Donna Knight's Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews

Category: Internet Marketing

Internet marketing articles to help you marketing your website on the internet and get more internet sales, sign-ups or website visitors.

  • How To Find The Best Low Cost Web Host Without Skimping on Features

    By Donna Knight

    With an online business, your website is perceived as a reflection of your business reliability and credibility. A poorly designed website makes your business appear unprofessional. Likewise choosing an unreliable host, makes your website and your business appear unreliable, as well.

    For that reason, the success of your business is directly tired to your choice of web host. In case you don’t know, a web host is a computer that stores your website. When an internet user types in your website address or URL into their web browser, their computer connects to the web host which then points them to the pages that make up your website.

    As a professional website builder who has built over 200 websites over the past three years, I could tell you some hosting horror stories, such as mysteriously broken or disappearing websites. But I would rather tell you how to avoid such disaster. Once you read the following tips you’ll be able to make more informed decisions about choosing an affordable web site host, and avoid mistakes myself and my customers made when first starting out.

    Here is a list of what to consider in choosing a reliable cheap web host with the best features:

    1. Know the bandwidth limits. Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data that can be transferred over a network. Bandwidth limits can be measured daily or monthly. If bandwidth limits are too low, you will have to move your website if you get a lot of traffic.

    Unlimited bandwidth falls under the category of too good to be true. There is always a limit, whether they tell you what it is or not. When comparing prices, try to get the most bang for your buck, but don’t assume unlimited bandwidth is the best value. Whether it is will depend on other factors listed here.

    Bandwidth is usually specified in GB (A GB or gigabyte is 1 million megabytes. A megabyte is 1 million bytes. Get it?).

    2. 30-day Money back guarantee. Most web hosts do not give a money-back guarantee, but you should give extra points to a website which does offer this. It gives you a chance to try out the speed and reliability of the service without risking your money.

    3. Unix or Windows Hosting. Unix is an operating system just like Windows, which is the operating system on your personal computer (unless you’re using a mac). Which type of host is right for you depends on what type of website you have. If your website is a bunch of HTML pages, either one will work. If your website has complicated functions, or has different types of pages or uses a database, ask your web designer which type of hosting your website requires. If your website is loaded onto the wrong type of host, it will not work.

    4. Allowable disk space. Most web hosts offer multiple hosting accounts with increasing amounts of disk space. More disk space is usually more expensive. You want to give more weight to host services that give more disk space for the money when doing comparisons. Most websites don’t use more than 100 MB (MB is megabytes). If it is a static website, such as a sales page, it might even take up less than 1 MB.

    If you see a host offering unlimited disk space, you should know this is a marketing ploy. There is always a limit, so keep this in mind when you see this.

    5. Compatibility. If your site is simply a few HTML pages, this is not an issue. It will work with any host. If you have a website created by a designer or programmer, you will need to check with them to find out what features your web hosts must have before your buy your hosting account.

    6. Technical support availability. If you want to maximize your visitors and sales, your website needs to be available 24/7. Likewise you need a host that offers support around the clock. Most web hosts do not offer phone support. Those who do are usually more expensive. Give extra points to those who do. Most support is web-based and response times can vary.

    7. Reliability of the hosting company. Choosing a web host is like choosing a partner. You want to give preference to a host that has been around a while. A new host could disappear just as quickly as it appeared, taking your website along with them. You don’t necessarily need to choose a major company, such as Dell, because their hosting will almost certainly be more expensive. Smaller web hosting companies can be just as reliable as larger ones for the same reason that smaller companies sometimes give better service than larger ones.

    8. Reliability of hosting service. Many hosts list their reliability in terms of uptime, such as 99.7% uptime. Some hosts will given give you free hosting time if they fail to meet their uptime. There is no such thing as 100% uptime. Web host servers are more reliable than personal computers but no computer is perfect. Generally, anything over 99% is good.

    Remember that the cheapest host is not necessarily the best. Consider all the factors I’ve listed above, then decide. The best choice will give you the most features for your money. Most importantly, reliability is one area you should never ever skimp on just to save a few bucks. If you do, it could end up costing you more money then you saved. It possible to find a good low cost host as long as you keep reliability in mind.

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    Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
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    Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact. For product reviews, you may substitute your affiliate referral link for the product URL.
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  • How To Profit From RSS

    By Donna Knight

    Would you believe an 18 year old girl earned $4000 for the month of March. That may sound like hype for some business opportunity, but in fact, it’s a true story. Would you like to know her secret? Of course you would. I’ll tell you in two words.

    Google AdSense.

    That’s right. She made four thousand smackeroos by slapping some AdSense code on a site that got lots of visitors. Okay, there’s a little more to it than that. First she chose a subject with ravenous fans, Final Fantasy. She was also fortunate enough to be one of the few fans of the series who had the talent to make a beautiful online shrine for people who shared her passion. Most importantly, she took advantage of a time where you can build a site that gets enough visitors so that Google AdSense can be the key to untold riches.

    Fortunately for you, we’re still living in a time where there are plenty more riches to be reaped from the AdSense goldmine. If you want to know more about what you need to do to position yourself to get some of that AdSense gold, read on.

    Increasing website traffic is always the first priority for internet marketers. More visitors means greater chances for a sale. Sales is a numbers game. With AdSense, more visitors means more clicks which means more money. Does that make sense?

    AdSense, however, won’t do you any good if you have no traffic. The rest of this article will focus on how to boost your traffic. Read on. One way to increase your website traffic is through maximizing search engine positioning. Being on the first page of the search engine results will do wonders to increase your chances of getting scores of unique website visitors.

    The million-dollar question is how do you get your website on that first page of the search engine results page (also called the SERP). Part of the solution is to choose the right keywords to use in your site. These keywords would be the words that searchers type into the search engine box, which then show a list of related websites. The better your keyword choices, the greater your chance of getting a higher search engine position. However, choosing the right keywords is only the first step in search engine optimization.

    Here’s a little known secret the gurus don’t want you to know: Search engine spiders are the little programs which actually grab information from your site which will be integrated into the search engines. These spiders love websites with constantly changing content. The more you update your site, the more the spiders will come back to visit your site and spider it.

    The problem is that manually updating your site constantly would be so tedious that even if you thought you really could make a lot of money as a result of doing it, you would eventually lose your motivation. Your goal is an internet marketer is always to save time by automating as many of your tasks as possible.

    That’s where RSS enters the picture. The definition of RSS is Really Simple Syndication. It is a standard for publishing constant updates to a website. RSS technology lets web publishers send out news and updates, called feeds, which visitors can quickly and conveniently read with a program called an RSS reader. RSS now has more uses than it ever was intended for.

    1. RSS allows you to easily and quickly send messages to your target audience, whether they are customers or your mailing list subscribers. Do you have a new promotion to send out an ad for? Do you have new information for your readers to ponder? Have you added new products to your product line that you want your past buyers to consider? Syndicate it! Gone are the days when your only choice was to wait until new information arrived in the mail. RSS feeds are delivered immediately as soon as the user comes online.

    2. The true power of RSS is best realized with a blog. Blogs were originally created to serve as online journals, but leave it to smart internet marketers to find more uses, most importantly how to monetize them.

      3. Blogs are much easier to update than a website, therefore making it very easy to add new content every day. It’s all automated. Write, publish, and voila!, new content! The best part is that your blog updates can also be syndicated as RSS feeds. The benefit are twofold. 1) It saves time and 2) it makes search engine spiders love your constantly updated site as well as your other sites where RSS feeds originate.

    3. RSS is a free web promotion method, so you don’t need any expensive programs to take advantage of it. Blogs are free as well. RSS is still a new technology which means if you start taking advantage now you will be head and shoulders above any competition.

    RSS will expose more people to your site and make search engine spiders frequent visitors to your site. As a result, you will get more visitors. More visitors means more potential sales. The girl with the Final Fantasy site is proof of that. To boost your online present, taking advantage of RSS is a must.

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    Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
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    Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free eBooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact. For product reviews, you may substitute your affiliate referral link for the product URL.
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  • Are You Down with the Clowns?

    Intro by Donna Knight
    This is an article from controversial internet marketer Jo Han Mok. His copywriting style is a lot like Gary Halbert’s. It’s raw, tough-talking and sometimes funny. If you’ve been in internet marketing circles long enough, you’ll recognize the clowns he’s talking about. Don’t let his somewhat offensive manner of speaking keep you from taking his main message to heart though. He’s right. The most successful people online (and off) really do exhibit the behavior he mentions. The clowns may seem successful for a little while then they suddenly disappear, never to be heard from again. For more information, read on:

    >From the desk of Jo Han Mok
    9/13/2005
    MEMO: Sales Avalanche

    Hi Donna,

    I think you’ll find today’s email rather interesting.

    You see…

    I often get lots of subscribers asking me how it is
    possible for me to consistently get such startling
    reponse rates.

    This is usually the case after they have done some JV
    with a supposed big name marketer claiming to have a
    billion people on his opt in list, and the clown pulls
    in only 3 sales.

    SO the big question is, how do you not fall into the
    trap of becoming a ‘clown’ like our friend above?

    Here are a few pointers.

    Power Pointer #1: It’s NOT the size

    Despite what women say, size has nothing to do with
    it. I don’t care how many people you have on your
    list. I rather have a list of a 1000 people who have
    spent at least $97 than a list of 3 billion people who
    have not spent a dime with me.

    Power Pointer #2: Give MORE value

    Majority of Internet Marketers fall into this
    category. Every email is a pitch. Buy this, then buy
    that. Let me promote anything under the sun. Doesn’t
    matter if it’s garbage, as long as I get my
    commissions. It’s easy to tell when a marketer is
    desperate. Usually you’ll get a flurry of emails that
    will telegraph something like “Hey you know I sent you
    an email yesterday to buy widget X. Guess what? Here’s
    widget Y and it’s better than Widget X”

    It’s everything or anything. Some thrashy fire sale,
    some crap software, the newest niche formula, blah
    blah.

    Leave this to the amateurs. Probably aside from
    sending emails to their list, they have no other means
    of making dough online.

    Don’t, for the love of mother mary fall into this
    trap.

    I’ve been there and done that when I started out. The
    money is crap.

    If you wanna squeeze MAXIMUM profits from your list,
    you gotta give. Give more, and learn to ‘hold out’
    from all that pitching.

    If you’re skeptical try it. Give nothing but your very
    best content for 4 weeks straight and throw in a pitch
    on the 5th, see what happens.

    Most probbaly, people will already be BEGGING you to
    sell them something in the 3rd week.

    Power Pointer #3: Focus

    If you want to make the most number of sales you
    possibly can, do it the PRO way and focus.

    Concentrate on ONE product, and have a CONGRUENT
    message.

    Marketing bozos on the other hand will have a ‘buffet
    spread’ of 72 hour specials alongside with an exlusive
    ‘buy my ebook and you get my mother as well’ type of
    offer.

    When people are confused, they DOn’T buy.

    If you get a poor response intially, try to ‘tweak’
    your offer and your marketing mechanisms and see what
    happens.

    Very often, it could be due to one or more variables
    that you can ‘fix’. For instance, it could be the
    ‘look’ of the piece, the ‘qualifiers’ in the copy, the
    price point yada yada. It could be anything, but
    unless you test and monitor your results, you wouldn’t
    know.

    And last but not least, don’t imitate.

    DARE to be different.

    If you have your own unique spin on things, do it.

    Screw those who don’t like you, and go with your
    heart.

    You can stand your ground and you don’t need anyone
    else’s permission.

    I’ll give you an example.

    Most ‘bozo’ marketers online are followers.

    They see a ‘fire sale’, they come up with a ‘fire
    sale’.

    They see a ‘source code blowout’, they come up with a
    ‘blowout’.

    They see a ‘Private lable package’, they come up with
    a ‘Private Label Package’.

    They see a ‘Content Publishing system’, they come up
    with a ‘Content Publishing System’.

    Yet if you look at them and ask yourself what they
    ‘REALLY’ do, there’s only one answer. They’re anything
    and everything that makes money.

    That’s cool, but where’s your business longevity?

    Where’s your ‘identity’?

    Where’s your ‘brand’?

    How are people EVER gonna relate to you?

    I hope all this is making sense to you.

    It’s a long email laced with sarcasm and some dark
    humor but I’ve been keeping this stuff to myself for
    far too long.

    Time for you to know, and if you dig what I had to
    say, do every marketer on this planet a favor and
    forward it to any other marketers you know.

    The ‘little guy’ CAN succeed!

    Jo Han Mok
    Midas Touch Marketing

    P.s. Don’t take my word for it though. Just look
    through the emails you get in your inbox and see
    if what I said is true.

    P.P.S. You have full permission to reprint this
    article as long as you credit it to me ok? : – )

  • How to Start a Profitable Business on eBay

    By Donna Knight

    Unless you’re new to the internet, you already know that eBay is the most popular online auction site. Here’s how it works: Sellers get potential buyers to bid on an item, with the highest bidder buying the product for the price he or she offered.

    Like all successful sites, eBay started out as a simple site created by Pierre Omidyar for his girlfriend Pam (who is now his wife) to help her find other Pez dispenser collectors in the Bay area. Now this site is a billion dollar industry.

    Why should you care about Pierre’s success? Because Pierre is not the first or the last person who will become a success with eBay. Many people have quit their jobs by selling on eBay. Likewise many businesses have found untold riches on eBay.

    First thing you need to do is open a seller’s account in eBay. You will be asked for verifiable personal information so eBay can make sure you are not a criminal trying to scam people. This information will allow them to catch you if you are. Let’s assume you’re not a scammer though.

    Next step is to choose what payment methods you will accept from buyers.
    Most important is choosing what item you want to sell and how much you want to sell it for.
    Once you’ve chosen what item you want to sell, get your camera and take a picture of it. Upload the picture to the site and decide on the starting bid. Then sit back and relax. Let the bidding begin. If you’ve chosen your product wisely, people will be fighting to bid on it.

    Many people have found financial freedom on eBay. I’ve personally spoken to people who left high-paying jobs because their eBay business become so successful that they couldn’t do both. And why would they want to, when their eBay sales were more profitable? If you could choose to be your own boss, work your own hours from the comfort of your own home, wouldn’t you?

    One thing you must know is that these people hit the jackpot with eBay because they are trustworthy sellers, and that is essential in making buyers come back for more.

    Another ingredient for a successful eBay business, which I’ve already mentioned, is choosing the right product to sell. You don’t have to be the first to sell it, but you do have to sell an item that has few enough sellers to keep the demand high and keep it profitable.

    Some sellers set up online stores on eBay so that they can offer buyers a variety of products to choose from.
    There are almost no limitations on what you can sell on eBay, as long as it’s something that’s legal to sell. You can sell items like wedding dresses and all kinds of clothing, furniture, books, jewelry, and electronics, and lots more. Many items you might have difficulty selling offline do just fine on eBay, such as antiques and eccentric items.

    In fact, eBay has a ‘Weird Stuff” category in its items-for-sale directory and that category is subdivided into ‘Slightly Unusual,’ ‘Real Weird,’ and ‘Totally Bizarre.’ You can’t imagine just how eccentric and unusual the items being sold under these categories are. You should take a look for yourself. You won’t believe it.

    Let’s say you don’t want to sell weird items but still can’t think of an item to sell. Take a look around your home and see what you can get rid of. eBay is the ultimate proof that one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. You probably won’t get thousands of dollars from your trash, but then again you never know. You’ll certainly get more than you would by throwing it away if it’s any good. Sometimes even broken items can be sold for the parts.

    There once was a seller who thought no one would bid for his broken transistor radio, but he decided to put it up for auction anyways. He was shocked when an engineering student bought it. When the seller asked the student why he bought it, the student said he wanted to learn about repairing electronic gadgets.

    Here’s another crazy story: Jay Leno from The Tonight Show confirmed that someone actually paid for a Doritos chip shaped like a Pope’s hat for a thousand dollars. That’s not the first or the last time food shaped like a religious symbol has commanded seemingly ridiculous amounts of money.

    Now that you know how to get started and understand that you can sell almost anything, there’s no reason not to. Whether you’re an individual who wants to make some extra money or a business owner who is already selling a product offline, there is literally money waiting to be made on eBay. All you have to do is get started today.
    =============================================
    Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
    =============================================
    Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact.

  • How To Market Your Offline Business Online

    By Donna Knight

    The disadvantage of an offline business compared to an online business is the limited marketplace. There are multiple factors that need to be perfect to guarantee your business success. One factor is the limited geographic area that will be the potential audience for your goods or services. Another factor is the limited number of places to advertise. In addition, to give your products or service the exposure they need usually requires a sizeable financial investment.

    In the past decade, all this has changed. On the internet, the whole world can be your market. Marketing and promotion can be done at the speed of electrons at little or no cost. All this has changed with the advent of the Internet. When you do pay to advertise, your advertising dollars can stretch a lot further with online marketing

    It’s no secret that the Internet has become a breeding place for unknown millionaires. These are the people who have established new online businesses that became wildly successful empires. Despite their success, you won’t see them on T.V., doing the rounds on The Tonight Show or David Letterman. These entrepreneurs are perfectly happy to keep their success to themselves while enjoying a life of abundance beyond their wildest dreams.

    If you have an offline business, right now you may be thinking, “that’s good for them but how will it benefit me?” The good news is that the internet can provide the same benefits for offline businesses. In fact, if you’re smart, you’ll position yourself on the internet now before your competition does and leaves you eating their dust.

    Here are some things you need to know to start marketing your offline business online:
    1. You need a website. A website will be like an online version of your shop where you can display your products or announce your services. You can also choose to perform transactions or make sales on your website. You can accept orders and pre-orders by using forms and online payment processors.

    2. You need a secure payment method to accept payments online. 63% of consumers worldwide are still hesitant to use their credit card or checks online. Your payment pages can be secure by using Secure Sockets Layers (SSL), which protects data transmissions over the web by encrypting or encoding the data so that it can’t be read if intercepted by a hacker.

    3. You also need to learn how to drive traffic to your site. This is not that difficult though. Traffic refers to the number of people who visit your website. The more people who see your site, the more exposure your products or services receive. Therefore, making more sales may require getting more people to come to your site. Making sales is always a numbers game, both online and offline. Here are some proven ways to increase traffic to your site:

    A. Optimize your site for the search engines. A good 80% of traffic comes from search engines queries. If your website gets a high position in the search engine results, you will get more visitors. Search engine optimization tactics include keyword research and integration, content creation, and submission of your site to as many high-traffic search engines as possible.

    B. Exchange links with other similar but non-competing sites, but also try to get one-way links to your site. One-way links are links where they link to you, but you don’t link back. Search engines frown on obviously intentional reciprocal linking. If you get links from completely unrelated sites, these may be poor quality links.

    C. Advertise on other sites by using banners.

    D. Try pay-per-click advertising, such as Overture or Google AdWords.

    4. You also have to establish a way to keep past visitors. This can be done using a good autoresponder service or by regularly sending out an Ezine. Ezines are electronic newsletters that provide valuable information for your subscribers. By offering them something worth their time, you will gain trust, which could result in future sales.

    5. Consider viral marketing, which is the online equivalent of word of mouth advertising. Here’s how it works: distribute a useful and desirable product for free. This is usually in the form of an eBook or a special report on a subject of interest and importance to your target market. Add links to your product or website to this Ebook. Allow your readers to freely distribute it to their friends and family by giving them giveaway rights. An advanced technique is to give them resale rights to this viral product, allowing them to keep 100% of the profits for any sales. This would guarantee an exponential spread of the viral product, resulting in a similar exponential growth of your site’s traffic.

    These days putting your offline business online is so cheap, that you have nothing to lose by trying it. You don’t need a major investment, and the risks are usually negligible. The key is to start now, and you will find that there are endless possibilities for your business online.
    =============================================
    Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
    =============================================
    Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact.

  • Create Your Own Online Marketing “TV” Station

    Here’s an interesting article from Jim Edwards about the start of the convergence of the internet and television. If this is really going to happen, it’s definitely in very early stages, but it’s always a good idea for online marketers to be on the lookout for new marketing media.

    -Donna Knight

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    Create Your Own Online Marketing “TV” Station

    – by Jim Edwards

    © Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
    http://www.thenetreporter.com
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    It will happen! TV and the Internet will eventually merge into one giant multi-media “melting pot” that includes everything from live footage and old reruns to garage videos posted by your next door neighbor’s kid. Just like cable TV fractured network TV, the Internet will enable everyone with a voice, a video camera, and something to say to fracture cable TV even more. But the real TV revolution on the Internet will only happen when marketers stop trying to copy TV, with its commercials and outdated modes of revenue generation, and start copying the “pay-per-view” and “infomercial” models.

    One company at TVexe.com has started offering television broadcasts from around the world via Internet streaming. The free software (with optional one-time $25 upgrade) allows you to stream TV feeds from around the world to your desktop through a broadband connection. The picture rates a “C+” on the quality side, but, just like Internet telephony 6 years ago, you can expect the quality to improve quickly. If they can keep costs down long enough to figure out how to make money, this company will likely succeed because they provide programming that’s virtually impossible to get anywhere else.

    But, for the rest of us “mortals” who want to stream our images, video, and audio across the Web, trying to provide “live TV” broadcasts spells the kiss of death in both time and money. For the vast majority of companies doing business online, it will prove virtually impossible to get a meaningful number of people to show up to a website at “8:00 P.M. Eastern” for tonight’s live “TV” broadcast. But what will work online is adopting the “pay-per-view” model found in hotels where you watch the program you want, when you want. Offering website visitors video content they can download, start, stop, play, pause, and view on their own schedule holds the key to online “TV” success. I hate to make this overly simplistic, but bottom line: an effective online “TV Station” only needs a basic website and the ability to allow “viewers” to download or stream video files.

    All of us get two basic options when it comes to creating content to deliver from our “TV Station” website. First, you can do “screen capture” video, which combines video of the action taking place on your computer screen with your voice as narration, to create excellent instructional content. You then allow viewers to download this “TV program” from your website either free or for a free. Two programs enable you to do this quickly and easily: “Screen Cam Generator” from http://www.ScreenCamSoftware.com and “Camtasia” from http://www.TechSmith.com.

    Your second option involves using full-motion video, either from a web-cam or a camcorder. The content most easily gets published online either as a WMV file (Windows Media Video) played with Microsoft’s Media Player, or FLV file (Flash Video) played with the free Flash “plug-in” found in most Web browsers.

    Regardless of which option you choose, remember: unlike traditional TV, successful models of “TV-style” content online will empower the viewer to watch when and where they choose.

    —
    Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
    creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
    step and click-by-click how to finally create your own
    money-making mini-sites…

    -=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    “Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
    Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a
    Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
    Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!”

    Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com

  • How Can I Find A Niche?

    By Donna Knight

    Here’s o­ne idea for finding a profitable niche. Most internet marketers tell you to find a subject that you love or are passionate about, but here’s what I think. I take the advice of “sell what you love” with a grain of salt. While I have lots of passions, some I wouldn’t want to make money from.

    For example, while I’ve spent about 11 years troubleshooting computer problems, there’s no way I want to use those troubleshooting skills online in some way. It would still be hourly labor and it’s labor-intensive work. A better solution would be for me to sell computer-related infoproducts to help people fix their own computer problems, if they’re inclined to do so.

    If you think of yourself as a marketer rather than as someone who sells xyz product, you can find a niche that is potentially profitable ( use http://www.nichebot.com which tells you potential profitability) and learn what you don’t know about it.

    Another underutilized source for niche ideas… If you have any ebook collections, I think they’re a goldmine, and not for the reasons people think. If you look at the o­nes that include special reports–Take for example Free to Sell–If you don’t have it, I’m sure you’ll find it for $2 o­n Ebay. There is the Ebusiness Encyclopedia which has dozens of reports you can resell. Now these reports may be outdated but they give you dozens of potential niche market ideas.

    Plus you’re allowed to take the reports that are there and add to them. And you can do your research right o­n the web to expand this information into an ebook.

    Some examples:
    Catering Business
    Used CD & Video Store
    Child Care Business
    Local Tour Operator
    Show & Seminar Promotions
    Limousine Service
    Janitorial Contracting Business
    Auto Detailing Business
    Party Plan Sales (350 searches for how to be a party planner o­n Overture)
    Bed & Breakfast (487 people searched for how to start a Bed & Breakfast o­n Overture last month)

    Okay those are all business-related, but that’s because I took them from o­nly o­ne of the 20 report collections. Despite how outdated these reports may be, there are hundreds of people searching for information o­n these businesses o­n Overture alone. I suspect that’s because the person(s) who wrote these reports knew this information was in demand at the time, and it still is!

    I hope that helps you come up with your some potential niche ideas to start with. Then you can narrow it down to the o­nes that interest you the most. In my mind, coming up with a niche idea isn’t as hard as choosing o­ne and getting started.
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    Donna Knight is a Website Promotion Specialist and Website Builder. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time in your online marketing efforts, visit her Internet Marketing Tools blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
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    Copyright (C)2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact.

  • Reducing to the Ridiculous

    By Armand Morin

    As I was getting ready to go to bed the other night, I was watching o­ne of those late night infomercials.

    It was another o­ne of those weight loss/exercise programs that claimed it has been a secret to the stars for 50 years.

    As I was watching, lightning struck me!
    They stated the same thing every other ad states except in a different way.

    Here is what they said:

    “After 20 times you will notice a difference and after 30 times your friends will notice a difference.”

    Now, look at what they really said.

    You are suppose to use the system 3 times a week for 10 weeks.

    3 times a week for 10 weeks sounds like a lot to me but doing it o­nly 30 times for noticeable difference sounds pretty simple. Even I can do that!

    All of a sudden I started thinking of making a countdown board with 30 and then reducing that down by o­ne each time I worked out. I thought, this is awesome.

    I didn’t buy the product but it did make me think.

    I started thinking of the power their simple explanation really had and how I can apply that to my business.

    I was always taught in sales, you must reduce the price to such a small amount that it would be ridiculous for a prospect not to buy.

    So I started thinking. If a person bought my eCover software for example and used it 10 times, that means they just reduced their effective cost from $97 for a cover to just $9.70. If they used it 100 times though their cost would o­nly be $.97 for each cover they created.

    Pretty neat huh? I just told my prospects that the price is not $97 it is o­nly $.97 per cover! That certainly sounds a lot better and more affordable! Plus it makes sense.

    How can you apply this to your business?

    Ask yourself, how much can a person save each time they use my product?

    or What does it really cost to use my product?

    How much time and energy can my product save my customers?

    How much more money would my customers have spent if they did not have my product.

    Your product doesn’t have to be software, information products work the same way. Diet products are great products for this formula to work with.

    Lose weight for o­nly $.34 a pound!

    Think about your product and reduce it to the ridiculous!

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    About Armand Morin

    Armand Morin has been o­nline since 1996 and has sold millions of dollars o­n and offline. His latest products cater specifically to the ebook industry. Two of his more well known products are www.ebookgenerator.com and www.ecovergenerator.com the first ecover software.