to the optimum length of an article, nut the consensus is between 400 and 900 words. It should be long enough to thoroughly explain the subject, but short enough to read quickly and easily.

The next three mistakes concern the actual submission of articles to directories. They are not so much "rules" as they are strong suggestions to maximize your results.

Mistake #4: Submitting to Too Few Article Directories

After the effort of writing the piece itself, it may seem like a tedious chore to submit the work to twenty directories. If it is too much for you, there are services that will manually submit your articles for you. If you cannot afford such luxuries, then you must do it yourself. Do not compromise on this; it is critical to your success. Find at least twelve article directories for starters, and build from there. Once you get to about twenty, you are doing well.

Mistake #5: Using the Same Pen Name for Different Topics

If you have multiple websites in different niches, use a unique pen name for each topic. It's all about credibility. If Sally McMarketer writes about designer dog collars, can she be equally trusted as an expert on high-performance fuel-injectors? In reality, it is not uncommon for people to have proficiencies in multiple areas, but unless you personally know the dog collar/fuel-injector guru, it seems unlikely.

Mistake #6: Submitting Website Content as Articles

One of the worst things an article marketer can do is to take the content directly from their website and submit it in article form to the directories. Remember, you want to submit your work to twelve to twenty article directories or so in order to get traffic and backlinks to your website. However, if the articles contain the exact same information as your website, the search engines will view it as duplicate content, which may be downgraded in the rankings. Besides, readers of your articles will be a bit put off if they click on one of your well-placed hyperlinks only to see the same old stuff on your site. Keep your website content unique.

Article marketing, like any good, profitable endeavor, requires work, education, and practice. You can, and should, constantly refine your techniques in search of ever better results. If you can avoid the six misstates discussed above, you will be well on your way to becoming a proficient marketer with a growing, moneymaking business.

Article Ranger is a free submission article directory where authors may post articles about subjects of interest, and publishers may pick up articles for use in ezines, newsletters, etc.

Scofield Parker is an experienced internet marketer who regularly writes for Article Ranger.

Internet Marketing Articles - Slow Down, Step Back, and Take a Deep Breath - Then Question

I guess one of the reasons that I love article marketing so much is that it helped me to stop and think a little about the many online business opportunities that I was looking at. It's as simple as this, when you write, you have to stop and think about what you are going to say. This forces you to look at it more objectively.

Objectively speaking, it doesn't take long, before you find it hard to write anything at all if you're not really on board in the first place. It takes even less time if you don't really understand how the marketing or compensation plans actually work. I recently read an email that reminded me of some things I had written when I built my first website.

I had just interviewed over one hundred people that were looking for or had just started a home based business and I was a little disappointed at how, I am not sure of the best way to say this, misinformed all of these people were. I decided to try to write a guide that might help other people get a little better understanding of the basics of business.

Anyway, the email I just read contained a series of questions that I think do a better job than anything I tried to write. So I thought I would share the questions with you -- hoping they might help you make an informed decision about any online business opportunity you might be looking at.

Is the business you are considering delivering a real product or service?

Does the product or service help people achieve meaningful goals?

Do you understand how the business works? (The marketing, the compensation)

Can you explain the business to your best friend easily and be comfortable?

WOULD you share the business with your best friend and still be friends afterwards?

If you answered yes to all of these questions you may have the beginnings of a real business.

If not, run.

I want to thank Charlie P. for the questions, and the inspiration.

What if Dan Iverson could show you how to write about any topic on earth and make money? He'll teach you how to better understand human nature as it relates to e-commerce; how people, from their perspective, come to make a purchase on the Internet. I am talking about learning how you can pick a topic of interest, write about it, and with the right tools and a little research find connections between your readers and real products and services, of which you can become an affiliate and make money. Here is the best part. I will teach you all of this absolutely free. That's right, click on this link and you'll get the full Affiliate Masters Course Free. This is no joke, I promise once you start to read this course, you will see and learn the logical system of affiliate and information marketing. It will open your eyes to the greatest and most versatile opportunity in known history: the Internet. Even if you have a website, you can use these techniques. http://aggressiveinternetmarketing.net/free-tool.html

Article Marketing - Using Articles to Market Your Business

As a small business owner, try delegating your promotional and advertising article marketing to an article marketing service.

Good article marketing net services produce a marketing strategy article specifically using original article content for the web. The internet marketing article for small business simplifies the marketing process by supplying plenty of content on the niche you are targeting as well as relevant one way links in the Google search engine.

Internet Marketing articles for small business depend on keyword rich, or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) targeted articles to be published with the original content and explicit keywords within its content. This makes for easy retrieval from search engines in locating your information on the web. Hyper-links and meta tags assist in driving traffic to your article or web site.

A truly rich and strategic marketing article maintained for your company will give you steady results to stay competitive with other businesses with similar services.

A well selected niche marketing article from an article marketing web site supplier showcases your companies unique attributes that benefit your target market. The kickbacks for your own business keeps your site in top ranking for web searches and continuously in the public eye.

Internet marketers also write sales letters, create branding, generate publicity, promotions, marketing plans and research. Distribution and web design are offered to meet your small business objectives.

Cross promoting articles and web sites are popular ways that Internet marketers keep web volume high and their clients in the forefront of the competition.

Consider using article marketing as a part of your everyday business for the most favorable results in promoting your company name.

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Seven Excellent Tips To Generate More Web Traffic

Here is a list of seven tactics that you can employ to improve you search engine rankings. By way of example, a business that sells red Swingline staplers will be used for this article.

Find the right key words The most important factor in getting quality web traffic is to optimise your web pages for the correct key words. Getting the most sales is often a balance between search volume for key words and level of competition. Interestingly, the search term office space stapler ranks as well as red swingline stapler. Interestingly, the term red swingline stapler office space is a very popular search term with very little competition. The best strategy here would be to have a different page optimised for each of these terms. Use the Overture keyword tool and Google Adwords tool to research and identify your best key word phrases. It also pays to see what key words your successful competitors are optimising for.

Put your key word phrase in your title tag Forget about putting your company name in the title tag (unless it is a valuable part of the key words), it's a waste of words and will not help you rank in the search engines. The first three of four words in your title tag should be the key word phrase you are trying to optimise for.

Write a compelling description tag Title tags are for search engines, description tags are for humans. Spend time crafting a description tag that compels the reader to click on your listing. Come up with a great offer, use action words. Example: Get your own genuine red Swingline stapler here. Great prices, fast delivery, 12 month guarantee. 1000's sold around the world. As seen in the movie Office Space.

Use H1 tags An often neglected search engine optimisation technique is to put your key words in H1 tags on your page. This tip alone can drastically improve your search engine rankings. Similarly, the use of bold and strong html tags can emphasise a key word phrase withing the paragraph text where it may not be appropriate to use H1 or H2 tags.

Get quality one-way incoming links through article marketing As far as Google is concerned, link exchanges are just about dead. They can help to get you site spidered and indexed more quickly, but these day they add very little in terms of search engine rankings. A far better approach is to write interesting and informative articles and submit them to article directories. Make sure that you use the author bio/resource box to maximum advantage by using your key word phrase in the link anchor text, AND, by pointing the anchor text to the correct page. You home page may not be the best choice of pages for your selected key phrase. This will also ensure that more pages than just your home page gets indexed.

Get a decent key word ratio Aim for a keyword density of around 3-5% of the page contents. Try to weave your key word phrase into the page so that it reads naturally. Use headings and sub-headings that include your key words.

Use alt tags and description tags on images Key words used image file names, alt tags and description tags add to the key word density of any web page. They doesn't make a huge difference, but every little bit helps. In some product classes a Google image search may lead web surfers to your web site.

John Hacking is Marketing Manager for a Brisbane web design company

and Product Manager for a Brisbane SEO company. He now conducts Brisbane search engine optimisation training courses for web masters and small business owners.

Do You Promote Your Internet Home Business With the Right Resource Box?

The resource box is that last paragraph in the bottom of the article, and used to write the writer's information. In article marketing it is being used to help generate extra traffic to your internet business website. The correct resource box will also help you generate more leads.

The resource box is an article marketing strategy, and after writing the best article you want to write the best resource box. You ask why? The reason for writing the best resource box is the same for writing the best title or post, you want to capture your audience, and you want them to click on your link, to subscribe to your internet business, buy your products or just give you their email.

As informative your article is, your resource box should be all about information too, let your readers know you have more to give them and they will come. If you write the same boring thing about yourself all the time your readers won't click on the links in your article resource box and they will stop reading it at the end.

However writing the right resource box is only one thing, in order to promote your internet business you need to do the right linking too, use the text to create back links to your internet home business. These are called anchored text, take one keyword or a phrase and link it to your website, this tactic will help you get higher rank in the search engines, the higher you get, and you'll get more traffic.

Another important thing in creating a resource box is the linking, most article directories do not allow multiple linking, some allow only one link but most of them allow up to 3 links, so before writing the resource box check the directory rules, and see how much links are allowed.

Do not forget to use the resource box to invite your readers to come and visit your website for more information, it can also be the place to offer them a free gift or a free bonus.

Make yourself a few versions of your resource box with one, two or three links, anchored with your keywords. Remember you are promoting your home business and the resource box is not the place to advertise, it is the place for more information on more information.

Article marketing is a very important part in promoting your internet business, sign up to my home business ideas newsletter to learn more about internet home business ideas and tricks. Tanny Lahav is the webmaster of http//:http://www.Learn2Earn2.com, Internet home business ideas and opportunities

Which Affiliate Program To Choose?

Choosing an affiliate program that is profitable and easy to market is not always an easy task. When you decide to join an affiliate program, you are electing to promote a specific product or idea to consumers using the internet as your main marketing arena. Since there are many programs to consider, choosing the right one may require more research on your part.

What is a good affiliate program?

When researching affiliate programs, you should find out more about the following:

Percentage of income made on commissions
How long the company has had an affiliate program
Training or support the company offers to affiliates
Marketability
Popularity of affiliate program (if there are too many affiliates, your profits will decrease due to internet saturation)
Popularity and stability of the company

This information is extremely important as you will have to spend time learning more about the products sold, niche groups, building a web site, and creating email lists. Why should you waste your time on a product that has low commissions or is impossible to market to many different types of people?

Affiliate marketing basics

Choosing an affiliate program is similar to choosing an employer. If you don't understand what they are selling or you don't agree with their business practices, why would you want to increase their profits? Look for affiliates that are easy to market, which means they already have brand recognition.

While many people have made a considerable amount of money marketing new companies, depending on the time you have and how quickly you want to see a profit, stick with a company that is well known, but not employing too many affiliates.

Considering all the marketing you will have to do in order to make a profit, choosing a product that can be marketed to different groups of people will help you sell more. Niche markets, product based markets, and international markets are accessible online.

Finding affiliate programs

Selling products you care about and know something about will earn you the most profits. When looking for an affiliate program start with industries you are familiar with. Many companies have found that using affiliates is a great way to cut marketing costs and increase their online presence, which means there are many to choose from.

Once you have found a company whose affiliate program looks promising, read more about what is required of affiliates, the commissions, and browse their web site to see how easy it would be to market their products.

If you want to explore new industries or follow current consumer trends by marketing a company that is popular right now, you should conduct the same research. Just because a brand is popular now does not mean it will be in a year or even six months from now. The key to successful affiliate marketing is to make as much money as possible over the longest amount of time.

Once you have found a program, sign up and begin your marketing campaign. Be diligent, be aggressive in finding new markets, and promote the company's product to the best of your ability. Those who are successful in affiliate marketing are those who research before joining a program, have a sound marketing plan in mind, and who track each market to see how profitable it is.

Stuart Pearce is founder and owner of Style Product Developer Ltd. The company specialize in offering tools and resources to make the creation of a web based business easy and accessible to all. Begin your online career now, visit styleopportunities.com for details.

Key Marketing Metrics - Are Your Marketing Strategies Effective?

The importance of knowledge regarding key marketing metrics can't be denied by anyone who understands the concept of marketing theory. Yet, many marketing people, particularly ecommerce marketers don't regularly obtain, study and learn from several of the most basic key marketing metrics. In fact, a recent survey found that only ten percent of the companies surveyed had a budget intended specifically geared to measuring key marketing metrics.

Key marketing metrics are a relatively new role in the structure of a successful organization. It is intended to measure the gap between the strategy for marketing the product or the business and its execution and the final results of that strategy, whether effective or not.

Key marketing metrics must have the characteristics of being quick response, even instant, because a marketing campaign doesn't stop while you measure the results so far. You must be able to view such typical marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) as revenue per customer, average size of an order, and click to conversion rate for a campaign.

The above KPIs are critical, but it's also important to learn more about the customers themselves to help in targeting the next campaign in a more precise way.

As with all metrics the purpose is to show how the activities of the marketing unit or department are contributing to the overall health of the organization in the pursuit of its stated objectives.

It is undeniable that marketing for any of the company's products is critical, but the marketing in a hard-driven marketing world must be able to show not only the effectiveness or failure of a particular campaign, but perhaps more importantly that the marketing function itself is contributing to the profitability of the business.

In order to do that ROI calculation, you can use tactics to project performance based on customer response to particular performance measurements. For example, you might work on improving a targeted mailing list. The construction of the mailing list is intended to reach customers who have an interest in your particular niche product. If your mailing list size increases, you would be reaching more people interested in the product and you would be expanding your opportunity for sales so the revenue would increase. In this instance, the size of your email list or the leads which you have created has increased and that becomes the measure of how well your marketing campaign is doing. The performance indicator is the size of the mailing list, not the amount of revenue generated. From a point in time, by tracking the revenue from your original mailing list or contact list you know the average sales per customer, If you use the average sales per customer times the number of new mailing list contacts, you have a dollars and cents projection of the effectiveness of the campaign.

When you compare the projection with the cost of the marketing required to conduct that campaign, you've arrived at a reasonable figure which can be used as proof for the Return on Investment.

If you are interested in key marketing metrics, check Sam Miller new web-site.

Should You Consider Article Marketing To Promote Your Online Business?

Article marketing is a really powerful and simple way to get more traffic to your websites, blog and other squidoo lenses. While it is true that content is king, this traffic generation method is very slow when you compare it to pay per click advertising for example.

The question that marketers ask is "Is this worth your time?".

My take on this is that whether or not you don't think it's worth your time, you should submit articles at least once a week. Sure, one article a week is not going to increase your traffic and profits anytime soon, but at least, you get your name out there.

This is one of the numerous advantages of writing and submitting articles. And if you have the budget, you can outsource this to a ghostwriter or virtual assistant. Plus you will get top rankings in the search engines if you add the right anchor text in your bio box. Keep in mind that article marketing is not a one time "set and forget" technique.

In fact, the more articles you write, the more effective the method. If you consider article marketing as an integral part of your overall marketing plan, you need to write at least one article a day.

Anyone really serious about his online business is involved in article marketing because of the instant credibility, instant traffic and instant sales.

Plus it is a good way to add new leads to your marketing funnel. Those leads are generally more targeted than those you can get in free giveaway events or other safelists and traffic exchanges.

To learn more, download my Free Guide: "How To Earn $100K Per Year With Article Marketing".

Franck Silvestre makes thousands of dollars a year from affiliate and article marketing. Wonder what the secret to his success is? Discover how he does it at: http://www.mynetmarketingland.com/article-marketing/

Big Ticket To Wealth Business Review

Who wouldn't enjoy working from the comforts of your very own home and having your own website closing sales for you? That is the theory that the Big Ticket to Wealth opportunity presents. The direct sales industry is huge, and they are profiting on that market. So let's put Big Ticket to Wealth under the microscope and see what is revealed. A few things that stand out:

The Company

Big Ticket to Wealth is a brand new online direct sales company in pre-launch phase. The opportunity revolves around the movement and distribution of their products through the direct sales business model. Products consist of proprietary flash videos pertaining to high demand niche industries, e-books, manuals and software products to help develop a well-rounded internet marketing campaign and wealth building principles.

Investment to Join

There are three ways that you can become a member of the Big Ticket to Wealth program. You can join at the National Product level for $797, or pay $1,197 for an Executive package. The top tier package is the Presidential membership which would require you to pay $1,997. Additionally, all members must pay a recurring monthly licensing fee of $75 to carry the flash video presentation on their own company replicated website. No matter which level you decide to join at, ALL members are required to pay the $75 monthly recurring license fee.

Compensation Plan

The Big Ticket to Wealth compensation plan is contingent upon the initial package that you buy in at. Direct sales commissions are paid to you once your website completes a sale and matching override commissions are also paid to you on those you have personally sponsored. Commissions are paid at $300 for each National product package, $500 for an Executive product package and $900 for each Presidential package. Commissions are directly paid to you on the $75 monthly recurring license fee. National members earn $15, Executives earn $25 and Presidential members earn $50 per month. The override earnings aspect comes in to effect when you earn matching commissions off of your recruit's sales. You are directly paid the same commissions as with your own websites sales. As an example, a presidential recruit's $900 commission would equal $900 for you as well.

Disadvantages to the Program

So what are the disadvantages with the Big Ticket to Wealth opportunity? Big Ticket to Wealth is a high ticket program, so not everyone will be willing to fork over a minimum of $797 to join, plus a recurring monthly fee of $75. Once you sign up for the program, there are no refunds due to the nature of the products being available for instant download once you become a member. It goes without stating, but a belief in the quality and validity of the product you intend to market is an essential component to any direct sales opportunity success.

In conclusion, Big Ticket to Wealth appears to provide unique products to cater to several industries' needs, while providing its members the opportunity to earn a substantial income. However, success is dependent upon each individual member's ability to market not only the products, but the opportunity itself.

Don Downes is a full time internet marketer who works with other industry leading internet marketers from around the world. He specializes in helping others succeed in marketing online home businesses. For more information on high ticket programs and online success visit => http://www.TheTicketToWealth.com

Bulletproof Article Marketing Secrets That Will Give You The Competitive Edge

In this article I would like to go over some techniques that you can apply to your business that will give you very good results from article marketing. If you have not seen any good results before you will when you start using these techniques.

Let me stress that the most important part of your article marketing efforts will be to build a list. The reason for this is that most people need to have email contact from you at least seven times before they will buy from you. So if you are not doing this then you will be leaving a lot of money on the table. It does not matter whether you are promoting affiliate products or your own.

The way that you would do this is to write in a conversation style like you are talking to a friend. Also ensure that you keep your articles short about 250 to 350 words in length. This will make it less likely that your reader will get lost and not make it to your resource box. Share a slice of your expertise without giving the farm away.

Also make sure that you have a killer resource box. This will be your 30 second elevator pitch. You have to make the reader of your article want to click through to your website. I suggest that you offer a free report on your squeeze page as an incentive to subscribe to your newsletter.

Now after doing all the hard work this is where most people get it wrong. The fortune is in the follow up so you need to take very good care of your subscribers and relentlessly follow up with them.

Are you really interested in driving massive traffic to your website?

Here's the answer:

Secrets Of Article Marketing - Download your free ebook now.

Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.

Internet Marketing - The Secret To Making Money Fast

This is going to sound so fundamental, so simple, so brain-dead easy, I'm almost ashamed to tell you what it is.

But OK, here goes.

The very, very simplest way to make money on the Internet is by selling people something they're desperate to buy.

Got that? Just sell them something they're desperate to buy.

Didn't I say it was going to sound brain-dead simple?

But it's where the vast majority of novice Internet marketers go wrong.

Instead of selling people something they're desperate to buy, they try to sell them information about something.

Here's an example of what I mean. Let's say you have a problem with back pain. It's been bothering you for the past week. It has gotten to the point where you would give almost anything for that pain to go away.

So which would you pay $29.95 for ... a report titled Back Pain from A to Z or How to Get Instant Relief Form Back Pain?

See what I mean?

The fact is, a report titled Back Pain From A to Z, is just not going to sell as well as the one that promises what the reader wants - instant relief.

So, what should you do as a novice Internet marketer?

First, find a niche like the back pain example, where people have a problem and are almost literally crying for relief. Next, write an 8-10 page report on the relief you're offering, for example, "Five Ways to Get Instant Relief from Back Pain."

Then create a mini-site (i.e., website with four to six pages), built around your topic. Put an opt-in box on every page of the site where people can request your free report. Finally, write three or four decent ezine articles on the subject with a resource box linked to your website. Be sure to include some variation on the terms fast relief in these articles.

When your visitors opt-in to get your free report, you will have captured their names and begun building a mailing list. Next thing you know, you have several hundred or maybe even several thousand of people to whom you can send regular emails selling products related to their problem.

Didn't I say it was simple?

I provide other free advice about internet marketing on my blog, "Dairy of a Crazed Marketer," along with stories about my adventures and misadventures in internet marketing. Plus, I tell it the honest way - what has worked for me and what hasn't. Just Click here to come along on the ride.

Hey, did I say it was free?

Douglas Hanna is a retired marketing and advertising executive living in a suburb of Denver with his wife, a Cairn Terrier named Jake and Emma Lou, a Wheaton Terrier. He has written more than 200 ezine articles on a variety of subjects and is the the publisher of a half-dozen web sites.

Make Money Writing Short, Crisp Articles - Here's What You Have To Do

Everyone, and I mean everyone, who participates on the internet in terms of forums or just communicating with others by email, have the capacity to make their living writing. Most people have this conception of being a writer, as being some sort of literary genius, however, most successful writers simply write like they talk. It is the golden rule.

I don't mean using slang or having spelling mistakes in your work. But a 10 second scan with a spell checker fixes this problem quickly. What I mean, is people think they have to be Hemmingway to get paid for a writing job, when all that is required is to fill some space with a targeted small amount of writing.

You have to look at the people paying for this work, the people that pay you to write, to understand how this works. Webmasters are the largest collective group of writing work consumers on the planet. Webmasters make websites and have a huge need for short competent articles on a multitude of topics. Why would they pay you for your work? Because typically, they want to put advertising next to your articles or they want to sell the work on to others. Either way, the point is they want padding. They want some substance and all you have to do is do some quick research on the topic required, and describe those concepts in your own words in an original way. How simple is that?

To be a writer, you only need the willingness to write and to do the simple steps to get your writing sell-able and that just means two steps. First just spill out your article onto the page, which takes approximately 3 minutes. Then run a spell checker over it and fix any spelling errors. Then take a minute to Read the article and repair any awkward phrases or clumsy grammar. Do that, and your article is worth money!

Imagine quitting your day job in the next 3 days, you can, you know, you can write articles for a living just like me and thousands of others do. Discover how to get paid $90 dollars per hour or even more doing simple, short articles. Genuine work from home opportunity, replace your day job income working only 3 hours a day - click the link below to become a paid writer

http://www.writers-dream.com/index1.html

Productive Article Marketing - 5 Amazing and Powerful Steps to Advance with Article Marketing

One of the crucial elements in marketing your business and products over the internet is gaining the trust of your potential clients. Right now, the best way to make people to trust you online is to establish your expertise so people will treat you as an authority on your chosen niche.

Here are the 5 amazing steps to advance with article marketing:

1. Create keyword-rich articles. Before you tap on your key board, do a keyword analysis first. Identify the common search terms that are being used by your target market when they look for information online. Create one article for every major keyword so you can effectively cover all issues that are affecting your target niche.

2. Leave no stone unturned. By this, I mean discussing your topics thoroughly by presenting all important information that can help your readers better understand your topics.

3. Bank on your content. The success of your article marketing campaign largely depends on the quality of your articles. You will generate favorable responses from your readers if you can provide them the information they need and if your articles are well-written.

4. Increase your conversation rate by using powerful resource box. Most publishers will allow you to include a resource box at the end of your articles. Take advantage of this and promote your business and yourself as an expert on your chosen field. Make sure that your call to action is powerful enough to move your readers to click on your website's URL.

5. Be consistent. Don't stop writing and submitting your articles online even after you have generated enough traffic to your website. Remember, the more articles you write and submit, the more money you will generate for your ebusiness.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

How To Get Your Articles Published Online

Article marketing, using articles to boost your traffic and sales, is one of the most effective online marketing strategies you can use. Why you ask? Because articles are the perfect marketing tools for promoting any website or product.

However, it is not just simply a matter of throwing a few words together on a webpage and hoping for the best. To effectively use articles as marketing tools you must follow some simple procedures and practices in order to get your articles published online and in ezines more often.

Here are some article marketing tips you can try. These methods are proven and have worked for thousands of professional online marketers including the one writing this piece.

Why Articles Work

But before we start, you must understand why articles are so crucial to your marketing in the first place. You must truly understand why and how articles work so effectively as marketing vehicles in our newly wired world. It all boils down to one word... information.

The main reason articles work is information. The whole Internet is based on information. People use the web to access information and your well written article can help satisfy this need. You must place your article squarely into this whole information cycle.

Your article must be informative and provide some benefit to the reader. Tips, advice, how-to... your reader should gain something from spending a few minutes reading your article. The more beneficial your article, the more popular it will become and you will have a better chance of getting it published.

Title & Keywords

Your article title should contain two vital elements: Keywords and Benefits. Your title must contain your keywords or keyword phrases, these are the exact words someone types into the search engines to find what they are looking for on the web.

You must find the exact words people are using and include these in your title as well as in your article. Many professional marketers use keyword research software like Keyword Elite but you can also use free keyword suggestion tools like WordTracker or Overture: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

I find short catchy titles are best for capturing the attention of the reader. With our split second surfing habits, the title may be your only chance you get to hook your readers and keep them on your page. Another tactic is to make all your articles easily scannable with your main points highlighted for quick absorption.

Length

Most experts suggest you keep your articles short, in the 500 - 700 word range. Many authors/marketers use even shorter formats in the 200 - 300 word range in order to fit neatly on webpages.

I personally have found my more meatier articles in the 900 - 1200 word range have worked the best for me and seems to get featured in important ezines like Addme, SiteProNews... more often than shorter articles. My best advice is to cut out any unnecessary fluff but write in your own natural style which is comfortable for you.

Submission

You must distribute your articles on the web. You can personally submit your articles to the many article directory sites on the web or you can purchase a service which does this for you. I do both.

I personally submit my articles to the major high PR6 or PR7 sites which display my articles. I have found articles placed on Ezinearticles.com, Buzzle.com, Goarticles.com, Articlealley.com, Promotionworld.com, Thumbshots.org, Site-reference.com, Ideamarketers.com, Selfgrowth.com... do extremely well.

I would suggest you use 9 or 10 of these highly popular sites to display your articles, not only for the traffic they deliver but for increasing your rankings in the search engines, especially Google.

I have also found using a paid online service like SubmitYourArticle is really helpful, especially when I am on vacation or away from my computer for any length of time. I also use this service to quickly write different versions of my articles for the best search engine optimization. I am also concerned with covering different article lengths because many webmasters will only publish short articles.

Resource Box/Anchor Text

Your resource box is at the end of each article and this is where you place URLs for those all important One-Way links back to your site. Many marketers are careful to place their targeted keywords and variations in the anchor text of their links. It is also a good idea to provide some benefit or free gift to enhance your 'call to action' and improve your chances of getting that all important click.

Be Consistent

I have found a steady supply of fresh articles on a regular basis works the best. These articles keep your site or products fresh in the search engines and in front of your potential customers and editors/webmasters who publish your content. Try for at least two articles per week.

Own List of Editors

Along the same lines, build your own opt-in list of editors and webmasters who have opted in to receive your latest articles. Send a copy of your article to these interested parties and you will increase your chances of getting your articles published.

I also make it a point of including my most popular articles in my own ezines and blogs. This helps to kickstart or launch my newest articles.

Autoresponders

Many marketers place their articles in autoresponders so anyone requesting your article can easily use email to retrieve it. Many marketers also use RSS feeds to distribute their articles. If doing your own feeds seems too complicated, then just use any of the major article directories like Ezinearticles which will supply you with a convenient RSS feed for your articles.

Spam Check Your Articles

I always make it a point of testing my articles for any words or phrases that will trigger the spam filters and block my articles. This is extremely important if you want your article to be featured in ezines and newsletters. I check my articles within my Aweber autoresponder service but you can use a free SpamCheck service offered by SiteSell: http://bizwaremagic.com/spamcheck.htm

Personality

Articles that show some originality and personality have worked the best for me. Showing and telling your own story and experiences in a light hearted way seems to work really well in the somewhat impersonal online world. Having a sense of humor also helps, try to make your articles entertaining as well as informative and your articles will be picked up more often.

Conclusion

Writing unique informative articles is one of the most effective ways to market on the web. Remember to keep your articles informative, personable, keyword rich, short and to the point. Take a pro-active approach to promoting your articles: submit them to the major online article directories, send them to editors and webmasters who request content from you and place your articles on your site, in your blogs and RSS feeds.

Used properly, articles can be effective marketing tools for boosting both your traffic and sales. Perhaps the best part of all, article marketing is completely free. What more can you ask for?

The author is a full-time online marketer. Give your marketing a real boost, take this free e-Course explaining all the tools and resources you really need to succeed online: Internet Marketing Guide For the most effective web marketing software try: Internet Marketing Software Copyright 2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Best Article Marketing - Revealed - 5 Powerful Secrets to Improve Your Article Marketing

Writing and publishing articles on various submission site proves to be the most cost-effective and efficient way not only in positioning yourself as a great source of information over the internet, but also in making your website highly visible on searches by obtaining numerous links.

Here are the 5 powerful secrets to improve your article marketing:

1. Promote specific product on your articles. If you are offering various product lines, you would want to concentrate on one product per article. This is to make sure that your content is specific and focused on one central topic. Doing so will greatly lessen the chances of you confusing your readers.

2. Give your articles no-nonsense titles. Your headlines are your sole keys in convincing your potential readers that you actually have valuable information to share. It greatly helps if you can write titles that are not only direct to the point but also highly descriptive on what kind of information your articles contain.

3. Distribute your articles on all possible avenues. Aside for article submission sites, you can also submit your articles to your own website, blog, forums, and wikis. This is the best way to widely distribute your articles so they can easily be picked up by interested publishers who are constantly looking for content-rich articles.

4. Keep your articles short. Based on researches, articles that run 300-500 words are preferred by most online users. So, it follows that if you would like to increase your clickthrough rates, make sure that your articles are within the mentioned word count.

5. Multiply the number of your articles. The more articles you write, the more quality inbound links you obtain for your website. Thus, it follows that if you would like to explode your article marketing effort, you must effectively devise a plan on how you can augment the number of your articles and submissions.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

Powerful Article Marketing - Discover 4 Hidden Secrets to Excel at Article Marketing

One of the hidden secrets to excel in article marketing is carefully choosing your keywords. Pick the ones that are constantly being used by your target market when they searched for information online. By using the right keywords or search terms, your articles will become highly searchable and you will increase their chances of being opened, read, and hopefully republished.

Here are the other hidden secrets to excel at article marketing:

1. Observe appropriate keyword density. Publishers are now very strict about keyword abuse. They immediately reject articles that contain so many keywords that don't sound natural on the content. Stick with 3% keyword density to stay on the safe side and to increase the chances of your articles being republished on leading submission sites like ezinearticles dot com and goarticles dot com.

2. Hire some help. Manually submitting your articles to hundreds of publishing sites can take so much of your writing time. This can affect your productivity which is not good in your marketing strategies. Hire somebody who can post the articles for you. Although you will need to shell out some money for this, you can buy yourself more time doing what you do best - writing.

3. Stick to the facts. Never overstretch the truth or insert unfounded information on your content to avoid misleading your readers. Before you publish your articles, be sure to double check your content as factual errors can easily tarnish your online credibility.

4. Never advertise on your articles. Don't convert your articles to sales letters and focus on giving your readers what they truly want - information. This is the surest way to move them to click on your resource box where you can post your sales pitches.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

6 'Old-School' Tips To Start A Photography Business With Old School Photography Marketing Strategies

Too often, these days, photographers planning to start a photography business 'jump' into the 'mix' with all of the 'new' (as in technologically advanced and innovative, etc.) bells and whistles of photography marketing. Of course, in order to start a photography business successfully and on solid ground it is critical to use 'modern tools.' But, many photographers, too often forget (or never knew) that the 'modern marketing tools' are improved 'old-school' marketing tools.

Of course, too many 'old-school' photographers use 'old-school' small business marketing activities and 'refuse' to adapt to the conveniences of 'modern marketing tools.' As an example: there was a time when people were 'confused and mesmerized' with cell phones! Many couldn't conceive how the telephones worked without wires! Many refused to get a cell phone - figuring that they were a 'fad' and they could 'get by' with what they've been 'getting by' with for all of this time! Is this familiar to you?

'Old School' Tip #1'Old-School' Has A Place In 'Modern' Times

Your photography marketing activities should include the 'old-school' basics - with 'modern' adjustments for efficiency and professionalism. To start a photography business without using modern tools is like trying to successfully run a business without a telephone - wireless or 'old-school/wired-to-the-wall' type!

'Old School' Tip #2 - For The Foreseeable Future - 'Technology' Won't Replace People

As advanced as technology is and is getting, and as convenient as technology is making everyday life for people, and as time-saving as technology has become - people 'still' prefer, and gravitate towards, 'other people' - the human touch. Photographers that can remember and build their photography marketing strategy on 'people-still-needing-people' strategies and activities are the consistently successful photographers - no matter what their photography niche.

'Old School' Tip #3 - Cyber-Space Has It's Pluses - But, The Masses Still Prefer Literature

Yes, that's right. Most of the world 'aren't' online all of the time! Oh sure, the numbers (of people online a good deal of the time) are growing, but, an all-time 'old-school' photography marketing favorite is still a favorite of the masses - literature. After all, that's how most photos are seen. Modern technology has made these tools even more effective in marketing for photographers. For example, with the quality of ink-jet printers, I can make business cards on an 'as needed' basis. Also, I can change my business card whenever I need or want to. As a photographer, not only should I leave them everywhere, I should do so regularly. Likewise with other 'old-school' photography business marketing staples such as brochures, fliers and circulars, for example. Ink-jet technology allows photographers to produce 'customer-specific' calendars and greeting cards - that's 'old-school' photo marketing at the next level.

'Old School' Tip #4 - Tie-ins With Other Businesses

This strategy is especially effective these days. I think it's because so many 'old-school' photographers are leaving the photography business and taking successful marketing techniques with them. Tie-ins work with many type 'people' businesses such as hair salons, spas, local restaurants, etc. For example, Photographer, Dan Eitreim, offers the following (and similar) photography business marketing tip in his free 5 day photo marketing course at www.parttimephotography.com. Dan suggest approaching a restaurant owner and propose to come in on Sundays and take family portraits of the restaurant customers. He suggests that the photographer give away the photos and will capitalize from the exposure, the good will and the gratitude of the restaurant owner - after all, his customers will be singing his praises - and returning to spend money at his business!

'Old School' Tip #5 - Show What You Got!

And then, there's the 'granddaddy' of all 'old-school' strategies; the 'never-fail,' 'fool-proof,' 'never-let-you-down' best of the best - "show them that you're the best!" In other words, display your work. Online isn't the only place to display your work.

Your display can be as simple as a few small portraits at a store. You can create large contemporary displays in malls or events or arts & crafts shows or trade shows. What's important is that you only display your best work. I want to offer this lesson learned from me displaying my work without giving consideration to who the audience I wanted to appeal to. I had enlarged some beautiful and finely detailed flowers and had them on display. Many people would stop by, look at the display, and ask for more information. Photo session follow ups were so-so. Then, one day, I stopped displaying the 'finely-detailed' photos and replaced them with great portraits of 'regular' people - business literally exploded. Lesson learned: my target audiences (women) don't want 'finely-detailed' photos - no matter how beautiful the flowers are. They wanted 'softer-focused' photos of very regular people. And they didn't 'tell' me this until after I changed the displays! Changing my 'old-school' displays and practicing 'old-school' human interaction taught me valuable lessons and increased my photography business.

'Old School' Tip #6 - 'Modern Technology' Is Great And Effective - But 'Old-School' Gets You Paid

One final example of the sustainability of 'old-school' photography marketing techniques in the times of 'modern technological advancements:' photography customers don't care how many mega-pixels that your camera has, or how fast your lens is, or the name brand of your equipment, or whether your shooting raw, jpeg, or whatever. They simply want to know - "can you make me look good?"

Long live 'old-school.'

Kalem Aquil is a 'semi-burnt-out' photographer that dispenses free, unsolicited (yet, very good and accurate) tips and advice to budding photographers that want to take their photography business to the next level. He dispenses such advice to budding photographers such as "where to start," "what to charge," "how to know if you're really, really ready," etc. etc. etc. He dispenses his free and unsolicited advice here. Subscribe to his free ezine, the "Best Amateur Photography Tips Digest," and receive a Bonus Special Report - "How To Build Your Own Successful Photography Website." Click here to subscribe.