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My business model is to sell products online through simple, home-made websites, or auctions sites like eBay. I use both Paid Search marketing on Google, Yahoo, and MSN, plus I do my own search engine optimization to promote my website to the first pages of these search engines. It’s not easy work, but the rewards are starting to present themselves. It’s taken over a year to find niche brand name products that are popular enough to sell and have good profit margins.

The reason I share my little history is that my business model is one of the most common being used to generate money online. It didn’t take a lot of thought or an original idea to start generating online revenue. I decided to follow what other successful e-retailers are doing and make it work, which is find a popular product with low wholesale costs and out sell the competition.

If you have a unique idea that you feel would benefit many people, but all means pursue it and make lots of money. But before investing lots of time, double-check, even triple-check that a large volume of people would actually pay for what you are offering.

Most individuals these days read or get spammed with the emails stating the its super easy to make money online. When comparing online revenue to traditional storefront retailing, this is true. But it does take considerable amount of time and effort to make an idea or product list grow within the competitive landscape before the sales start to come in.

I personally use World Wide Brands as a product source. I also keep tabs on the new toys and cool gadgets that hit the market place. There are also many free resources that point out current retail trends.

Do you know how to advertise online?

There are two main methods for getting your site traffic online. The first is Paid Search, or commonly called Pay Per Click marketing. The second method is Search Engine Optimization.

Paid search are the sponsored listings that you see on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The websites that are displayed there pay a fee each time someone clicks on there link, or ad. It’s easy to get your ads to display in the sponsored listings section. All it takes is creating an account with the search engine, developing a list of keywords and ads, making a deposit and setting your spending budget.

Search engine optimization are the traditional results that you see through out the many pages of search results on search engines. These sites are ranked by popularity, which is determined by the number of links from other websites that direct users to your site. There are many methods for doing search engine optimization, and many companies willing to help you.

For both pay per click and search engine optimization, I’ve found the OrangeSoda Inc. is the best company for new business owners with small budgets. If your interested in doing the work yourself, you should search out the many free tutorials regarding pay per click and search engine optimization. If have reading or viewing the tutorials, and you feel that you can do it, give it a go. But you may find that it’s too much work, at which point you should look for outside help.

It’s been over a year since I began my venture in to generating online revenue, and the hard work and patience is paying off. I recommend that you give it a go to.

Will Smith is an avid ecommerce strategist and promotes consumer awareness within the online market place. Increase your awareness of the Gaming Vest by visiting http://www.fpsvest.com

There is a funny mindset amongst some internet entrepreneurs and marketers that things online should be free. And this affects their businesses. Many people are drawn to the notion of free traffic to your website. Now, there are a few ways of get “organic” or “search” traffic and certainly it is nice when it happens but how does this come into play in a business model?

There are a few built-in downsides to the idea of free traffic. One is that it normally takes some time to build up. SEO or Search Engine Optimization can take months to produce results. First you have to put up your site, make changes, wait for results and repeat. Sounds easy enough but the search engines take time to produce the results and this whole process could take 3-6 months. Now depending on the purpose of your website, this might be acceptable, but if you are running a real business, you are sitting there loosing potential revenue as you wait around for your “free” traffic.

Let’s compare that to paid traffic. Now understand that there are a number of sources of paid traffic available. You could buy advertising through Google Adwords on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis, you can buy advertising on blogs or a lot of sites that get a good volume of traffic. Often these are based on the number of visitors such a site receives. You can buy advertising in online newsletters or ezines and so on. But, there are some distinct advantages to paid advertising.

First, you are in control of it. You can turn it on and off at will. Flip the switch (start paying for ads) and traffic comes in. Turn off the switch (pull the ads) and traffic stops. When you are ready to handle more sales, you turn up the volume of ads going out. No problem. When you are relying on free traffic, it can be unpredictable and not the best business model.

Secondly, with paid advertising, you can track your ads very easily. You know which ad or publication someone come to you from, you can get a good idea of what they searched for and what is going to interest them. This knowledge can help you build a better product or service because you can learn to target your customer better. When you are running a proper business, this information is very valuable to you because the better you can tailor your product or service to your customer, the more effectively you can market it.

I guess the biggest problem that people have is that they don’t have a good plan or do proper testing before they get started. See, if you have a product or service that sells for X dollars, you need to know how much money you can spend to acquire a sale for it. Then you need to look over your conversion rates and how to improve them. See, a lot of people think that more traffic can solve their problem and boost sales. Well it can. But a more compelling offer and a better converting site can do it faster and cheaper. If you start at the beginning of the sales process and increase the conversions from surfers to clickers, from ad views to sales letter reads, from sales letter reads to sales, if each of these steps is slightly improved, then you start to see an exponential growth in sales for the same amount of traffic or the same number of visitors.

Once your site or sales letter converts traffic to dollars like a well-oiled machine, then turn up the traffic. Now you can go and pay for ads to get the word out. And when people find you online through an organic search, that is a bonus. But don’t waste your time sitting there waiting for it.

Jonathan Hook works with small business owners to increase their sales by 20% in 90 days – without spending an extra dime on advertising – guaranteed. Rush over to http://www.themarketersmind.com to claim your free copy of the “30 Day Marketing Makeover”.

Owner builder construction loans are difficult to market successfully. Even though it’s a specialized niche, the nature of the business dictates that an owner builder mortgage company will be structured as an online business, using online marketing to reach its clients.

Owner builder loans require that customers provide large amounts of personal, private information, which makes customers even more skeptical of any business that they can’t see in person. How do you build trust when your company is essentially an online business?

There are a few vital things you can do when you design your web site to help demonstrate to your potential customers that you are who you say you are, and that your company really delivers the product or service that you claim to deliver. Take a look at some of these tips and examples from the owner builder construction loan world, and you can apply the same principles to any online business. In fact, if a mortgage company can build trust online in today’s market, then you can be sure that these tips will work for you.

1. Owner Builder Testimonials.

If you are selling owner builder construction loans, then your must have as many testimonials as possible from actual owner builder customers who used your services. The same concept applies to any business. If you have a web site, then you need as many testimonials as you can get. In fact, even if your company markets offline, you will need as many testimonials as you can get, but that’s a topic for another day.

There is a saying in the marketing world: once you think you have put together enough testimonials for your marketing, double the number. Then, double it again. Nobody speaks better about your business than your previous clients who worked with you or bought from you.

Don’t just gather written words for your testimonial. Instead, use as many photographs as possible. Customers will see the photographs as further proof to go along with the words that you customers write. For example, in the case of owner builder loans, you would use as many photographs of the homes that your clients built through your program. Proof of legitimate service builds trust.

In addition, you may also want to consider using audio to go along with the written testimonials. If a customer can visit your web site and actually listen to other customers who liked your product, it will be much more effective for you.

2. Longevity and Consistency.

Customers, whether they are owner builder clients or any customer buying any service or product from any online company, all want to know that you have been in business for a long time. This builds a sense of consistent service, which in turn builds a sense of trust for your customers.

For an online business, the easiest way to establish this consistency is to simply tell the customer how long your company has actually been in business. The best way to do this is to post this information right on your “About Us” page on your web site.

But, another little tip that works well is to put a copyright date at the bottom of every page on the site. If the copyright is dated at the start date of your business, customers will infer automatically that your company has been doing business since that date.

3. Contact Information.

For the example of owner builder construction loans, customers want to know how they can contact your business. Many online companies in this industry tend to force customers to reach them by email only. From the company’s point of view, it makes a lot of sense – owner builder loans require a lot of time to qualify potential clients. It is difficult to devote this precious time to answering an incoming phone call from a tire kicker customer.

However, if you have an online business that is service oriented like an owner builder mortgage company, then you need to post a phone number as part of your contact information. Without it, the sensitive nature of the industry will cause many potential clients to look elsewhere. If you prefer that your customers contact you by email, simply tell them that on the web site. Post the phone number, though, to help build trust.

And, just as important, make sure you give a physical address on your web site. By telling customers where your company is physically located, it will put them at ease about the fact that they themselves will never actually walk into your office. They will be comforted by the fact that they could walk into your office if the happened to be in your local area.

Furthermore, don’t just list the address. Also include a quick description of the location by mentioning some nearby landmarks. Don’t worry if the local landmark won’t be known by your online customers. The fact that you mention these landmarks will provide extra evidence that your online business actually has a physical location.

4. Owner Builder Information Request Form.

If you collect information from your customers through an online form, then you will want to tell your customers exactly how this information will be used. In other words, tell them how the information will not be used or shared.

For example, an owner builder customer often has to fill out a lot of information about their finances online. Even though no social security numbers or birthdates are collected through these forms, there is still a lot of personal information that is needed to process the online form. Therefore, they want to know that their privacy will be protected.

All online businesses need to tell their customers that they respect their privacy. If you don’t respect the privacy of your customers, you are not going to be in business very long.

In addition to addressing this issue within the web site’s online form, you could also have a specific page devoted to your company’s privacy policy. Then, you can link to that page from your online form. The privacy policy doesn’t have to be a bunch of legalese. Simply spell out how you plan to use the information that you are collecting. And, spell out whether or not you will need to share the information with any other entity.

Overall, owner builder customers are no different from other customers in an online world. If you are an online business, you need to design your website to build trust with those customers. Remember, your web pages will be one of the first impressions that you make on your customer.

Chris Esposito markets owner builder construction loans through the Owner Builder 101 program. To get more details about owner builder construction and financing, visit http://www.OwnerBuilder101.com, or call (877) 876-3688.

Whether you advertise via the medium of radio, print or on television, the most crucial element of your marketing strategy is the way in which you promote your business. In this respect, advertising plays a huge part in business promotion, particularly in terms of how your business is viewed by your potential customers. In order to write ads that truly generate strong sales leads, you need to start by mastering the following advertisement elements.

To begin with you must ensure you have a great opening line. The headline of the advertisement is what prompts potential customers to look or listen further at the advertising message. You are in your field of business to profit, and no one should understand your customers’ needs better. Having this solid understanding of your target audience means you to know just the kind of things that will attract their attention – all you need to do is make this into a headline. Successfully capturing your audience’s attention is one of the primary goals when developing an effective advertisement.

Once you have the audience you are seeking, then you should aim to identify all the products and service benefits your business is selling. To guide your writing for the advertisement, start by considering the unasked question on your audience minds – what’s in this for me? Don’t lose sight of the fact that you’re aim is to sell your products or services, not merely inform your audience about them. Hence, you need to give them a strong sense of why the product or service is of genuine value to them. Ensure that you are clear as to why this product is such good value and sell this to your audience within the body of the advertisement.

The advertisement needs to end with a strong ‘call to action’. This term simply means an affirmative ending statement that urges the customer to take further steps and buy the product. Once the advertisement has captured the customer’s attention and provided them with details of its value to them, the next step is getting the audience to act upon that information. Many business people find that this can actually be one of the most difficult elements to get right, but generally there are 3 things that you should include in the call to action.

Number one – list the ways and means that customers can contact you.

Number two – give a solid reason why they act upon your action call, a promotion or value offer is one option here.

Number three – ensure your call to action is almost an order, couched in very direct terms.

Ultimately your success with your advertising will rely on your being totally honest with yourself about what you aim to achieve from the promotion. The term, walk a mile in their shoes is what comes to mind here. Asses your advertising objectively, would you honestly be motivated to purchase if you were in the customer’s position. By following some of these suggestions here, you will soon be on your to creating well written and effective advertisements to sell your products and services. The outcome being that you will then reap the rewards that a good advertisement brings.

Deep Arora is an Internet marketer with over 7 years of online experience and he teaches internet marketing from his blog at http://www.HowIDid.com. Check out his blog for some amazing techniques today.

Not everyone is going to fit the perfect customer profile when it comes to your products or services. As a smart business owner, you have to know your niche, which is that particular segment of the population that is going to have interest in buying your product or service.

If they are to be effective, your AdWords campaigns have to address your particular niche. This means that you’ll need to know exactly who your customers are and why they buy your product or service. In turn, you’ll develop a focused keywords list from that.

Who is your customer, and who is potentially buying your product or service? If you are to be successful, you’re going to develop a profile of your typical customer. Your titles, keywords and descriptions have to appeal to this person. If the person is health-conscious, for example, your titles and keywords have to address that. Basically, you want to develop keywords and titles that capture the exact attention of your desired audience. For example, “heart healthy ground beef recipes” are much more likely to capture a health-conscious audience’s attention than simply “easy hamburger recipes.”

When you reach the right market, your niche, you need to avoid as much as you can the costs associated with clicks by people who aren’t going to buy your product or service. You want to avoid attracting viewers who will click but not buy, because you’ll pay a higher CPC rate without improving your sales. For example, if your conversion rates are low, that’s a good sign that your ads are too broad to reach just your target market.

Why do customers buy? It’s been suggested by marketing experts that people buy for one of three reasons: they need to take care of a basic need, they need to solve a problem, or they need to create positive feelings for or about themselves. What does this mean for you as a marketer? This means that your AdWords campaigns should tell the potential buyer what specific need will be satisfied, what problem will be solved, or what self-image improvement will happen because the customer purchases the product or service.

Those who search a specific term are given a list of hits when they hit “enter.” They’ll need to have a very strong reason to choose one versus another. If your ad titles are effective, this will increase to click-through rates. This will mean a lower CPC for you and better qualified leads coming to your pages.

If you want to focus more closely on your niche market, you can also use negative keywords. When these words are included in a viewer’s search, the ad will NOT appear in the results. To choose accurate negative keywords, you’ll need to do several things. First, you’ll need to use a keyword research tool, and enter the keywords you’ve chosen for your site. A list of phrases that searchers commonly use and that contain those words will be produced. For example, if you sell tulips, you might see that “pictures of tulips” is a frequently used phrase. A negative keyword such as “pictures” would prevent your particular ad from showing one of if viewers simply once an image of a tulip instead of actual tulips themselves.

In addition, if you use keyword phrase matching, you’ll better ensure that the ad will reach the viewers you want it to. You can also use common misspellings, variations in spelling, interchanged words and plural and singular forms of keywords to allow the maximum number of customers or potential customers to see the ad in response to a search they’re doing.

If you know your niche and you reach that segment of the market, you can better increase your chances of success with an AdWords campaign.

Robert Paul Williams is the Editor of Work At Home Business Website. Get Free and Low Cost Website Advertising Ideas by Visiting: http://work-at-home-business-website.com/article/98612

Click-through rates, if increased, can mean greater income for you if you are a Google AdSense user. Improving your click-through rate will mean better revenue. There are several ways you can make this happen.

First, what’s your current click-through rate? For this, divide the number of times you have click-throughs by your total number of views. Therefore, if you have a thousand impressions and someone clicks on your ad 10 times, the click-through rate is 1%. Make note of this statistic to compare it later.

Next, go to the website and see which keywords are used most often. You can find a free tool, which is available at seobook it will help you figure this out. This tool can also show you how these keywords rank in Google so that you know what ads will appear on the website based on keyword content. Google determines this. If you modify your content, you could garner ads that have more appeal for the audience, and this in turn might lead to higher click-through rate. Your keywords should appear at least once per 80 to 100 words.

In addition, you should pay attention to content. Your text should be high quality, and should be rich in keywords that are relevant. Your content is going to drive ad placement as well as traffic to the website, and both are needed if you want healthy click-through rates.

This is absolutely imperative, and can’t be overstated. You need quality content and sufficient keyword density so that visitors will find your website through search engine listings. In addition, better keywords frequency means that you get a higher search engine rank with the search engines, which in turn generates more traffic. Visitors will come back to your site if you give them interesting and well-written material. If you must, hire a content writer that has experience with search engine optimization if your traffic or click-through rates are lower than desired.

Your ads positions affect what your click-through rates are going to be. Try placing ads near the top of the page and near the left edge of the page, which may result in more click-throughs. You may also add whitespace around your ads to help increase click-through rates.

Webmasters have often found that ads receive more click-throughs when they blend in with the surrounding content. AdSense can help you shape, size and color your ads so that they fit in with the overall theme and appearance of your website. They have tutorials on their website as to how you can make these improvements. Remove borders, change shapes, apply website color schemes to the ads, and so on to make them more appealing.

In addition, if you limit the number of actions a visitor can take on each page, this will also help. If you provide many links, these can provide many distractions for visitors. In turn, this may make visitors do something besides click the ads, which is exactly what you want them to do. Limit your content to a single item per page, plus a navigation bar and the ad itself. Visitors are much more likely to take the desired action of clicking through when they don’t have too many options to begin with.

If you increase traffic, improve keywords and content, and pay attention to ad placement, you will increase your click-throughs.

Robert Paul Williams is the Editor of Work At Home Business Website. Get Free and Low Cost Website Advertising Ideas by Visiting: http://work-at-home-business-website.com/article/98612

Have you ever received a quote for a label or other printed material and thought, “Wow, I never imagined it would be so expensive.” As a label printing professional, I am often faced with questions about price, and many times there are more cost effective options available but customers either don’t know about it, or printers are unwilling to recommend less expensive methods. That ends today! This article will examine a few tried and true cost saving measures you can incorporate when gathering pricing for your custom labels.

Size Does Matter
Size plays an important role for a few reasons. Generally, the larger the label, the more expensive the finished product will be. If you are flexible, try to use the smallest size possible to communicate your message. Even a small change in size can affect price, especially when printing large volumes. Also, use standard sizes when possible. Standard sizes run more frequently, so printers tend to offer them at a reduced cost over custom sizes. Always ask if there is a standard size close to your desired size. The slight size change can save you a lot of money.

Inks
Do you really need to print four-color process? I know…you have a great design that you have put lots of time and energy into, but you quickly realize printing the labels may require you to take out a second mortgage. So what to do? The obvious answer is make the label one or two colors, especially if it is a “throw-away” label with a short lifespan. Also, use standard inks when possible. It is expensive to match pantone colors or create custom colors, and most printers offer standard ink colors at no additional charge.

How Will the Label be Used?
Another factor is how the label will be used. Will the label be in harsh environments and exposed to water, extreme temperatures or other solvents? Will the label be on a catalog cover offering a special discount? If the conditions are not extreme, most labels can be printed on an inexpensive standard paper stock. If the label will be exposed to harsh conditions, it will be necessary to produce it on a vinyl or polyester stock with lamination for added protection. It does tend to be expensive to print on a heavy-duty stock, but in most cases, it is well worth it because the label’s lifespan will be greatly increased. For non-extreme use, stick with a standard paper stock.

Copy Changes
If you need a variety of labels with different graphics or text, use the same size and ink color for each label. While it might not be as exciting, it will save you a lot of money because a printer will be able to run the labels together, resulting in a reduced cost per thousand. Also, if you have a variety of changes for a four-color process printing job, make sure the changes are all in black ink, as the black plate is easiest to change and many printers do not charge for black ink changes.

Price Breaks & Quantities
Price breaks and quantities do play an important role in term of price. It may actually cost less to print 5,000 labels instead of 4,000 labels because the cost per thousand for 5,000 labels is less. In addition, instead of placing orders monthly in small volumes, print higher quantities and store the labels. This will result in a lower cost per thousand and overall savings. Also, some printers will print large quantities, store the labels and ship them to you as needed. Always ask a printer where their price breaks are and get a quote for the closest price break to your desired quantity.

Printing labels can be an economical way to enhance a product, advertise a promotion, correct an error, relay important information, and much more. Don’t be afraid to ask printers questions and negotiate price, and of course, consult with a variety of printers to make sure the price you are getting is fair and reasonable.

Lauren Hayes is Vice President of Sales for In-Touch Direct, a company specializing in designing and printing custom labels for almost any application. Please visit http://www.intouch-labels.com for more information.