Top 10 Ways For Copywriters To Overcome Writer's Block

By Jo Han Mok

We all know that words have the power to persuade, compel and most importantly, sell.

However, many have likened the process to getting the 'right words' to trying to get blood from a stone.

When I first started out, writing copy meant slitting my wrist and 'giving blood'.

Of course, I've greatly refined my copywriting process, and I'd like to share my methodlogy with you.

Here are my top 10 ways of getting greatly reduce the number of brain farts that can stand in your way of writing cash pulling copy.

Writer's Block Annihilator #1: National Enquirer

While you might be tempted to dismiss the Enquirer, the fact is people love tabloids! Senstionalism sells. Big time. This may just provide the much needed 'sensational angle' you need to position your product or engineer your offer.

Writer's Block Annihilator #2: Female Magazines

Headlines on these magazines are designed to tilltilate, tease and intrigue. You can and should model those headlines to add more sizzle into your copy and to give your writing that much needed 'oomph'!

Writer's Block Annihilator #3: competitor Research

Check your competitors out. Observe what they're doing. What kind of strategy are they using? What kind of tactics are they using. How are they presenting their offer? The answers to these questions will provide you with the necessary brain juice to get the words 'flowing'.

Writer's Block Annihilator #4: current Events

There may be happenings in the world that you can link your ad copy to. For instance, you could have headlines like "If Only Clinton Knew This...".

Get the idea?

Writer's Block Annihilator #5: Festive Occasions

Is Thanksgiving or Valentine's day around the corner? If you're an info-publisher, would Valentine's day be a good time to tell your subscribers how much you love them? Would Thanksgiving be a good time to tell your subcribers how grateful you are for their continuous support?

Writer's Block Annihilator #6: Be Still

How about trying to stop 'figuring' it out, and just observe a good 3 minutes of pure silence. To quote the Good Book, "Be still and know that I am god". You'll surprise yourself at just how many ideas will start popping into your head simply because you 'stopped thinking'.

Writer's Block Annihilator #7: Read Something else

Choose to read something completely different from what you are writing. The more 'different' it is, the better. This will allow your haphazard thoughts to regroup and refocus.

Writer's Block Annihilator #8: Chunk It

Break down whatever you're writing into achievable small chunks. Reward yourself at the end of every completed chunk.

Writer's Block Annihilator #9: Refer To Controls

Drop all that you're doing, and start reading winning 'controls'. Understand that these sales letters became 'controls' because they were winners. It's near to impossible to not get the next million dollar idea from winning sales letters. Remember, don't reinvent the wheel when you can change the tires.

Writer's Block Annihilator #10: Listen To Mozart And Baroque Music

Yes, it's been proven to boost productivity. Baroque music is an excellent example, especially the works of Vivaldi, Bach and Handel. Interestingly, the major portion of scientific research into whether listening to music increases productivity has centred on what is known as the "Mozart effect". Studies have shown that college students had performed better on their math problems when listening to classical music. Interestingly the effect of listening to Mozart does not appear to be limited to humans either. Apparently cows will produce more milk if music Mozart is played. Imagine what the 'Mozart effect' would do for your copy?

So now not only do you have one, but ten ways to rid yourself of writer's woes.

Use them, nail those words, get those customers and rake those sales in.

Copyright 2004 Jo Han Mok

Free Internet Marketing Methods

By Jo Han Mok

The best things in life are free, as many would say. This especially holds true with regards to advertising one's products or services. With free Internet marketing services, you can save a lot. Instead of shelling out big bucks for the marketing aspect of your product or services, that chunk of money could be put to other important elements of your business. Many information websites now offer info on Internet marketing services that comes with no price tag at all.

This is not to tell you that you are better off only focusing on plain free Internet marketing techniques. It will do your business more good if you mix traditional advertisement efforts with new marketing media.

Here are few of the free methods that you could utilize to make your products and services to be in their most visible, thus saleable, form.

1. Promote your business through free search engine submission and optimization.

Submit your website to various search engines regularly, if possible monthly. This will make more people know that your website actually exists. Aiming for the top search engines will help a lot in this endeavor.

2. Improve your articles.

Remember that information on articles with good content as traffic-bringer of websites? This time it's about making these articles serve your website better by using keyword suggestion tools that are offered for free. Update your web site's content by regularly checking the standing of your keywords with the current market.

3. Acquire free content.

If you have no time to increase the SEO or search engine optimization-friendliness of your articles, you can look for free content from article directories. All you need to do is retain the resource box of those write-ups.

4. Use free comprehensive web traffic analyzers.

These are valuable tools that you can make use of without costing you a dime. Your website's hits statistics will be produced by this kind of Internet marketing tool for your own analysis.

5. Learn to manipulate web design templates.

You don't have to be too techie-geeky to be able to design your web site. Oftentimes, web design templates or custom-made layouts are available free for the Internet marketer to use.

6. Monitor your website's visibility.

Tools such as search engine position trackers may be used to see your website's standing.

These processes are very convenient to use as long as you keep in mind that you use and try to master their use for your own benefit. Just don't get obsessed with your achievements when you finally learn how to use them and incorporate them in your Internet marketing efforts.

7 Things You Must Do If You Want To Increase Your Traffic

By Jo Han Mok

Gary Halbert once said that the ONLY advantage he wanted when it came to selling burgers was not a better sauce, or better grade of beef, but a STARVING CROWD.

It's a simple concept, but not many people get it.

#1. Find and Know Your Starving Crowd

You can have the greatest product in the world, but still sell squat if no one wants to buy your product. Who are your potential buyers? Do you know them like the back of your hand? KNOW your buyers. Head down to http://www.Overture.com, type in your keywords and take furious notes!

#2. Power Position Yourself

Understand that people online are looking for information. They don't want information from just anyone. They want good, solid information from people who have been there, done that. If you can provide valuable advice to your prospects, you can be sure that they'll begin to trust you and develop a RELATIONSHIP with you. And just how do you position yourself as an expert? Easy, Become one.

Once you develop a reputation as an expert, the traffic will come in flocks. People NEED help. Help from experts. Are you an expert? : - )

#3. Create an Epidemic

Imagine this. What if you could get a super salesman to spend 24 hours everyday, 7 days every week, 52 weeks every year, for the rest of your life... a salesman who never gets sick or tired and all he does is direct hordes and hordes of targeted traffic to your site?

Don't even try to estimate the astounding value someone like this would bring to your business.

It is possible, and it's called viral marketing. It's the most powerful concept on the Internet. Many have tried using it and many have failed miserably.

People have this misconception that as long as they have an ebook that is "brandable", it constitutes a viral marketing campaign.

They are dead wrong.

#4. Steal Traffic from Someone Else

Got you. Of course, there are ethical ways to do that. The most powerful way, is through a JV or Joint Venture. A JV does not mean shooting an email to someone in your field of high repute saying "Hey, wanna do business with me?"

You're in for a big disappointment if you think that's gonna work. Your potential JV partner is a human as well, and chances are, he/she is a SOMEBODY in your field. So make your JV proposal as benefit laden, and "hands free" for your potential partner as possible. Recognize your JV partner's accomplishments, be generous with your praise and above all, be sincere.

But never be afraid to ASK. If you don't A-S-K, you will never G-E-T.

#5. Become A Marketing PI

Here's Industrial Espionage 101. The magic word?

Forums.

Forums will show you exactly what your target market is unhappy about and the problems they have. Lurk around forums. LISTEN. Forget about YOUR problems and listen to other people's problems. Solve those problems. I guarantee you'll become rich. Zig Ziglar said, the way to achieve success is to help others get what they want.

#6. Expired Domains Do More Than Expire

You can always use expired domain names as a great source of traffic. Search the expired domain databases, look on EBay. Some web hosts now allow multiple domains to park on a single account. Take advantage of that.

#7. Transform Words into Traffic

Articles are the best "Traffic Machines" that work for ANYONE- no matter what product, service, or information they're selling.

You get 100% targeted traffic, FREE! And, they position you as an expert, and improve your link popularity. Plus, articles are really easy to write as well.

If you have never written an article, go try writing one NOW!

All 7 steps above seem really easy. It's one thing to read and go "ahh" and another thing to read those steps and actually take solid action. Nothing will happen until you take action. No action equals no traffic, equals no sales, equals no money to pay the rent.

Copyright 2004 Jo Han Mok

Internet Marketing By Blogging

By Jo Han Mok

Blogging has been practiced for years. But it's just recently that it has been considered as one of the addicting fads. Many people have resorted to blogging as an outlet for their emotions, a little online nook where they can blurt out whatever just bugs them or whatever makes them feel elated. Savvy marketers have also discovered that blogging is one of the best Internet marketing methods that won't break your bank account.

Just what exactly is blogging? Blog is the widely used term that refers to web log. In a nutshell, a blog is like an online journal. A blog could be set up to no cost at all, and can be used for just for the fun of it or most importantly for business reasons.

Blogging for your Internet business is one surefire and easy way to boost the visibility of your products and services. Here are a few ways to boost your internet advertising with the help of a blog:

1. Make your clients or customers abreast on your website's alterations. Your new services, products and affiliate websites could also be announced through your blog.

2. Share your opinions, advice or reviews on specific services or products that are related to your business. Publishing is a very easy process with blogging.

3. Keep track of your business objectives and plans through open writing. Your blog content can be easily stored through archives. What could be better than searchable information that could be easily accessed by anyone browsing the web, right?

4. Include links that will fetch back links and subsequently improve your ranking on search engines. This could be better executed through putting well-written articles in your website. Affiliate links could also be included in your blog to earn additional income.

5. Collect response through the ability of blogs to fetch comments from your blog readers. You can learn and improve your products and services through the comments and feedback left by your readers.

6. Connect easily with other bloggers. When other bloggers notice that you have something good in your blog, they will put you in their favorite lists that will automatically link you to their blogs.

So, how do you set up a blog? Here are some of the options you can make use of to take advantage of this fun way to advertise your Internet business.

Either you load a blogging software or let a blogging hosting service do it for you. Host services such as LiveJournal and Blogger.com are the most popular in this field. Those hosts will provide you with easy instructions on how to put up your blog easily.

Web Traffic Tactics That Won't Cost You A Dime

By Jo Han Mok

Constantly banging your head in frustration for not receiving all the internet traffic you would like to get to your web site?

Are you tormented by information overload, listening to all the latest free website traffic tactics and not being able to understand any of it?

Are you feeling dejected of people trying day and night harassing you to max out your credit card and get loans for Google clicks, and in the process losing your credit score?

Are you feeling lost by the way your website just dropped out of the Google search results?

Or are you just too broke and all you have to rely on is getting some free website traffic tactics?

You can employ website traffic tactics without spending dime. However, knowing how to do it effectively is the real problem.

Here's the score:

1. Link it

Of all the effective website traffic tactics that can get you best results, linking to and from other websites is the one of the most widely-used method. Just make sure that the Internet business you are exchanging links with is relatively if not utterly related to your own business. And of course, don't overkill as this might ban you from search engines.

2. Meet Meta Tags

Another way of to acquire your desired traffic for your website is through having your Meta tags contain commonly used keywords that target your business. Meta tags help search engines in describing your web page. If you're quite adept with the HTML aspect of your web pages, manipulating your meta tags would be a breeze.

3. Keyword-rich AND sensible content

Writing or acquiring articles that provide solid information regarding your business is one of the best ways. Making use of free keyword suggestion tools such as Overture will help you on which keyword or phrases to work on to effectively lead more traffic to your website. Making these write-ups very readable and genuinely informative will drive you many repeat visitors who will subsequently become repeat customers.

Submitting these articles to various article directory listings will provide more visibility for your business as long as you keep your resource box in tact to create for yourself numerous back links.

These methods, if employed properly, will not only make your web site popular but will help you achieve your most desirable result - higher conversion rate.

5 Little Known Ways To Generate Free Traffic

By Jo Han Mok

Most people have the notion that generating traffic is a one-off event, and it involves spending huge sums of money on advertising.

Nothing can be further from the truth.

First of all, it's possible to open up streams of autopilot traffic geometrically, surely and steadily over time.

Secondly, it costs next to nothing to do it, if you know how.

Here are 5 instantly implementable methods to open up new traffic streams without needing to spend a dime.

Free Traffic Method #1: Contribute Content

Writing an ebook is a time consuming and arduous task. In comparison, writing a chapter of rock solid content is much easier and more achievable.

I've personally been invited to contribute content to many people's info-products, usually in the form of 'chapters', and this has resulted in a lots of quality traffic that is not only free, but presold.

While I understand that a person who is little known might not receive invitations to contribute, one can always solicit permission for your content to be included by publishers.

It's all a phone call and email away, and if your content is good and your approach is right, a rejection is unlikely, and even if it happens, it's not gonna kill you, so just tell yourself 'next' and move on.

Free Traffic Method #2: Give away Free viral Reports

Put your best content into reports and give it away.

Articles are great, but when you package them as Portable Document Files, there is a greater "perceived value".

Give away free reports. Allow people to give away your free report to their visitors. Then, their visitors will also give it away. This will just continue to spread your ad all over the internet.

Obviously, your reports will have to be 'viral' in order for that to happen.

The best way to make your reports viral, is to include a monetary incentive.

The links within the reports can be made brandable, and it'll be to your advantage to find some sort of multi-tier affiliate program that will increase your earnings exponentially, because you make money when the person giving away your reports makes money.

It's a win win situation, and also allows you to use these magic words "make money by giving this report away".

Free Traffic Method #3: Help Other Publishers

It may surprise you, but your own website visitors may be info publishers as well.

Help them help you by using these magic words, "Use Our Free Content On Your Site Or In Your E-zine" Allow your visitors to use your articles on their own web site or in their e-zine. Just ask them to include your resource box. This will spread your advertising like wildfire all over the internet.

Free Traffic Method #4: Offer Testimonials

If you're reading this article, chances are you're an info-junkie. If you've bought lots of info products, why not offer an unsolicited testimonial to the info-product creator?

Simply include your URL under your name when giving the testimonial, and if it's used, you'll have additional exposure, and traffic.

Obviously, you'd only give a testimonial to a product that you think has value and is good, and not endorse anything or everything under the sun.

Testimonials can bring you traffic and top of the mind awareness, so don't underestimate the use of something as simple as this.

Free Traffic Method #5: Syndicate Your Content

A word of caution: don't use JavaScript. Why not? Because search engines don't 'see' JavaScript, so JavaScript feeds are useless for SEO. To make newsfeeds visible to search engines, their text has to be embedded into your page.

FACT: If you view the source of your page and you don't see the actual text of the newsfeed, then search engines aren't going to see it either.

Intead, do try using Real Simple syndication, or RSS. It's the buzzword on the Internet. RSS is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing things like news headlines and other web page content.

You have a variety of opportunities for increasing traffic to your website. Publishing your own feed is a great way to cut through all the noise and clutter and get your message directly to your target market. On the other end of the spectrum, importing feeds from other sites or even other parts of your own site and displaying them on your webpages can increase your search engine rankings by automatically keeping your website full of fresh, relevant information

If you're a little lazy and not too motivated, you'll be glad to know that regardless of what topic or subject matter you've built your website around, there's valuable content out there... articles and information written by an "expert" in that particular field.

Because a large portion of it is available through the magic of RSS feed capability - YOU don't have to create the content yourself! Yes, you can profit from other people's content.

There you have it, 5 easy ways to start getting free traffic fast.

Now, go get it!

Copyright 2004 Jo Han Mok

3 Tactics All Affiliate Marketers Need

By Jo Han Mok

Almost every affiliate marketer looks for the market that gives the biggest paycheck.

Most think there is a magic formula that is readily available for them. Actually, it is more complicated than that. It is just good marketing practices that have been proven over years of hard work and dedication.

There are tactics that have worked before with online marketing and is continuing to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today. With these top three marketing tips, you will be able to able to increase your sales and succeed in affiliate marketing online.

What are these three tactics?

1. Creating unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing. Do not lump all of it on one website just to save some money on web hosting. It is best to have individual site focusing on each product.

Always when possible, include your personal input like product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do for them and include testimonials from satisfied users. Make sure that these customers are more than willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.

You should also write articles highlighting the uses of the product and include them on the website as an additional page. The pages should be attractive, compelling and include calls to act on the information. Each headline should attract the readers to read further into your copy. Highlight your special points with bullets. This will help your readers to learn what the page is about and arouse interest.

2. Offer free reports to your visitors and position them at the very top side of your page so they would not be missed. Try to create autoresponder messages that will be mailed to those who input their personal information into your opt-in box. Statistics shows that a sale is usually closed on the seventh contact with a prospect.

Only two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: closed sale or the prospect leaving the page. By capturing emails allows you to place useful information into their inboxes at certain specified period, you will remind them of the product they thought they want later and to reinforced their need to have the product. Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product.

Focus on important points like how the product can make life and things easier and more enjoyable. Include compelling subject lines in the email. Avoid using the word “free” because there are still older spam filters that dumps those kind of contents into the junk.

3. Acquire traffic that is targeted to your product. If the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be among those who move on and never come back. Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports. This way you can locate publications that is focusing on your target customers and what you have put up might just grab their interest.

Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length. By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site each day. Always remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or get your services. If you can generate as much as 1,000 targeted hits for your website in a day, that means you can made 10 sales based on the average statistic.

The tactics above are not difficult to do. It just requires a little time and an action plan on your part.

Try to use these tips for several affiliate marketing programs. You can end up maintaining a good source of income and surviving in this business that not all marketers can do. Besides, think of the huge paychecks you will be receiving…

Viral Marketing: What It Means and How It Can Impact Your Business

By Anne Ahira

Viral Marketing is an exciting form of advertising that fits well with network marketing. Both concepts are based around relationship building.

Viral marketing basically creates a word-of-mouth referral method by using your existing customers and contacts. Your message is passed around and around, creating exponential growth for your company.

This is very similar to network marketing. Remember me talking about referring someone to a movie or restaurant you liked? This is the same concept.

Studies have shown that the typical internet user is very vocal about their online experience. This means that for each person you reach, you are actually reaching a group of their friends as well. And then those friends tell other friends, etc. and you have the kind of growth that is similar to the way downlines grow in network marketing companies.

Let me give you an example of viral marketing in action. Have you ever received a greeting card from Blue Mountain? They are a very popular free greeting card company on the internet. At the bottom of each card you receive, it allows you the option to give a card back to the sender or anyone else you might like. This is viral marketing in action!

The person getting the card now knows that Blue Mountain is a reliable company. After all, their friend uses their service. This establishes credibility and trust simply by association! The number one barrier to closing sales is already removed by using this method!

Another good example of Viral Marketing is seen at Amazon.com. At the close of each sale, they ask you if you know someone who might like what you have just purchased. If you do, they offer to email them a note saying that you have just purchased this product and thought they might like it as well. If your friend orders the same product within a certain amount of time, they receive a discount. This is a brilliant concept because it allows Amazon to reach more people through a credible third party. With every email they send on your behalf, you are endorsing their website, and taking part in their viral marketing campaign. In essence, they are getting you to do their advertising for them!

So, why would someone spread YOUR advertising message around to others? What have we been talking about in almost every section? BENEFITS! The bigger the benefit that you can offer to people, the more likely that they’ll pass it along.

For example, create a free report with valuable content and include a "pass it on" link at the bottom. If you have a newsletter, or write articles for one, put a line at the bottom of your article – "Know someone who would be interested in this? Click here to email it to them!"

What benefit does the person sending these receive, you might wonder? They are offering valuable information to friends and colleagues. They are helping them out, and in the process, establishing you as a person worthy of their trust.

Contests are also an effective way to generate interest. Encourage people to refer their friends to sign up for your contest. For each friend they sign up, they could receive another entry into the drawing.

In whatever form you chose, remember to ask the person for the referral, rather than just hoping that they’ll do it on their own.

Take some time to think about how viral marketing can be used to further your business. Look around and see what other companies are doing. Don’t overlook this far-reaching, powerful marketing technique! If done correctly, it could be the most valuable one you will ever use!

Choosing The Right Affiliate Program & The "Rules To Live By"

By Anne Ahira

Here's the 'Numero Uno' Rule!

Don't be cheap! Always go for quality! Hey, if you wouldn't buy it, why should anyone else?!

Take a good look at the product or service you're considering marketing and make sure it is top notch! Is is a good value for the price? If it's a ridiculous amount of money for something not worth a whole lot, then forget about it. How about the people that are recommending it? Have you done business with them in the past? Are they reliable? Can you talk to a few people who have bought the product? Are they happy with what they purchased?

You've really got to be certain you are recommending a good quality product, from a reputable company, which has great customer service.

This is definitely pretty darn important! As an affiliate, you're sticking your neck out there, every time you advertise or recommend the product or service you're linking to. You are in effect, endorsing them, so it's your reputation at risk! Be sure you're dealing with a company that deserves your trust and reflects well on you personally!

Be smart! Don't ever promote something that's going to harm your reputation!

The Second Most Important Rule

You better be earning a super dooper commission! If you're only being paid 5% or 10% per product sold...boy, are you ever getting the 'short end of the stick'! That's a low commission! You need to look for a company who's thinking about the life-time-value of a customer and is willing to give YOU a very high payout to keep you. You want to associate with a company who pays out around 60% of the net profit to their affiliates. You won't find an affiliate program like this on every website, you're going to have to really search for it! But that's allright. It'll be worth the effort!

With a good affiliate company, when someone joins under you, they get paid for every sale they make (just like you), and you get paid a percentage for every sale THEY make. Just think what would happen if you had a few really hot affiliates, who signed up underneath you and were making 10 sales a mont... you would be making a whole lot of money every month just on the work THEY did. As long as they keep selling, you keep getting paid!

Something else to think about...even if a company is paying out a high commission, if people don't buy from them, you're right back where you started! They've got to have a site which turns visitors into buyers; the site must have a good conversion rate! The site should have at least a 1% conversion ratio; meaning, that one out of every hundred customers you send to them, then turns into a sale.

Make sure you go with an affiliate program which has sales copy and website design that "makes you want to buy". After all, YOU are sending them the potential customers, but it's their job to turn those potential customers into buyers! More buyers, more money for you! Basically pretty simple.

Also, keep in mind your payout amount. If you are earning $50 a referral for one buying customer, you're doing okay.. but, if you are only earning a $10 referral fee for that one buying customer, you may want to rethink things.

Here Comes Rule Number Three, Short But Major Important!:

Match the product or service to the theme of your site. So if your site is about horses and horse products you don't want to be advertising music CD's or weight loss products (unless of course it is a weight loss product for horses!).

You need to target your clientele so that what you are selling or recommending, has something to do with what your visitors WANT. I can't stress this enough it's very important! Provide links, services and products, which are related to what YOUR visitors want!

I am continually astonished, that people build a site and then have products and affiliate programs that have nothing whatsoever to do with each other! DUH!!

The Number Four Rule:

You also need to be concerned with the tracking software the affiliate program is using. You want to see your statistics (stats) in real time and be able to check them at any time to see how you are doing.

Why?

So you can go and check to see how your promotional efforts are working Compare the difference in results between putting a button up and putting up a whole sales page. You need instant information on visitor and sales results. How many sales is your affiliate banner generating, same goes for a text link, or personal recommention....how many visitors are you sending to the affiliate site and then how many sales is it generating for you.

Does the software the company is using track ALL of your sales....some companies use "inferior" software which only tracks about 80% of the time (meaning YOU lose out on 20% of the commissions that are rightfully yours). Other companies will only pay you if the customer visits through your link and buys right then and there...if they come back and buy later, you may not get credit for that sale.

The Number Five Rule:

Don't allow affiliate programs to clutter up your main site. Don't go crazy and find 10 different programs and try to promote them all on your site at the same time!! It just clutters up your site and makes it worthless! Focus on one or two really good affiliate programs, that work for your business and client base. Only become involved with an affiliate program that has products or services that your target market wants.

"Wants" is the important word here. People buy things impulsively because they "want" them, not because they "need" them. When you come right down to it, there are not all that many products which people really "need".

More is not necessarily better! Put too many affiliate programs on your site and you just end up confusing your visitors. You won't make many sales with confused buyers! Stay targeted!

The Number Six Rule:

This is just common sense...deal with a reputable company. If you are ever unsure of a company, ask for references and do some checks on them. Are they professional? If you phone them, do they put you on hold FOREVER!? Be assured, they'll do the same to customers you recommend to them. They should respond promptly to your emails, within the same day if at all possible. If they don't respond to your emails at all....run in the other direction!

Customer response and service is EVERYTHING. If you ask questions about a company's affiliate program and get no answer (or a delayed answer)... whoa, watch out! If they can't be bothered to take care of you when you express an interest in becoming an associate, what's the odds they'll take care of you when you have a real problem!? It's a pretty good bet, that they won't take very good care of your customers either! So be very careful, the company you deal with should be very professional and willing to help you out when you're in need.

Take the bit about the importance of Customer Service to heart and make certain YOU respond swiftly to emails or phone messages you receive in your own business dealings. This IS CRITICAL.

Following are a few related odds and ends.

Affiliate Programs and bulk email do NOT go together.

There's this "myth" out there about affiliate programs, that you go join a few, put them all in an email message and then bulk email thousands of people who will eagerly respond making you tons of money! Oh, so WRONG! This is probably one of the worst things you can do online. It's called SPAM!

Most affiliate programs have a "bulk" email clause in their agreement that says... if you spam, you can get terminated from the program and not get paid for any commissions you've earned. Be aware that there's also a very good chance that you will lose your Internet connection, not to mention your reputation!

Sending unsolicited bulk email to millions of people who have NOT qualified themselves as being interested in your product is not very profitable (you won't get any response!) can end up costing you money and is just plain RUDE!

I even know of some companies who have billed the "spammer" for the time it's taken the company to deal with the complaints and administrative problems caused by the bulk emailing done using their affiliate program URL. You spam with an affiliate URL, and it looks like it was the company doing the spamming, since the recipient is being sent directly to the company website. Not good for the company's reputation! NOT going to make you a very popular affiliate member either!!

One last thing. Watch out for any "exclusivity clauses" in affiliate agreements. Some companies will state that "they can be the only retailer of a specific product on your site". If you signed up with a book selling program for example, with this clause in the contract, that would limit you to selling only their books on your site. This may not be a problem for you, maybe you only want to sell their books anyway! Just be careful not to restrict yourself unless you want to.

Using Google Adsense On Your Website To Increase Profits!

By Chris Taylor

How can you maximize the earnings you get from your site?

By displaying Adsense advertisements, that earn you money every time someone clicks on them. Many people are now realizing that good money is made doing just this. Do the math, and you will discover a profitable source of side income, all through negligible effort.

Google Adsense is a fast and easy way for website publishers to earn money by posting relevant, text-based Google ads on their web site’s content pages. The ads displayed are related to what your users are looking for on your site. This is the main reason you can earn money through using Adsense, and enhance your site.

How much you will earn depends on how much the advertisers are willing to pay. It will depend on the keywords required. If the keywords the advertiser have chosen are in high demand, you could receive more dollars per click. On the other hand, low demand keywords will earn you just a few cents per click.

How can you start making profits out of your website using Adsense?

1. Sign up for an Adsense account. It will only take a few minutes of your time.

2. When the site is accepted, you will receive a clip code to include in your web pages. You can insert this code in to as many pages or web sites that you want. The AdWords will start appearing immediately after.

3. You will be earning anything from a few cents to a few dollars per click. However, trying to earn false revenues by repetitively clicking on your own ads is a no-no. This will result in a penalty or the possibility of your site being eliminated completely. The money you have already earned may also be lost.

4. View your statistics. Adsense earnings can be checked anytime! Just log in to your web site account.

Once you have a working account, you may still want to copy the many sites that are earning more money than you are. It is important to note that there are factors affecting how your website will perform and the amount of money it will give you.

Don’t get over eager! Once you begin making some money, it is easy to focus on making more instead of managing what you already have. Remember that it will take time, not to mention trial and error, to get to where you want to be financially. Once you feel you are ready to go to the next level, the question becomes:

How do you increase your Adsense earnings?

1. Choose one topic per page. It is best to write content for your page with just a few targeted phrases. The search engine will then show the most relevant ads, which will get you more clicks. Remember that clicks equal cash!

2. Use white space around your ad. This can make your ad stand out from the rest of your page so visitors can spot them easily. There are also other color choices, so choose those colors that harmonize your ad and your webpage.

3. Test your ad placement. It is recommended to use a vertical format to get positive results. You can also try both horizontal and vertical formats for a certain period of time to see which one will give you better results.

4. More content-based pages. Widen the theme of your website by creating pages that focus more on your keyword phrases. This will optimize the pages for the search engines. This not only attracts traffic but also makes them more relevant to the AdWords.

5. Site Build It. This is the perfect tool to be used for creating lots of Adsense revenue. Site Build It has all the tools necessary to quickly achieve a keyword-rich site that can rank high in the search engines. This will also produce a flow of traffic to your site of highly targeted visitors.

As you can see, Adsense is a great way to begin earning some extra income. Not only that, but it dramatically increases your site’s visibility!

SEO and Positioning Your Website For Top Search Engine Rankings

By Davion Wong

SEO and positioning your website to grab top positions in search engines for targeted keywords require both good on-page and off-page optimization. On-page optimization refers to how you tweak the webpage itself, ie the meta-tags, webpage title, content, navigation sitemap, etc. It has everything to do with the web architecture. Off-page optimization is more of a technique applied beyond your website, without involving any change to your website. Let’s take a look at some important elements of SEO and positioning that would boost the ranking of your website.

First of all, we need to understand a bit more about the role of on-page optimization in SEO and positioning. In summary, on-page optimization requires you to craft the web page structure such that it is optimized for a particular keyword that you are targeting. Never build a site first before knowing what you hope to achieve, ie whether your aim is to drive maximum traffic and sell more products or just as a hobby.

You need to pay attention to the keywords you are targeting first, and do detailed researches before you start building your webpage and optimizing it for the keywords. A lot of webmasters fail to realize the importance of keyword research in SEO and positioning for top search engine ranking. They often do it the other way round, targeting popular and extremely competitive keywords and keyword phrases. You may have realized that competitive keywords like “search engine optimization” or “web traffic” are simply out of reach for a new or amateurish website. SEO and positioning your website for such keywords would only bring you disappointment as you realize that even with a fully optimized page, you are still on page 1000 of the search engine results.

One hint for you is to go for any keyword phrase with less than 1 – 2 million search results and fewer than 1000 competing websites in Google. How do you check the number of competing websites? Simply type in “Allintitle: Target Keyword Phrase” into Google search box and all the websites containing the specific keyword phrase would be displayed. It is common sense that any website targeting a keyword phrase would include it in the webpage title, isn’t it? Looking at the search results alone is vague and difficult to determine the level of competition. Once you have found the keywords for optimization, remember to include them in your page title, sub-headers, and meta-tags.

Off-page optimization looks more at the popularity of your website. The search engines are constantly changing the landscape of the internet but one principle stays constant, that is to give users relevant results. Other than meddling with the on-page factors, you need to be aware of how search engines measure your website popularity and keyword relevance. One major yardstick of SEO and positioning is using link popularity. Search engine spiders are not humans and can only understand web content to a certain logical extent. A human may see a web page as rich in content but a search engine spider may deem it as spam.

The unbiased and more accurate way of judging the importance of a web page in terms of keyword relevance is to leave the decision to fellow webmasters and search engine users, or in short, votes of confidence. A link to your web page is a vote declaring that your web page is worth mentioning for that specific topic. But I must emphasize that not all links are equal. Find out why at my blog and also learn basic and advanced tips and tricks about SEO and positioning your website for top rankings either manually or using tools that would conveniently and quickly rank your website.

Four Super Ways To Generate Website Traffic For Your Online Business

By Paul Ritchie

There is one hard and fast rule in making income for your website: A steady flow of traffic. If no one goes to your site, it bares no chance of generating income. Many sites have tried and failed in doing so, and these results to the sites demise. It takes money to maintain an income generating site; it also takes money to make money.

Ever wonder how does big hit sites drive traffic top their site? Most of them are spending tons of money to drive the traffic to their sites, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmicks. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.

Here I present to you the Top five ways to generate low cost website traffic that could help your site a whole lot. Even if you only get a small percentage of successful visitors in to client ratio it still works especially if you get a high number of website traffic.

Exchange Links

This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more public awareness about their sites.

A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or content as the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.

Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines ranks high sites that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic in your website without the high costs.

Write and Submit Articles

There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias in the internet which provides free space for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs, you can do the articles yourself. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write for you for a small fee, but to save money, it is wise to do those articles yourself.

Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise on so that when they read it, they can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be eager to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines to the subject or niche your site has.

Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link them to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.

Make a Newsletter

This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but on the contrary, this is not so. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well.

As your newsletter gets pass around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list that can regularly visit your site.

Join Online Communities and Forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.

Good Website Content-Why It's Your Most Valuable Asset

By Brian Cotsen

• What do you want to achieve?
• How do website visitors see your content?
• Visitors scan
• Visitors use the 'F' movement
• Visitors are impatient
• Keyword = content!
• One idea per page.
• Give visitors eyes a rest - use white space
• Build trust.
• Content for search engines
• Sum it up. -------------------------------------------------

What do you want to achieve?

• Why does your business website exist?
• What do you want visitors to do when they land on your website?

If you answered "to impress people" or "for fun" then you may have the wrong attitude towards your on line business website.

If you answered "to turn my visitors into customers" then you're spot on.

Good website content is all about turning those curious website visitors into feverish customers. Ones that buy, sign-up, click through your affiliate links/ adsense or what ever it is that you want them to do.

Good website content gets those visitors to TAKE ACTION

Getting visitors to your website is one problem... once they're there, getting them to 'take action' is quite another.

Website browsers read and react quite differently to written words presented to them on the screen to those in a brochure or magazine.

Good website content is created by understanding the way humans read off a computer screen. Understand this and you can win them over and achieve your goals...get them to take a desired action!

Visitors Scan - good website content writers know that visitors quickly scan the screen to find key bits of information. They don't read every word.

• Use subheadings for impact, to draw attention to the main point of the following paragraph.
• Use bulleted lists to deliver information in small chunks.
• Avoid mixing figures and words e.g It was found that 357, 000, that's 78%, of all visitors to London said the Tower of London was the best attraction. Better to have said "Most visitors voted 'The Tower' their 'top' attraction" - See how much more punchy that was.

Visitors use the 'F' movement

• Visitors scan the top & left column first, then move across to the right.
• Most read or noticed - Top left section.
• Least read or noticed - Bottom right.

Put important content or sign-ups 'top left' of the page.

Visitors are impatient - Good website content is:

• Brief.... enough said?

Don't use long words, flowery language or rambling sentences - you'll loose your audience because they loose concentration.

Keyword Rich - Good website content is 'Keyword focussed' Every page of your website should be built using a keyword... right? Good website content starts with your keywords, the ones that those visitors used in the search to find you. Using those same keywords will help you to connect with those visitors - empathise with them.

• Don't over use the keyword, it will disrupt the flow of your text.
• Aim for a density of 3-5% use.
• Find variations that use the keywords in different combinations.

Keep it focussed - One idea per page

• Website visitors will only focus on one new idea per page - keep it focussed.

Good content is 'Empty'

Blank areas of a page? What nothing at all? Yes it's known as 'white space' though it doesn't have to be white. Remember that reading from a screen is tiring. Often those poor visitors are bombarded by busy, visually noisy screens with too much going on. This causes them to feel bamboozled and switch off from the information in front of them. Think how nice it is to visit 'Googles' home page. Just one thing right in the centre of all that white space.

• Give the text or content room.
• Give the visitors eye's a rest... they'll be able to focus on the information on screen.

Good website content builds trust:

• Well researched.
• Accurate in it's facts and information.
• Deliver on their promises.

No readers are impressed by factual errors or poorly researched articles. If you want those first time website visitors to become regular visitors and customers... this should be your goal.

Think of Amazon, Google or Yahoo. Love them or loath them but they all deliver the goods that their users want.

Make sure you over deliver with your good website content.

So much for humans! Good website content pleases the search engines too.

• Headlines and 'H' tags
• Keywords/ keyword phrases
• Title tags
• Description tags
• Keyword rich content
• Relevant text rich links to other relevant pages

Don't forget those search engines that visit your website to read the content, they'll reward you and the website if the content is good (notice I used website, good and content in a different order).

So lets sum it all up - Good website content is:

• Brief - Scanable
• Positioned well - 'F' movement
• Keyword rich
• Focussed - One idea per page
• Empty - white space
• Accurate - Build trust
• Tight & Neatly punctuated.
• Crisp & punchy
• Remember those search engines

When you've finished writing get someone, who doesn't know your subject, to read it through.

• Does it make sense?
• Did it hold their interest?

So no excuses - make sure every page has good website content to keep turn those website visitors into feverish customers.

Seven Secrets For A Better Website

Have you ever wondered why it is that some web sites enjoy super success while many others fail miserably? Below are seven secrets to help you make YOUR site one of the winners!

1. SPEED

Several studies indicate, that you have only 10 to 30 seconds to capture visitor's attention. If your site is slow to open, your customer will likely lose patience and close the window. And that means bye.. bye..to your site! Worse..no sale.

Solution: Avoid having too much animation in your site. Compress the image files and host your site with a good hosting company.

2. Website Design

Remember you have only 10 to 30 seconds to capture visitor's attention. So website design is very important. Most people judge something on their first look! When visitors come to your site, they will see the reflection of YOU. Be certain they will like what they see.

Make your site comfortable to look at. Be consistent with the feel and design. Don't use bright colors that jolt the eye and senses. Use a text that is easy to read. Better yet, put a really great picture of yourself on your site. Let your visitors know who they are dealing with, and show them that there is a real human behind the website!

Did my picture capture your attention the first time you visited my website? I hope so. I hope you could see that I was a real, geniune, caring person that you would feel comfortable doing business with. :-)

3. Focus Your Site

Make sure to focus your website on the intended goal. This will help you to target your market easily. For example, if you are interested in a car selling business, most of the contents of your site will naturally be about cars. For instance, your topics could be; My Car Collection, Tips for Buying A Good Car, Millenium Cars, The Secrets of Washing a Car, etc..! :-)

Car Lovers will enjoy visiting your site, because you give them exciting information about a topic they are personally interested in.

When you have laser focus, and great contents, this will create happy customers coming back to your site again and again. This makes it possible for you to repeatedly offer them new sales items to purchase from your site!

Don't clutter your site with too many unrelated products. When you have more than one or two unrelated products, make a unique page for each instead of putting them all on the same page. And do it with some style and thought. Your customers will not appreciate feeling that they have been tricked with an unworthy product.

4. Keywords Density

Many site owners ignore or are ignorant about the importance of Keywords. I have found sites which don't have any keywords at all. This is death for a website! A Good keyword density will help your site listing in search engines!

Remember, 90% of web surfers find what they want by typing in the search engines. So design your site to maximize the placement. Focus on your keywords. Utilize the meta tags keywords, description and title.

If you have no idea what I am talking about or if you don't know how to use HTML code, please, find someone who does or purchase a few good books (I can suggest one or two). I know this may sound terribly confusing but it is one of the most crucial things needed to build a better more successful website.

5. Simple Navigation

Make your site navigation easy. If the customers find it hard navigating your site to find what they want, they will go elsewhere. So, limit the choices, and make the sales process uncomplicated.

6. Make Payment Easy

If you sell a product, offer your customer a variety of payment methods. If your site does not offer a credit card, you are hurting your business...get one right now. You can set up a merchant account such as ClickBank, or use one of the many credit card clearing companies. Take checks online. Provide an address for those who prefer to pay by cash, check, or money order. and provide them with a guarantee.

Make the payment process obvious, easy to access and intuitive to use.

7. Credibility Is Vital

Your professional website design will not sell, if the customers don't trust you! So, provide legitimate contact information online. Your email address, mailing address, phone number and a fax number, if applicable. If you are reluctant to give this information to your customers, why should they trust, or buy from you?

Having your own domain name is also very vital for your credibilty. It will make you look more professional. Choose a domain name that easy to remember and suitable for your business.

Putting testimonials from happy customers is one of the best way to improve your credibilty. When the customer can read what other people say about your service, they will be more inclined to trust you!

Applying the seven secrets above probably will not make your site become as famous as Amazon or Yahoo overnight! But..If they are applied correctly and included into an overall website design and marketing campaign, you will see great improvement to your site's traffic and sales!

By Anne Ahira

Step by Step Guidance to Build Your Own Website

There is nothing really specific that will make a site good. A website, as I mentioned before, is about expressing your 'personality'. This is what makes a site interesting, because everyone has a unique personality.

If you are designing your website yourself, I suggest you learn some HTML before starting. I used HTML editor and didn't know the first thing about it. It has been a bit of struggle but there are some great tutorials online. Go here to learn everything you need to know about HTML.

If you are designing your site, HTML is the only code you should use.

A few other things to keep in mind when creating a website:

It must load fast. Otherwise, people will lose patience and click to another site. Anything over 10 seconds is way too long.

It should have a great headline and a great opening sentence. You have 10 seconds to get a person’s attention. Make sure you begin your site with the biggest, most compelling benefit you have to offer your visitors.

Keep them excited about your opportunity! I’m not talking hype here but give them visual images of what their future could be like if they join your opportunity. Every line should focus on what your prospect will gain by signing up with you.

It must be easy to read. Don’t crowd your site with too much info or make it hard for a person to navigate. Be consistent in your color, layout and design.

Be careful when using colored text or backgrounds. Again, it must be easy to read.

You don’t want any distractions from your message. This means no links on your front page to drive your visitors away, and no animations to distract them.

Ask for the sale! Create a sense of urgency by giving them a reason to join now!

Suggest "Bookmarking" your site.

Find a good hosting company. Your web host is the one who will present your website to the world. First impressions are everything! If a visitor clicks on your site and it’s down, or takes forever to load because of your host, what are the chances that they’ll ever come back? Slim to none! If you need help, I’ve mentioned a few good hosting companies in the resources section. You can also check with some of your teammates and see which ones they have had success with.

Know where your traffic is coming from, where they’re going on your site and how long they are staying. This will help you monitor your site’s effectiveness.

Constantly update your site with new material. Give your visitors a reason to come back! Keep your current information up-to-date and relevant to your target market.

Make sure you have a way to collect email addresses. This is the one thing your website MUST have. Most people will not sign up from their first visit and might never come back. You would have wasted your advertising dollars on them. But – if you have their email address – you can continue to contact them and develop a relationship over time. The percentage of people who sign up after repeated exposures to your offer is much higher! This is one of the most successful ways to create sales.

Stay focused on the main reason you created the website in the first place. Every aspect of your site should lead to your main goal, which is to have them join your team and become successful in Network Marketing!

By Anne Ahira