August 30, 2006 by rcarruth.

 There are many ways to make money online… Some work much better than others. Composing DIY type web sites is the perfect way to get your feet in the water. Niche categories thrive, the work is minimal… considering, and the lessons learned are invaluable..  Read on.. 

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What’s the Attraction?

Today, with the cost of ready-made products continuing to rise, more and more people are finding it prudent to make or do things themselves. Sometimes kits are available, such as those for birdhouses or jewelry and sometimes it’s necessary to build it from scratch, such as wood planters or an extra bedroom. Whatever your preference is, don’t let potential customers miss the sense of accomplishment they’ll feel when they’re able to stand back and say, “I made that!”

What’s the incentive?

Online “shoppers” are always checking websites regarding how to make or do specific things. You may have just what they need.

• For example, last winter you built your grandson a very elaborate playhouse, from scratch. As you worked, you wrote down the details of your original pattern. When your wife suggested you try to market the pattern online, you did just that. Using a marketing plan, you set up your own website, arranged for credit card and PayPal billing, and took detailed photos of the playhouse. Once the site was up and running you simply sat back and waited for the orders to come in. Success! Not bad for two weeks of work! 

   

• Another example of a DYI website is one related to writing your own tutorials for popular software programs such as PhotoShop or Norton’s Utilities. Having used these programs for years, you now consider yourself an expert, particularly related to shortcuts and customizing your work. You’re so good, in fact, that you were able to take some rather mediocre wedding photos and, using sepia tones, turn them into keepsakes that even the most highly paid professional would envy. You’ve decided you’re now willing to share your talents, so you develop a website to market your original tutorial online. Your first offering has paid off well.

Consider online DYI projects as a viable income source.

The sense of accomplishment one gains through successfully completing a DIY project cannot be easily described. Let’s just say, it makes you feel good and proud of yourself. Any market that aims at fulfilling these two factors is attractive to any potential online “shopper.” Because of the anonymity of website exploration, shoppers are willing to explore topics they’d stay clear of in real life. For example, a man might research flower arranging or sewing, and a woman might explore automobile timing or repairing small appliances. When you develop a website for a specific DIY topic, you are opening up a possible floodgate to online profits. Even something simple such as selling the details of flower arranging could bring in a comfortable sum if it’s marketed to the right people.

Go ahead - take a chance.

Go ahead - take a chance - you haven’t much to lose. Rather than make a large initial investment in your own website, test the waters using e-Bay or Craigslist.com. Try to sell your playhouse pattern or your PhotoShop tutorial through them. While you may have to pay them a percentage of your profits, it will be well worth it. You’ll know for sure if there’s a market out there for your DIY idea. Considering all the people, worldwide, who scan the web looking for do-it-yourself projects, you’re bound to appeal to dozens of potential buyers.

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August 26, 2006 by rcarruth.

 Been there.. done that. I’ve set up links that didn’t work, affiliate info that was incorrect, a missed dot here, a wrong letter there. And it’s cost me money. I have a magic based newsletter I send out bi-weekly, and I depend on affiliate links within the text to pay the bills. Recently, upon checking my affiliate stats, I found that two of my three primary links were NOT working.. and it wasn’t even my fault. But had I not checked, I would still be sitting around wondering why I didn’t earn what I had expected….  

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 Classic Internet Marketing “Blunder” Is Like Flushing Tens Of Thousands Of Dollars Down The Toilet
One of the most useful and important tips I ever heard about running a marketing campaign is “inspect what you expect.” In other words…don’t assume the printer, the web designer, the merchant account service or any other aspect of your Internet marketing campaign will just automatically do as they are supposed to. Don’t think someone won’t drop the ball or have a brain fart at the absolute worst time.

Inspect your Internet marketing system — every detail of it — before and during the launch.

Good advice isn’t it?

You’re dang right it is.

In fact, it’s so important…and so ultra critical…I completely ignored it recently and lost a bundle of money as a result.

Let me explain what I mean.

You see, so far just about all the ads I’ve written have paid out and are winners. There have been a few flops here and there where I tried selling to a market I didn’t really understand. But the majority have pulled and pulled well.

Except for this one ad my client and I had up for about three months.

Even though it was for a very rabid market that loves to buy…and even though I’m very familiar with that market…the ad didn’t pull even one single order in the three months it was up. And I mean nothing. Nada. Zippo.

Of course, it could be I simply penned a crappy ad.

But even that didn’t explain zero sales. Especially in this particular market, where even a crappy ad pulls at least some response.

But for some mysterious reason…no matter how much I tweaked the copy, no matter how low we cut the price…we couldn’t produce a single sale.

And this drove me absolutely crazy.

I became obsessed with making it work. I revised it dozens of times. Played around with it. Let other copywriters and Internet marketing friends of mine read it and then revised it again. And still no sales.

I was almost ready to write the entire thing off as a dud.

And then it happened.

A few weeks ago my client got an email from someone who wanted to buy the product.

He was a customer who kept trying to order…but said the order form wasn’t working. It wasn’t taking his credit card numbers. And the only price that appeared was the cost of shipping.

Doh!

Turns out there was a small glitch with the shopping cart software my client uses. And it wasn’t working properly.

Now, we’ll never know exactly how many sales that stupid little mistake cost us. But judging from the response we’re getting now — about 3% — I’m guessing we flushed at least $10,000 in sales down the toilet.

Obviously, if we’d simply followed the “inspect what you expect” mantra — this never would have happened. We would have noticed the software glitch and nipped it in the bud.

But you know what the real irony is?

Other than the fact nobody phoned their order in (which is another topic for another time)…this is actually a classic Internet marketing blunder routinely committed by seasoned gurus and amateurs alike all the time.

I’d heard about this sort of thing happening hundreds of times. It’s in almost every good marketing and copywriting book I’ve ever read. It’s happened to just about every serious marketer I’ve ever met.

In fact, our situation is a joke compared to the hair-raising screw ups involving multi-millions of dollars being flushed down the toilet because the marketer’s secretary gave the ad rep the wrong 800 number or something to that effect.

Now, you may be tempted to think, “no way will I ever make such a stupid mistake.”

And I hope you’re right.

But it’s a lot like not regularly backing up your computer’s hard drive.

If you get lazy and refuse to sweat the details (as I did in this case) you’ll eventually get nailed.

Anyway, the moral of the story is make sure you inspect what you expect every time.

It only takes a few minutes to check your order form, see what your ad looks like on multiple browsers, verify your third party merchant account service (if you use one) is standing by and not performing “routine maintenance”, and all the other boring, mundane things we love to let other people handle.

And yet…those few minutes can make all the difference at the end of the day.

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August 18, 2006 by rcarruth.

You can’t argue with success. Sean has had success with writing marketing articles, and he offers his opinion in this article. I could tell you a half dozen good reasons to write articles on YOUR subject, but I’ll save that for another article. In the meanwhile, take this advice to heart and start writing. It’s all about eyeballs and links, eyeballs and links… eye….

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What I Think of Article Marketing

Article marketing has gotten a lot of press lately. Gurus have sold probably millions of dollars worth of ebook manuals on how to do it. Web script writers have made a bundle promoting software, both to create directories and to automate article submission.

Does it work?

That question would probably be answered differently by different people.

So what about me?

First off, I started article marketing about 6 months ago and have published about 20 articles in as many as 80 different directories. Some of those directories have RSS feeds that get my articles onto many more web sites. I have seen search engine directories showing as many as 15,000 results for one of my article titles.

I have had several web sites zoom to number one positions in several of the top search engines that everyone talks about. Now don’t get me wrong–I did a few others things in my quest to gain a spot in the search engines. But I believe article marketing has done the bulk of the work for me.

So how do I do it?

First, I write about what I know. When I first started writing, I was promoting a christian time management website. So I wrote about time management and success–both topics about which I am fairly well versed. Now that I have learned a thing or two online, I write about what works for me online.

Will article marketing work for you? Maybe. Maybe not. But if you haven’t tried it, you must. It may be just what your business needs to get to the next level.

Suggestions:

1. Always construct an article title that is not in use so you can track the propagation of your article online. So before I submit an article, I type the article name, in quotes, into the major search engines. Unless the search comes up with ‘no results’, I choose another title. Once you have one that yields no results, you can track how many sites are hosting your article. Once you submit the article, simply wait a few days and type the name of the article into the search engines. Do this every few days. You will be surprised at the results, if you are submitting to at least 10 or 15 different directories.

2. Write about something you are skilled at and have an active vocabulary in. If you do not have more information on the topic than the average reader, you are probably out of your topic comfort zone. Simply choose another topic.

3. Write comfortably. This isn’t rocket science. Write so that it is easy to read. The internet reader is click happy today. If your article is tough to navigate, they will simply click away.

4. Write short articles—500-750 words each. You are not writing a book.

5. Always include a link to your site at the end of the article. This is critical for building backlinks to your site.

Now get writing!

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August 16, 2006 by rcarruth.

I’ve long said that regardless of what marketing method you use, you HAVE to drive traffic to your site to be successful. Traffic is the key. Heck, you can offer an inferior product and STILL make sales, IF you have enough traffic. Not that you would want to sell an inferior product, but I use this as an example to make my point.

Jan suggest an ideal way to get traffic to your site and get your url indexed in the major search engines. Although not unique, it’s a point worth driving home again and again.

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 Free Website Marketing - Endless Options 

Laura, you’re on a roll. Your website is a winner. It offers something simple and needed, support for those married more than twice (and divorced). Your question how to market your site - is an often asked question. So, I’ll write a short article here and show you how simple it is.

Let’s get started!!!

Drop 5 articles in http://ezinearticles.com all in one day - and do that a couple of times over the next month - so you’ve dropped a total of 25 articles. Your site is going to be getting some mega hits at that point… Mostly from people who are seeing your articles and visiting your site. Great way to get attention!

It will do a couple of things, first get you priority on ezine (you’ve published more than 10 articles) - which brings you up in their rankings, therefore, you get more ‘advertizing’ (read noticed) from them… Well, it’s because you’re near the top of the heap, posting 25 articles in a month is almost like competing with Lance (the top producer on ezine).

And it will make you a RECOGNIZED Authority on your topic… Of course you’ll write about the site you’re wanting to promote. Get serious and provide informative content in these articles. THEN —

Your articles will get keyword searches on Google…..

Tada - the gold…

Keywords — before you write your articles, check the titles on google - for instance: a search on “Marital Communications” reveals about 33,000 hits - “Sex Talk” about 2,380,000 so you’ll want to put them together for a title like “Marital Communications: Sex Talk Rocks” — be sure you use “Marital Communications” and “Sex Talk” as keywords when you place the article. In your article reuse those same phrases frequently - at lest 3 or 4 times per hundred words. Other publishers will be picking up your articles and publishing them in newsletters and the like. You’ll be a published author…

SAVE your 25 articles! Put them all together and publish them as an ebook - and give it away on your site. Give always brings people back time and time again. You’re off to a great start.

You have more information — put together an ebook without articles. Optimize it with links to your site and more information, then sell it - using a BUY NOW button from Paypal.com and you’ve got a source of legitimate income on an information site, along with the ebook and articles you’ve been GIVING AWAY - and all that time investment will be returning.

But don’t stop!!!

Write approximately one article a week, to stabelize your visitors - 3 - 5 a week to keep increasing visitors.

Keep putting them into ebooks as you write them and begin selling them as “Info Packs of Articles” in ebook format. Write them with a theme and use an intro page on your website to promote them…

Did I say salesletter?

Well, yeah, an intro page is a sales letter. You put up a killer headline that brings in your reader. Some magnetic copy that keeps them there. And — something for those demanding few who insist on getting their money’s worth - an occasional free ebook/report you create from one of your most interesting and keyword optimized articles in report form. Dress it up with a snappy cover, title, and a few more words, and a bio pac on the back for a great ‘REPORT’.

Note: Be sure to include plenty of links to your sites for some awesome viral marketing, and you’ve got a zippity marketing plan going for your free info site at http://www.freewebs.com/luckslec

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August 12, 2006 by rcarruth.

What does connectivity and traffic have in common? Tim Dillard knows. Actually, it’s not a secret, but it IS a well-kept fact. Read on, then let me know what you think.  

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Ask an 18 year-old today if they read the newspaper and you generally get a laugh. Being 49, I recognize that laugh. It’s the same one I gave my parents when they wanted me to put water and a little dab of Bryl-cream on my hair and cut my hair above my ears back in the 1970’s. It was sooooo outdated.

You see, the newspaper world just doesn’t get it. They think the same eyeballs that read a newspaper are going to read the same copy online. What they’re unable to do is monetize effectively the online eyeballs. That’s because they’re investment is still tied up in big buildings, huge printing presses, enormous staffs, cutting down millions of trees and spending millions on gas to get the newspapers to the people that are no longer reading them.

Pity.

Haven’t we seen this all before? Remember the railroads. The railroads are the classic study of how an industry has it all and loses it. They failed to recognize they were in the transportation business. So, the airlines came in and took over the monetization of moving people from point A to point B.

When Bill Gates and Steven Jobs were going door to door with their silly little operating systems, the IBM’s of the world laughed them out of the conference rooms. Why? Because America was built on manufacturing. Appliances and machines and ships and tanks needed to be built. Designing software was something for college geeks.

Jobs and Gates looked at each other and said, “They don’t get it, do they?” And countless billions of dollars in lost revenue later, the IBM’s of the world finally get it. And Steven Jobs finds himself as CEO of Disney.

And now the newspaper world is selling ads in their newspapers and in the process you can get a banner or something like that on their respective websites. Why? Because they think the battle is about content. It’s not.

Look at Myspace.com and Youtube.com. Sure, there is lots of content there but the reason they exist is for connectivity. What the newspaper world has failed to realize is that we are no longer in the Information Era. We’re headlong into the Internet Era where Connectivity is King and content is measured by volume, not quantity. Still don’t get it? Look at anyone under 25’s emails. Check their spelling. If content is king, spelling would be queen. It’s almost as if they have a code. Spelling doesn’t matter because the less letters you use the more you’re able to connect. Just communicate, nothing more and nothing less.

There are lots of sites built on content. Yahoo is indexing over 12 billion pages. Type anything into Google and see how many matches you get. That’s because we have too much information. In the Information Era, information was king. If you owned the Information you had power.

Now, thanks to the Internet, the first entity in the history of mankind not owned by anyone, information has lost it’s grip on power. To gain power on the Internet, you need connectivity. Once you achieve connectivity, you get eyeballs. And even the newspaper world will tell you that the more eyeballs you get the more money you make.

It’s about eyeballs stupid and eyeballs will always equal cash.

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August 11, 2006 by rcarruth.

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August 5, 2006 by rcarruth.

Much of what you do online will be influenced, one way or another, by Google. Whether it’s simply getting indexed, and where you’re indexed, to driving traffic to your site with Adwords, you cannot ignore their influence.

Now, you can get a little insight into who Google really is, and what Google does, by watching this 45 minute video.

I think you’ll enjoy it..

http://301url.com/googlevideo 

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August 4, 2006 by rcarruth.

There are tons of advertising and promotional opportunities available at MySpace. But, as Paul points out, you must wade carefully. For the creative individual, the potential is limitless. Read on…  

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With the ever-growing popularity of internet social groups, MySpace has become the leader. MySpace has become so popular; it has spawned a whole market of new business opportunity through marketing and advertising. No other website in the world allows one person the ability to communicate with millions of people with the click of a button. This has allowed e-commerce a new channel of communication with potential customers.

Now most people wouldn’t look at MySpace from a business perspective, but e-businesses and artists realize that MySpace is a goldmine of business opportunity. MySpace is the internet’s largest un-tapped marketing resource. 75 million plus users, 15 million daily unique logins, 240,000 new users per day, and nearly 30 billion monthly page views - that’s 10,593 page views per second. This is a network where the majority of people don’t even see the marketing value.

MySpace has been continually evolving, changing with the wants and needs of its users. They have given musicians and bands the ability to share their music and group information with millions of other people, giving them an a great deal of opportunity. Since MySpace has implemented the MySpace Music area of it’s social network, different genres of music are increasing popularity like never before, and artists are finding new and unique ways to communicate with potential and current fans.

Using this network as a marketing tool can be more complex than most people realize. There are many rules and regulations that MySpace has implemented, that if you don’t follow, you can find your profile deleted very quickly. They do not allow spamming in any form. This means, you cannot setup a profile to mainly do business. MySpace is built around the casual users, so you have to disguise yourself as one. The goal is to look like a casual user, with much to offer to other users, and have TONS of friends. The best way to reach everyone is through group bulletins. These bulletins will go out to everyone on your friends list with one message. Just like a mass e-mail. But again, do not make these seem like an advertisement, of you will find your friends reporting you to the MySpace authorities very quickly. There are tons of other tips and tricks to utilize the MySpace market to it’s fullest.

I personally have had much success using MySpace as marketing source for personal blogs and articles. Through MySpace, I have gained over 65% more hits on my sites through just posting bulletins. The key is to build a large enough friends list to expose your sites to enough people. One important thing to remember is that MySpace users are very click-happy. They love to click links and explore sites.

Take my advice, and do some research. There are tons of articles and blogs on the topic of MySpace marketing such as MySpace Trends. Blogs like these contain so much information on promoting your e-business or music through MySpace.

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August 1, 2006 by rcarruth.

The Star-Telegram.com and  Yuki Noguchi for the Washington Post, wrote this very informative article on the benefits of internet marketing. I think you’ll like it…

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How to get rich online: 1. Get a site 2. Host ads

For hundreds of thousands of people, the dream of making an Internet fortune works like this: Earn pennies at a time in exchange for allowing Google or Yahoo to place advertisements on a personal or small-business Web page.

Take Andrew Leyden, former House Commerce Committee counsel and founder of a dot-com venture that failed, who started PodcastDirectory.com, a search engine for podcasts. As the site’s popularity rose from a hundred hits a month in 2004 to nearly a million now, Leyden started making the equivalent of an entry-level government worker’s salary — $30,000 to $40,000 a year — simply because people clicked on ads. That allowed him to work at home in Chesapeake Beach, Md., trying to make more money by attracting still more traffic to his site.

Read More..

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