How to Hire Ghost Writers and Succeed in Keyword Ranking

Recently there has been a major change taking place not only in Google but in all the search engines. The search engines have 2 goals for their users. To filter out junk web sites from natural search results, and to make money on paid advertisements which are also know as sponsored links. This competition gives the search engines the power to choose how they accept sites and which they want to exclude. Though this process is not bullet proof, you will see more sites disappearing from the top 10 of the major search engines and more relevant sites appear relating to your keyword search.

Is your site appearing in these results naturally? Are you finding that no matter what you do, there is no progress for your site, though you spend hours daily trying to make this happen?

Many websites could easily climb the keyword ranks if they just apply some standard content to their site. After much effort and time, many site owners realize they need help in this area. These site owners have hired Ghost Writers to accomplish these tasks with some to no real success.

The frustration levels now are growing all around as people realize their need for help and yet still can't find Ghost Writers who know any better then they do. The problem is too many people are not understanding of what the real needs are, and are hiring people without this knowledge and are once again wasting time.

Service companies offering Ghost Writers know your desires to move up in keyword ranks, but this doesn't mean they are experts in SEO. The real needs here are some simple guidelines to follow when hiring a Ghost Writers.

Know Your Site Needs More Then Ghost Writers:-

The most important thing you need to understand is what your site needs more then any Ghost Writer can. If you direct these writers with a well thought out plan you will see more success with your keyword ranking. Know Your Word Count Your first plan is to know how many words each page of your site needs. To get the Search Engines Attention you want to have at least 300 words and not more then 500 words per page. The only time you really can use more then 500 words on a single web page is if you are offering news or press.

Make Your Point Stand Out:-

Each page of content by the Ghost Writers should have specific points readers can focus on. There are a few ways to do this:

Use a numbered point system. Have a section of your content break down 3 or 5 important things in the format of Numeric points. Bullet point your 3 or 5 things that make that page of content clear for your readers. Use Sub Headings to break down your thoughts as this helps people get to the most important parts to them. Which ever way you choose, you are structuring your content in such a way that readers can skim through your information and find what they need.

Proper Keyword or Key Phrase Placement You do not want your pages filled with keyword or phrases randomly just to get them in your site. This only delays your keyword rankings. Instruct the Ghost Writers to dedicate each page to a specific keyword.

Now, to make this point clear not confusing, what I am saying here is you will have your basic pages of content like your home page, contact page, about us page, service page, etc. Those pages you can put in different keyword phrases in the content itself and in the meta tag areas like Meta descriptions, keywords & title of page, but only put these in if they make sense to the reader as these pages are meant to drive sales and call people to action!

Create a section on your website either via an FAQ, Information page, Blog, News or something that will allow you to have titles and descriptions that link to their own independent pages where now you can have clear content focusing on 1 keyword or phrase that make sense to the readers and tells the search engines what keyword to place you for in their rankings.

Make sure that you link the keyword at least 1 time back to your main home page, as this really helps push the search results to get people to the starting page of your site.

Only focus on 10 keywords for natural results when you first start this process. If you try for too many keywords then again you will slow down this process.

A Bit More Details on Meta Data Make sure that your Ghost Writer includes:

Meta Title:

This should be the primary keyword for that page along with 1 more keyword and then the name of your company. For example this article title tag could be "Ghost Writers, Keyword Ranking: The Content Writers".

Meta Description:

Your description should be compelling and to the point about what the particular page is about. A good description for this article could be "Ghost Writers, everything you need to know before you hire one. Read our step by step guide and watch your keyword rankings improve in no time at all"

Meta Keywords: Research your primary and secondary keywords first so that when you hand over the details to your Ghost Writer they will know already which ones you want. Though you already know yourself you want this included on the page of content written for easy copying and pasting. The keywords for this article could be "ghost writers, ghost writer, keyword ranking"

Final Preparation and Research To Find The Best Ghost Writers: Now that you have an idea on what you should plan for in advance this will make your Ghost Writers very happy as you are providing them with great details on what you want for main site content and for keyword site content. They know now what you are expecting in return and should speed up the process to return to you the content needed.

I want to note here that you are not presenting these writers with content for your site, only a specific outline of page names, keywords and expectation. You only need now to do a bit of research to find the best writer for your business.

When searching for a Ghost Writer you are now simplifying your search for someone who can follow your instructions rather then hope they know what they are doing for improving your keyword rankings. Here is a guide to help you find the best provider for you:

You want to find writers who are easily accessible via Phone or Email Hire only a company that gives you a clear pricing plan so you know what to expect when all the content is complete. Typically you can have them break down a per word cost to make things really simple. Have them write up 1 or 2 pages before you give the complete set of pages. This way you can see how quickly they return the content, if they followed your instructions and how well written the content is.

Leave a little room for content that is almost what you needed but not exactly on target. Remember, you are more of an expert then they are in your industry. This is very important because many times it is just a minor change in wording or adding a simple sentence to complete your page that you requested. If this is the case then make the fix and pay them for their work.

For terms of payment I suggest you work this out with them in advance but never pay 100% up front. A rule of thumb in business is let them collect 25% to 50% up front. This of course depends on your experience with them in regards to time and quality. If you see they are pretty close but need to send requests back to have fixes then try for the 25%, if they are pretty much right on target then pay the higher amount up front, and then pay them the full amount once the content is complete.

For your sites success and the success of the Ghost Writers you hire, I truly hope this information serves you well.



Author: Darren Dunner


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How to Keep Your Written Work from Being Copied and Plagiarized

It's happened to most of us that write and if it hasn't happened to you yet it will. It's only a factor of time and exposure.

Someone has stolen your labor intensive work and put their name on it. Or, taken your work and rearranged the paragraphs and put their name on it. Or, taken all your good ideas and reshuffled the words and put their name on it. Or any combination of the above.

If you publish and distribute on the web you may have hundreds of articles on a large number of websites, blogs and article databases. That's a lot of exposure. If I google the articles name I might find one that has not given proper credit. Usually they are novices and correct the problem. This type of plagiarism is easy and simple.

It's also a question of monetary gain. My own personal cases of plagiarism did not amount to any monetary gain. Nobody sold my content and made money. So if that is the case, back off and let it go. Notify the infringer and let it go. If big money is involved, talk to a lawyer.

But there are several ways I have found to protect myself. The first is that if I am going to put the article in a public place in the public domain, I want to post the article on my website first. This is proof it is mine.

The next is a bit more involved and it has to do with the content structure.

When I first started writing business articles I wrote nuts and bolts types of articles; what is a balance sheet, what is direct marketing, etc. The problem with these types of articles is that they can be rearranged rather easily and become a 'new' article. There is actually software out there now that purports to do just that.

That's right. There is software out there that can take linear, step by step nuts and bolts articles and rearrange them so someone else can put their name on them.

And of course people can do the same thing. From one hundred dollars down you can buy an article on just about anything from someone else and put your name on it. The only problem is the quality is so bad you may want to use a pen name, which defeats the whole purpose in the first place.

Fortunately this rearranging software only works on content that can be broken up easily. What if the content can't be broken up easily? What if the thread or train of thought of the article is such that it can't be reshuffled and still make sense? What if the text has lots of fragments and subtly intertwined expressions? Ha...just think of the headache of taking it apart and rearranging it. The truth is it takes so much time and is such a pain that it's easier to just write the article from scratch. Go figure...

I also try to spice up my content with slang, offbeat expressions, punctuation and whatever else happens to be handy. Poke, jab, kid, enrage, prod, insult do anything outside the linear behavioral model and your content becomes very difficult to repackage as well as livelier and more interesting.

My strong suspicion is that a lot of these rewrite and write services are offshore, especially in India where English is spoken. So if you add a lot of local zip and slang to your content they won't know that is. It has to be straightforward and linear for them; otherwise they can't do it.

Here's an example. I'm writing an article about the Revolutionary American flag with the snake on it that says 'Don't Tread on Me'. The title I chose was" 'Don't Tread on Me' Snake Motto is Foundation for the Modern Free and Inquiring Mind."

Rearranged, it going to have a lot of rough spots. It's even a tough title as it is...

In the text I open up freely and let it go. The bodacious and frolicking text is very hard to duplicate and repackage. I also consciously try to make the story thread or trail a convoluted and unpredictable one. It can only go this way or it makes no sense. At this point I have probably beaten all the copiers. They of course can take the general idea of the article, but to get another article they will have to write their own.

And so it goes. We all get copied and we all get mad. I just try to make it harder to copy. With fragments. Lots of fragments. Don't forget the fragments.

Think fragments. Mucho fragments...

Author: Jack Deal

Need Clients for your Freelance Writing Business? Here are Six Proven Tips

If you would like your writing business to go from sporadic hobby to full-time career (with full-time benefits and income), you need to understand the business of writing. There's nothing more important to your business success than knowing how to get clients. It's a great time to be a writer--but only if you know where to find and how to land clients. If you want to transition your writing life from part-time job to career, here are six proven methods of getting clients.

Getting clients is one of those great mysteries of the writing life. It's a mystery because the writers who can do it rarely talk about it.

And there are a lot of things people believe about this that are just plain wrong.

Here are six ways to get clientssome of which you may not have thought of before. These techniques are appropriate for landing new clients, winning back former clients, and stimulating more business from your regulars.

First, build your network. Networking is one of those things that a lot of people talk about but few people really grasp. For a professional writer, your network is made of the individuals (not the companies, not the industries, not the departments, not the publications) who might hire you. You need to keep tabs on these people. That means holiday cards, occasional e-mails or phone calls, and reminders about your business. I would say that 60% of my business today comes from somebody who knew me (somebody in my network). This is your richest field for business ... mine it!

By the way, people hire writers. Let's say a person at Company A has worked with you for a while when he quits to take a new job at Company B. Guess what? You're now more likely to get your next writing job from Company B than Company A, but if you play your cards right, you may be able to stay on at Company A, too. People are loyal to people; companies are loyal only accidentally.

Second, talk about what you do. Don't become the abominable dinner guest, but make sure you let people know what you do. People know people and believe it or not, there are actually people who are scratching their heads trying to find a writer. Don't belabor the issue, but make sure your friends, neighbors, guests, acquaintances, and mailman know what you do. I once got a year-long gig from a contact my mom made in a bowling alley! (She told one of the bowlers on the other team what I did for a livingand I got a phone call from the other lady's daughter a few days later. She was looking for a very specific type of writer!)

Third, don't overlook sites like e-lance and other places where freelance talent can bid on jobs. True, it's a bazaar on those sites and you will see crazy offers (like "write 100 articles for $12, must be able to complete assignment in three hours") but there are some very respectable businesses that use those sites. Be discerning, but check it out. I use these sites to fill will what I call "dead time," those periods of the year when my business slows down. I've never not made money working these sitesbut you can't bid on every job there. Some of those jobs aren't worth having!

Fourth, develop your own website that promotes your own services. Most creative people do sites that are really online portfolios; that's interesting but I don't think it brings in a lot of work. Instead, use your site to discuss your ideas about writing, your areas of expertise, and those sorts of things. You can always talk samples once a client calls. A year ago, I would not have listed this as a strategy because although I had a website, it did not bring in any business. It now hasI have found a pretty strong new client who came to me on the strength of the website.

(Mostly a website is something that is nice to have to help confirm to your new client that he or she made a good choice. People look at your website, but they don't find writers that way. I think that's changing.)

Fifth, try direct mail. You have to be very clever with this. You need a strong sales letter and you need to send it by first-class mail to a real person. The less is looks like direct mail (a.k.a. junk mail) the more likely it will get through. Put a real stamp on it. Address it to a real person, even by hand. Your letter should pitch your business.

You have to scope out target clients. Find some businesses that might need your services, call to find out who hires freelance writers, and send a letter directly to that person. Call a few days later. This is a tough program because you need to keep after it, but it does work, particularly if you are diligent and target the right folks and have a compelling sales letter. This is the best way to get new clients; in my experience, it works better than cold calling, which I have never had much success with. (Not to mention the fact that it's less fun than going to the dentist.)

Sixth, contact a newspaper and pitch a column. Don't just contact random newspapers, but don't be shy about approaching major papers or local hometown newspapers. Look it over, see what's missing, write up a sample column or two, and pitch it by e-mail or letter directly to the appropriate editor. I got my first major writing job that way (I was a stringer for Variety) and the second time I tried it, I got a job writing a column that is entering its fifth year. This works. Two drawbacks: it usually doesn't pay well and you have to be very careful and make sure you target your offering to the newspaper's needs.

I'm pretty sure you could land yourself a gig as a movie critic or a lifestyle expert or a medical writer. You need to be a matchmaker, though. Don't propose anything unless it seems like a perfect fit for the newspaper.

You may be excited about that last idea but think for a minute. Who needs a low-paying writing job? Well, maybe you do. Regular appearances in an important publication build your credibility as a writer. You can often parlay those writing credits into more lucrative (but less visible) writing jobs in similar industries. Newspapers help fill out your clip files, and sometimes you can re-sell articles or use a body of research to generate similar stories for better-paying magazines or websites.

Writing is a great life, but a lot of it is work, and work is work. Getting clients is not easy for any professional and writers have to do the same amount of chattering, networking, direct mailing, and scouting out opportunities that other people do.

What's amazing to me is that some of these things work really well. Very often, when you do connect with a great long-term client, you'll hear another side to the story. Many businesses dream of finding a reliable, high-quality writer. Right now there are companies and clients wondering how on earth they are ever going to get their brochures and articles and press releases and websites written.

Your job is not "selling" them your services. Your job is really just making sure they know that you're there and ready for assignment.

Author: Jo Ann LeQuang

The Home-office Life Can Sometimes be Harder Than it Looks

Are you one of many of the millions of Americans now working outside traditional workplaces who have found themselves surprised by how difficult home-office life can be?Before they were married in September, Nicci Young and Richard Wiese first had to split up. The problem was not romantic, but spatial: Young Wiese, who organizes community development safaris to Africa, and Wiese, a writer and explorer, found that their Upper East Side one-bedroom was not big enough for the two of them after both decided to work from home.

"He kept talking to me about his work, which is very interesting, but it was really taking time out of my workday," Young Wiese said. "And when I was alone there was a sense of loneliness and procrastination." Wiese, who is writing a how-to book about exploration for teenagers, acknowledged the problem. "Nicci tends to be a lot more intense," he said. "Especially with lighter work, I can be watching a ballgame. If I saw a funny e-mail coming through I'd want to share it. I'd get these glances from her, like, `I'm working!'" Young Wiese is one of many of the millions of Americans now working outside traditional workplaces who have found themselves surprised by how difficult home-office life can be.

It requires strict self-discipline and an ability to tune out spouses, children and pets. For the more sociable or emotionally needy, it can feel like house arrest, especially if the phone hasn't rung in a while. Young Wiese's solution was to rent space in a communal office, an increasingly popular option for those who can afford it. (According to Sara Horowitz, the executive director of the Freelancers Union, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the self-employed, the use of communal work spaces has been on the rise among members for about three years, "and in the last year it's started accelerating.") Those who can't afford a separate space, or who find home too convenient or rewarding a workplace base to give up -- learn to live with the challenges, coming up with smaller-scale solutions over time.

One of the hardest adjustments for those working from home is deciding when to take a break, and when to quit for the day. With the computer always beckoning and the commute measured in the time it takes to cross the living room, there's always a reason to go back to work -- or an excuse to avoid it. "It's sort of a guilty feeling -- I should be working," said Kathy McHugh, a headhunter for high-tech companies who has worked out of her Manhattan apartment on and off for several years. "My office is 2 feet away." Children can be a distraction, as Barbara Magnoni, an international development consultant, discovered when she and Magali Montes, a business associate, tried to hold meetings in Magnoni's apartment after picking up their children from school. "We'd meet at home with our kids running around and they would think it was a play date when it actually wasn't," Magnoni said. Sid Holt, a media senior vice president whose office is in a barn a few steps from his house in northern Westchester County, described the difficulty of pacing himself. "There are no cigarette breaks," he said. "You're either working too hard or not hard enough." Holt said he finds it helpful to schedule his time in a way that mimics the 9-to-5 life of his years spent working in a New York office.

He tries to keep to a routine that includes breakfast at a local coffee shop -- reminiscent of his ritual of picking up coffee and a bagel at Grand Central Terminal on the way to his former job -- and a 10am conference call with three other employees of go2Media, a Boston-based mobile Web service for which he oversees editorial content. The conference call and frequent e-mail exchanges with other employees contribute to a sense of accomplishment that would be harder to achieve if he were working entirely on his own, he said. And they also help him to feel that he has earned the reward that once greeted him on his return from Manhattan, and that he still uses to punctuate the day. "I say to myself, there's a martini waiting for me down at the house and I'm leaving now," he said. For home-office workers who aren't in regular touch with colleagues or clients, a frequent complaint -- even among those who say they are distracted by other members of their households -- is of isolation.

David Behl, a photographer whose studio is connected to his TriBeCa loft, said he enjoys working at home when the jobs are pouring in and the studio is filled with clients and assistants. But at other times, he added, he misses the studio he used to share with two other photographers. "You don't see anybody," he said. "You don't go out for lunch. It's easier to get depressed because there's no one to complain to." McHugh said business lunches can be a lifeline after a couple of weeks working from home, and that she often finds herself glomming onto her daughter when she gets home from high school in the afternoon. "I'm happy to see somebody who's out in the world," she said. These issues have been observed at IBM, where a "mobile work force" strategy has led to 30 percent of employees working full time from home (as well as a savings on office space that the company estimates at US$100 million a year). "We found if you're working from home and do not have an interaction with someone from work, or a client, or a physical meeting, after three days you start to feel isolated," said Dan Pelino, who manages IBM's mobile work force program. Soon after the company introduced the program in 2001, he added, "people have said to me, `IBM stands for `I'm By Myself.'" The company has tried to mitigate this problem with "mobility centers," communal spaces that it maintains wherever it has offices, offering desks, phone and Internet lines, and office equipment for the periodic use of home-based workers. It has also promoted "IBM clubs," meant to encourage employee bonding.

Club members have taken day trips together to a zoo, traded cookie recipes and "gone to a race track and learned how to be a NASCAR driver," Pelino said. For those who can't depend on corporate beneficence, it is now possible to rent a desk or office in communal work spaces all over the country. The Regus Group, a Dallas-based company that rents temporary office space around the world and has 17 locations in Manhattan alone, has been doubling its US business every two years, said Guillermo Rotman, the company's chief executive for the Americas. In addition to cubicles and individual offices in various configurations, its spaces all have business lounges with sofas, armchairs, Internet ports, coffee machines and companionship for those seeking it.

The company also sells US$300-a-year passes to its business lounges, which number 950 around the world and cater to itinerant laptoppers. One Regus client in New York, David Robertson, said he had been looking forward to working at home from his Lower Manhattan apartment when he took a job in 2006 with a startup company that licenses images from college sports events, but that he lasted less than three months. "There seemed to be a lot of distractions," he said, "whether it was my children, or the refrigerator, or some home improvement project that was just sitting there staring at me." His company pays slightly less than US$1,000 a month for the cubicle he selected over an office with a closing door because it presented more opportunities to socialize.

He now wears a suit and tie to work when he wants to, and enjoys the reassuring cadences of the 9-to-5 world, as well as the camaraderie of his new office mates. "It's not like they're best friends," he said of his fellow business lounge denizens and the Regus staff members who are there to support them. "But they're adults you can have a conversation with." Young Wiese, who pays US$650 a month for a desk in a communal office in a private house near her apartment, said she, too, is happy to be surrounded by office mates who are friendly, if less gregarious than Wiese.

They share job leads with one another, they go out to lunch. She added that she prefers these relationships to those in a traditional office. "You have this collegial atmosphere, but it's not fraught with any work issues or roles or responsibilities," she said. Several of them are women who, like her, have abandoned their home offices to their work-at-home husbands. Abby Vaughn, an advertising representative for Canadian newspapers, actually took over her husband's space at the communal office when he was dismissed by the office manager after two weeks because his telephone manner was too loud. He is once again selling market research from home, while Vaughn goes off to the rented cubicle. "He's worked from his apartment for two years," his wife explained. "He wasn't used to being around people."

Author: Pedro Martinez



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Using The Internet To Find Your Niche

The Internet is a wonderful place where users can find a great deal of information. However, many are not aware that the Internet is also where some savvy entrepreneurs can find lucrative business opportunities. Internet niche marketing is just one example of how those in the know can turn their hard work and dedication into profit. This is not to say that Internet marketing is a simple field where anyone can prosper but there are opportunities for those who are willing to persevere in their efforts.

Learning Internet Marketing Online

Believe it or not Internet niche marketing is a subject that can be learned online. It certainly helps for those who hope to prosper in this industry to have some knowledge of marketing and business before venturing in an Internet niche marketing campaign but it is not necessary. There is a great deal of information on organizing and executing a niche marketing campaign available online. This information may come in a number of different forms including websites offering informative articles, message boards focusing on the industry and ebooks.

Let's first examine learning about Internet marketing through websites. Type the search term, "Internet niche marketing" into your favorite search engine and you will likely receive millions of search results. Shifting through all of the search results would be rather time consuming and many of them would likely not be relevant. Fortunately the search engines do a great deal of work for you and the most useful websites will likely appear on the first couple of pages of search results. This still leaves you with a great deal of information to sort through but considering you are likely planning to turn niche marketing into a career this research is certainly worthwhile.

Carefully examine the search results you obtain from your search and bookmark the websites which seem most useful. Next take as much time as necessary to comb through all of these websites to find the most useful information. Take notes as you do to create a comprehensive resource for yourself. After this review your notes and investigate items which seem unclear to your further. This research may include offline resources such as books or phone calls to experts in the industry.

Search Engines are Your Friend

Now that you have already used the Internet to learn about the industry of Internet marketing, you probably know that finding a profitable niche is imperative. A niche is essentially a specific area of interest. Ideally you will already be an expert in this subject and it will be a subject which has a wide Internet audience without a great deal of existing websites focusing on this niche. Once again, you can turn to the Internet for finding this niche.

You may already have a few ideas for niches. These are probably subjects you are passionate about and understand very well. Examining statistical information provided by popular search engines regarding the popularity of search terms related to your niche will give you a good indication of whether or not Internet users are interested in your niche. If keywords related to your niche are searched on these search engines often, it is evident there is an audience for your niche. Next it is time to enter these keywords in a search engine and evaluate the websites which are provided as results for these keywords. If there are many strong results the niche can be considered saturated. In this case, it is a good idea to abandon the original idea and search for another niche. However, if there are not many high quality search results, you may have found your perfect niche.

Author: Sharon Godfrey

Running Multiple Home Based Businesses Just Makes Business Sense

Home based businesses will become the norm in business. There are many advantages of having multiple home based businesses. First if one business goes bad you have other businesses to fall back. Next it is always better to have more than one successful company. It just makes sense. The more companies you can efficiently run the better off you are. The experience you also will gain from running multiple companies is also priceless.

With the way the economy is headed and the way many major companies are shipping their jobs overseas, it just makes sense to start your own company. Many people will not catch on to this tread and they will end up getting left in the dust. If you don't believe me just visit your local unemployment office. You will not find 20 year olds in there looking for work. Instead you will find high paid employees, many who were making $150,000 and up, looking for work. Many of these high paid employees will have to take a major pay cut. They will be lucky to earn $60,000 a year.

This is a key reason many people will get left behind in the near future. Many people who get laid off will continue to look for another job and will continue to have to take pay cuts. Many people are using an outdated plan and that plan is failing them, badly. What is worse is they continue to teach their kids the same plan, not knowing they are setting up their kids for failure. These are the people who will continue to get left behind and passed up. This is what we know primarily as the middle class. The middle class believes in getting a college degree and then looking for a stable job. The middle class is being hit the hardest since it is their jobs that are being shipped overseas. As a business owner, I can see many companies are beginning to see hiring employees as a major liability. Which explains why they are shipping out as many jobs as possible. Think about it as a business owner for a sec. First you have to pay insurance for all of your employees and we are talking about accidental insurance for the company, and medical insurance for your employees. Next you also have to pay a salary.

But as a business owner if you know you can contract your work to a professional contractor for cheaper and you wouldn't have to pay any insurance's what so ever, it would just make sense. It just makes sense as a business owner.Many high paid employees are not seeing this fact and it is a fact. Times are changing, either you change and take advantage of the changing times or you get passed up and live out a rough life. Going into business for yourself just makes complete sense. Instead of your employer having the control, you put the control in your hands. Not to mention the tax benefits you get with having your own business. Having multiple home based businesses just makes total sense.


Author: Aaron Aldama

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Used Computer Equipment

I haven't been sure how to start the new year's blog. Everyone else is thinking of changing focus. At the moment, I've been looking into things that can help work at home writers survive. Mark told me last night that he is buying more equipment - new.

Why do most people buy new when there are so many good deals in the used market. Saving 50% on a product can make a big difference. Look at it this way. Mark said that he has the money. But, if he bought used, he could get twice the product and have twice the power. His 'Office Depote' router would never provide the same power as a used cisco router. Each costs about the same, $50, and the used products do come with a warranty.

What used products do have is power. The cisco router, new, costs about $800.00. So, the next time you are hunting for office equipment, take a look at used equipment first.

Change Resistance - The Killer to Master Success or Not In My Backyard

The State of Indiana is attempting to modernize government by reducing duplicate services and maximize taxpayers' dollars. In business, this is called continuous improvement. Strategies from cycle time reduction to waste walks are initiated.

Local government officials in Northwest Indiana agreed that government needs to be modernized, but are also denouncing this long needed action because many would lose their jobs and more importantly elected officials would lose their ability to stay in control through patronage and special programs. Of course, the Tragedy of the Commons would eventually take over ruining the economic viability for everyone in the State. This is quite reflective of the poor attitude Not in my backyard.

Small business owners to executives of much larger organizations are in many cases no different. These individuals also resist change even though they know it is good for their companies especially if they want business success.

Yesterday, while attending at a monthly master mind group for small business owners, one of the members said that he knew planning was necessary, but he didn't have time. He was up to 2am taking care of things. Then he said quickly as if reading my mind, You probably going to say what happens if I do not take the time?

People change for 2 reasons - to avoid the pain or to secure the gain. For this practical and smart small business owner who had one large client that was driving a significant part of his monthly revenue stream the pain to avoid was what if this client left? This thought was starting to keep him awake a night. How could he build a larger client base just in case?

Change is not easy for we are creatures of conditioning. Life is much easier going with what we already know and in many cases we truly do not know what the what is. Stepping out not knowing what to expect is very frightening.

Harrison Ford in the 3rd sequel of Indiana Jones had to take a Leap of Faith as he worked a plan to save his father's life. And sometimes to overcome the fear requires a Leap of Faith to avoid the pain or to secure the gain if we truly want to personal success.

So what pain are you avoiding or what gain do you want to master success in the next 365 days? The choice (which really is an action of selection not a thought as some believe)is yours and you alone are responsible for your business success to personal success.

Do you need help in working through your own change resistance but are still seeking a coaching business & training program that works with you?




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Don't Build A Downline, Learn To Build Something You Own!

Face it. You wouldn't make it as a doctor without going to medical school, and you won't ever make it as a home business entrepreneur without learning how to market and generating leads on your own.

If you've ever surfed the internet to look for a home business, or simply to learn how to build one, you've definitely come across opportunities that will promise you the world. They'll tell you that you have to do absolutely nothing to build a massive downline quickly. You can just sit on your rear, and watch the "magic" happen without lifting a finger.

They'll generate the leads for you. They'll call the prospects, and close the deal. They'll make you believe there's a shortcut to wealth and success. There are only two possibilities with these programs, and both of them will lead you to a dead-end.

The first possibility is that it's all a bunch of bull, and you'll be left frustrated and broke. The other possibility is that it actually DOES work without you having to do anything, but it leads to probably a bigger problem. I know that may sound hard to believe, but think about this.

If these "programs" do all the work for you, then who are you 100% fully dependent upon? Sure, you'll make money. However, you'll have zero ownership. All of the leads, prospects, and downline belong to the company. They won't belong to you.

You won't own any marketing or prospecting skills. You won't own any leadership skills or personal confidence to attract new distributors and business partners to you. People will not know your name. In other words, you wont own a business at all. Your income will be fully dependent on someone else, and that is a very dangerous position to be in. Your fate will be in someone else's hands, and that is not the definition of a real business or asset.

It's would be no different than having a job, or being a commissioned sales person. You're here to be a business owner, aren't you? Here's the Magnetic Sponsoring guideline to follow so you can be truly wealthy and own your financial freedom. Build "You, Inc."

Take ownership of your marketing skills by simply building it. It's the only way, and you can do it over time by learning. Invest in your education and increase your value. After that, market yourself, brand your name, and show people that you're a leader. Create a fan loyalty of people who will respect you with their hearts and follow you to whatever business you join.

The last piece of the ownership puzzle is to be in a business that will not object to you building a business that centers on you. Your business opportunity will become just a piece of your real franchise, which will be "You, Inc."

Shiraz Khan is a 27-year-old marketing expert.

To learn more about his team and his 7-Figure Home Business training, visit www.MeetShiraz.com for a free 10-day E-mail boot camp.





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Should You Put Google Ads On Your Ecommerce Site?

One of the biggest debates in the ecommerce world is whether to post PayPerClick advertisements on a website, or not. Many sites are using video advertisements to improve the look and feel of their sites. Others are hoping that PayPerClick will offer a passive source of income, but this short-term thinking may cost the company serious profits.

The purpose of a PayPerClick ad is to take a visitor from your website and put them on another website. This person leaves before they ever see the host company’s squeeze page, buy-now page, or Social Networking tools. This means that a potential customer is gone for good. The problem is - the ads on the host company’s website represent the competition.

PayPerClick Passive Income

On one side of the debate is the idea that PayPerClick lets ecommerce businesses generate some revenue from people who were going to leave the website anyway. The problem arises when the website looks at the actual numbers.

It takes several months before Google starts registering clicks, even if thousands of people have already clicked the link. Even when Google does start registering links, they rarely register more than one half of the actual links. In many cases, Google counts less than half.

Then, there is the Page Rank Trap. Google only pays a percentage of the money promised, based on the site’s page rank. A site can build more than 10 000 inbound links and 1000 pages of content and still have only Page Rank 3, earning about .05% of Google’s promised payout. Many sites (non MFA - Made For Adsense) work for 2 - 3 years before they earn $100 a month.

A website can make hundreds of dollars a month from Adsense, as long as the primary purpose of the site is to generate PayPerClick traffic.

PayPerClick Traffic

Many ecommerce businesses sign up for a PayPerClick program through Yahoo or Google to generate traffic. While the search engine advertising companies promise that they do not favor their advertisers, it is foolish not to. They are only cutting their throats letting sites which do not use their ads to rank higher than the sites who do use their ads.

From this side of the fence, PayPerClick is a good deal, because you are the company stealing customers from the competition. However, very few PayPerClick programs give the advertiser control over sites they appear on.

Google does, to a certain extent. It is possible to visit a major competitor’s site, which generates millions more hits than your site does, and place an ad on their pages. However, this does not guarantee that these same people will not click off your website.

Rule #1 of Sales
The first rule of sales is to hook a potential customer. This means keeping them on the host ecommerce site, and encouraging them to click through the links until they reach the buy now page.

There are some crafty ways to do this. For example, make the link bar to squeeze pages and buy-now pages look like PayPerClick ads. Another trick is to lead people from one website owned by the host company to another of their sites, in effect, creating a big circle.

However, make sure that the main pages are optimized with no=follow code in the links. Search engines penalize this type of ‘black hat’ SEO trick. The no=follow code in the ads will prevent the search engines from penalizing the site.

Both of these tricks will keep potential visitors inside the company’s ecommerce sites.

Another trick is to use a ‘default’ internal search tool. Instead of Google’s search, use one that defaults inside the ecommerce network’s sites, instead of on the world wide web.

Keeping customers is the only way to increase profits, and retain customers.





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Understand Passive Business Revenue

Revenue is not the same as income, or wealth. Revenue is the money that comes into a business before expenses are paid, and a percentage of money is saved for growth is removed.

Most businesses cannot increase their revenue because they do not understand the difference between revenue, and disposable revenue. Most business plans do not pay the business owner an income for five years. All profits in the first five years are needed to ensure the company’s continual growth.

Unfortunately, most people who start a business need disposable income – now. They start a work at home business to supplement their income. This means that the business owner needs to look at multiple streams of incomes. However, not all revenue is earned from sales.

The important thing to remember is that revenue is money earned. Write up a budget. Calculate the cost of operating the business, and how much money is going out of the business on a monthly basis. Do this for your personal income also.

Revenue is anything that lowers the expenses side, or increases the profit side of the balance sheet.

Income Tax

A work at home business gives the business owner the opportunity of saving on their taxes. Most income tax offices do not allow business write offs if the business operates from a room where the family eats. However, converting a dining room to an office offers several benefits.

The dinning room often takes up 20% of the home. This means that business owners can deduct 20% of every bill, from hydro to lawn care, carpet shampooing to renovations. They can even write off 20% of the mortgage and mortgage interest, insurance paid, property taxes, and levies.

Careful planning can drop the business owner’s income tax $1000 or more, depending on how much they usually pay. This is revenue earned, money in the business owner’s pocket, that does not come from sales.

Depreciation
Everything a business uses from computers to automobiles is subject to depreciation. This depreciation is deducted from the fixed asset’s value, whether it is a portion of the family vehicle, a computer, office furniture, and other equipment used to generate income.

This depreciation lowers the income generated by the company, and in turn, lowers the income tax paid.

Invest In Yourself

Many small business owners fail to realize that they have value. They rarely consider the knowledge learned as an asset. It is an asset, and it can be used to reduce expenses, and increase revenue.

Most small business owners spend a few months researching their business, but few take the time to learn how to become a success. Once they find one or two methods that they understand, they stick with them, whether the methods work or not.
Every time a business owner learns how to save money, the money saved should be considered revenue.

Conclusion

In this way, many business owners save a few thousand dollars each year – even before the company starts earning money from sales. The problem is, most work at home business owners overlook these streams of passive income. They do not keep gas logs on their vehicle, or receipts for their home care, utilities, and taxes. They loose thousands of dollars each year, because they do not view their business as a ‘real business.’

However, if a person occupies their time trying to generate sales and earn revenue, then they are in business. There is no threshold that defines a business.



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Google Basics for Ecommerce Businesses

Google dominates the search engine world, despite the fact that the conversion-to-buyer rate at MSN is much higher. This forces most ecommerce businesses to try and dance Google’s waltz, without fully comprehending the ins and outs of how Google works.

Navigating Google is difficult. Most SEO optimizing specialists and SEO Internet marketers do not understand what they are doing. In fact, most of them are so far behind the times that their information is useless. Summer 2007 saw the latest change in Google’s algorithm leaving many ecommerce businesses with sharp decreases in traffic.

What is a Google Algorithm

The Google Algorithms are basically the math formulas used to determine which web pages rank high in the searches, and which ones rank low, or are banned. Google changes the rules every 18 - 24 months to help them sweep away websites that are not optimized and MFA (Made For AdSense) static sites.

Google also makes changes to meet the needs of the webmasters. When Google brought in their inbound link ranking system, it gave many webmasters an opportunity to build link farms, gaining an unfair advantage. In response Google now looks for content around a link. If there is no content, then the link has no value.

When Google started to focus on content, webmasters and programmers created Content Management Systems. Unfortunately, until recently, Google could not read database pages. Now, the programmers have created a static page method of page creation, and search engines learned how to read content off databases.

Search Engine Optimization

Many webmasters do not understand what this means. And, many SEO optimizers do not understand what this means. To many, it still means coding a page so that the keywords are highlighted, and under .05% of the content (including link bars). They believe it is a method of web design.

Ecommerce businesses are still scrambling to pay SEO optimizers big bucks to make their pages rank high, when meta tags and SEO tricks have very little importance. Now, the search engines are looking for good content, with heading titles, and a site full of similar content, with articles linked together using the same ‘keyword anchors.’

Google’s new algorithms have made it possible for many small ecommerce businesses to build their page rank, and search engine rank, without ever paying a dime to a SEO specialist.

The Google Sandbox and Supplemental Index

Both of these cause chills to run up most webmasters spines, but only because they are not understood, Google does not have a Sandbox. Yes, it may take a few months to get your website listed and showing up, inbound links may not appear for a long time, and a website may not show up when searched - but that is not a sandbox. It is just a backlog. One way to overcome it is to take part in Google’s PayPerClick program. Even if you only invest $20 a month, being a part of that program immediately links your site, so you do not need to wait.

The supplemental index is as easy to get out of. First, take a look at the meta information - is it too generic? If so, then do not use keywords but use keyword phrases. The keyword ‘ecommerce’, is too generic, so is ‘ecommerce business.’ However, ‘learn how to start an ecommerce business’ will help that page target. Next, make sure the page is linked to a high ranking page. This can be done by putting links inside the page - or by adding it to the website’s navigation system. Within a short time, that page will no longer be in the supplemental index.



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Are You An Opportunist?

The definition of an opportunist is a person who takes actions, makes decisions, and incites changes without regard to principles or consequences. In the business world an opportunist is someone who builds wealth by taking money, often unscrupulously, form another. Another business definition is one person who skips from one business opportunity to another, like an MLM junkie, staying with each long enough to cause problems in the community and then leave.

There is a third trend in the business world. This involves someone who exploits trends, conditions and the marketplace to cut a niche that may not have been there before. On the bad side is the ticket scalper. On the good side are the multitude of companies taking advantage of global warming and consumer’s environmental enlightenment by bringing them products and educating the public.

Out of the deluge of opportunist will arise two types of business people, the entrepreneur and the solo-preneur. Each of these classes have worked hard to make success a habit. These people make an art out of finding good opportunities. But, where do you find an opportunity?

If you are an opportunist, then you want to pave the way, not follow the crowd. By the time the scam artists have posted the ‘get rich quick’ sites, you have totally developed the market and may be on the cutting edge of new breakthroughs.

But, where do you find opportunities. The first place to find them is among the general population. In the brick and mortar world, an opportunity is found by offering people something that helps them take life easier, solves a problem, or increases their wealth.

In the Internet world, an opportunity is something that makes the world a little smaller. If you can find a way to bring products and people, or people and people, together then you found a powerhouse.

One of the most difficult aspects of the ecommerce world is to convince people to buy. While internet shopping is growing by billions a year, most people do not go online to shop. They go online to socialize. That is where most opportunities are found - in the social circles.

A good listener will find opportunities. They will follow the forums and blog communities, listening to people’s rants and social concerns. An opportunity is hidden behind every rant. Every web site that solves a problem also creates one. The new problem is an opportunity.

Opportunities are also found in the areas where current businesses do not want to venture. Remember that the web lets people experience things from the comfort of their own home that they would not normally attempt in the real world.

When online gambling became big, many opportunity seekers asked themselves, ‘what is the problem with this industry.’ They found their opportunities in the problems, namely gambling and social weakness. Now you can find fun and safe ‘no cash’ gambling sites, you can find free gaming sites that offer a sterile version of gambling, and you can find support groups online. None of these industries existed before online gambling created a problem.

Online education is another area where may savvy businesses jumped in and made life easier. Now there are hundreds of tools that make it easier to teach an online course, platforms where people can manage their courses, and student services. Each of these did not exsist five years ago.

There are new markets and products waiting for an opportunist to turn them from a problem, or an idea, into a sound business product.


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How NetWorking Benefits Small Business

The number one benefit of a networking website, or group, is that it gathers resources that group of business owners knows will work, and brings together people who can make the programs work.

Surfing for Business Opportunities

Most work at home business owners start by surfing the net, looking for business opportunities. They usually become victim of a few scams, or a program that will not work for them, before finding a networking group.

For example, many new work at home business owners are quickly attracted by the affiliate programs on the web. They expect to build a passive stream of income. While the possibility is there, the probability of a new small business owner making a substantial amount of money is very low. Content Management Systems do well in the affiliate field. They have thousands of pages, with hundreds of thousands of hits. Their sole purpose is to attract people who are looking for the products they promote.

Most new business owners fall into two or three scams before they find a network where the webmaster has worked to bring together resources and tools to help their members succeed. Once a small business owner finds a good network and resource website, they have a place that will help them succeed.

Save Money

Small business owners who belong to a networking group will save money in the long-term. They avoid wasting money on programs that do not work – like Pay Per Click, and focus on programs that do work, like niche marketing.

Each new member benefits from the collective intelligence of the group, and by the intelligence of the web site owner. We mentioned above that affiliate marketing does not work, but a web site that is designed to help business owners succeed can only succeed if the information and products are good.

Trust

This can reassure new business owners. Any website that has built up a vast list of inbound links, is willing to give away free information, and prepares a plan for success, can be trusted based on the time needed to build up a vast resource, and the cost of building a complete ‘small business start-up’ kit.

This cannot be started over night, it takes time. Most ‘get rich quick’ schemes are here one day, and gone within three or four months. They never have time to build up a list of inbound links. Other websites do not link to them. In the end, the only websites that succeed are the ones who benefit small business owners and have them link to the site, refer other potential business owners, write reviews, and come back to buy more of the proven products.

Learning

The small business world is constantly evolving. The Internet world evolves faster than the brick and mortar world. What works today, may not work tomorrow.

It can take new business owners months to learn the current trends and find ways to increase their profits. However, belonging to a small business organization will save them time by brining all the learning resources needed into one place. A network can also save time by weeding out the weak performing products and techniques, warning against the scams, and explaining how to use the new resources properly.

Page Rank & Promotion

The internet works on page rank. The higher the Google Page Rank, the higher the web site will rank in Google searches. A small business owner that networks with other similar businesses can exchange links. Each member in the network is in business, so when they link, they are joining business-to-business websites. A few dozen B2B web links will increase page rank higher than a thousand Business-to-communities, or business-to-online store, or Business-to-private website links.

So, next time you think that those web sites with all the products are just ‘out for your money’ and have very little to offer – think again. They can save time, money, and help you find places and methods to promote your business, reducing the time between start up and wealth building.







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Choosing the Right Internet Advertising Tools

Internet Marketing is a daunting endeavour. There are two methods of Internet Marketing, one requires a large financial investment, the other requires a large time investment. Both methods work, the important thing a work at home professional needs to determine is the method that will result in the biggest profit.

Unfortunately, in Internet marketing, money does not define success. A business owner may have $10 000 to invest in their business, but have a product which needs a time investment to succeed. Of course, this person can hire people to write for them, promote their web sites, and build a client base.

Another person may have 40 hours a week, for six months, to build their business, but fail because their product needs a PayPerClick or a banner ad campaign to sell.

The first step in any Internet Marketing campaign needs to be research:

How does the competition sell their product?
What works?
What doesn’t?
What can you improve?
Do you have the resources needed to improve?

Once the business owner picks their products or revenue generating program, and answers the above questions, it is time to determine which method can sell the product properly.


Banners and Buttons

Banner exchanges are good looking. Some are animated, others flat, and some are video based. They are expensive, but look great. Banners work when on a niche web portal or community, but rarely work when spammed across the net like a PayPerClick AdSense ad.

A portal website is created to attract visitors and send them to the product owner’s web site. They sell social and image generating products. They successfully sell dating products, and cell phones, but may not be the best method of selling a plastic surgeon’s clinic, or books.


Email Advertising

This method of advertising is rarely successful. The average open-rate is less than .01%, with the buy rate being 1% of that number. This means that a million emails need to be sent out to generate 1 – 100 sales.

People are tired of emails. At first they worked if the web owner had something to give away free, but so many sites are tricking people, and so many emails have viruses attached, that few people open spam emails.


Pay Per Click Text Ads

The success rate depends on the web site the ad appears on. The Pay Per Click campaign needs to measure the cost per click through, not the cost per click, when determining whether a campaign is successful.

AdWords is Google's click-advertising program. Each search engine has their own PPC advertising program. Each are successful when used with the right product. Many Content Management Systems, full of pre-selling articles, can generate good results with most products. The trick is to have a product that is widely promoted.

There are thousands of communities built around music, small business success, medical issues, and online shopping. Any product that will appeal to these people, and can blend into the side of a website like it is part of the site, will sell well.

The second aspect is important. Google Ads work best when the Text banner appears to be a part of the website.

Sponsored Search Engine Advertising

This is a type of text PPC advertising that limits the exposure to the top of the search engine searches. The cost can be as high as $25 to have an ad appear at the very top of the search, in a highlighted box, but the click through rate is much higher than the same ad will generate from appearing on the side of a web page article.

Podcasting and Video Streaming

Internet radio, audio/video streaming have introduced a new medium to Internet advertising. Many product selling sites offer tutorials and sales pitches through audio and video streaming. These tools do not require a high level of skill, or more tools than most product owners currently have on their home PC, and their digital camera.

Newsletters & Mailing Lists

Attracting readers to web sites is half of the Internet Marketing battle. A portal that does not generate a mailing list is a waste of time and advertising money. Advertising in the newsletter is a great way to reach a target audience who is prepared to buy. These people subscribe to newsletters, and actually read the articles and ads.














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Are You a Published Author?

Despite what many people think, it is fairly easy to become a published author. Many freelance writers limit their opportunities by avoiding real publishers. They publish ebooks or self published, but never actually become a published author. This limits their opportunities.

CLICK THIS LINK to Preview "Make Good Money Writing & Ghostwriting Books"

A writer's income doesn't need to come directly from writing articles and blog posts. Instead, it can come from a wide variety of venues. Writing courses, books, public speaking, and other aspects of writing will work together to help a writer earn a living while they promote themselves.

THe hardest part is already done - you learned to write, and write well. The next step is to join authors groups and learn how to sell books. The important thing is to keep your options open.

How Do You Start a Book?

The first thing isn't writing. The first step is doing some market research and finding out what information people need. Then, make sure they are willing to pay for it. There are millions of people trying to start work at home businesses. You may have started a successful one, and may be enjoying a pleasant life. However, most work at home business people have a 'my way is good enough' attitude. They really don't care about the 'profitable and foolish' ways to manage business. All they care about is their own self-satisfaction.

Solve Problems For the Audience

Once you find a niche that people will pay for information, make sure that there are not millions of websites or books offering the same information. There is more money to be made teaching people how to grow day lillies than there is on 'Starting Your Garden.' This is because people can buy a 'getting started' book anyway.

One way to find a niche is to solve problems. Starting Your Garden in a dry climate - this idea is a step in the right direction.

Teach People HOW to ...not WHAT to

There are too many people that teach writing. Most of them say, you need to write a book. Just find a topic and then go and write. This is telling people 'what' to do, not how to do it.

A book that teaches HOW will include step-by-step methods and strategies, things to watch out for, check lists, assignments, examples, and stories from the writer's life.

This is just a basic tutorial. I've done these things in my book on book writing, which is why it is a good seller.

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Problems With Google's Duplicate Content Filter

One of the biggest mistakes freelance writers make is by putting original articles on 'free content' sites. This is paramount to a fool's errand. What you are doing is telling Google that the free content site is the 'executive' - follow this link - version of the article.

You should always post the article on your site, until Google finds it. It is easy to know if Google finds your article.

Type: site:www.mywebsite.com

Then see what pages Google has listed. If the page is there, then Google will consider this the most important version of the article.

At the moment, only MSN and Yahoo can analyse where content originated. This is no 'skin off my nose' because only 30% of my hits come from Google - so I 'win' when it comes to searches.

Here is an experiment that someone did to test duplicate content filters.
This test reveals that Google is more interested in 'relevance' than the content's origin. This means that you can have 100% original content and still not rank higher than a site with 100% duplicate.

It also showed that (as all SEO companies that promise top ranks within a few days know) within days the article showed up on 19 000 sites - but 5 weeks later all but 400 were gone. (that is what those 'rank top now services never tell you. They don't tell you how LONG you'll rank high)

Yahoo and Google were similar

MSN is the star. It ranked the original content best - which is great news for most commercial sites, because MSN has the highest 'buy' ratio. This means that you may get less visitors than Google sends, but they spend more money.
What does this mean to you?

It means - who cares about duplicate content. A site like writingup does, because it is a commerce site. But, if you are not a commerce site, then it really doesn't matter until you get to a saturation point that is going to get you banned. But, this can't happen if you are always putting up new content on your site.
"There have been many new coined terms for this type of behavior that takes advantage of the duplicate content filters, probably many of them popped up because “duplicate content filter penalty” is a mouthful. Google-washing, Google-bombing, dupe-wash, source wash and others, all basically mean the same thing. They mean the original source material is washed out by all the duplicate content from across the web. You post your article, or it gets submitted to article distributors, then millions of blogs or scrapers repost your original content, then the source material gets wiped out in the SERPs." Jennifer Sullivan Cassidy

I mean - for Pete's Sake - even Google's own 'Google Guy' Matt Cutts, was recently the victim of a 302 hijack.

The thing is, if you want to rank high with Google - it is all in the links, not the content.
So - post your content on free content sites to generate links.

Compare Web Hosting Services

One question most new web owners tackle is the hosting problem. Trust me, I've been on every level. From buying into a great marketing campaign, only to find that the company is a reseller and doesn't know what they are doing, to owning virtual server space and hiring a programmer to run things (expensive!).

I've been through several hosting companies. Now I use siteground. I can host all of my sites from one dashboard. The service is great. In fact, in a year I only heard of them failing to fix a problem once, and that was a programming problem.

They install scripts free, from wordpress to moodle. And they have alwasy fixed my small problems - like when a script stops working. In fact, they are so good at fixing problems, I've only paid programmers $100 this year! And that was for improving, not fixing.

All of this for a cost of $70 a year for my first site, and about $50 a year for the rest of the sites.

I haven't moved to a dedicated server yet, because my bandwidth allotment is more than it was on the dedicated server, and I have less 404 messages - meaning that the system isn't clogging with traffic. In fact, at one site that claimed to be one of the top 10 in the country, I had 20% 404 messages!!!

They use Cpanel, with excelent stat information, more than 30 scripts for blogs and websites, chats, newsletters, forums, etc - everything you need.

There is a good reason why this site is the #1 hosting site for many of the top ecommerce scripts.

I recommend SiteGround web hosting

Most important, I have never been hacked, but at the same time, there is no probelm with search engines. I found out - the hard way - that many resllers or 'amateur' hosting services work through Internet companies which make it difficult for search engines.

In fact, our response from Google changed from 2 - 3 months, to days, after switching from the other 'big host' to siteground.

However, to be fair. Godaddy is a better place for newbies. You can phone about everything, you can get 'instant' websites, and they will help you with problems - but they are more expensive. While siteground does offer a domain service - I still manage my domains through godaddy. One thing I did learn, is that many resellers work for godaddy-which gives them the right to say they are the biggest.

GoDaddy.com $1.99 Domain Names

Put Internet Marketing Into Perspective

"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive."
C.S. Lewis

There is a fundamental questions many 'work at home' and 'Internet marketers' need to ask themselves:

What should I do and what will make me the most money?

Do I try something that promises to pay big, or do I do something that pays small?
Do I count my money by the item, word, click or by the hour?

-The answer is, there is no answer.
-Everything on the Internet is a scam.
-Nothing on the Internet is a scam.
-One wo/man's scam is another wo/man's cash cow.

I was talking to one person yesterday who quit a program after six months because she said there was no money in it. I asked her how much time she invested in the project. After fifteen-minutes of discussion we concluded that, in six months, she had only invested 50 - 60 hours. So, what failed? The program, or her?

I could buy a McDonald's franchise, give it to this woman, and she would still fail. Not because McDonalds is a scam, but because she doesn't 'get it.'

If you want to succeed, you need to do the work. Yes, there may be some 'get rich quick' schemes that work - but there are a few millionaires ahead of you making more millions.

C.S.Lewis summed it up nicely. If you do not have the aptitude, training, or time to invest in making money online, you won't make money.

Yes, I've tried some things that have busted and forced me to go back and find the right road. I wasted a couple of years before I learned that I had to invest time each week learning how to make money and make the Internet work for me.

I tried two or three things before I found what would work for me.

5 Ways To Generate Income From a Blog

Are you addicted to blogging? Many people are. There are ways to make enough money to validate the time you spend online. There are many ways to make money through a blog.

PayPerPost

Most of us are familiar with this, but few people know how to get started. First, you cannot just send them any blog. If you want to make real money then you need to get at least 50 posts on your blog, and make inbound links. The easiest way to start generating links is by maintaining 5 or more blogs, and putting links in each post.

Write a few articles and put them on as many free content sites likewww.get-free-content.com which is 'not' open to everyone so the PR will be higher, and ezinearticle which is open to everyone.

Each article should have 2 links embedded in the article's keywords. Remember, you are doing this to generate links, not to get someone to publish your article - so write the article with a slant that supports your blog.

When you get good PR, PPP sites will pay you more. There are sites that appear to only pay $5, but I get $10 - $15 on these sites because of my PR3/PR4 blogs.

PayPerClick

This is the most popular. Most people use yahoo or Google - others use Adbrite. I prefer adbrite because there is no sliding scale. PPC now lets people post image ads as well as text. The text ads work well if the text link looks exactly like part of the site's resources, like at wahmwriter's site 'get paid to write online'

The image ads work, as well as make the site look better. The aesthetic appeal can keep readers longer. It may not increase the number of clicks, but images do make people stop and read.

Sell Links

For this, you need PR5....if you have PR5, then talk to me. I want to know your secret. The only way I have heard of getting PR5 is by having about 60 000 inbound links....but I know this is not actually true. I expect wahmwriter to have PR5 within a year - without 60 000 inbound links.

If you have PR5 then you can charge anywhere from $10 a month for a link - $50 a month. The best idea is to make your link bar look like a Google ad. If you have PR8 - you can ask for $1000 a month.

Affiliate

Most people jump into affiliate writing blindly, splash around for six months to a year, and then abandon it as a waste of time.

Each affiliate program should have two sections. The first is a random ad, like the one appearing at the top of this post. Why did I put it at the top? Because I have proven that when people can see an image in a blog, they are more likely to hit that post - we will see.

The second level is where you find five to ten items that will satisfy your readers then write posts that PRESELL.

One of the most common mistakes is trying to push resources and products that you have not used. It reduces your credibility and the chances of receiving clicks. For the most part, I do not push anything that I have not used, or was not recommended to be by a friend.

The thing is - you may not 'get it' but the people clicking get it. For example, I've seen sites that promise to help me get PR8 or higher, but when I check the PR rate of the homepage, it is PR3 or something low. If the program works, then why is the company selling it not using it?

Sell Links in a Blog

Again, you should have PR4 or higher and you need to post a lot of posts. This works like PPP, but you sell people clicks. I've paid $.50 - $2 for links randomly hidden in posts. I am not concerned what the post is about, or being promoted. I am concerned that the links use my keywords.

I have bought links in a blog in lots of 10 - 100, depending on the topic of the blog, the PR, the number of hits.

One clever thing to do is offer to hyperlink images. This 'hides' the links so they do not spam the whole blog, but still gives the link buyer some PR value.

Banner Exchange

yes, people still use banner exchanges, but if you do not get more than 1 million hits a year, then this will only work as a link building tool. But, you should be able to get $10- $50 a year.







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