Advertising and the Over All Marketing Plan

Writen by Lance Winslow

Many small time wannabe marketers who write marketing, advertising and sleazy sales books will have you believe that the over all marketing plan is the quintessential reason for success or failure in your business. Indeed business plans and marketing plans are of value but before you start a business you have no idea where it will take you.

As an entrepreneur you may plan to have a certain market mix and then find the customers are leading you a different way, as they want to buy something else and more of it than less.

You cannot fight the flow of such things and you would be ignorant to try, that is if it is profitable to deliver what those customers are lining up for. Many marketing self-proclaimed consults will tell you that; “Prior to purchasing Ads you need to have goals, which come from an Overall Marketing Plan.”

Sure sounds like good advice doesn’t; well it is not and those who make such statements in marketing articles, books, business tapes or seminars are simply not with it and have never achieved greatness in their own marketing. Goals are great indeed, but back tracking from the goals to allocations in advertising expenditures is the wrong way to approach it.

You must make sure that you have a customer base and public desire for what you sell first and determine how much of that trend you can capture and where best to place your ads at the most inexpensive price to attract the most of those potential customers as possible and then tap into those customers for referrals to bring you the rest.

In fact this whole process may take very little advertising dollars and following some MBA BS consultants plan will cost you twice. Once in paying them for bad advice and then in paying too much for advertising that does not win the game. Consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Advertising and PR

Writen by Matt Bacak

What Is The Difference Between Advertising and PR?

Advertising and PR are two different functions, however, many business do not know the difference. Since spending your advertising budget and your PR budget effectively is crucial, how can you expect to accomplish this important goal unless you understand the difference?

When thinking of advertising, billboards, glossy spreads, quarter-page newspaper advertisements and other forms of highly visible promotional material comes to mind. This is clearly advertising. Branding or creating a well-recognized presence for your company is a clear example of effective advertising. Business cards with pizzazz are a form of advertising.

What, then, is PR? Public relations are those things that must be accomplished to let the world know who you are and what your company offers. Press releases, news conferences, professional networking and exhibitions or trade shows are examples of PR work. PR is not as flashy as advertising but it is every bit as important.

Effective Advertising and PR

In today's competitive marketplace, it is crucial to spend every bit of your advertising and PR budget strategically. Public relations can provide a mix that uses advertising but also enhances the efforts of your advertising dollar.

It has long been a "supposed fact" in business that word of mouth is the best advertising. This is not necessarily true. It is an unfortunate fact that a customer who has an exceptional experience dealing with your business will tell one or two people about their experience. A customer who has a bad experience will tell at least a dozen people and your business gets negative advertising.

Word of mouth is, however, one of the most effective PR tools available. Offering school tours, sponsoring science fairs or children's' sports teams, volunteering for public speaking opportunities, attending trade shows or presenting at conferences are rather inexpensive ways to build a wealth of good will and put your name out front.

Have you noticed that television commercials for a product often run a 15 to 30 second advertisement of a really great advertisement and within a few weeks shorten the advertisement to the most important 5 to 10 seconds? The reason is that the initial advertising is meant to brand the product or service and associate the advertisement and the product or service in your mind. It works very well - provided you have really memorable advertisements.

Matt Bacak became "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours.
Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host is
turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts into Overnight Success Stories.
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Advertising Agencies

Writen by Richard Romando

Today, the advertising job has become so complex that normally, no business firm chooses to handle the function directly. They employ advertising agencies. And the advertising agency has become a major institution in the field of advertising and marketing.

The advertiser- advertising agency relationship is a very crucial aspect of advertising management. Only when the advertiser and the advertising agency work in close contact and collaborate with each other can the advertising function can be carried out effectively and successfully. The collaboration cannot be limited to the mechanics of developing the advertisements; it has to pervade the entire task of marketing communications.

The firm and the agency must work together in media selection, theme development, message construction and copy development. It is essential that the agency have all the relevant information about the firm, its products and markets, the consumer, the competition and the channels. The agency must become an ‘insider’ and right at the ‘fact finding stage’; full collaboration between the firm and the agency must be established.

The agency should also have a correct idea of the marketing and communication objectives of the firm; how the particular product/brand is positioned or proposed to be positioned, and how the other elements of the marketing mix, such as distribution and pricing, are conceived and handled by the firm.

In the modern context, knowledge of just advertising related matters is not sufficient for an advertising agency to succeed. It must have a comprehensive appreciation of all the aspects of marketing. The advertising agencies have to acquire more and more professional expertise, again, not merely in advertising-related matters, but also in all aspects of marketing. They have to appreciate that advertising is a method of marketing. Their advertising effectiveness would be proportionate to the extent that they are aware of the overall dimensions of marketing.

Advertising Agencies provides detailed information on Advertising Agencies, Internet Advertising Agencies, Full Service Advertising Agencies, Top Advertising Agencies and more. Advertising Agencies is affiliated with Promotional Advertising Specialties.

Advertising: Advice to Ensure your Ad Gets Results!

Writen by Judy May

Here is a question my clients pose regularly:

I’ve been in business for several months and things are moving in the right direction; however, I want more business. I’ve thought about advertising but it seems so expensive. Do you have any advice on where to advertise and how much to spend?

Many design professionals equate advertising with marketing. This is not, in fact, the case. While advertising may be a component of an effective marketing strategy, the terms “advertising” and “marketing” are NOT synonymous.

Advertising is, in most cases, expensive and – without repeated ad appearances – fails to provide the new business you hoped for. As a result, I highly recommend focusing your efforts on other marketing strategies that are more effective, such as speaking and writing.

But, to the extent your budget is large enough to support an advertising campaign (as opposed to haphazard occasional placement of “an ad here and another ad there” – otherwise known as “shotgun advertising” which is NOT at all effective), I have a few things you should keep in mind:

• Advertising budget. The Small Business Administration suggests that 5% of your gross sales should be budgeted for advertising. As an example, if you project $50,000 in gross revenues, the SBA recommends that your annual advertising budget be $2,500 (or just over $200/month). While you can use this as a “rule of thumb,” don’t fret if your available funds do not support this kind of expenditure. Instead of investing hundreds of DOLLARS per month in traditional advertising, spend your TIME & EFFORTS seeking to “get in front of” your target market as much as possible (by, for example, speaking, writing or networking).

• Before placing an ad, do your homework. Contact the publication to ascertain demographics related to their subscribers and readers. Indeed, you need to confirm that your target market reads the publication you seek to advertise in.

• There is no correlation between the amount of money spent and the resulting new business. This conclusion was reached in a recent study at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. So if the money spent does not necessarily indicate the success of an ad, what does?

• The message is the most important aspect of an ad. Often, the message is in the headline, which is the first – and, often, the only – part of the ad readers will see. The headline needs to be simple, compelling and, ideally, appeal to the reader’s emotions. If the headline delivers in this way, the reader will likely be drawn in to read the rest of the ad.

• Think “out of the box” when creating your ad. If you want your ad to be read, you should strive to make it unique – ensure that it “stands out” from the rest. Let’s take your local Yellow Pages as an example. If you would peruse your Yellow Pages, I’m confident you would see that most are of the same format – what is called an “institutional” ad. That is where the logo and/or company name are “front and center”, along with their contact information. Rather than “leaping off the page with an attention-grabbing headline, many ads “look like all the rest”, which often results in a less-than-expected return on investment. So, instead of creating a “cookie cutter” ad, take the time to focus on your target market – choosing a problem they struggle with (e.g., putting a space together to look cohesive and attractive) – and try to come up with a headline that promises a solution to that problem.

Here’s an example: Instead of saying: “Specializing in One Day Room Makeovers”, try this: “Come home to a beautiful like-new space . . . completed in just one day”. Do you now see the difference?

• Repetition is key. As mentioned earlier, you cannot expect to get results from one ad placed one time in on publication. Likewise, placing an ad in one publication one month, then placing that same ad in another publication the following month, etc. will not get you the response you seek. To the contrary, the key to success in advertising is multiple appearances in the same publication so that readers begin to recognize you, get to know you, trust you, etc. The average reader will NOT contact you after seeing your ad once. In fact, most people will contact a business only after seeing the ad 8 or more times. As a result, before investing in advertising, realize that your investment will pay for itself only if you engage in a true advertising “campaign”.

Judy May is the President of Show House Marketing, a business development and marketing firm catering exclusively to design industry professionals. She can be reached at 610.324.5240 or judy@ShowHouseMarketing.com. For FREE Resources, including the Weekly $uccess Secrets Newsletter and the New! 14-day Jump Start your Design Business E-Course, visit them online at: http://www.ShowHouseMarketing.com.

Advertising a Concrete Cleaning Business

Writen by Lance Winslow

If you are in a concrete cleaning business using a pressure washer or steam cleaner perhaps you have considered how you can get new clientele through advertising. It is a difficult business to advertise because you deal with business customers and direct mail generally does not work too well.

However if you can get a list of the facilities maintenance people for all the properties in your community you may find yourself with a list of perfect people to mail to. Where can you get such a list? Well, you can get such a list from the county tax assessor of all the business properties. You might also get a list from a local industry guide. It is not easy to get a hold of all the facilities maintenance people and the property management companies to create a mailing list. But once you have that list it is as good as gold for your concrete cleaning business.

There are some ways to advertise a concrete cleaning business and one way that I recommend is to put a flyer insert in the Chamber of Commerce monthly newsletter. It should be a half sheet of paper and a unique color and your phone number should be in bold on the top and under that it should read please call for estimates. Consider this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Advertising

Writen by Lucy Bartlett

Commercial promotion of services, ideas, companies and goods is known as advertising, which plays a very prominent role in business. Advertising is carried out through various media.

“Word of mouth” used to be the common form of advertising in ancient times. During the fifteenth and sixteenth century, when the printing industry was properly developed, handbills were included as a medium of advertising. In England, during the seventeenth century, newspapers started carrying advertisement for products.

The medicines for diseased Europe and the increasing numbers of affordable books were the two products extensively advertised during this period. The content regulation for advertisements came into vogue due the problem of “quacks” using the new marketing method. For more info visit www.advertisingresourceonline.info

During the nineteenth century, classified advertisements become very popular in the United States. They filled the pages of newspapers promoting various goods. The success of this method lead into another form of advertisement known as catalogues. The first advertisement agency was established in Philadelphia during 1843.

Tempting the consumers with advertisements, which carried their messages with shine using modern and scientific approach, came into effect in 1960s.
The advent of cable television and MTV in the 1980s and 90s, saw the introduction of music videos to promote goods using consumer tunes. Subsequent developments lead to exclusive channels such as Home shopping network and Shop TV exclusively for advertisements.

The “dot com” in 1990s saw another new channel for advertisement in the form of Internet. This was further fine tuned by search engines such as Google, which revolutinised the business by using unobtrusive advertisements, which are relevant to the context of the text displayed in the screen.
To highlight and promote non-commercial issues such as energy conservation, AIDs, ideology, religion and deforestation are carried out through public service advertising.

Media for commercial advertisements include billboards, wall paintings, flyers, television, film and radio advertisements, skywriting, popups and banners in web pages, newspapers, and bus stop bunches.

Placing a product in television serials, films and sports arenas are known as covert advertisements.

The TV networks charge a very high rate for commercial prime time advertisement since it is considered as one of the most effective formats of advertisement for mass-marketing products.

Another recent phenomenon is advertisements sent through emails. Spam is a new word coined for unsolicited bulk email advertising. How effective this form of advertisement is left to every email users guess because most of these emails are detected by the service providers as junk and stored separately.
With different claims made in different contexts, the impact of advertising is a subject for debate.

Lucy Bartlett is a proud contributing author. Find more articles here. For more info visit Advertising or SEO

Advertising 101

Writen by Harry Hoover

You have your corporate ID package, a website and are doing search engine advertising using ReachLocal.com. You have an excellent PR program in place that includes an nTarget.com-based email newsletter, guest speaking and media relations. And, you are working feverishly to retain the customers you have. You are, right?

Then, it is time to ramp up the marketing noise with advertising. From Professor Hoover's Advertising 101 file, here are a few things you need to ask before you launch that ad campaign.

What can I tell prospects that would interest them? Consumers don't care that you are the largest or the best. That's budget-wasting chest-thumping on the advertiser's part. In fact, most of them aren't even paying attention to advertising about your type of business at all. You've got to give the prospect a reason to care. Tell him what is in it for him. Let's say you are the most knowledgeable Realtor in your market. Big whoop! How does that help me? Now, if you use your expertise to sell my house fast and at a premium price, I'm suddenly very interested. Select the message first before you even think about the medium.

Who are my prospects? Do you really know who you are trying to reach? You may need to know where they live, their financial situation, their media habits, and their purchase habits. Do they have children? What kind of car do they drive? The more you know, the easier it is to develop an effective message and to select a medium to reach them.

Can I make the message relevant and compelling? I hate ads because most of them are so bad. They often are so vague that you don't know why the company bothered. In trying to reach everyone, they reach no one. That's what I call the all carbon-based life forms approach. Or maybe the ad tried to pack in too much information and too many features. Be direct, concise, relevant and truthful, and then you might reach someone with an ad.

What's my desired result? Some businesses need store traffic now and aren't that worried about tomorrow, some need to build relationships for the long haul, and some need to bolster their reputation. Driving traffic can be done relatively inexpensively and immediately. The other two take discipline, consistency, time and money. Be clear about what you are trying to accomplish and whether you have the resources to achieve your goals.

Can I deliver? The worst thing that can happen is that your advertising works too well and you aren't able to deliver on your promise. Or, you did the unthinkable and lied about your product or service and are not really able to deliver the benefit you promised.

So, there you have it. Be relevant, impactful, original and truthful if you want your ads to work.

Harry Hoover is managing principal of Hoover ink PR. He has 30 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Bank of Commerce, Brent Dees Financial Planning, Focus Four, Levolor, New World Mortgage, North Carolina Tourism, TeamHeidi, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems, VELUX, and Verbatim.

Internet Marketing Computer Skills 101

Writen by Sue Edwards

If you want to run a business online, you need some basic computer skills. “Basic computer skills” means being able to turn the computer on, write a word processing document, connect to the Internet and navigate through the Internet successfully, then turning the computer off. So actually, the computer skills you need for an Internet marketing online business are a little more than just basic.

When trying to research what computer skills are needed for running an online business, you may find it to be an overwhelming task. Most Internet marketing courses do not mention the basic minimum requirements needed to be able to operate your computer (and online business) effectively.

Skills you will need for using your computer are as follows:

• Using Windows XP or Apple OS X operating systems proficiently

• Downloading and uploading files

• “Unzipping” Zip files and extracting the files to folders

• Cutting (copying) and pasting in word processing documents and other types of forms

• Dragging and Dropping files

• Saving files

• Backing up files

• Setting up and READING your email

• Organizational skills for information that has been saved on your computer

• Using printers, scanners, digital cameras and USB flash drives

Software you will need to learn:

• HTML coding (this is really easy to learn)

• Graphics software - i.e. RealDRAW, Photoshop, MS Paint, Adobe Illustrator, etc.

• HTML editor - i.e. Dreamweaver, Frontpage, NVU, CoffeeCup, Mozilla Composer etc.

(If you want to save a lot of money and have control over your website,
you should build it yourself using the programs listed above.)

• Domain name registration sites

• Web hosting site navigating

• Autoresponder site navigating

• Word processing

• CD/DVD burning

• WinZip

• AntiVirus program

• AntiSpyware program

You should have at least a basic knowledge of the software listed above, and you can develop better skills as you go along. Just jump in and do it! It’s really not that hard.

If you are choosing Internet marketing as a new career or just a way to earn extra money, make sure your computer is up to speed. You should be running Windows XP or Apple OS X (Panther or Tiger) operating systems. If your computer is running an earlier operating system, you will need to upgrade to the most recent operating system available. Also, make sure you have at least 512 MB of memory and a larger than 30 gig hard drive. Your processor should be running at 1.5 GHz or above.

With the proper equipment and understanding the proper skill level, you will not be frustrated and have a head start at building a great career.

I wish you GREAT success,

Find a new & exciting career on the Internet! Get a FREE ebook at:
http://www.webmarketinggold.com
Explaining how to find a mentor & obtain free Internet Marketing training!
This information can change your life!

Sue Edwards is starting a new career online working for herself. After working for someone else for years it is time to take advantage of the internet and all it's possibilities. Sue has a very diverse background in: Banking, Taxi Driving, Auto Mechanics, Industrial Mechanics, Internet Trainer, Nuclear Power, Computer Repair and Law Enforcement. Sue is, also, an active foreign currency trader.

Internet Marketing Basics

Writen by Himanshu Singh

Almost all of the articles on Internet marketing lacks coverage on all the basics and all the avenues of Internet marketing because there is just too much information to cover in a few words. Here I am going for an attempt which will be an overview, not an in depth affair.

Here I would cover four basic marketing subjects:

• Market Research

• Search Engines

• E-zine Advertising

• Email Marketing

Market Research This is the most basic part of any marketing campaign. This involves how much you are going to invest in the campaigns and where you are going to invest. Investing the right money at right place is the key. If you don’t know your target market and how to reach them; if you don’t know the value of the message you’re attempting to convey; if you don’t know the answer to all the pertinent questions…your advertising and the whole project will fail.

The most basic step in researching your market is to first have a “target.” There should be a clear picture in your mind about the target audience and you should treat them as your potential customers. This means you know who you’re aiming for (their likes, dislikes, general age group, income, business type, etc.) and have a general idea how to “hit” them. Sample target markets would include:

This includes the segregation based on

• Age group

• Qualification

• Per capita income

• Spending capacity

• Geographical location

• Business class

• Technocrats

Once you know who your target is – the more information the better – you’re ready to get into the nitty-gritty of market research. There are five basic ideas in market research: “Primary,” “Secondary,” “Combined” (all types of research) and “Qualitative” and “Quantitative” (ways of gathering the information). A quick definition of each:

Primary research is research conducted by the primary user of the information. Secondary research is gathered elsewhere and used by you (purchased, leased, etc.). Most small businesses conduct both of these types of market research – customer surveys for primary information and by researching free or paying fees for secondary information. This is called “Combined” research.

Qualitative research is usually exploratory and has a direction or goal. It generally aims at specific issues in the subject matter and gives you a better idea in which direction you should proceed. This type of research is “loose” and is geared more towards finding a market or narrowing your market than it is towards getting specific information on that market and where your product fits within it.

Quantitative is much more rigid than qualitative marketing. This research gets much more accurate statistical results and information and is best used when your target market is already narrowed and you wish to find ways to reach or explore that market as well as find specific information on your product as it relates to that market.

Generally businesses conduct qualitative research during the exploratory research and development phase of their product to see if it is viable on the market and what they need in order to reach their market more fully with the product (colors, shapes, uses, etc.). Once the item is ready to hit the streets, qualitative research is used to fine-tune the market niche and begin offering the product for sale.

Conducting your own market research is time-consuming, but is very well worth it if you have a need for information or if you are spending any considerable amount of money on your marketing for specific products or services.

Search Engine Marketing

This has, for a long time now, been a “hot phrase” in online marketing circles. I’m not sure why, since while it is generally an important part of a presence online, it is not the end-all-be-all of marketing on the Internet. Search engines have become one of the most expensive forms of advertising on the Web, but have also become one of the most effective. Great search engine marketing (read: placement, strategy, etc.) is done by professionals and takes a lot of time to do correctly. There are two types of search engines to market towards: search engines/directories and pay-per-click (PPC) engines.

Search directories (Yahoo! ) and engines (Google) require a lot of patience to market effectively. Even if you are paying for your listing, it can take weeks to appear on their site. Further, your positioning on their site can change regularly as their indexes change or they change the rules of “ranking” on searches. On top of all of that you have paid advertisements and paid listings (see PPC below) that can usurp your position or push you further down in the results.

Pay-per-click (PPC) engines are much easier to use, but also more expensive. A campaign on Overture, for example, can total hundreds of dollars in a single day. These engines, however, can usually get you a higher listing on a regular search engine (such as Yahoo!) much faster and with steadier results. Google Adwords is one more example in this category. This approach should be taken when the site is a new site, there is no brand name associated with the website. this gives instant traffic to any website and which in turn increases popularity of the site among the affiliates who are in constant search for the god affiliate program websites.

Whichever course you take (I would recommend both if you’re serious about search engine marketing), be prepared to spend a lot of time and a goodly amount of money in your endeavor. A listing at Yahoo!, for example, is $300/year and the average per-click cost on Overture is about $0.75.

E-Zine Advertising

In my experience, this is by far the most effective form of advertising at very low cost online. That said, be leery of offers to “get your ad in 50 email newsletters for only $25.” I doubt you’ll see one response for your $25 since most of the “readers” of these e-zines are probably other people who paid for advertising as well.

If you have researched your market well then you know the general wants and desires of your targets. Using that information, you can find the online newsletters (email or web-based) that these people would be interested in. Chances are that publication takes advertising. There are three basic types of advertising to a newsletter list: solo ads, top-line ads, and classified ads.

Solo ads are sent to the entire (or a part of, depending on the options given) newsletter list – these ads contain ONLY your advertisement or perhaps your ad plus an article to get the reader interested in looking. These are the most effective type of advertising through most newsletters, but are also the most expensive. Expect to pay $20 or more per 1,000 impressions in a good publication.

Top-line ads are just that: ads that appear at the very top of a newsletter or at the top of an article in the newsletter. These are also highly effective and are fairly cost-efficient at about half the price of a solo advert.

Classified ads are the most useless of the three options given. They’re usually very cheap, but almost always appear at the bottom of the newsletter and are generally bypassed by the readers who rarely read that far into the publication. These are cheap, though ($5/issue is not uncommon) and can be effective when combined with one of the other two options to spread your advertising over several issues.

Email Marketing

Marketing online using email is a touchy affair and can easily lead to many problems. Despite this, it is by far the most effective form of advertising online – bar none. An email advertisement to a targeted and strong list of people can generate responses of close to 1/3 (1 response for every 3 targets). That’s phenomenal in ANY form of advertising.

There are three types of email marketing: SPAM/UCE, opt-in, and newsletter marketing.

SPAM/UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) is something that everyone, whether savvy online or not, has heard of. The word SPAM has risen from “questionable meat in a can” to “plague of the Internet” in the past three or four years. Despite its bad name – and any personal feelings I may have about it – SPAM is a very effective form of email advertising. If it weren’t, it wouldn’t exist. Doing it correctly, however, is expensive and requires much thought – using it even just once can affect your business for better or worse for the duration of your time online.

Opt-In email advertising is extremely effective and carries very little of the weight of SPAM marketing. The idea is pretty basic: you create a list of email addresses and send marketing messages to them occasionally. The hard part is getting those names to start with. Usually other forms of advertising get your website going and this type propels it forward.

Newsletter marketing is similar to opt-in marketing, but includes useful information such as articles or insights. In fact, you’re probably reading this article through a newsletter that is being used to market a business of some type or another. Newsletters can be time-consuming, but are well worth the effort. Some newsletter publishers supplement their income by running advertisements in their publications (see “newsletter marketing” above).

Of these three types of marketing, I have had the most success with newsletter marketing followed closely by opt-in advertising. That said, be VERY wary of “email lists” for purchase or hire that claim to be “opt-in.” Generally, these are NOT what they appear to be and you will receive several complaints of SPAMming if you use them. Building a list of names and emails for opt-in or newsletter publication is difficult, but very much worth the trouble for the payoffs in the long run. I have run my own newsletter for over a year now and receive more comments, input, and business through that than I do any other venue excepting word-of-mouth. If done right, a proper newsletter or opt-in list can greatly increase your success online. If you feel you don’t have the time or skill to publish your own newsletter, there are those who will do it for you (including myself!).

Conclusion

Advertising online is a very time-consuming affair, but essential to your success. If you don’t advertise, your business will fail. There are no exceptions to this rule. Some form of advertising takes place for every business type without exception. Marketing requires thought, time, and effort to succeed but as an essential part of your business, it’s directly related to your rewards at the end of the day!

About The Author

Himanshu

http://www.geocities.com/singhhimanshu/

singhhimanshu@cheerful.com

Internet Marketing and Your Old Age

Writen by A. Raymond Randall, Jr.

Everybody wants to learn how to make money on the Internet. What about saving money for retirement and your future? If you don't do it, who will? Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, recently confronted the U.S. Congress about the cost of future retirement benefits.

You may recall the 1999 Tom Hanks film, "The Green Mile". This film adaptation of Stephen King's novel provides just a couple of comparisons to current economics and Alan Greenspan. Greenspan's comments before Congress sometimes equal the length of "The Green Mile" (3 hours), but his testimony won't evoke tears unless you're a baby boomer, soon to be a Social Security beneficiary.

In "The Green Mile", Hanks plays a prison guard charged with the care of death row inmates. He treats each "death row" convict with care and Southern civility. In order to avoid stretching parallels to the movie, I will observe only that Mr. Greenspan, born in New York City (March 6, 1926; send him a card) is civil when Congressional Committees question his opinions.

"The Green Mile" ends at the hot seat for convicts. Alan Greenspan's February 25, 2004 testimony leads to an economic, political, and social hot seat: Social Security benefits. I suggest you read the full text of his testimony found at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/2004/20040225/

Now to "The Green Span" hot seat comments about Social Security:

• We sing Happy 62nd Birthday to the first baby boomers in 2008

• 50% of them may retire at age 62

• Everyone's gong to live longer

• Social Security costs will escalate

• Funds to pay may not meet the demand

What does this mean to you? Well, it's motivation to make that site sell while saving toward retirement. Further, every site generating cash flow, may do so for years and years, if managed wisely. This means qualifying for retirement does not force you to retire. Cash flows can continue for your life time.

However, saving for retirement still makes sense. It saves you taxes now and later. Furthermore, an aging population living longer means Social Security benefits may be reduced when you become eligible. So, start saving now by starting any one of the following methods.

• Individual Retirement Account: You may contribute up to $3,000 in 2004, $4,000 in 2005-2007, and $5,000 in 2008 and beyond. When you reach age 50, "catch-up" provisions allow you to contribute an additional $500 in 2004-2005 and $1000 in 2006 and beyond. This means your IRA contribution in 2006 may be up to $6,000.

• If your Internet web site incorporated, you may have an employer sponsored plan. The Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE plan) "SIMPLE plan contribution for 2004 amounts to $9,000. This increases incrementally to an "adjusted" $10,000 in 2006.

• A SAR/SEP and 401(k) let you contribute up to $13,000 for 2004 (the maximum in 2006 is up to $15,000) Employer sponsored plans also allow "catch up" provisions for workers over age 50. For example, an employee over age 50 may contribute a "catch up" contribution of $3,000 for 2004 (the maximum "catch up" contribution is $5,000 in 2006).

IRA accounts and employer accounts may be opened at banks and brokerage firms. Check with your tax adviser and financial consultant first.

Social Security provides for basic needs during retirement. Make sure your resources permit the lifestyle you want by saving for your retirement now.

About The Author

Ray Randall is a registered investment advisor with Ethos Advisory Services, Essex, Massachusetts http://www.ethosadvisory.com. He writes a weekly newsletter for Ethos Advisory Services, and is the webmaster for Echievements . You may write to him or call (877-895-3756).

rayrandall@ethosadvisory.com

Internet Marketing and Advertising Ideas

Writen by Todd Lavergne

Website owners wanting good ideas for marketing and advertising are always seeking new and ingenious advertising and marketing methods. Of course, all business website owners want their ideas and efforts to bring in more internet traffic and increased revenue. Unfortunately, online advertising and marketing methods can be quite costly, but there are marketing and advertising ideas and techniques that don't cost a small fortune. There are great marketing strategies and ideas that can bring in a sizeable amount of website traffic and revenue.

E-zines are a popular method of marketing and advertising websites because e-zine publishers have control over links and banner ads within their e-zines. Publishing an e-zine can be very beneficial for online business owners. Even if a website owner isn't a skilled writer, with a little help they can still publish an e-zine for online marketing and advertising purposes.

Unbeknownst to some, there are websites that offer free and low-cost content for those wanting to publish an e-zine. Besides the many free content websites, there are many e-zine publishers that trade content with writers who also want to take advantage of free marketing and advertising methods. Contributing writers submit original articles and include links to their business websites in exchange for the content they are submitting. This is a marketing method that benefits all concerned. The original e-zine publisher receives free content, and article contributors receive free marketing and advertising for their business websites. Writers without business websites often sell their work directly to websites that buy articles and sell articles to those seeking website and e-zine content.

Blogging is the latest internet craze amongst online business owners looking for fresh marketing and advertising ideas. It certainly doesn't take a professional writer to create a blog. An internet business owner can create a blog and submit content to that blog on a daily basis. If information is full of valuable keywords and phrases, many search engines will pick up that information. People searching for particular keywords and phrases will likely stumble upon the information. Include links to a business website along with related information people are seeking, and the business could receive a great increase in internet traffic and revenue. Advertising using daily blogs are simple low-cost marketing methods, and these marketing methods have proven effective for a great number of online business owners.

Internet business owners seeking marketing ideas and advertising methods are often willing to exchange links with other online business owners.This can be accomplished through link exchange programs or by directly contacting internet business owners. Those looking for free online marketing and advertising methods and ideas can create partnerships with many online business owners and greatly increase their traffic and revenue.

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Internet Marketing Analysis Can Be Fun!

Writen by Karen Kirby

You've heard about it. You've read about it. And now you wonder if you can do it: earn a living from home in Internet marketing.

Perhaps you are a mom with young children who wants to work at home. Perhaps you are retired and looking for income to supplement your pension. Or maybe you are the next gangbuster marketer to hit the Internet!

People from all walks of life -- even kids in high school -- are learning to make money from the Internet and having fun doing it.

They are using Internet marketing analysis to create their strategy. Internet marketing analysis is simply the process of evaluating the various ways you can make money on the Internet and then finding the appropriate marketing methods based on your skills, time, and budget.

Top Ways to Make Money on the Internet

1. Your own products - Create your own ebooks, software, or really anything that has a large enough target market and not too much competition.

2. Resale or private label products - Purchase the resale rights to ebooks and software for pennies on the dollar and then sell them for whatever you choose for almost pure profit.

3. Affiliate programs - Sell other people's products. Many product developers have an affiliate program in which they pay you up to 50% of the price of the product as a commission.

4. Affiliate networks - CommissionJunction.com and ShareaSale.com represent many companies for whom you can become an affiliate and earn a commission every time someone purchases something from your affiliate link.

5. eBay - Clean out the garage and find treasures to sell on eBay! You can also work with a distributor who ships products. You do the marketing on eBay, and they do the product shipping.

6. AdSense - This is one of the hottest ways to make money on the Internet right now. Just put Google ads on your website and then when people click on an ad you make money. There are also Yahoo and literally dozens of smaller pay-per-click (PPC) programs.

Top Ways to Market on the Internet

1. Websites - List your products or reviews of products on a website or a mini-site, which is basically a one page sales letter. Be sure to use search engine optimization (SEO) on your website so you can get a good search engine ranking.

2. Affiliate websites - When you join an affiliate program, you may get a link to a duplicated website created by the program with your affiliate ID in it. Provide that link to people, and you will earn a commission from their purchases.

3. Opt-in email marketing - Build a list of people who opt in to receive email from you. You can email them your affiliate links or links to the websites that offer your products.

4. Autoresponders - Related to email list building are systems that automatically email your opt-in list at regular intervals about your products and allow you to broadcast to them all at once.

5. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising - Use Google AdWords to advertise your products. AdWords are those little ads that appear on websites and on the Google search pages.

A good way to perform your Internet marketing analysis is to create a spread sheet. List the top ways to make money along the left, and list the ways to market along the top.

Search for information about the various ways to make money and ways to market. In each cross-section, write your notes on how you can use the particular marketing technique with a particular income source. Be creative and make this fun!

Pretty soon, you'll have more ideas than you handle. Narrow your plan to just one or two ways to make money to start with, and then add others as you go along. Best of luck ... and don't forget to have fun doing your research!

Karen Kirby has over 25 years' experience in the computer industry and has an MS in Computer Science. She has been helping people with Internet marketing since 1995. For expert information on Internet marketing analysis, please visit http://www.belowtheeight.com Get a free ebook to help your Internet marketing at http://www.aimbright.com/survey2.htm

Copyright 2006 - Karen Kirby. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Internet Marketing - A Maze In A Haze?

Writen by Roy Thomsitt

Internet marketing, website marketing, call it what you will, can be a bit like a maze. You charge off down one route......dead end. Someone sends you off down another route with a big smile on their face.......another dead end. Another route looks promising.......until it fizzles out and you reach another dead end. You can't cheat by looking over the hedge, it's about 20 feet high! A big ladder so you can get a good view? No, they've all been hidden. None left on the planet! Except those in the vaults of the internet gurus, you suspect.

So, you keep going around this maze, and at every turn there's advertising, all about the maze itself, telling you about which way to go. Plans of the maze which, if you follow, may get you half way round, only to find you need to buy another plan to get the rest of the way. So what do you do? Carry on around this maze unaided? Or buy another plan? You buy another plan of this maze, and lo and behold, you end up at a place somewhere near the exit into real open daylight (you think), but how do you get the correct final few turns? Anyway, maybe you're not near the exit after all? You could be on the far side of the maze from the exit. Sound familiar?

If you've been researching the internet from a business point of view for any length of time, you have probably found that much of the advertising, the marketing, is about ................. internet marketing. This is partly why it can seem like a maze. If you are not sure what is going to work to market your website, or the products in it, how do you know which advice to listen too, which "offers" to take up?

Why is Internet Marketing Such a Maze?

Marketing is a subject I've been interested in for many years, long before I was partner in an advertising related business in the early 90's. Then, marketing was a quite stable world. The most recent "change" of any significance had been TV, and TV advertising had evolved steadily over several decades. It was glossy, glamorous, and...........very expensive. That was good for the big advertising agencies, and they chased the big advertisers with massive budgets for TV advertising. They had their creative departments to come up with memorable TV ads, often designed to be memorable rather than to sell, and their media buyers to buy time on the commercial TV stations.

The glamour was in TV, but every company and every agency would work on a marketing mix: radio advertising, sales promotions, glossy magazine advertising, newspaper advertising, trade ads, direct mail.....all played their part. These all had one thing in common, though: they had been around for a very long time. Marketing was a stable industry, not in economic terms, but in the "tricks of the trade". There were a few minor variations here and there, but basically, the marketing industry had its accepted, well documented, ways of doing things. Skill levels varied of course, and that's where competition came in between the agencies and between companies in the same industries. The point is, though, it was all basically stable. Good or bad, it was stable.

Then along came the internet. Being involved in advertising in the mid 90's, it was obvious to me that the potential was absolutely enormous. Mind boggling. It was difficult to demonstrate, though, as speeds were painfully slow. You'd try to show someone over a cup of coffee or tea, and you'd finish the drink while the second page was loading. Try coming back in 5 years. Well, they did. With a vengeance.

The internet itself came on in leaps and bounds after that. Technically it developed rapidly. Companies started to realise they "had" to have an internet presence. Why? Well, often because their competitor did, or because they thought they should before their competitor did. They were diving in, pretty much blind; they did not understand what they were getting into. The stock markets cottoned on that something big was in the offing, so .com shares were being touted to ever higher levels. Shares of companies with no substance in most cases.

I used to trade shares on a daily basis in those days, and I never touched one internet related company. I cringed every time I saw the financial figures of a listed .com. Prices of shares were often in the stratosphere while turnover was meagre and profits non existent, then and into the future. The traders in the London Stock Exchange and Wall Street did not understand. The internet was new, there was no history to go on. They simply did not understand. They were excited, and were exciting others too. The buying was frantic. The crash inevitable.

Companies all over the world were realising, though, that they must have a web presence. Companies had marketing departments and/or advertising agencies. So they too had to go along with the the tidal wave of internet anticipation. What did they do? They followed the accepted patterns for marketing in those days. TV advertising. Radio advertising. Big newspaper ads. The massive costs of those methods bore no relationship then to the potential for additional income, for sales. They were throwing money down the drain in most cases. Why? They simply did not understand!

The internet was, and is, a revolution in communications. But the marketing industry had not had a revolution, it was too bogged down in the rest of the marketing mix to realise what was really going on here. The printing press was a revolution in communications, but it took many years to spread its influence. Radio was a revolution in communications; likewise. TV? Likewise.

The internet has been more like an explosion, and after an explosion it takes time for the dust to settle. That's one of the reasons for the maze of internet marketing. The dust is still settling. You can't see through the dust yet. More of a haze than a maze I suppose! No, a maze in a haze!

Roy Thomsitt is owner and author of http://www.change-direction.com

Internet Marketing - A Leap Of Faith

Writen by Paul White

Do you remember as a child having to do something you really didn't want to do because it was difficult?

Was it music lessons? Or dancing? Or some kind of sporting activity? I am sure you can remember something that your parents really wanted you to do, but you rebelled against!

With almost everyone there is something they tried, and failed to do as a child.

Can you remember how good you felt, when finally your parents gave into your demands and let you 'give it up', but that feeling didn't last forever, did it?.

Ten or fifteen years later didn't you look back and hate yourself, for making that decision to quit all those years ago?

Do you remember looking at your friends, the one or two who did continue, with envy at what they managed to achieve?

Don't you remember thinking 'that could have been me..' Don't you remember feeling angry with your parents for letting you give up, when you could have made a success of things, if you had just kept going when things got tough.

But it is easy to blame others for decisions made when you were young, and as a child you were too immature to see the big picture.

Yet as an adult there is no-one else to blame, and many adults take up things later on in life, everything from scuba diving to hang gliding, to internet marketing! But surprisingly, most people still give up after a short time.

But why? You would have thought that the benefits of maturity and hindsight would have told them to keep going.

Sadly the fact is most people give up on everything in life when it becomes difficult.

Most people, even as adults, can still not see the 'Big Picture'. They fail because they do not like doing the mundane, boring and time consuming tasks, that everyone who has ever succeeded in anything has to do initially.

It they don't achieve success immediately, they start to doubt themselves, and doubt that what they are doing will ever make them successful.

They can not make that leap of faith. Faith in themselves, and faith in what they are doing.

Today, in my new career helping people to make money on the internet, I see people trying to achieve financial independence, and it really saddens me when they give up after just a short time.

Most people start off by trying to go it alone, to teach themselves.

They get themselves a free affiliate/associate website, they then put in a few ads on free classified sites, and soon become disillusioned after failing to make any sales. Most quit at this stage.

Of the people left, some decide that it must be the product that is wrong, so they sign up for ten or twenty more free associate sites, but they then find that their problems are magnified ten or twenty times, since they now have to promote all of these different sites individually.

They put ten or twenty ads in the same free classified sites, but still end up with no sales. Most of these people then quit at this stage.

A few enlightened people however don't give up. They look around for a 'teacher', or 'mentor'. They look at the people who have become successful, and are making money, and they decide to learn off of them.

As a former teacher, I try to show people the correct way of doing things in order to succeed.

For example, contrary to what the companies themselves say, you will not make much money by directly promoting just one free affiliate site.

You need your own website, which has been professionally designed so that you can feature all of your programs at once. You then need to drive traffic to your one site, and there are lots of different ways of doing this.

Also, whatever you are selling, most people will not buy anything the first time, in fact they need to see the same thing seven or more times, before they decide to buy. You need an autoresponder system to keep reminding prospects over and over again about your products and services.

I explain to people that it is essential to remain in contact with your customers, so that they keep buying from you, and that you need to run a daily/weekly/monthly, newsletter or e-zine.

To do this you must have a listserver which allows you to send an e-mail to hundreds, or thousands of people all at once.

On my website I give away tons of FREE E-books and Software to help people succeed.

The point I always try to get across is that there is always a solution, to every problem, you just have to keep going until you find it.

Every single person who has ever been successful know this.

Problems are the food of success. Each problem or set back that you encounter, pushes you a bit closer towards achieving your goal!

Yes or course there is a lot to learn, but the average person with a bit of determination will succeed. Don't 'give up' just because things occasionally get tough.

Remember the lesson you learnt as a child, if you give up now, then in a few years time you will be bitter and angry with yourself for not going the distance.

Just remember it is impossible to fail, as long as you keep on trying.

So why not look at things again? It's not too late, even if you have 'given up' on the idea of making any serious money.

You owe it to yourself to make that leap of faith.

Start to believe in yourself, just one more time, and have faith in the people who really have made a success out of the internet, and want to help you succeed.

About The Author

Paul White is a 42 year old former teacher. He now helps people all around the world to become wealthy online. Whatever you are selling, visit the popular site: http://www.profitmountain.com and if you subscribe to Profit Mountain's FREE wealth building newsletter, you will also receive FREE advertising for the next 12 months! (Worth $200!) as well as loads of other things!

Internet Marketing: 5 Innovative Internet Marketing Strategies To Generate Tons Of Orders

Writen by I-key Benney

There are two different groups of online marketers.

First group: those who are making lots of sales and piles
of cash daily.

Then the second group: those who are making nothing because
they are not getting any traffics to their websites.

To which group do you belong?

If your website is not generating any sales, stop being sad.

Here are 10 innovative internet marketing secrets to advertise it, and start generating massive sales!

1. Directory Linking

Create a directory of websites on a specific topic.
Give people the option of adding the directory to
their website by linking to it. Put your business
advertisement at the top of the director's home
page. This technique will get lots of people to link
to your website and give you free advertising.

2. Bonus Advertising

Do you have a product or service that doesn't sell
good? Offer it as a free bonus for someone else's
product or service. Get free advertising by placing
your website or business ad on the product or in
the product package.

3. Autoresponder Trade

Trade autoresponder ads with other businesses.
If both of you send out information with auto-
responders just exchange a small classified ad
to put at the bottom or top of each other's
autoresponder message.

4. Tip Line

Start a free tip line. Offer a free daily, weekly, or
monthly tip recorded on your voice mail. The tips
should be related to your business. Include your ad
for your website or business at the beginning or
end of your message.

5. Content Swap

Exchange content with other websites and ezines.
You could trade articles, top ten lists, etc. Both
parties could include a resource box at the end of
the content.

May these internet marketing secrets help you
to make a lot of money.

Warmly,

I-key Benney, CEO

I-key, an “Enlightened” man & Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of "Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System",(Day Trading, Online Trading System ) which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

Mscsrrr Millionaire Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free “cash”…

Internet Marketers and Two-Year-Olds: Just Toddling Around Asking Lots of Questions

Writen by Dina Giolitto

I recently noticed that my friend's two-year-old, Conor, is getting to be quite the big boy. For one thing, he has suddenly morphed from a pudgy baby into a mini version of her husband. For another, he's becoming increasingly curious. The last time I saw him he must have asked me at least 20 times, "What's that?"

To be more accurate, he says it like this: "Whussat?"

He toddles around the yard pointing things out, asking over and over: "Whussat? Whussat?"

When wee little Conor looks up at me with his wondering eyes and asks, "Whussat?" do I answer him? Why, of course I do.

"Whussat?"

"That's a big truck."

"Whussat?"

"That's a flower..."

Turns out that my little buddy and I have more in common than I ever would have guessed. I, too, am toddling around... exploring the ever-evolving world of internet business. Each time I come upon an unfamiliar term, that same question pops into my head.

What's THAT?

If you've been doing the internet marketing thing for a while, you might consider that, like me, your audience of readers has just as many questions as a curious two-year-old.

Affiliate Marketing: what's that?

(It's a way to make a commission on someone else's product.)

SEO: what's that?

(It stands for Search Engine Optimization.)

So when you feel like dazzling your audience with some advanced terminology... don't forget the very basic and necessary questions that, if answered, will garner you a generous crop of loyal fans who can't thank you enough for the much-needed information.

Don’t forget the Number One Question:

What's That?

Easy enough, right? As you write your web article, throw out a term. Ask the question, and then explain what it is. The reader always appreciates it when you take a few moments to explain. This is what separates you from all of the other marketers out there. YOU have the answers.

Should you dedicate a whole crop of articles to answering the question, What's That?

Why, of course you should!

By captivating an audience of “toddler” marketers, you can secure yourself as the be-all-end-all of experts. And once they hitch their wagons to your internet marketing star, you can carry them along on your neverending quest for more web knowledge. Now THAT’s how to build a following!

Suppose you'd like to teach new marketers about website hosting. Define everything within your article. "Domain name." What's that? "Web hosting package.” What's that?

Too often we forget that not everyone knows what we know, and the fact that we know it is by far the strongest indicator of our credibility in the first place!

So: next time you see a newbie marketer toddling around, asking “What’s that!” over and over... be extra helpful and answer his questions. Then, think about all of his little marketer friends... and be proactive in answering ten more questions before they're even asked. Write your answers in the form of a very basic and totally informative web article.

After you’ve primed your crop of new marketing students, will you then be able to kick back and relax?

Heck no! Instead, you can be sure that they’ll be ready with the next question:

“But why??”

“Offer the customer some free information.”

“But why??”

“Don’t forget to optimize your website.”

“But why??”

Ahh, don’t you just love internet marketing, boys and girls? I sure do.

Now go toddle over to your big-boy bed, read a few more pages of your storybook about Multiple Residual Income Streams, and then take a nice little nappy.

:)

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Liked this article? Have more of the same emailed to your inbox each month. Sign up for the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine from Dina at Wordfeeder.com and learn to write search engine friendly web copy and market your web based business for free.

Internet Jungle - Frightens Me

Writen by Murtuza Abbas

Does this internet thing frighten YOU? Are you really confused with all the information overload and hypes about making money online? Are you frustrated as to how to get started and make your internet financial dreams come true?

Do you ask these questions...

* How to get started?

* Can I make money online?

* What should I sell?

* Will people buy my product?

* How to design my site?

* How to automate my site?

* How to drive traffic to my site?

Here are some excuses that newbies make...

* I am not creative.

* I have no money to invest in my business.

* I have no technical skills.

* I am confused.

* I want a ready-made business and want to make money instantly, this is just too tough for me.

Eyes popping on a screen with 100,000 channels totally confused, hunting for a channel where dollars exist. Waiting for some miracle to happen and praying to make millions overnight.

Lots of hypes and B.S. floating all around by some so-called Gurus just to get those few bucks out of your pocket. Who must I believe and not? Another big question.

But answer to 'How can I achieve success?' is no-where hidden in answers to these above questions.

YOU and only YOU are responsible for your success or failure.

Make a firm determination 'I will do it no matter what happens' and believe me you will.

Success is within YOU and no where else. If you want to be big, think BIG. You cannot get extraordinary results by doing ordinary things.

Making it short...

* Have patience.

* Be determined to succeed.

* Copy and learn from experts.

* Above all have faith in God.

Check Out Your 8 Steps To Success...

1. Always think positive and be away from negativity. Life has tremendous possibilities above our imagination. Take advantage of it.

2. Strive to succeed. Never give up and never EVER quit. Try and try till you succeed.

3. Work smart and learn everything YOU can. Key between success and failure is know-how. Get it from experts and you will SUCCEED.

4. DRIVE yourself with a burning desire to succeed. Stay focused on your goals at all times.

5. Never run behind 'get rich quick' and 'overnight millionaire' schemes. Rather push up your creative juices and do something different.

6. Always think BIG, be open-minded and have confidence in yourself.

7. Never get upset from some initial failures. Step on them to find your hidden success.

8. Once again, I repeat it several times; patience, passion, persistency, commitment, determination, hardwork, vision and a burning desire to succeed are the ONLY ways to massive success.

I believe I have charged YOU up for success.

NOW! Lets Be Practical...

I am just a 23-year-old ordinary guy from India and have been a victim of tremendous fear in this internet jungle.

This entire article relates to my feelings, fear, frustration, confusion and tears for the last three years. And it is quite possible you might be at the same place where I was.

No guidance, no help, no advice, all alone in this jungle. My biggest fear was of financial loss, which when comes to internet can be as fast as water flows from a tap. And I know this fear exists in thousands of newbies.

I am committed to help you, and get you out of this internet jungle. The only requirement is your hardwork and a will to succeed.

I wish you all the very best in this internet jungle and pray for your success. Until next time, a well wisher and a caring friend, Murtuza.

Murtuza Abbas specializes in creating simple 'Profit Pulling Minisites'.

Churn out simple, effective Profit Pulling Minisites in 3 Hours or Less. Grab your FREE $147 'Minisite Creation Pack' & learn how to start an internet business today.

Internet Jobs - A Fraud or Reality?

Writen by Arvind Katoch

“If you know the basic computer and have computer with Internet connection, then you can earn up to 300 to 1500 $ monthly”. Indian's have seen recently lot of these types of ads. Which promise a grater earning opportunity? Is it a reality or some myth? Sites offer you immediate access in to their data base by paying few dollars initially.

They claim the jobs are very simple and one just requires typing skills. In India employment problem is very big problem and every one would like to earn some extra money by doing these simple jobs. But here the situations look suspicious. Amount of $300 to 1500 approximately mean in Indian currency about Indian rupees 12000 to 90000.

Which is very handsome amount in India? Here in India the average salary is rupees 10000. Therefore these offers look very attractive not only to non-employment, but also to the employed. Because of this information some people got trapped very easily into these deals. But if we look clearly on the information provided by these sites about themselves.

The information provided by them looks suspicious. These sites never provide their telephone number or e-mail address. Secondly they charge hefty sum of charge from you. They don’t guaranty any job, but provide you a data base, which further may be a trap. They claim companies are giving these jobs for saving money on their employs. By transferring these jobs to India they can save lot of money.

Jobs involve filling invoice data, sending their mails and writing data for layers and doctors. If all these jobs, they claim are so simple and highly paying, then why they are sharing these jobs with others. These companies also provide their own assignments. These assignments are only, further these websites online marketing plans. Therefore you land up only doing marketing for these sites and making other to fall in these traps like you. So we require to be alert and take wise decision.

Internet Hype - Do Leave Home Without It!

Writen by Joe Pagano

All right. I’m sick and tired of all the hype on the internet. And I can’t believe people actually fall for this stuff. You know, the promises of six-figure incomes—not yearly—but monthly; the promises to help you leave your day job within three months; the promises to give you the knowledge to work three hours per day or less and spend the rest of the time on the golf course or at the gym. Come on. As John Stossel says, “Give me a break!”

I just can’t take it. Can you? Now granted, just like you, I’m researching and reading, trying to grow a home-based business on the computer. I put the hours in and I work very hard at it. I write ebooks (that’s right, I write them myself; I don’t get them as resell rights), I write articles, I write poetry, I write Christian stories and poems—and I’m getting a small return right now on my investment in time. So how can these others promise to get me to make millions with little or no effort, if I’m putting in a ton of effort and only seeing modest returns? Am I that dumb or inefficient? Are these people just natural born geniuses?

In answer to the above, I really doubt it. Hype does sell to the unprepared, the naive, and the credulous. Even I sometimes fall for the latest internet guarantees that dot the cyberspace landscape like ants on a fresh ice cream spill. How frustrating! Is there anyone out there that’s honest? After all, we all want to escape the rat race, and we all want financial freedom. Our individual motives might be different, but the ability to spend more time with our families and not to be subjugated to some boss’s eccentric whims is something borne of a fantasy. But to earn this fantasy through hype and misinformation is a crime in and of itself. Every time I click on one of these ads which promises me such things, I feel as though I’m reading the same template with the words changed around a bit. Even the colors and highlighting of the words are the same from page to page of these unoriginal mouthpieces.

Now the good thing about this copycat syndrome is that there is an enormous opportunity for those who are honest and who do break the mold and come up with something original. I’m not saying that I’m the one to do that, but at least I don’t hype my ebooks the way these others do. For that, I hold my head up. Come on internet marketers, take the narrow way and come up with some good honest information. You will be well rewarded for it. After all, we all can use some good people out there in cyberspace, not leeches who are looking to make a fast buck on some poor unsuspecting surfer. Fight the good fight. It will be well worth it.

Joe is a prolific writer of self-help and educational material and an award-winning former teacher of both college and high school mathematics. Under the penname, JC Page, Joe authored Arithmetic Magic, the little classic on the ABC’s of arithmetic. Joe is also author of the charming self-help ebook, Making a Good Impression Every Time: The Secret to Instant Popularity, the original collection of poetry, Poems for the Mathematically Insecure, and the short but highly effective fraction troubleshooter Fractions for the Faint of Heart. The diverse genre of his writings (novel, short story, essay, script, and poetry)?particularly in regard to its educcational flavor? continues to captivate readers and to earn him recognition.&

Joe propagates his teaching philosophy through his articles and books and is dedicated to helping educate children living in impoverished countries. Toward this end, he donates a portion of the proceeds from the sale of every ebook. For more information go to http://www.mathbyjoe.com/.

Internet Goldrush

Writen by Mike Pachuta

We were taught in school about the gold rushes. There were a few of them. There was the California gold rush, Klondike gold rush, and Australian rush. Now there were more but just to name a few. People sold and gave up everything to go and hunt for gold. They had no idea how to do it. They figured they learn when they got there. As we all know most lost everything and their lives went to pot. There were many that succeed too.

Well we have another gold rush happening now. But the gold nuggets are the internet. There have been many many people who have made fortunes on the internet whether it be from starting a dot com or selling products, information and ideas

There are so many people rushing to the internet to make their fortunes too. Now maybe their not throwing everything away and traveling thousands of miles to god only knows where. But I have seen and heard of people quitting their jobs to work on the internet full time. Now again many have succeeded but most don't. There is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. Knowledge is key.

The internet can change your life. It can teach you almost anything. Every day people are logging in or onto the internet. They are looking for information, looking to buy something. Many actually go online to play games, whether it be Role playing games, or the latest thing. TEXAS HOLD'EM. What I am trying to say here is that I don't think we really realize yet how big the internet is going to be! You need to sit up and take notice.

You need to take stock of what you know. Would other people be interested in that info? Do I have info that others would be interested in? You don't always have to use other peoples information or products. Everyday people goo to the internet looking for how to do this and how to do that.

Learn to put your information out there. Learn to pan for your gold. Everyone can find their own gold they just need to pan for it. Learning is the key. It just takes less dangerous methods these days to pan for your gold.

Mike Pachuta

I discovered lots of free information here

Free ebooks and videos

http://www.MARKETING-SUCCESSFULLY.COM/

Internet Exposure: Is It Worth The Investment?

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

If you’re like me, you’ve invested considerable time trying to figure out the Internet, to make it pay off as a business proposition.

Conventional wisdom says: get a great web address, design your site attractively, employ a clever search strategy, and the world will click a path to your doorstep.

This thinking is very flawed, I can tell you from experience. An associate of mine has a spectacular URL and everything else and all he gets are misdirected inquiries, and very few leads for what he does, which is training.

So, he pays for bandwidth, site maintenance, and the like, and he gets zip, in return.

He's thinking of selling his site to a firm that can benefit from the confused traffic he receives.

Another conventional belief is clicks are good. Certainly, we want attention, but it needs to be the right kind.

I sell consulting and coaching, primarily to businesses and to professionals.

Do I really want or need a retired consumer or a teenager surfing my site?

Also clicks aren’t money unless you can get advertisers, and who will want to advertise on your site? Your competitors, just as they do at the ezine sites where some of my articles run.

Do I want people focused on MY MESSAGE or someone else’s?

Also, ask yourself if you really want to be where all of your competitors are, or somewhere else, where they aren’t.

If I reach out to sell a prospect by phone or with a mailer, whose name I dug up, I’ll occupy the high ground in his consciousness, for at least a time, because I’ll be the only person in my field that is pitching him.

How can I occupy the high ground on the Internet?

Is there any?

These are just a few of the problems associated with Internet marketing. We’ll examine more in future articles.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someoneฎ, You Can Sell Anything By Telephone! and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

Internet Copy and Content: 5 Ways to Seduce Anyone Who Visits Your Website

Writen by Cory Fossum

Let me be direct here. There is simply nothing more important to your web
site than powerful, seductive copy the sells your products and services. Without it,
it's like operating a retail store without salespeople. Or even worse, hiring
incompetent salespeople.

Your store might look nice. And a few people might walk through the door. But
they'll leave long before they buy anything. The mall is full of quick alternatives. And
so is the Internet.

So what steps can you take to make your web site copy more seductive? There are a
ton. But let's start with 5 of the big ones right now.

Apply these to your web copy and and you'll start seeing better results right away.

1. Keep it conversational.

Visitors will stay on your site much longer if they feel like you're talking right to
them. They are looking for a connection; some sort of proof that there is a living,
breathing person behind all that copy.

So keep your tone light and conversational, even if you are talking about complex
business solutions. Keep your paragraphs short. And your sentences shorter. You
want your visitors to feel like you are speaking to them one-on-one.

Remember, effective copy is just salesmanship in print. A boring, stiff, and overly
technical salesperson will lose your attention in an instant. But friendly, informed,
and conversational salespeople know how to keep you engaged through the entire
selling process -- and beyond.

2. Take them by the hand.

Your copy needs to act as a tour guide to every visitor who shows up on your site.
Don't wait for them to guess what to do next. Because chances are they won't.
Instead, hold them by the hand and tell them exactly what actions you want them to
to take.

Do you want them to place an order? Are you expecting them to opt-in to a
newsletter or other retention program? Do you want them to go to a different page
for more information? Make sure they know how and where to do all of this. And
then, point blank, ask them to do it.

3. Get to the point.

With only a few seconds to capture your readers' interest, you need to get to your
point right away. So don't dilly-dally around with long introductory paragraphs. Save
those for later.

Instead, explain what your product or service is and how it will benefit your readers
from the get-go. Use an eye-catching headline and lead paragraph that grabs your
reader by the collar and doesn't let go. Once you have their attention, you can spend
as much time as you want selling to them.

4. Use bullets.

• They're easy to read.

• They break apart long blocks of text.

• They highlight important information.

• They're perfect for displaying lists.

• They help to keep things simple.

5. Minimize the hyperbole.

Just like you shouldn't have to explain a funny joke, you shouldn't have to rely on hyperbole to sell your product. That's because people tend to view hyperbole and
exaggeration as a warning sign—in a used-car dealer sort of way—and you run the
risk of minimizing your credibility.

Yes, you need to be excited about your product. And yes, that needs to come across
in your copy. But you can convey all the excitement and enthusiasm you need
without frequently resorting to overstatement.

How?

Just refer to the first tip and write in a friendly and engaging style that makes your
readers trust you and your business.

(c) 2006 by Cory Fossum. All rights reserved.

Cory Fossum is an award-winning copywriter and marketing consultant. His
specialty is direct marketing, including direct mail packages, promotional email blasts,
collateral, brochures, and customer retention newsletters and messaging. To receive
more FREE marketing thoughts, tips, and strategies like the ones you just read, visit
http://www.fossumcreative.com and sign up for his monthly newsletter, Cory Fossum's
Call to Action.

Internet Effectiveness

Writen by John Geiger

It’s now the year 2006. The internet as we know it has been around for about 15 years. It’s not new any more, but maturing, changing. It’s no longer a question of whether people use the internet, but rather how they use it. For businesses the question is: how do my employees, my suppliers, my existing and potential customers, and my community use the internet, and how can I use the internet to make life easier and more rewarding for them and as a result grow my business? Answering this question properly will bring good fortune.

This question itself is not even new. Replace the word “internet” with telephone, or automobile, or mail or television, check, credit cards, money, or even time, and you get a question whose answers have set the path for many a company’s fortunes over the years. Answer the question correctly, pursue the answer and the consumer will bring you very good fortune indeed.

What does today’s internet user look like? For a glimpse at some trends, consider a recent opinion survey conducted by eMarketer of US Internet Retailers listing the following to be the top reasons for the continued explosive growth of online shopping:

1. The continued growth in demand for time-saving convenient services by all consumers (38.2%)

2. The greater acceptance of and familiarity with the internet by today’s adult (33.6%)

3. The maturation and growing buying power of today’s web-savvy teens and young adults. (25.2%)

4. A growing dissatisfaction with shopping in stores (3.1%)

According to these results, we are as a whole all looking to save time, increasingly familiar with and comfortable with the internet, and the generation coming up even more so. That could help explain why online sales rose over 25% in 2005 or roughly nearly 4 times the growth in offline sales over the previous year.

How do we here in Catawba County use the internet to make life easier and rewarding for our customers, employees, and suppliers wherever they may be and therefore bring more success to our own businesses and community?

1. Realize the internet is the most instant and far-reaching medium in existence. China has over 100 million internet users already and is projected to surpass the US in usage within the next 5 years. Not impressed? How about in our own neighborhood? More people in our country today use the internet to search for products and services, and even phone numbers than the telephone books themselves. Able to be much more up-to-date than traditional print media, it has gained the confidence and accessibility to provide greater time savings and convenience.

2. Know how to present your products and services attractively and efficiently on the internet. First impressions last, and those first impressions happen quickly indeed. A recent Canadian study revealed that the brain can and does make flash judgments almost as quickly as the eye can take it in which turns out to be around 1/20th of a second to form an impression of a website. The study went on to discuss how these first impressions created either a positive or negative feeling that carried over into implied confidence or avoidance of the message that they then may take the time to comprehend. Good first impressions created trust, and a tendency to use that site to confirm their decision whereas the opposite was also true. Of course the site must then follow through with utility and avoid frustrating the user at any point, or they can leave quicker then they entered.

3. Just the creation and presentation of a website will not guarantee success. Advertisers in the US and Canada spent $5.75 billion on Search Engine Marketing in 2005 which was up 44 percent over 2004. The efficiency of being able to focus on a specific niche, measure real-time results and make instant adjustments in your marketing strategies is paying huge dividends to savvy advertisers in all industries.

We can continue to increase our share of the global marketplace in our county by more effectively using one of the most incredible developments in communications and interaction the world has ever seen. It is no longer prudent to wait until the internet comes into its own. The day has already arrived, and the world is increasingly buying from those who are there making their lives easier.

Internet Consultants for Online Sales

Writen by Lance Winslow

Beware of Internet Consultants, as many of them have never been able to promote anything of their own, yet are in a haste to charge you for their experience and marketing savvy. Many have never made any money on this Internet, sold anything or consulted with any successful online sales companies. In fact most often these folks hold themselves out to be experts and consultants yet have no real experience at all. The Former President and Founder of Wendy’s Hamburger, Dave Thomas, when listening to those trying to give him advice would often ask, how much money do you have? Often finding that those wishing to give him advice had little if any money, he would think to himself; “why should I listen to you?” Indeed this is a good question.

As an entrepreneur I often have people holding themselves out to be consultants attempt to sell me their advice. Yet on further review they have nothing to offer. In my observations of the online Internet Sales business there are many who are trying to consult, yet so do well. If someone is really a good consultant then in fact they would be doing it for themselves. It is similar to the saying; Those who can’t Teach or those who can’t work for the government. Indeed, if you will look at all the experts out there who claim to be Internet Guru’s ask yourself how many really have made any money on the Internet? Only a few, in fact most Internet Consultants will give you advice of search engine registration, market and sales techniques, but fall down in their own efforts to market their consulting business. In fact most Internet Consultants rank very low in the search engines and most a starving and living on minimal means. So why on Earth would you hire one without proof of performance; one way for them to prove they are good at what they do, would be that they did well in promoting themselves.

Be careful of anyone giving you advice on anything, especially online sales. Be wary of people full of advice with little if any action. Don’t trust under-performers or those who have never achieved anything to give you advice, for you are a better source of information and you are better off following your gut; that is if you are a real entrepreneur.

Lance Winslow