1. Drive traffic to your blog. The first step to create money from your blog is to drive traffic to it. Thus, you must learn how to optimize your blog so search engines will index it. You can also use other traffic generating tools such as article marketing, forum posting, etc.

2. Optimize your blog name. Blog names, like any other domain names, must have these characteristics in order to drive traffic to your blog: Must contain relevant keywords, contains a maximum of 30 characters, easy to spell, easy to remember, and it must communicate what the whole blog is all about.

3. Advertise on your blog. This is the easiest way to convert your traffic to instant money. You can opt to use Google adsense and every time your visitors click these ads, you will earn instant cash.

4. Link building. Exchange links with other websites or blogs that share your blog topic. Remember, search engine will rank your blog based on the quantity and quality of links pointing to it.

5. Join paid blogging networks. You can also make money by writing your reviews and opinions on various products and services offered online.

6. Update your blog regularly. Give your readers something to look forward to every time they visit your blog. Post new articles, images, video or audio at least twice a week so you will not lose your readers interest.

7. Avoid grammar and spelling errors. Check your content to make sure that they are free from any error. Online users can get easily annoyed with grammar and spelling errors and take these as carelessness on your part.

8. Be different. Make sure that your blog standout. Offer unique content and unique blog design that showcase your personality.

With these 8 steps your surelly can have some ideas on how to make money with your blog. This article is just a guide, but a very powerful one if you know how to use it.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Listen in to discover the secrets to instantly creating multiple income streams in any business no matter what the economy.

iMarket Innovation (http://imarketinnovation.com) will host a FREE radio segment where you will learn FREE marketing tactics on “How to Win In Today’s Challenging Environment”.

All businesses, big or small can benefit from this radio episode and we encourage you to listen in or download the MP3 recording to tune in on your iPod!

How to use strategic alliances to generate profit, power and leverage to win in today’s challenging economy.

Related posts

• No related posts.

As a work at home business one of the goals is to create an experience for the customer that is as easy as if they were buying from a Fortune 500. So how do you make it happen?

One of the best things you can do is look for good products that can demonstrate value to the customer but involves little to no work on your part.

Here are 10 tools that are easy for the non techs but add great value to the customer.

1. www.Efax.com: EFax is an online fax service that eliminates the need for a traditional fax  machine, another line and all the associated expenses such as paper and ink cartridges. You get a real fax number that’s tied to your email.

2. www.Aweber.com: If you want to keep in touch with your customers automatically and personalize the communication an auto responder can be an important tool.  For a small monthly fee you are able to create email campaigns or a single message and broadcast it to your customer list. There are a variety of ways to increase the personalization and as a result will help you develop a better relationship with the customer.

3. www.VoiceShot.com: How would you like to instantly send a voice mail broadcast message to one or thousands of customers at a time? Imagine the power of being able to send reminders, alerts, product announcements or even so interactive polls or surveys right from the web. There are no set up fees or monthly minimums. You simply pay for the calls that are delivered. You truly can call more than one person at a time.

4. www.SendOutCards.com: Have you ever wanted to send a thoughtful card to someone but forgot or it simply did not happen because you ran out of time? Well Kody Bateman CEO of send out cards has not only revolutionized the greeting card industry he has made it his mission to change peoples lives one card at a time. With over a couple of cards in the inventory you can send cards to anyone.

I love this product because in less than one minute you can choose a card, personalize it, even add a picture, write it with your own handwriting, put a stamp on it and hit send. This is no e-card that may never get opened. You can set yourself apart from the competition and touch the heart of people you care about with this revolutionary product.

5. www.AudioAcrobat.com: Audio Acrobat is easiest way to add audio to your website or email. Would you to create your own online radio show? Audio Acrobat helps you record conference calls, podcast, interviews, and more. You can also learn to create products such as marketable CD’s.

6. www.FreeConference.com: Have you ever wanted to give a tele-seminar but did not want have the money to get started? Or maybe, you wanted to put a group of your customers or support team on the line to mastermind. A great way to not only develop a bound with your customers but to develop your content to them is through tele-seminars or tele-classes as they are sometimes called.

If you are just starting try www.FreeConference.com . You will receive a phone number where up to 25 participates can call in and listen to your seminar, boot camp, book reading or whatever content you want to deliver.

As you grow in experience you can choose other companies that will allow a larger number of participates as well options such as recording and creating a MP3 file.

Conference calls are great leverage because you can speak to several people at one time from the comfort of your home.

7. www.freeonlinesurveys.com: Would you like to know what your customers are thinking? You should. It’s simple to do when survey them. You can use this free online service to tap in the heart and mind your customer and uncover what they want from you. In less than 10 minutes you can be up and running. It’s easy to use with no software to install.

8. www.ilovechecks.com: Current figures show that 20% of all online transactions are check-based and that more  than 75 million Americans do not have a credit card. Now your business can accept online checks and get fast verification of account status. You don’t even need a shopping cart to process online checks with their virtual terminal and ATMVerify services. Don’t lose business because you don’t take checks.

9. www.EVoice.com or www.EVoicePlus.com: If you are a start up or home based business you may not want to miss your  customers calls or have them go to a voice mail. Providing a quick response gives your clients to assurance that you are a well run business.

The ability to answer a customer or get back to them quickly is a crucial part of customer service. There are several different ways to accomplish this. However, www.evoice.com and www.evoiceplus.com are two lost cost highly effective tools.  EVoice allows the messages to be send to your email and with EVoice Plus your messages can go right to your cell phone.

10. www.PDF995.com:  One of the keys to leverage your business is to create free reports, products, e-books and other publishing documents. The power of this strategy is once you develop a product you can either give it away or sell it over and over. You can even add free give-away rights which will allow someone to give your report away without changing any of the content. This can start a buzz and spread like a virus.

While there are only 24 hours in a day choosing the right tools can surely help you leverage the time. Think strategically when you are looking for products and service to help you build your business. Don’t just think about what you need right now. Always ask your self the question, “How can this tool help me grow into a million dollar business?”

Related posts

• No related posts.

What is the primary reason your customers or clients come to you? Or purchase your product or service? What is the Number One problem you solve for them? Do you know? Are you certain? If you don’t, your marketing could be missing the mark, and you could be missing out on sales.

Uncovering Your “Key Selling Point”

This is the Single Marketing Message that is the central message in all of your communications about your business, product or service. It can be difficult for small business owners to determine what their single marketing message should be. Why? Because they are too close to their business. And, because they are viewing their business from their side of the desk.

Keeping your marketing customer-focused can be a challenge

Even if we know we should be looking at our business from our customers’ perspective, it’s often easier said than done. As a result, it is easy to get caught up in all the amazing features of our product or service and the reasons we THINK our clients are attracted or are buying.

But sometimes our vantage point is clouded by our own perceptions and beliefs. And those perceptions and beliefs may be inaccurate. So how do you pinpoint the real reason customers are attracted to your product or service and the true reasons they are choosing to buy?

There is an easy way to stay on track

Very simply, YOU ASK THEM! Okay, I know it seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how often we don’t think of the obvious.

Your prospects and customers (and yes, even your rejecters — those who visit but don’t buy) can provide great insights about the benefits they value most in your product or service and why they chose to buy.

Whether you have a lot of customers or only a few

You don’t have to have a large customer or prospect base to do some research to see if you are on track. Even if you only have a handful of clients or customers, contact them and ask them what they like most about your product or service.

Talk to your Clients or Customers

(1) What is the one thing that got them to purchase?

(2) Have you delivered on that promise?

(3) What do they like least about your product or service?

(4) How could you improve your product or service?

(5) What else (in your business category) do they have a need for?

(6) How else could you help them be successful, be happier, or solve whatever problem your product or service solves for them?

Talk to your Rejecters

If you choose to survey rejecters (which I have done very successfully for years for one of my clients) find out why they DIDN’T buy.

(1) Ask them what product or service they bought instead of yours? And why?

(2) Ask them what that competing product or service offered that yours did not?

(3) Ask if there is anything you could do to get their business in the future? Product or service changes, additions, deletions?

Talk to your Prospects

Do you have a list of prospects — those who have expressed an interest in your product or service but have not yet purchased? Perhaps they have subscribed to your newsletter or ezine.

(1) Ask them for feedback on your newsletter or ezine content.

(2) What topics are they interested in learning more about?

(3) How can you help them to be more successful, happier, etc?

(4) Find out what they want and who they are

And in all three cases — Clients/Customers, Rejecters, and Prospects — if it seems appropriate, ask for a little information about who they are. Age, gender, profession, where they live, how much they typically spend in your product or service category.

This will help you get a better understanding of your target audience and you’ll know if you’re attracting the kind of people you thought would be interested in your product or service. And if you need to change your marketing strategy to reach a different audience, or to perhaps change your target audience.

It will help you better serve them

The more you can learn about your prospects and customers the better you can serve them. And the more effectively you can market to them.

You may be in for a surprise

I’ve had clients tell me they thought they knew why people were buying from them until they asked. And what they heard surprised and shocked them.

Very often what you hear can help you zero-in on a Unique Selling Proposition that you never thought of. And because it came from the mouths of your customers you know it is compelling and effective.

Don’t change everything based on a few opinions

My only caution is if you only have a handful of customers or prospects to survey, don’t make any major changes or decisions until you are able to validate your findings among a larger group of people.

Or at least test any changes you do make before making a final decision to overhaul your entire business or marketing plan. Common sense is the rule here. Just use your own good judgment and don’t over-react to comments made by only a handful of people.

You can ask in a number or ways – Choose what works for you

There are any number of ways to collect research from your prospects and customers. You can telephone them, email them, mail them a written questionnaire, or you can meet with them in a group (called a focus group) to collect their opinions.

You can be as formal or informal as you feel comfortable. Typically the larger number of clients you survey, the more formal the survey. If you have only a handful of people to talk to, simply pick up the phone and call them.

Don’t be afraid to ASK

Don’t be afraid to ask for opinions on your products or services or how you can serve your clients better. What you find out could be extremely valuable in helping you to build and grow your business.

Don’t forget to say “thank you”

You will also want to consider offering an incentive to encourage your prospects and clients to participate or respond. A bonus, such as a special report, or a discount on a future purchase is a nice way to show your appreciation for them taking the time to respond to your survey.

(C) 2005 Debbie LaChusa

Related posts

• No related posts.

Rental Cabins In The Air

I started with a crazy thought: “What if people could rent a cabin up in the sky for the weekend?” Right away my mind tries to make sense of the idea, and because the over-all goal is to have profitable innovations, it looks for ways to make it into a money making idea. I first imagined cabins which are suspended under large hot-air or helium balloons.

As much fun as it might be, this didn’t seem very practical. When I explored the idea further, though, I wondered if existing balloon-ride businesses could tap into other markets. If, for example, the gondolas were outfitted properly, and the balloons tethered, so they could be allowed to float two thousand feet overhead, would meditators then pay for a peaceful meditation retreat in the sky?

Another thought came to mind. Balloons could be high in the air, but easily cranked back in on a line. This might be simpler and cheaper than traditional rides, which involve chase vehicles and unpredictable landings. Perhaps this could be another way to make money with the balloons, charging a lower rate for simple up and down rides, and so getting new customers that couldn’t afford the usual rides.

This is how a crazy idea comes back to earth. Perhaps even the “weekend cabin in the sky” idea could someday be a money making idea, but if not, that’s okay. The point here is to get the creative flow going, and then find more practical ways to channel the output.

More Crazy Money Making Ideas

The following are pure imagination. I leave it to you to find a way to make these ones into potential money making ideas. Good luck and have fun!

- Put seats on the wings of an airplane and sell rides to thrill seekers.

- Sell advertising scratched out on the face of the moon.

- Rent out the animals at the zoo.

- Start an underwater school.

- Make a roller coaster course people pay to take their personal cars on.

- Sell pets genetically engineered to die young, for those who hate long-term commitments.

- Rent out children to undecided prospective parents.

- Have marriage insurance policies that cover the cost of a divorce, just in case.

- Have a swimming pool restaurant; diners sit in floating seats and eat off floating plates.

Scan the list and stop on any of the crazy ideas that catch your attention. Chances are good that you can find some way to transform it into a more practical idea, and that is the point. This exercise in imagination may be fun, but it is also a profitable technique for generating money making ideas.

Related posts

• No related posts.

2.    Affiliate programs – You can choose affiliate hubs where different advertisers offer their banners and affiliate offers and you can manage them using a centralized system, or you can get a single affiliate website that will display their banners on your site. The potential profits that come from affiliate programs are strictly connected to how high your visitor counts are and how targeted those visitors are. This takes us a bit away from affiliate systems and highlights the importance of SEO in any online business. The web masters who invest money and energy into ethical SEO techniques often notice a very steady increase in traffic, which, in turn, enables them to make more profit from their online business.

3.    Freelance jobs – Working as a freelancer on the Internet is one of the most popular ways of making money from home. You can try your luck at graphic design, copywriting, programming and several other dozens of ramifications and project types.

4.    Electronic commerce – selling items on eBay is one of the hottest ways of making a lot of cash online. Not everyone is successful at it, of course, but those that are continue to increase their profits constantly. Auctions on eBay have a lot of potential – combine them with dropshipping and you can get a business that’s easy to run and very profitable at the same time.

5.    Paid surfing and survey filling – There are a number of companies that pay you to surf the web. They display a small add on your desktop when you are connected to the Internet and give you a percentage of the advertising revenue they receive. The amount per hour is not very big, but there are ways to multiply it by referring other people. This is really the focus of all this programs. Tell everybody you know that they too, can get paid to surf, and get paid yourself for referring them. Paid surveys are also great, since they are easy to fill in and anyone can do that from the comfort of their own home.

6.    Networking – while this is not actually a direct way of generating profit, you can use social networking and MLMs to generate leads and drive traffic to your online business.

7.    Selling websites and domain names is becoming an extremely popular area, which still has a lot of room for development. If you bought a nice, short and relevant domain name a while ago, you can make a small fortune selling it today. If you don’t believe me, check out these figures, for the top five most expensive domain sales in the last few years:

Business.com – $7.5 million
AsSeenOnTv.com – $5.1 million
Altavista.com – $3.3 million
Wine.com – $2.9 million
Autos.com – $2.2 million

8.    Work at home jobs – Depending on how much time you are willing to put into a work at home opportunity, you could either do it in your spare time, or make it your main income source. Work at home jobs are suitable for everyone: from students, to retired people. You do not sign any documents or commit in writing to anything, thus you are not obliged to work if you do not feel like it. In a modern society, with parents spending more time at home raising their children and college students looking for a comfortable part time job, a work at home opportunity is the perfect answer.

9.    Outsourcing – this is not a moneymaking opportunity, but a money saving one. Outsourcing is the best way to create a competitive business in countries like the United States, Canada and most of Europe.

10.    Free stuff online – you will not get rich while taking advantage of all the free stuff you can get online, but it is fun and rewarding. If you are a webmaster and you wish to create a very popular website, do your best to offer lots of things for free – downloads, software, ebooks, wallpapers and so on.

Related posts

• No related posts.

It’s not that internet marketing techniques that vary from industry to industry that make a difference, but how you apply them to marketing your business.

The most important element of internet marketing is to go where your customers are. Just as you wouldn’t promote gambling on a gardening site, don’t promote products and services, your own or someone else’s, or MLM where it’s not welcome.

What I’m saying is, don’t just throw your product up anywhere. That’s not targeted traffic. To get targeted traffic, you have to promote where others are looking for what you are offering. Targeted traffic is the key to higher website conversion and more sales.

Regardless of what you are promoting, these techniques will help you get more traffic to your site, and building site is crucial to your success no matter what industry you are in.

Here are seven techniques I use to get more traffic to my sites:

1. Search engines.

Search engines are the easiest way I know of to be found online because just about everyone uses the search engines. Although I don’t recommend that you rely solely on search engines as a way for potential customers to find you, you should at least get your site indexed. People can’t find you if you aren’t there.

2. Link exchanges.

Although linking isn’t as valuable as it once was, it’s still an effective way to promote your site. By contacting website owners who have websites that complement your own, and then exchanging links with them, you’ll build referral traffic because linking is still considered to be an endorsement of your site.

3. Affiliate programs.

An affiliate program is where you allow others to promote your website for a percentage of the profits of each sale. Although there are other ways to pay affiliates like per lead, pay per sale is the most common.

With an affiliate program, you give others an incentive for promoting your website, and this can also make it easier to get links back to your site.

4. Writing articles.

Of all the internet marketing techniques I’ve tried, I’ve found this one to be the most effective. I’m sure it has something to with the fact that I like to write, and maybe it’s easier for me.

What articles will do for you is help you build backlinks to your site, establish you as an expert, and offer more value to your business. You are offering your potential customers something up front.

If the thought of writing articles makes you cringe, try writing tip sheets, lists, or a how to. People love these types of articles because they’re so easy to read.

5. Joint ventures.

Done correctly, a joint venture can be your ticket to fast cash in your business. By seeking out others who have complementary websites, and offering them incentives to sell your products, you can quickly increase your bottom line.

6. List building.

Although list building isn’t an internet marketing technique per se, it is an important part of building your business. List building allows you to recycle your traffic, build relationships, and increase your conversion to make more sales.

7. Know your market.

By knowing your market, you’ll know what kind of products and services potential customers are looking for. Although it won’t help you raise visibility for your site, it will help you increase your conversions, and you can more easily get to know your market by visiting forums on your topic, posting polls on your site, and studying other sites on your topic.

The most important thing to remember is to show your potential customers respect. Don’t spam them with offers. Build a relationship, and you’ll build traffic and make more sales.

Related posts

• No related posts.