Developing a Profitable Web Business Concept

The first step to starting a profitable online business of your own is developing a topic for your website.

You want to select from a list of topics that interest you since you are going to have to write original content for your website.

Too many "green" webmasters make the mistake of choosing a website topic that they think will make them a lot of money instead of one that interests them.

They spend their time thinking about how to monetize their site before they actually have any visitors.

What is the end result?

A website that feels like a commercial. You have to remember that people are not using the internet to find your sales pitch they are using it to find information.

What does this tell you?

If you want to be a successful web business owner then your website should provide your users with valuable information resources related to your target keywords.

Ask yourself, am I more likely to buy a product from a trusted information source whose website I find useful and visit frequently or a website loaded up with banners and links to every way man has invented to make money?

Build your user's trust by providing valuable original content on your website. If you choose a topic that interest's you and that you are passionate about, the content will be much easier to develop.

When developing your site concept choose 4-5 broad topics at first until you identify which one has the most profit potential through keyword analysis techniques.

The top benefit of writing your own website content is that the search engines love it! If you want to get free targeted traffic to your website (of course you do, right?) having original, information filled website content makes the search engines very happy.

As you continue to add valuable original content to your website you will start to notice other websites linking back to you. This will bring both free targeted traffic and higher link popularity with the search engines depending on the quality of the sites that are linking to your site.

Search engine's see backlinks to a site as an indicator of how "popular" a site is. If you have a large number of websites linking back to your content you must be important, right? There is a lot to learn on this subject that goes beyond the scope of this article.

Visitors to your website will already be pre-sold since the backlinks you will receive should be from "related websites”, or from “internet searches” performed on keywords related to your website content.

Incorporate links to the products and services you are promoting within your website content and you have a powerful sales tool.

This strategy will not "explode" your income overnight but will provide you a steady stream of pre-sold, targeted visitors from the search engines within 3-6 months.

The Four Smartest Ways to Spiral Your Website Traffic

People are paying pretty significant dollars for website traffic these days. Pay-per-click charges of $1-10 are not uncommon for top search terms. Multiply that by the 300 unique visitors per day that my log furniture website gets, and you are talking at least $300 per day, or $9,000 per month—depending on how many days are in the month.

“There Must Be Some Easier Way”

While pay-per-click may be a good business model for your website, there’s nothing like free traffic to lay the foundation. My log furniture site used to get 100 unique visitors per day before it started fetching in 200, and now 300 on an average basis. The personal goal here is 1,000 unique daily visitors—but 10,000 would also be welcomed!

Following are some of the best ways we have found to grow website traffic:

#1: Website Optimization

A local business magazine recently ran an article calling SEO (search engine optimization) the equivalent of “hocus-pocus”. The author of the article, who apparently worked for an SEO firm, described optimization as a somewhat “shady” activity that’s impossible to get a handle on. I say “Baloney!”

SEO is not pseudo-science. It is a very tangible and real way to increase website traffic. If you haven’t taken care of the basics—e.g. making sure your website has a relevant title, focuses on the right keywords, avoids practices that are disdained by the search engines, etc., you can be sure that, once found, your website will not rank as highly (or get as much traffic) as it otherwise would. Begin your traffic-garnering efforts by making sure your website is up-to-snuff.

#2: Publish Helpful, Relevant Content

Publishing helpful articles on the Net with a link back to my log furniture website seems to result in traffic spikes nearly every time. Notice the emphasis is on “helpful” articles. There is plenty of useless drivel out there by people who are being paid $5 to write an article. Not to insult anyone, but I spend 2-8 hours on the articles I write—depending on how much research is required and how technical the article is—and that costs more than $5.

It doesn’t seem to matter what you write about. My topics so far have included SEO, the simplicity of Amish life, improving your bottom line, and understanding Google operators. The key is to make them relevant, short and helpful.

#3: Add more products to your website

Our experience has been that adding more products to the website helps us to come up in the search engines more often. A person who finds a rustic night stand at our site might notice that we have log bunk beds. Somebody who is shopping for an unfinished pine dresser might not be thinking of rustic furniture at all, stumble across one our products, like the whole site, and end up furnishing their cabin. Each product is like a fishing line cast in the sea. The more well-described bait you have out there—the more “fish” will bite.

#4: Improve your website conversion rate

Five years ago, we used to get one log furniture order for every 100 website visitors. Now it seems like closer to one order for every 300 unique visitors. Part of the reason for this, we believe, is that the web has become more competitive. But we also pay attention to our conversion rate.

We are in the process of making a change right now that might really help. Someone pointed out that when you click on an item to buy it within Miva Merchant’s standard interface, there is no confirmation that the item has been added to your shopping basket. This might lead some customers to believe that the website isn’t working properly. They might not be savvy enough to check the shopping basket. They might even leave the site without ordering (perish the thought!)

These “glitches” can really hurt website sales. We went to the Miva Merchant site for third-party modules and found a script that displays the shopping basket after each item is added. We purchased the script and install, and are watching to see how it affects website sales and conversion rate. Our guess is that this will have a positive impact on sales.

Conclusion

Obviously, there are a lot of other ways to increase website traffic. The four listed above are a great place to start. If you’re not into SEO, find somebody who is. If you are paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars of month for pay-per-click traffic, it may be wise to divert enough of those dollars to ensure that your website is the traffic-snagging, profit-generating machine you intend it to be.

7 Great Email Habits for the Beginning Internet Entrepreneur

If you are just starting out as an Internet entrepreneur then you have a lot to learn about doing business online. One such thing you need to concentrate on is your e-mailing habits. E-mail is your way of communicating with people and potential customers, so developing good e-mail habits early on is very important.

Habit #1 Respond Quickly
Always respond as quickly as possible to an e-mail. Don’t respond so quickly that you do not answer the questions or write properly, but respond as fast as you possibly can. One to two days maximum.

Habit #2 Grammar and Spelling
As a beginning Internet entrepreneur you cannot risk losing customers because you can’t write properly or spell. Fortunately, spellchecker and grammar check will help you with this. Be sure to use it with every e-mail.

Habit #3 Appropriate Subject and Format
Make sure the subject heading is filled in and gives the reader some clue as to the content of the e-mail. Then, make sure the format of the e-mail is similar to that of a real business letter. Lastly, don’t forget to keep it short and sweet. When you write a long drawn out e-mail you will lose people’s attention.

Habit #4 Address Recipient
Always address the recipient of the e-mail. You don’t have to start out with Dear Recipient, but their name should definitely be addressed. This gives a more professional look to your e-mail, which is just what you are trying to accomplish as a new Internet entrepreneur.

Habit #5 Provide Contact Information
Always provide your contact information in your e-mail following your signature. This way individuals will be able to visit your website, call you, fax or e-mail you without having to ask you for this information or do any extra research. Make it easy.

Habit #6 Cases
Don’t use all upper case or all lower case. Type correctly, just like you would write. You would never send a business letter in all caps or all lowercase, so don’t send e-mails this way either. Some people will interpret this as either screaming or whispering, respectively, and some might think it is just unprofessional. Avoid this and type correctly.

Habit #7 Previous Messages
When you respond to someone and are answering their questions be sure to include the previous e-mail so they may see exactly what you are replying to. Frequently, people send e-mails and when you reply without the previous e-mail attached they have no idea what you are responding to. The best thing is to copy parts of the previous e-mail and paste it in your e-mail with your response. Or be very specific when answering questions, such as restating them, for the convenience of your reader. If not, you will waste your time and theirs and not be perceived as a professional.

Ten Ways To Promote Your Site And Increase Traffic

Website promotion is a vital area in internet marketing that you should learn to master immediately. Your website is your HQ on the web, and as such, should be made prominent at the soonest possible time. The more people who would know about your website, the more visitors you would have.

Increased web site traffic would mean more potential sales and an expanded customer base. Here are ten useful ways to increase the volume of traffic of your site:

1. Get Your Own Domain Name.

People will never forget catchy domain names. Getting your own domain name will provide familiarity and recall. Be sure to choose a short and easy to remember domain name that is appropriate to your business.

2. Upload New, Original and Useful Content.

Blatant ads such as banners and pop-ups only irritate visitors. Give them information they can't find anywhere else, and give it to them for free. Always think benefits when posting a new article or feature. Thinking of ways to get your visitor what they want will establish respect and more importantly trust.

3. Submit Your Site to Search Engines.

Search engines bring more than 75% of traffic to most web sites. Search engine submissions means serious work. This involves search engine positioning and meta tag placements. It doesn’t end there because you need to test this with a number of search engine tools. This process involves constant monitoring of website competitors, and continuous
editing of pages.

4. Pay For Top Spots.

The best way to get website traffic without trying too hard would be through paid advertisements. These advertisements would be posted on prime locations or banners of websites. Popular websites like leading newspapers and search engines would provide immediate recognition and visibility to their customers. Of course this entails some substantial
advertising budget, but it is a good recourse for those who could afford it.

5. Form an Online Community.

An online community can be a message board, email groups, discussion list, and even a chat forum. Actively participate in these on-line groups by posting answers to other people’s questions and post appropriate information. Be visible and include your signature at the end of your postings. Maximize these special interest groups because people in online
communities get involved easily and are ready to communicate with others.

6. Start Your Own Mailing List.

It is the best way to keep in touch with your prospects and your customers. This is the best way to build the credibility needed to close a sale to your target market.

7. Start an E-Zine for Your Website.

An E-zine is an extension of your site, but this will highlight new information and features of your site. People will be reminded of your website as they read each issue. If they find they issue interesting or worth sharing, they can easily and instantly pass this on to the people within their network.

8. Submit Articles.

Write your own article and submit it to e-zines, websites and magazines that accept article submissions. Be sure to include your business and contact information and website address in the resource box.

9. Exchange Ads.

Create ads that will promote your business and website. Submit this to e-zines or other websites in exchange for free ad space in your own electronic publication. Your presence to other site or publications is very important in getting the increased traffic that you want. This is usually
facilitated with either simple links or flashy banners.

10. Update Your Website.

Your website should always be up and running. It is to your advantage if you maintain your website with new articles and updated features. Maintain a clean layout and check for broken links, images and pages. If they always find what they want and need, they will surely be coming back each time. Additionally, search engine spiders love a site with
changing content!

Persist in the Right Way to Succeed in your Online Home Business

Persistence is one of the most important characteristics of a Business Entrepreneur. Without it, failures will follows. This happens to every business entrepreneur including me.

When you start your own online business, you often get frustrated when you cannot get the desired results that you want. When you checked your web log, not enough website traffics is coming. You have try lots of promotion methods: banner impression, guarantee clicks, exchange links, search engines optimization and many others ways but traffics is not coming as quickly as you want.

That's the problems many online entrepreneur is facing. Quick Results. They want to make money quickly and get frustrated and give up their online business when they cannot see the money coming in FAST. Many forgot how they managed to land into their FIRST job.

We forgot the vast amount of time and money our parents have invested on us on our education before we can eventually land
on the desired job that we want. Try counting back in time the number of years you spend on education before ending up on
your present job. Don't forget to include those time you spend searching for your job, writing resume and attending interviews.

Likewise, every business take time to build and grow. Your persistence will bear results sooner or later if you continue to
persist in the RIGHT WAY. You just have to keep moving FORWARD even if you cannot see the result now.

It is good to invest on a little paper notebook to record what you have done for your online business. Analyze your written log OFFLINE and think about what are the methods that are working and strike out those that are not. Many people never realize that it is better to analyze your problems away from your work desk to allow new ideas to pop out of your mind.

Go for a jog, a swim, a walk around the park, look at the fishes in the pond, visit the zoo just take a break from your normal
routines. Have you ever encounter situation where your problems was immediately solved the next day after having a good night sleep.

Sometimes your online promotion might be working but it takes time for the search engine to rank your site, index your
contents, count the number of incoming links to your site etc. Don't forget that there are billions of website the search engine database is handling and it will take time before you can see any real results.

Therefore, never stop feeding your website with new contents. Your body need to eat daily so does your website. At least,
try to feed your website weekly. Never stop exchanging links and provide a place for others to exchange links with you.
Regularly, free a portions of your old articles and submit it to be published into other websites, ezines with your resource box at the bottom.

QUITTER never wins and WINNERS must Persist in order to WIN.

Wishing you success in your Persistence of becoming a Successful Business Entrepreneur.

Building strong website traffic.

It is worth looking at some values and strengths of a few technical and promotional elements of your website that will help you to lay a foundation in building profitable online success. Once you have decided on your market and have chosen a relevant domain name for your online business, you need simple and effective tools and methods to put and keep your business on a profitable track. Ideally you will want to make use of easy-to-use methods that keeps visitors coming to your website. Lets look at a few practical ideas.

When a visitor comes to your website you have to get their follow-up information by collecting their email address. It is important to ‘enable’ your web site to automatically deliver quality content such as a newsletter to visitors and allow you to follow up with extra information when necessary. Top marketers agree that this forms a large percentage of their online success. How do you do this? You create forms on your web pages, giving visitors the chance to subscribe to your opt-in list, newsletter or report. This allows you to introduce your service and offer something valuable in order to build relationship. Email follow-up through autoresponders is totally free and an absolute necessity for implementing. All you need to do is integrate the autoresponder into your web site via a form so that you can pre-load it with your newsletters. You may say that you’re not a writer, but what do you know about your industry? Write it down and put it into an informative newsletter. Subscribers can now begin to see you as an expert on the subject and look to you for the solutions that your business is already offering.

Once your newsletter is up and running, you can use these very same tips and ideas you share with your subscribers and also write a weekly article about your product or service, and then submit it to ezines online. This is very easy to do and will have great response for your business. There are tens of thousands of ezine publishers online that needs good content, and will give you valuable exposure for your business. You will have many sites linking to your site and people will be able to read what your business is about and visit your website. Then they will also be able to subscribe to your newsletter which provides even more information about your product or service. Each article has got a resource box at the bottom which allows visitors to visit your web site. Write your 4 to 6 line resource box by viewing some samples online and making up your own. Finding details of ezine publishers can quite easily be done through looking up in search engines.

Let’s go a step further and look at newspaper classifieds. By using little snippets of ideas from your newsletters and articles, you can come up with short eye catching promotional messages to use in newspaper classifieds. There are newspaper companies that offer state wide and nation wide advertising in their papers, often covering readership in excess of 2 to 3 million. By placing 10-15 word tiny classified ads all over the globe can dramatically increase your website traffic. A big mistake people make when doing this is to try and make sales directly from their ads instead of just generating leads for later follow-up. You would want to get your leads to your web site first from where they can subscribe to your automated content.

Lastly lets consider the eye opener an affiliate program can have for your business. With the right product or service it is by far the hottest way of building your business and customer base. Submit your program to affiliate directories across the web. You’ll have affiliates making sales for you and not paying a cent in advertising until you’ve made the sale! Your advertising will be covered by your affiliates, and you can concentrate on providing customer service and continue follow-up with your increasing customer base through newsletter delivery and other product offers. By becoming familiar with how important it is to stay relevant in implementing these factors will benefit your business and you will find that you’ll be achieving better results.

Amazing Secrets Of A Free Traffic Generation MASTER

Without traffic to your website, you're not going to make any money in your online business (unless you're able to tap into someone else's traffic).

For many websites... especially new sites, one of the fastest, surest ways to drive traffic to the site is pay per click search engines. The RISK in using pay per clicks is that you don't know how well that traffic is going to convert before you've paid for it. You can adjust your webpages and your pay per click listing fairly quickly, but today I want to share with you two of my MAJOR free traffic generation methods.

The most powerful weapon I've used in my marketing arsenal lately is actually... blogging. A blog is simply an on-line diary or weblog. Since they are usually updated frequently, the search engines love them and visit them often.

The way that I use my blogs is that when I make a post, I include a link to a site or webpage that I want spidered by the search engines. Google actually visits my blogs daily, and takes snapshots of everything there, and follows links from the pages, and takes snapshots of those pages! So, I make minor changes to pages that I want to get ranked higher, and then I "help" Google to find those updated pages. It's a simple, ethical, and very powerful method.

I'm fairly new at blogging, but I'm quickly getting the hang of it. Most of what I know about blogging I learned from a course by my friend Paul Short. The course is called RSS Exposed. I recommend you get a copy of Paul's course today and set aside 2 hours to digest it. Get it at:
http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=109478

Paul is like me... he's very busy, and doesn't have time for fluff. So his course is under 100 pages, and it's all "stuff" that you can read and then immediately implement.

Does this stuff work thought. My friend Stephen Pierce taught me that NOTHING is more powerful than concrete PROOF. So let's look at how I rank for a few keywords that I'm focusing on right now. I'll show you with a few of the more than 100 niches that I have top 10.... often top 3 rankings for. I know that showing you these examples may attract the attention of potential and existing competitors, so I won't show you the most lucrative ones :-)

Readers who know me, know that my real online success started with a simple soul food or southern cookbook! That one cookbook still generates a very nice six-figure income! This season of the year, I know that people are on-line searching for holiday recipes and also gift-giving ideas. My logs show me how my market finds me... keywords and sources. They show that for the cookbook, most find my site through Google, with MSN being a distant second. Here's how I ranked for a few cooking related terms (as of November 21st, 2004):

Soul Food Recipes - #2 out of 1,220,000
Soul Food - #3 out of 8,840,000
Soul Food Cookbook - #2 out of 273,000
Deep Fried Turkey Recipe - #3 out of 257,000
Deep Fried Turkey Recipes - #4 out of 302,000
Sweet Potato Pie - #2 out of 614,000
Sweet Potato Pie Recipe #2 out of 394,000
Fried Chicken Recipe - #2 out of 861,000
Fried Chicken Recipes - #2 out of 1,160,000
Southern Fried Chicken - #2 out of 436,000
Deep Fried Turkey - #14 out of 330,000
Pound Cake Recipe - #2 out of 547,000
Macaroni And Cheese Recipe - #1 out of 207,000
Collard Green Recipe - #4 out of 21,200
Southern Recipes - # 15 out of 4,970,000
... I guess I need to work on that last listing :-)

One of my other markets is "Internet Marketing," and those looking to start or improve upon an online or home-based business. How do I rank there? Here are a few of the thousands of terms that bring me in free search engine traffic (again based upon my website logs):

Internet Marketing 101 - # 1 out of 5,550,000
Internet Marketing Course - #2 out of 10,600,000
Free Internet Marketing Course - #2 out of 11,800,000
Free Internet Marketing Lessons - #2 out of 2,810,000
Homebased Business - #9 out of 1,930,000
Homebased Business Course - #1 out of 522,000
Free Homebased Business Course - #1 out of 483,000

For those of you without your own product, let's see how I do with products I have reprint rights to. One is a web copywriting course by Bob Serling called Power Copywriting For The Internet. When someone is searching for that course they search on very specific terms... but... since their search is so specific, a higher percentage of them will buy when they get to my website. This is a more niche market, but some of my rankings are:

Internet Copywriter + Bob Serling - #1 out of 985
Web Copywriting + Bob Serling - # 7 out of 918
Web Copywriting Course + Bob Serling - #5 out of 16,400
Power Copywriting For The Internet - #2 out of 128,000

Another product that I have reprint rights to is an excellent course on how to increase your website, and advertising, conversion rates. It's called, "Small Changes - Big Profits." Here's my ranking on keywords customers have recently used to find (and buy) this product:

Increase Website Conversion - #6 out of 2,480,000
How to Increase Website Conversion - # 6 our of 2,490,000
Note that when you enter that last phrases, Google tells you that "how to" is a very common phrase and therefore not included in the search. However, notice that Google found an additional 10,000 pages when I gave it that expression. Ok, so I'm confused too :-)

My second most powerful weapon right now is that I write lots of ezine articles... like this one. Since 1998, I would estimate that I've written over 300. Those articles are a very powerful way of getting one-way links to my site. Those articles are a powerful way for people with specific problems or interest to find my sites.

Here's a simple example of how powerful articles can be. I know for a fact that the majority of people in network marketing aren't doing that great. I also know why. The proof that I know what they are doing wrong, and how to correct it, is provided by the fact that I was recently the #2 producing representative in a major network marketing company for 2 consecutive months. The only reason I wasn't #2 longer is that I've only been with the company a little over 4 month, and that in my fourth month, I was the #1 top producing rep in the entire company!

Recognizing what many network marketers are doing wrong... especially those that market over the internet, I wrote an article on the topic. This article targeted those who wanted to know why their network marketing is failing. So if you go to Google and enter...

"Network Marketing Failing" without the quotation marks, you'll see that the returns for webpages featuring my article take up the entire first page. If a person were to type in the statement "My Network Marketing Is Failing" my page ranks #1 out of 312,000. Do people search on these terms? Not as many as search on more competitive terms, but why not go after easier terms... why not go after "the low-hanging fruit."

People do visit my sites after reading the hundreds of articles that I've written, and they do make purchases and join my network marketing team. That's proof that writing and properly using articles is a very powerful traffic generation technique. I have lots of resources on how to properly do this inside my private membership site. If you're not a member, you should join today. Inside the site you'll find lots more solid, usable information like you just gotten in this article.

I've just shared with you two of my most powerful free traffic generation methods. I actually know HUNDREDS but only use a handful. I believe that it's better to get really good at using a few rather than tinkering with (but never mastering) many. You need to do your research and find the techniques that work best for you.

If you'd like a really comprehensive course on website traffic and sales generation methods, I recommend John Reese's Traffic Secrets Course. Check out John's course to learn a ton of ways to outflank your competition at:
http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=110203
It's 14 DVD's, so realize that it will throw a LOT of information at you. Make sure that you pick just a few techniques he covers, and then put them into immediate action rather than letting the sheer volume of information overwhelm you.

As I've demonstrated, being a master at generating free, responsive traffic doesn't have to be complicated or even difficult :-)

The Home Business University That Changed My Life

During my first 2 years as a struggling home business entrepreneur dreaming of making big money and leading a free lifestyle, I made many mistakes. Some of those mistakes cost me money. Others caused me heartache, and a few almost completely destroyed my faith that an ordinary person like me could dream of extraordinary things.

But I have also made a handful of good decisions, and at the top of that list is my decision to become a member of the IAHBE. The IAHBE (http://www.iahbe.org) stands for International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs. In one sentence, it is simply "An online Home Business University with an extensive Learning Center packed with home business information, reports, articles, seminars and other content put under one roof."

Being an exclusive paid membership resource, I was very half-hearted at first at the thought of spending a good $29 for something as intangible as "information". As I once asked myself, many people now ask me this question: "Can't I get this information for FREE on the Internet? So why do I need to pay for it?"

I have to admit that this is a valid question. And I have to agree that you CAN find similar (but not exact) information for free, scattered around the Internet. So why choose the IAHBE? How can it help you?

Let me tell you my story, from the point of view of an entrepreneur living in Malaysia, while trying to build a global business on the Internet. This is how it changed my life...

1) Your Words are the Holy Truth

Not too long ago, I used to think that my ex-MLM upline leader had my best interests at heart. I thought that the meetings I went for and the methods they preached were the only way to build and market a home based business.

That couldn't be any further from the truth. For example, my upline thought me these lessons about prospecting:

a) Go door-to-door and ask people to come to the Opportunity Meeting...
b) NEVER mention that it is a "business opportunity meeting"...
c) Personally go to the prospect's home and bring them to the opportunity meeting...
d) Make a surprise visit to your prospect's home and show them the compensation plan...
e) Convince the prospect to join or buy the products

I could go on and on, but surely you get the point. In the IAHBE, I came across an article by Tom “Big Al” Schreiter about prospecting, and it changed my life forever. Here's what the article said:

"Professionals sort, amateurs convince"

I wish words could express how that simple sentence changed my idea of prospecting forever...

The point is this: You can never rely on a single source of information. The IAHBE has so many good and qualified authors, every one of them a success in their own rights. Finally, I found a place where I can get so much high quality information, compare them, and decide for myself which ideas I want to follow.

If you’ve decided to climb the home business ladder to success, and you want to REALLY make sure that it’s not leaning against the wrong wall, you’ll need guidance from people who have "been there and done that" before you start your journey.

2) Running Around in Circles

Before I joined the IAHBE, I was scouting around the Internet for free home business tips and ideas. I found many, but the problem was that I now had to ask myself:

- Which Internet "guru" you should I listen to?
- What should I invest in?
- Which resources will help me achieve profitability and which ones won't?
- What steps should I take to get where I want without busting my budget?

As I sat around cracking my head with these questions, I realized another undeniable factor to home business success, TIME! The fact is that there are only so many hours in a day, and why was I wasting time trying to wade through the sea of information called the Internet?

Information on the Internet, I learned, can never be fully trusted, especially if it's FREE. There are so many "Fake Experts" out there pitching ideas they have not tried themselves, which can lead the new guy astray.

With the IAHBE on the other hand, I can be assured that I am getting only top quality information. All writers are screened and evaluated before their material is accepted by the IAHBE. You don't get the fake ones here, and that's a real relief.

3) Keeping My Home Business Costs under Control

As a budding home business entrepreneur, my survival depended on how well I controlled my meager finances and small capital. And yet, every business owner knows the costs associated when starting your business. For example, I had to spend on:

a) My personal growth - books, ebooks, reports
b) Advertising - ezine ads, PPC, leads and print media ads
c) Operations - PC software, productivity tools

I had, at that time, spent close to $3000 just getting started. Most that was spent on useless website traffic schemes, so called "targeted" home business leads, books, software and PPC advertising. But in my second month as a member of the IAHBE, I realized that I actually have hundreds of unused coupons, discounts and special offers for the same products and services that I paid the full price for elsewhere. How can they do this?

It's a question of simple economics. What you cannot achieve as an individual, you can easily achieve as a group. Since the IAHBE has thousands of members, they can easily negotiate for special bulk discounts, free trials, and even free gifts from various suppliers, manufacturers and retailers.

4) A Simple Choice I had to Make

Many of my downline affiliates ask; is the IAHBE suitable for me? To this question I always ask them back:

"Do you want to spend time finding information, or do you want to spend time building a business?"

The reason is this; if you're content in running around chasing information, instead of actually building a business, you don't need the IAHBE. If you want to learn only from truly successful people, and get the information delivered to your doorstep, there is no smarter choice. After all, it only costs you around a dollar a day. Heck, even useless 'lifestyle' magazines cost more :)

5) The Journey Makes a Full Circle

The only apparent weakness of the IAHBE was that it did not provide information specific to Malaysia, where I live and run my Internet business. Sure, the articles and tips were great, but when I needed information that applies to me as a Malaysian, I dreaded the thought of going back to the world of offline information retrieval.

In an email, I told them that they should be more "International" as their name suggests. To my honest surprise, three months down the road, they did indeed become truly "International". And they were looking for writers to complement their search for information on Asia, especially in home business hotspots like India, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan and the Philippines.

Good things happen to those who persist. Not only did I get what I want, I was also appointed as a writer for topics related to Asia. Now I had to give back, and I could not be happier doing so.

So even if you are based in far corners of Asia, the International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs could be the smartest choice you make this year to help you improve as an entrepreneur, as a marketer, and as a human being.

Take it form a guy who learned the hard way. Take it from a guy who is a member, writer and 100% believer in the IAHBE, and how it can change your life. You can get more info at http://www.home-business-association.com/IAHBE/

Seek only the truth, for the truth shall set you free. In the story of my life as an entrepreneur, it did indeed.

Source :
Gobala Krishnan is a home based business entrepreneur and Internet marketer. You can contact him at http://www.GobalaKrishnan.comor become a member of his Six Figure Income Dream Team at http://www.sfidreamteam.com

Traffic Exchange Sites

Traffic Exchange Sites are websites where you get page views of your own site in exchange for visiting others. Many such sites are available. However, choosing the right one or a combination of them can be a very time consuming process.

Basically there are two types. Manual surfing and Auto surfing. Some Traffic exchanges cater for Manual surfing only, some cater for Auto surfing only and some cater for both.

Manual surfing - This requires your input by clicking a button after a specified time period, generally 15, 20 or 30 seconds, although there are a few other variations. With manual surfing, the surfer is expected to view each site. However, with most exchange sites, it is possible to minimize or resize the windows. This defeats the purpose because it allows multiple sessions to be run simultaneously. On the better exchange sites, security measures are often used to deter this. These are normally random prompts that require user input. For example, after x number of page views, you may be required to enter a code, select a color or image or perform some other variation of this.

Auto surfing - This requires no input. However in reality, your input may be required because of popup or frame breakers. Some traffic exchange sites require that the pages run are maximized and although you can minimize the page yourself, it will automatically maximize at the next refresh. You will also find that with some exchange sites, pages will run on top whereas with others, pages will run quite happily underneath, allowing you to do what ever you like without ever viewing the page content.

Both manual and auto surfing will bring traffic to your website, but there is a much greater likelihood of your web pages being actually seen with manual surfing.

Credits - As well as surfing, credits are usually acquired for subscribing, for referrals and for any winnings associated with exchange site lotteries, games or competitions. These credits can then be used to increase the traffic to your site. Some exchange sites will also allow you to sell your credits to other members.

Free or Paid - The majority of Traffic Exchanges offer a paid option. This option may give you a better surf ratio, bonus credits, money for referrals or other benefits. Before paying however, it is important that you test how targeted the traffic is that you receive. There's no point in paying for extra traffic if it doesn't generate any more income for you.

Click for Credits or Buy Credits - Is it worth buying credits?

This can depend on a number of reasons. The two main ones are time and money.

Let’s take an example

At the time of writing the cost of 2000 credits for free members of a well known Traffic Exchange Site was $40. This works out at $0.02 a click. For pro members the same $40 bought 2200 credits.

With the number of clicks limited to 250 per day and page views of 20 seconds this means that in theory it will take you 250 X 20 = 5000 sec or 83 minutes 20 seconds to view the 250 pages. However in practice you must allow extra time for clicking the next button, clicking the title of the page you will be viewing and any sites worth looking at.

Since I am a firm believer in practical results, I viewed the 250 pages. It took me 2 hours and 12 minutes to accomplish this. During that time, I accumulated 854 credits. To buy these credits would have cost $17.08 as a free member and approximately $15.53 as a pro member. Allowing for rounding up, this equates to almost 390 credits per hour or $7.80 per hour cash value.

Now ask yourself this. Would you work for $7.80 per hour?

I must emphasize that this is only one example and that other results will differ because of the random allocation of credits. It is shown here only as an example and to give you an idea of the cost implications for one particular traffic exchange site. The cost of credits may differ dramatically for different exchange sites. If you buy or intend to buy credits from a traffic exchange site, you can apply what is shown in the example. There's no need to click on a large number of websites to find out if your exchange site is giving you enough credits for your money. A sample of around 20 sites should give you enough information to produce a rough value-for-money guide.

If you enjoy this sort of thing or want a break from train spotting, you could expand on this. Increase your sample size, increase the number of samples, select a good representation of traffic exchanges and tabulate your results. Choose enough sites and you will be able to create your own league table. There’s a market for everything.

Whether you use traffic exchange sites or not in the quest for more visitors to your site, you should at the very least know what they are and what they do. But don't totally dismiss them. They are part of an expanding market. I recommend that you try at least one traffic exchange site. You could read every book on the subject, but without active participation, you will not be qualified to comment on their worth or suitability. The time taken for a few mouse clicks is a small price to pay. If it works for you, you have learned. If it doesn't work for you, you have learned.


Source : Bryan Quinn