If you’ve wanted to make money with an online business, but found how to get started overwhelming, fear not! Starting and profiting from an online business is perhaps easier than you may think, it’s not a ‘walk-in-the-park’ mind you, but the processes are rather simple. If you’ve considered starting an online business, but just aren’t sure how to go about it, we discuss a few of the basics in this post!

Perhaps one of the most exciting ideas behind making money on the Internet, is that you can do it from practically anywhere in the world. So long as you have a Internet connection and a computer, you can be in business in a matter of hours! I personally know of one “older” couple in the Australian Outback (Not the steakhouse) who are making money this very moment, with not much more than an old PC and…A Dial Up Connection! Talk about dedication.

Usually when I hear someone talking about making money online, they tend to complicate things. After all is said and done, you really only need 3 things to make money on the Internet:

1) A website or blog with a product offering

2) A follow up contact system, and

3) Web site traffic

As for websites, you can get a blog setup and running in no time at all using WordPress. WordPress is a quick way to get started making money online, with very little cost involved. You can start posting useful information to your blog that readers crave, and while they’re at your blog, they can check out products and servies you have in your sidebar related to what you blog about. This ain’t rocket science folks

For best results, you’ll want to use a “self-hosted” WordPress blog and not the free kind. To do this you’ll need the following:

• A quality hosting company for your blog
• A domain name comprised of keywords that describe what you do, and
• A WordPress theme to use with your blog.

As for setting up your blog, you can follow the instructions and install it yourself or, for a nominal fee, many hosting companies will install it for you. Don’t let the sound of this overwhelm you, it’s simply a matter of learning how to use software programs as tools; much like screwdrivers, wrenches and hammers are tools to do their respective jobs.

As for a follow-up contact system, you’ll use an autoresponder as a means to automatically send messages to your subscribers via email. By placing a simple opt-in form on your blog, this allows you to capture your readers first name and email address. After your reader has entered their information, your auoresponder automatically sends them their first follow-up message. Many people offer a free report or special bonus as an enticement to give their readers a reason to sign up for their newsletter.

By providing your blog visitors access to the free report in exchange for their name and email address, you now have their permission to follow up with them again and again. This process is called “list building” – and is perhaps THE most important thing you can do to make money with an online business, consistently.

Now, as for getting traffic to your blog, this is perhaps the most difficult and time consuming part of making money online. Increasing traffic to a website takes effort, consistent effort! Your best bet is to start off with free traffic, or what is most commonly referred to as “organic” search engine traffic. The more free traffic you can create, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

To get free traffic coming to your blog, you must make it your ambition to master article marketing! Article marketing is the bedrock upon which all other free traffic strategies are built. In addition to article marketing, you’ll also want to post appropriate comments in forums related to your niche market; as well as social media marketing and several other modes of free blog advertising.

Once you’ve established a consistent flow of free traffic to your blog, only then do I recommend investing in pay per click (PPC) advertising. PPC advertising can provide you with an immediate increase in web site traffic, but this can get real expensive real quick. As you can see, making money with an online business is not difficult, it can however be time consuming. Hopefully, these online business tips will help you get started and allow you to make money online from wherever it is you choose to be at the time!

Until next time,

Blessings to you and yours!

James

Writing and creating content for your website is perhaps the single most important marketing and business-building strategy available to online business owners. However, in addition to simply creating content, you want to have your articles read. Articles that are compelling pull the visitor into your website where they’ll continue to search for more valuable content. They will begin to not only remember your website as a source of good content but also as a reliable business.

Here are five top tips to get your articles read:

#1 Compelling headlines are a must. Your headline is the first thing that your visitor or reader will notice. It must grab their attention by appealing to their emotions, making a promise, offering a benefit, inciting controversy, arousing curiosity or stating something newsworthy.

#2 Your article’s layout is very important. How you present your content may very well be the next most important factor in getting your article read, right behind your headline. Articles that are heavy with long paragraphs are often skipped. Not because the reader isn’t interested in the content, they’re just not interested enough to spend the time reading the article for value.

In general, people tend to skim when they read online, and an article that is difficult or cumbersome to read won’t be read. Instead, use shorter paragraphs, short sentences and formatting like bold type, bullets or numbers, and subheadings to help your reader make a decision to read your article.

#3 Your intro paragraph is next in line in importance to getting your article read. It should be short and to the point, yet still compelling. Your intro paragraph is used to set the stage for the rest of the article. It’s where you let your potential reader know what you’re going to tell them.

#4 Photos, graphics and illustrations come next. For some reason we’re attracted to content with images. Maybe it’s because it breaks up the content or maybe it’s because a few good images can help you tell your story. If you can include relevant images in your content, it will draw the eye of readers.

#5 Credentials is the last tip. Sometimes a website visitor does two things: they read the headline and then they scan down to see who wrote the article and if they’re qualified to talk on the subject. This is particularly important if you’re publishing articles on websites, blogs and ezines that are not affiliated with your business website. Create a bio paragraph that puts you in a good light and boosts your credibility and authority.

Getting your content written is half the job, getting it read is the other half. And in addition to these top tips, it is of course essential that you market your content with a variety of marketing and traffic generation strategies.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, be sure to check back often for more updates. As always, we appreciate your feedback, comments and questions.

Until next time,

Godspeed

James
~+~

To all writers and non-writers alike, now is the time to dig up those previously buried creative writing skills! Along with the communication technology explosion, not to mention what’s happening in the web 2.0 world, came the ever increasing demand for information-based marketing content. Which, by the way, is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers.

This is why we’ve seen an exponential, almost overwhelming, increase in demand for article writers, article submissions and publications.  Currently, there is a smorgasbord of tools and services from which to choose to make the process of distributing articles more easily. Though this is invaluable in getting the contents more exposure, it is only one half of the story.
Let us take a look first at the common mistakes that some people make before submitting their contents to article directories.  I have included 3 here for the purpose of this post:

1. Confusing the reason to promote the articles with the reason to write them.

In article writing, there are three key benefits why you are promoting them; branding, lead generation and promotion, which are all part of your optimization efforts.

But there is only one reason why you write an article, and that is to inform your audience. If the article is not focused on this primary and most important purpose, it will fail to achieve the three promotion benefits because no one will be interested in reading them. You must determine first how to get people to read what is in your article, then make them click on your resource box. You can achieve this by producing better contents.

2. Failing to maximize the promotional opportunities of article marketing.

You may know already that your articles can help you generate additional links back to your site. But do you know that you can get more visitors and better search engine results from those same articles?

This may appear obvious to some, but often times people fail to mention keywords at strategic places within their articles. Just be sure not to overdo them, or you’ll do more harm than good! Likewise, many writers use anchor texts which is also an effective method. But it is important to know, that even today many of the directories are not able to support this.

Remember that is not only about the links back to your site. Part of doing well in your article marketing is getting picked up by publishers with a large number of audiences and gaining the ability of leveraging other brands because of the quality of your work. Better search engine results also are great benefits.

But these things do not put much money in your pocket. There are other factors that can turn your article marketing efforts into an opportunity that can boost your earnings. Not just increase the number of visitors to your site. Start out with a plan and see to it that your article will serve the function that you intended it to have.  You’d be surprised how may writers get “caught up” in the process, and forget why they are writing the article to begin with.   Which reason is?

3. Publishing content that does not help your readers.

This may seem like a “no-brainer’ to some, but not to those who write articles simply for creating traffic.

Maybe in the process of writing articles, you are thinking that all you wanted is links back to your site. And any visitors it can generate are fine.  Guess what? Not all article banks and directories are going to accept your content automatically. More often than not, they have some guidelines and specifications on the articles that they are accepting.  If not, then they are more than likely not worth your time and effort to submit to!

Listen, you can double the number of sites you can submit to by writing articles that the directories want to share with other people. All it takes is one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to increase your potential audience overnight. Write the articles that publishers want in their publications if you want your article marketing to work the most effective way for you.  Look at your article writing from the directories perspective, and not just your own.

This also means you have to obey the standard guidelines, spell checks, researching on a good topic and even hiring a writer to produce a good content on your behalf.  In the end, it is all really a matter of choice on your part. You can start getting a little exposure from increased links back, but on a very basic level. Or enjoy massive exposure from a little extra time making quality contents. It will be your choice.

You may not be aware of the fact that, an article submitted on directories is not meant to have the same level of exposure as highly-targeted content ones geared on a narrow group of people.  Learn the difference between these two and it will surely help you know what kinds of articles to write and to submit.

And remember,

“Do What Works!”

James

Internet marketing, originally, was intended to be a relatively simple and profitable experience for would be online marketers.  However, for most newcomers to Internet marketing, their first online experience is of some self appointed “guru” shouting at them: “Just plugin to our turn-key system and we’ll show you how to become a ‘Gazillionaire’  in the next 90 days!”

Unfortunately for the newcomer, however, they are unaware that the person shouting this nonsense doesn’t have a clue as to what they’re doing and are simply repeating what someone else told them.  Many times, without any knowledge themselves as to whether or not what they’re being told really works!

And due to especially tough economic times at the moment, more people than ever are making their way online seeking their fortune and freedom. And many of them also will waste countless hours, not to mention money, listening to someone who may not necessarily know what they are doing.

However bleak a picture I may seem to be painting for you, I do want you to understand this, Internet marketing is here to stay for a long time to come.   It is not some fad that’s going to go away any time soon, if ever.  However, Internet marketing will evolve and change over time.

With this in mind, I see one change in particular that is currently paving the way for a much brighter future ahead!

Because the world is becoming more connected through the myriad of social media outlets (Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Linkedin, etc) word is getting around of whom to do business with on the Internet, and whom not to!  We all are becoming a very “cliquish” bunch, readily identifying with those with whom we want to “friend” and those with whom we do not.  This is neither right or wrong, it just is.  People have a natural tendency to form groups, and to associate with others of like minds.

And because of the Internet’s natural progression towards connectivity, social media outlets in particular, we are actually “seeing” each other as we really are.  The very nature of social media, is to progress towards being connected and to create long-term relationships.  While those who may have ulterior motives, or less than ethical personal & business practices, can not sustain such long-term relationships due to their shallowness and short-term nature.

Individuals of this sort will eventually fade away into obscurity, having exposed themselves for who they really are.  After all, how many of us have been ripped off with a less than desirable product or service that did not live up to its hype, and then told everyone we knew about it?  With Social Media, that’s the power of “word of mouth” times 10,000!

Social media, as Internet marketing, is not going to go away any time soon. In fact, if you are not already a member of at least one social media outlet, than you will be soon (Provided you wish to be a part of the Internet of the future, that is).  From Twitter to Facebook, MySpace to Digg, as well as a myriad of others too numerous to list here, there is a social media outlet waiting for you to find them.  And when you do, simply plugin and be a part of the Internet that is to come.

And if you truly want to succeed at Internet marketing, now and in the future, than simply find your group (niche) be true to yourself, and offer something of great value to your friends.  And your friends will gladly do business with you and you with they! This is the nature of social media, this is the nature of the Internet to come.   And as for me, I’m looking forward to the day when we all can live and prosper, together.

(And as for those who choose not to do business this way, well, we’ll just let them take care of themselves…)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, be sure to check back often for more updates. As always, we appreciate your feedback, comments and questions.

Until next time,

Godspeed

James
~+~

One day, many years ago when I was a young boy, my Grandmother told me a story of a lunch date she had with some of her closest friends.  ”Aunt Florene”, as we called her growing up, although I don’t think we were actually related, was a sturdy built “blue-haired” woman of about 80 years old; a friend of my Grandmother’s from the Bomber Plant where they worked together here in Fort Worth during WWII was also at the luncheon.

My Grandmother looked intently at the menus that were presented all around;  ”We all ordered salads, sandwiches and soups; everyone except for Florene, that is.”

Florene proudly stated, “I want Ice Cream, please. Two scoops, make ‘em chocolate.”

Grandma said she wasn’t for sure if her ears heard right, and the other ladies seated around the table looked puzzled as well…

“Wait!” Florene said, “I’ll take a piece of hot apple pie, too” without hesitation.

Grandma said she and the other friends seated around the table did their best to act nonchalant, as if people did this sort of thing all the time. But when our orders were brought out, Grandma said she couldn’t enjoy hers much.  She said, ” Holy cow, I couldn’t take my eyes off Florene’s pile of pie & ice cream. It was distracting!”  Grandma said that the other ladies looked a little uncomfortable, and ate their lunches in silence.

The next time Grandma went out to eat, she and Aunt Florene went just by themselves.  Grandma said she ordered the chicken-salad on wheat bread and a small side salad. And Florene, well, she ordered a banana split!

Grandma said she gave out a slight chuckle at the sight of that banana split, when Florene asked if she amused her.

Grandma replied: ” Well yes, you do, but also you confuse me.

“How is it you order these rich desserts, while I feel like I must eat sensibly or nutritious?

Grandma said Florene laughed, and replied in her rather “matter-of-fact” attitude,  ”Ethel, I’m tasting and enjoying all that’s possible. I try to eat food that I need, and do the things I should. But life’s also too short, my friend, I hate missing out on something good. This year I realized how old I was. Florene  said with a grin, and I have never been this old before!”

“So, before I die I made myself this promise.”

“I’m going to try those things that for years I had ignored or was too busy to enjoy.  There’s flowers I haven’t seen or smelled yet.  There’s too many books left unread. There’s more banana splits and apple pie to wolf down and kites to be flown up high. There are many stores & shops I haven’t shopped. I’ve not laughed at enough funny jokes. I’ve missed a lot of great movies, popcorn, and cokes with peanuts in ‘em. I want to walk along the surf on the beach again and feel the ocean spray on my face. I want to sit in an ‘ol country church and thank God for His grace…

I want gobs of chunky peanut butter spread on toast. I want to enjoy long distance calls to the folks I love most. I haven’t cried at enough movies yet or get soaked walking in the morning rain. I need to feel the breeze in my hair, and I want to fall in love again. So, if I choose to have dessert instead of having dinner, then if I should die before the night is through, I’d say I died a winner, because I missed out on nothing. I filled my heart’s desire. I had that final chocolate fudge sundae before my life expired.”

With that, Grandma called the waitress over…

“Miss, I’ve changed my mind. I’ll have what she’s having, only add some more whipped cream and a few extra cherries on top, please!”

Godspeed,

James

~+~

Sales copy has a single purpose, to motivate the reader to take action. That action could be to make a purchase, though it may also be to motivate an inquiry, to inspire a click-through or to generate a subscriber. Regardless of the ultimate goal, using emotions to motivate action is a great way to increase your conversion rate.

We buy for emotional reasons, plain and simple. We justify our purchase based on logic but the initial purchase is always triggered by emotions. We want to feel better, look better, be more respected, and a whole host of needs and desires. It’s your job when you’re writing your sales copy to tap into these needs and desires with emotional copy.

#1 Position emotion in the problem. What is your prospect’s problem, the one your product solves? Write down a list of problems your prospect is having and see how you can inject emotion into the problem.

For example, “Frustrated that your business isn’t making as much money as you want it to?” “Overwhelmed by technology and looking for a simply solution to making more sales?”

Frustrated and overwhelmed are emotional words.

#2 Position emotion in the possibility you present. For example, “How would you feel if your business were meeting or exceeding your profit goals?” “Imagine how easy your life would be if all you needed was one simple tool to increase sales by 10%.”

#3 Use emotional words in your body copy. For example:

* Afraid
* Overwhelmed
* Hopeless
* Triumphant
* Young
* Sexy
* Love
* Satisfying
* Secrets
* Trailblazing
* Urgent
* Exciting
* Lucky

#4 Understand the difference between rational words and emotional words. There’s actually a really useful tool available online. Simply search for “Paul Galloway Emotional words”. You’ll find a tool that lets you plug in your sales page and it will show you where you can replace rational words with more emotional words. Don’t just take the tool at its word, however, test and track the changes to see if your conversion rate increases.

#5 Make sure your headline or promise and your call to action are also tapping into emotions. Urgency, big promises and other headline and call to action tactics usually embrace the power of emotional words. For example, if you say “Buy now before the last copy is gone,” you’re tapping into the fear emotion. People will be afraid they’re not going to have access to a copy of your book and will click through to make a purchase now, which is what you want.

Remember when you’re writing your sales copy that we buy for emotional reasons. What emotions is your reader or prospect feeling? What emotions do they want to feel? How can you use emotion to make them purchase? Consider the emotions you have when you make a purchase and then put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Great sales copy speaks to these emotions to make it happen.

Until next time,

Godspeed

James
~+~

While walking down the street one day, a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance. “Welcome to heaven,” says St. Peter. “Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, so we’re not sure what to do with you.”

“No problem, just let me in,” says the man.

“Well, I’d like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we’ll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity.”

“Really, I’ve made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,” says the senator.

“I’m sorry, but we have our rules.”

And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.

Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people

They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne.

Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.

Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises…

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.

“Now it’s time to visit heaven.”

So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.

“Well, then, you’ve spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity.”

The senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: “Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell.”

So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.

Now the doors of the elevator open and he’s in the middle of a  barren land covered with waste and garbage.

He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above.

The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder.  “I don’t understand,” stammers the senator. “Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there’s just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable.

What happened?”

The devil looks at him, smiles and says, “Yesterday we were campaigning…Today, you voted!”

Ordinarily I don’t write much about politics, but this one was just too good not to pass along!

Until next time,

Blessings to you and yours!

James