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Make Money Importing And Exporting As You Travel

Collins Mike — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 04:13:10 +0000

running an import agency is a great money maker and you can even do it from the comfort of your own home on a part time basis.

Obviously there are a few things you need to know before you can begin making money.

You must fully understand the role of an import agent so you can truly decide if it’s what you would like to do.

An import agent acts as a go between, introducing foreign sellers and home based buyers to each other. They never get involved in the buying and selling of gods themselves, so there is no financial outlay or risk involved.

An import agent makes his money in the form of a commission from the seller based on the value of the order and can range from 2.5% to 15% but normally around the 10% mark and as this is based on the gross value of the order before handling and shipping costs are deducted the opportunity to make a sizable commission is there.

Identify the best markets to export from, this will enable you to discover the overseas exporters who are worth dealing with. Look to countries with a weak currency, this makes their exports cheaper and so more attractive to the importer. Look to places such as the Far East, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Seek out small to medium sized manufacturers who wish to export, but cannot afford to employ an overseas sales force.

Establish links in those countries where you may have friends or family, people who have a working knowledge of the language and the culture and also possibly business minded.

This will afford you your ‘Unique Selling Point’ needed to become a successful go between with exporters and importers who are not familiar with each others ways and customs.

Take time and choose the right products, don’t assume because it is cheap in china that it will automatically sell like hot cakes in the USA.

Go for tried and tested products to begin with, such as, gifts, crafts, furniture and jewelry. Don’t get involved with electrical items or toys because the standards in the country of origin may not be up to the same as the country you wish to sell in, and in certain instances you could possibly fall foul of the laws covering such standards.

Start building your contacts, attend International Fairs where you will find exporters who are eager to make contact with agents and importers.

Remember agents receive their commissions from the seller not the buyer so concentrate on manufacturers.

The bottom line with this business is, that once you have established a few solid contacts and manged to introduce sellers to buyers you should if you are running this as a serious business start to make sizable commissions.

This is only the start, repeat sales will follow and if you have done your homework properly then importers may even employ your services to source particular products from countries they haven’t previously dealt with.

As with any business, treat it seriously and you can make a very good and interesting living from it, treat it as a toy and you wont.

Seven Winning Ways With Fruit Machines

Collins Mike — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:55:22 +0000

Playing fruit machines, whether in Las Vegas, you local funfair or your local bar usually results in you being the loser. Now you can tip the odds in your favor by following these seven simple tips to winning. You may not win every time but this will help to tip the odds greatly in your favor.

1. Always play at the right time: Playing at the right time is probably the most important factor in winning at the fruit machines. Modern fruit machines are controlled by sophisticated computer programs which are designed to ensure that the maximum payback to players doesn’t exceed the legal minimum of 70% of the total take. You can use this information to your advantage.

Choose the machine you wish to play on carefully. Watch what’s going on for a minimum of thirty minutes before playing yourself.

As soon as it’s free, choose the machine that hasn’t paid out whilst you have been watching, this is the one that should pay out very soon and you stand a greater chance of winning or even dropping the jackpot.

2. Look for newly installed machines: Newly installed machines are often set to give a higher than the normal 70% payout for the first week or so following installation. This is to attract new punters and get the machine quickly established. For a bonus win, new machines must also pay out quickly to reach the minimum 70% return level. Keep a keen eye on the machines in your locality and make a point of targeting the newly installed machines.

3. Listen very carefully when you insert your coins: If your coins appear to fall a long way into the machine, the machine is more than likely ready to pay out. A long fall indicates that the coin tubes are probably full and the excess coins are being diverted to a lower part of the machine. If the machine is full, it suggests a win is due so keep playing.

4. Skill bonus: If you win any type of skill bonus and need time to fully understand the workings of the machine so you can work out what to do next. Press the cancel button, this generally slows everything down considerably, thus allowing you time to figure out what your next move should be and so facilitate a win.

5. Two holds in succession: If you get two holds in succession, always have another go. Most machines will then offer a third hold. And considering that the symbol you need for a winning line always seem to fall into place third time around it would be crazy to leave it to the next player.

6. You have a nudge but you don’t have a winning line: When you have a nudge but you don’t have a winning line, nudge two of the same symbols onto the winning line. If the next play allows you to hold, don’t do it, spin all three reels and your win should come in.

7. Your winning sequence is above the win line: If you have a win above the win line and the machine allows you to hold. Always hold all three reels together, they should then all nudge down as one and give you a winning line or even the jackpot.

By following the steps detailed above you could vastly improve your chances of winning on fruit machines.

Aways remember, once the machine has paid out, move on, it is very unlikely that it will pay out again and you should then leave it for others to refill it so you can come back once more when the odds are in your favor.

Never play a machine without studying it for at least 30 minutes first and never play a machine that has just paid out, you will simply be giving your money to the machines owner without a chance of a return.

The Secrets To Successful Networking

Collins Mike — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:38:56 +0000

You must first decide who can help you achieve your goals and set up a networking meeting with the right people. You will very soon make the connections you need in order to get what you want.

This may appear to be a little mercenary, but you must do this if you wish to succeed, list ball you friends, colleagues and business associates. Add notes to the list as to how they can help you realize your goals, who or what do they know and could they pass them onto you as a useful contact or connection.

Don’t feel uncomfortable about using your friends and family in this way, when you have achieved what you set out to achieve you can repay them in which ever way is fitting. And considering that they are the difference between trawling the situations vacant columns or setting up a meeting to discuss the new job or contract you want right now.

Maximize the value of these connections and decide exactly what you want to achieve with their help. You must be fully clear in your own mind about your goals or your network wont deliver.

To discover the most lucrative new opportunities, listen to your friends for news of new products and services, emerging markets, retirements, reorganizations, expansions, mergers or takeovers, indeed, anything which relates to change because change equals opportunity.

Define what it is you need from this new opportunity. If you are seeking a better job, write down the terms of your salary, hours, challenges, status and training. If you need to expand your own business, estimate how much your next contract should be worth. Define your goals.

Make others feel as though they want to help you and not as though they are being forced or cajoled. The key to successful networking is to keep the conversation as informal and friendly as your relationship to that person is.

Balance the tips, advice and new contacts you receive by returning the favor. Look at your list of contacts and see who could benefit from meeting each other. The next time you meet a friend or colleague mention another friend’s skills and suggest how useful they could be. In return you will find that your friends will mention others that you would benefit from speaking to.

Always ensure that you follow up on any contacts, first by telephone, and then in person, do not use email or sms, this is too impersonal and will give a bad impression.

Overcome your fear of cold calling by remembering that you have at least one thing in common, you have a mutual friend, they will probably suggest you call and will generally propose an informal meeting.

Remember you are only looking for information and advice at this point, successful networking is about developing a mutually beneficial relationship. Engage in an open conversation with your new contact about your plans and ask their advice. be informed, do your homework so you can talk confidently about their company.

Although it’s an informal meeting, this is your future so dress accordingly, be optimistic and make sure you both enjoy the meeting. Focus on the person and not on what could be in it for you.

Let you network show you opportunities in the future, keep in regular touch with your friends, family and business contacts, attend social gatherings, become one of ‘the crowd’ and you will find that whenever a potential opportunity is available you will be one of the first to know.

Develop Your Own Super Memory

Collins Mike — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:37:28 +0000

The main thing you have to do to develop a photographic memory is to learn how to retain information in a manner which makes it easy to recall. Then you will be able to recall every number, name, date or fascinating fact you ever heard or read.

Learning is most effective if you study for periods of 20 to 40 minutes interspersed by regular 5 minute breaks. Then spend a couple of minutes reviewing what you have just learned before moving on to the next section.

reviewing is very important and should be carried out at increasingly longer intervals. The first review should take place no longer than an hour following the learning period. the second review should be carried out a day later and the third review one week later. A complete and full review of any information fixes it in your long term memory and makes it easier to recall at a later date.

Memory training is the key and the four essentials for effective memory training are: association, visualization, imagination and sensation.

Association: Stage performers use linking systems which associate the things they need to remember with objects or events.

Visualization: if you visualize what you want to remember, you will remember it far more easily than if you simply file a word away. It also helps if you visualize something that is personal to you, especially if it’s something you own or wish to own. for example, don’t think car, think BMW.

Imagination: the more imaginative you are, the easier it will be to remember, make that BMW a sports model manufactured in the year you got married.

Sensation: As with imagination, the more sensational or bizarre your picture is, the easier it will be to recall. So the perfect memory image would be a silver 1995 BMW M3 with red and yellow flames down each side.

Using a mind map: Mind maps are a simple but very effective method of note taking, which show key thoughts in a round form rather than a straightforward list.

start by putting the subject in the center of a piece of plain paper, then write the main subheading around it in a circle. draw lines from the center to each subheading before adding more items in circles around the subheadings. next, redraw your map in order to rearrange things in a more logical order, you may also find it useful to add little pictures as memory joggers. For example, if your main subject is an apple, draw an apple in the middle of the page and write apple in it. If a subheading is apple pie, draw a pie shape, connect the apple to the pie with a line and connect your other thoughts with lines to the pie.
To recall the whole mind map, think apple, and the other contents will come back to you.

The link system: This links items together by fitting them into a story. For example, you are going shopping to buy buy bread, bananas, eggs, pepper, paper tissues and face cream.

Visualize yourself going into the shop, the only bread they have is such a large loaf that you can’t see where you are going and subsequently you don’t spot the banana on the floor, you step on it and go sliding towards a display of eggs, you swerve to avoid it and crash into a box of pepper, the pepper burst open and causes you to sneeze violently, you grab some paper tissue to wipe your nose but this makes your nose sore, so you find some face cream to ease your sore nose.

I realize it seems a bizarre way to remember things, but the more off beat your story is the more memorable it will be. Exaggerate everything, add colors sounds and even smells, these will help the method to work.

The Roman room system: Instead of making up a story around the items, associate each item with a feature in the room. use a room you are familiar with and go around it in the same way we did the shop.

This could involve the bread propping the door open, a monkey sitting on a chair eating a banana,the fried egg pinned to the kitchen door which you open to discover it’s been booby trapped with a pot of pepper. you reach for the tissues on top of the freezer to wipe your nose and have to use more to wipe up the pot of face cream that is bubbling over on the cooker.

Remembering numbers: All systems for remembering numbers with more than seven digits work by breaking the numbers down into separate chunks and giving a label to each of them.

The number shape system uses a set of images that are constant. You choose your own images so as to make them meaningful to you, provided they are the same shape as the number.

For instance, the number 1 is the pencil, number 2 the swan, number 4 the sailing boat and so on. So, if the number you wish to remember is 214 you visualize a swan using a pencil to write on the side of a boat.

Names: remembering names can be a source of great embarrassment for many people. The reason we forget names when we are introduce to someone is that we weren’t really paying attention. You failed to file the information in a memorable enough way to store it in your long term memory bank. to remedy this, when you meet someone repeat their name back to them. If you can do it without feeling embarrassed ask them how they spell it. Use the name again as soon as you can, repeat it when you say goodbye to the person and you should find that it will be stored permanently in your memory.

Personal items: We all lose personal items such as keys, pens and glasses, mainly because we weren’t paying enough attention when we put them down. create a special place for items that you misplace regularly.
Make it a logical place, and visualize it every time you come in or out of your home or office. even if you don’t have your glasses with you, check to see that they are still there.

Having a great memory is more about habit and less about a natural gift. Using the methods described above will result in a greater capacity for remembering the little niggling things and can be easily adapted to remember the bigger more important things.

How To Improve Your Converversational Skills

Collins Mike — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:36:58 +0000

The key to comfortable conversation is to relax. relax consciously by breathing slowly and concentrate on keeping eye contact with whoever is speaking at the moment.This serves to show your interest and your willingness to participate in the conversation, which pleases the other person who then feels involved with you, as they are now aware that they have got your attention.

When you feel comfortable aim to join in a group conversation, but don’t push yourself to the center of attention straight away as this will only serve to possibly offend whoever may be speaking at the moment.

Do this by making a warm and possibly sympathetic comment on the subject being discussed, but don’t disagree with the speaker, you don’t want to appear confrontational. Or ask a general question so people will feel you as a part of the group, this will also help you to relax more.

Be willing to admit that you are not too familiar with the particular subject being discussed and ask for more information. This involves you more with the group and also gets the speaker to turn his attention towards you.

Make your first contribution to the conversation a positive statement. Offer a warm compliment, such as, ‘I think you handled that very well’ By offering a positive contribution you will notice that the atmosphere becomes more relaxed and that people begin to open up towards you.

Make your own contribution, possibly how something similar happened to you. keep it brief at this stage and non controversial. This will help to keep the conversation going and will slowly bring you into the middle of the discussion.

A clearly expressed and relevant idea will always be welcome. Maintain full eye contact as you speak. Don’t make any attempt to take the idea any further at this stage, allow the others to do that for you. You will notice that most statements are followed by leading questions as a response. Enjoy the feeling as you begin. to dominate the conversation.

As the conversation progresses you should attempt to introduce a new angle on the same subject, or a related one if the conversation appears to be waining. Perhaps you could ask someone their opinion of a related issue in todays press. You may even have planned the topic in advance and the conversation will continue on this new topic without you needing to be involved which allow you to relax and enjoy the rest of the conversation.

Take every opportunity to be with people, become involved, just by dropping the odd hint you can swing a conversation your way, allowing you to judge the way others feel on something that may be dear to you.

You don’t have to speak continuously to be considered a good conversationalist. Most people will consider you a good speaker even if you spend most of the time simply listening. They will never realize that you have manipulated the conversation for your own ends and will seek you out whenever possible in future similar situations.

Sky Rocket Your Confidence With These Easy To Follow Tips

Collins Mike — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:36:54 +0000

always start by doing the things you are good at. Having a friendly conversation with a neighbor, playing a computer game or perhaps sorting the household accounts. Focus on the things you can do well, and congratulate yourself along the way. For example, I’m really glad I had that little chat with Bill, he was feeling a bit down and it’s really cheered him up, I’ve foiled that alien invasion and saved the world from tyranny, I finished balancing the books quickly and noticed there is some spare cash left over this month so I can treat myself.

Try new things when ever and where ever possible, never say no to anything, within reason. Be different, do things you have never done before. seek out new experiences, learn to mountain bike, take up ice skating or skiing, sign up for an adult education course. Always view your results as a learning experience and never as a win or lose situation.

Encourage yourself to take more risks, people with high self esteem are natural risk takers, yet they also accept that they also sometimes make mistakes. And they treat these as part of their learning curve. So the more mistakes you make the better, it’s a sign that you are learning.

Congratulate yourself when you make mistakes, mistakes show us that we are getting better. Ensure you have plenty of treats ready, anything from a night at the theater, a special day out or simply a long leisurely soak in the bath.

Every time you treat yourself you are telling yourself that you are worth it, the more you believe this the better you will treat yourself and the more confident you will become and the more you will do.

Use affirmations, these are positive statements you say to yourself. For example ‘I am Mike, I am capable outgoing and loving, I relish all the challenges life has in store for me’ Affirmations should be pertinent to you and your present situation, always be in the present tense and include qualities you wish to develop. These will very quickly work their way into your subconscious mind and serve to produce great results.

Always be mindful of what you say to yourself, we all talk to ourselves, whether that be consciously or subconsciously. But there is great danger in negative self talk, it can only serve to badly damage your self confidence.

For example, ‘Damn it, I’m so disorganized’ as a guide line decide whether you would talk to a friend in this way. Instead, say, under your breath and in a much gentler tone, ‘I am usually very well organized but occasionally I slip up’ Self talk can work both ways, be kind to yourself and use encouraging self talk.

Always act ‘as if’ Until you regain the confidence you would like to have you should act and speak as though you already have it. Visualize yourself as a confident person and hold that mental image in your mind, what are you doing, what are you saying.

At some time during the process of acting ‘as if’ you will realize that you have become the person you wish to be and you will re-discover your self image, the image of who you think you should be.

If it’s realistic you will achieve it.

Using Stress In The Work Place To Your Advantage

Collins Mike — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:36:27 +0000

Planning you day and setting yourself small realistic daily goals is the first step towards making stress work for you instead of against you.

It can be very helpful to look for small satisfactions during the course of your working day, achieving small goals and giving your self a pat on the back in the process can really change your day and have the effect of easing the workload, rather than just hoping that at the end of your day that there will be one large one.

Setting small achievable goals, such as, dealing with a set number of emails or telephone calls can have the effect of really brightening your day because you actually feel as though you are making some serious progress. Each one of these smaller goals in turn rolls up to help you to achieve the greater goal, which is total completion of your allocated tasks. This can be an excellent source of great satisfaction for you and leaves you feeling as though your days labor has been very worthwhile and productive.

Stop dwelling on what you should have accomplished yesterday, yesterday is gone and you can’t bring it back no matter how much you might wish you could, concentrate on today, because whatever you do today shapes the course of your tomorrow.

Always be entirely true to yourself, don’t assume that you are perfect, but at the same time there is no benefit in being over harsh with yourself. Acknowledge that you are less than perfect, as are we all, but don’t punish yourself.

Look to someone you admire and if you look closely enough you will see that they also have their weaknesses and imperfections. No one is perfect, so don’t beat yourself up over it. Concentrate on what you do well and you will feel and be more successful in all your endeavors.

Using your time efficiently is the most effective way of dispelling any feelings of wastefulness you may have at the end of the day. Carefully plan your time, don’t waste it, it’s the most valuable asset you posses.

Allocate realistic deadlines for each task you have to carry out. Above all try not to under estimate the time required to complete a task as this is one of the major causes of work place stress and if not nipped in the bud early on can lead to serious bouts of depression.

Keeping a stress diary is a very good idea, keep a log of each days stressful encounters and go over it at the end of each day, analyze it and look at alternative ways to accomplish stressful tasks.

If certain duties appear too stressful for your comfort, break them down into smaller and more manageable tasks and you will be surprised at the speed with which you accomplish even the most unpleasant of jobs.

Be totally and completely honest with yourself in your diary, it’s only you that is going to see it, so there is no need to dress it up in any way. Don’t forget it’s for your eyes only, that is unless you wish to discuss it with your partner or a close friend. If you do decide to discuss your problems ensure that the person you choose is a trusted confidant, otherwise you may only serve to unnecessarily exasperate your situation.

Forward planning is the key to alleviating stress in the workplace, always put aside some quiet time to plan your next day in advance ensuring that you definitely allow yourself adequate time to accomplish all that you have to.

You will soon realize that what at first caused your stress levels to rise is in fact simply down to bad time planning and as you become more accustomed to keeping and dealing with your stress diary you will find that previously stressful situations can now easily be taken in your stride.

Continual daily stress can have devastating effects on both your work life and your home life. Remember it pays to divide the two. Where ever possible don’t take your work home, if this is unavoidable ensure that your family and friends are aware that you need to spend some time working and ask for their consideration so that you an complete the tasks more quickly.

Co-operation and not conflict is the key to handling stress, and setting aside some time for simple planning will allow you to achieve much more in the same amount of time, and your stress levels as well as your mental fatigue levels will be much lower, and you and all around you will be all the happier for it.

Link Building Using Web Directories and Social Bookmarking

Collins Mike — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:06:00 +0000

What is a web directory? A web directory is a collection of links broken down into relevant categories. Think Yahoo and their directory, or the Open Directory Project and even the Google Directory.

At its most basic level, a web directory is a collection of bookmarks made available to the public. In other cases, like Yahoo, it is a professional resource for people actively looking for information.
To get listed in such a directory, you can either get listed for free, which might take a while, or in many cases, pay a one-time fee to have your website reviewed and entered in the directory.

One major exception is Yahoo, which charges a recurring fee for its commercial listings. This is what you don’t want, if possible you want to do this for free and you want to do it quickly.

There are two main benefits of being listed in a web directory, increased link-popularity due to a one-way link from a highly respected resource and increased traffic due to being listed in a directory that is searched by many people every day.

In reality though, these benefits are directly related to how popular the directory is itself, and how much money you have paid for your listing. Of course, if the link is for free, there is nothing to worry about.

There are thousands of free website directories on the internet and these are the ones we are going to concentrate on. Directory listings are also used as traffic building opportunities. How this works is that many directories are searchable for their visitors, so that users can look for information. In theory this is great, you can get lifetime traffic for free or just a nominal payment, but you should not expect a sudden deluge of traffic from just one directory listing.

Most directories, apart from the top twenty or so, are usually used for link building and not pure searching. This means that while people may use GoGuides or Yahoo for regular searches, you should expect that the smaller directories are mainly for link popularity.

We will forget about the large directories and concentrate on the small free directories unless you choose to pay for your submissions, I wouldn’t advise it at this moment in time, I personally do not pay, and have experienced great success in creating links purely from the free versions.

Many directories offer listings based on an alphabetical order, or a first-come, first-served basis. In both cases, your website has quite a big chance of being lost out in the noise, but that doesn’t alter the fact that your link is present and as such will help in your overall search engine ranking.

Because directory search algorithms differ greatly. Some directories, like JoeAnt, base their search on keyword relevancy, which makes it more of an exercise of loading your directory listing with keywords rather than making a good website, whilst others take a more editorial approach by factoring in editor ratings. And still, many directories display sponsored listings first, reinforcing what we already know that mostly, it’s your advertising budget that talks, and not necessarily the quality of your website.

In some cases, though very rarely these days, directory inclusions can be rejected due to the poor quality of a website. Maybe the editor considered that your website was not useful enough, meaning it had little or no useful original content. Occasionally there may be moral issues governing your rejection, even though editors are urged to abide by directory guidelines and not personal beliefs. If rejected, you will almost always receive feedback, although you may have to ask for it, on how to improve your website.

In earlier days, quality was a big issue. Today, it is still a major concern for top directories like Yahoo, but this is more to separate the truly atrocious from the rest rather than to separate the best from the rest.

A directory listing is, in most cases, useful only for the link popularity which in turn can greatly increase your search engine placement. In such scenarios, if you can find better deals on authority sites in your niche, then you should go for them. However the directory listings we are concentrating on are free to submit to, and along with added links to your business, can also bring you reasonable traffic.

As always, remember that directory listings form a small part of your overall online marketing strategy. If you don’t have the budget for a Yahoo listing, don’t worry, focus on submitting your website to the free directories out there, and come back to it when you can afford it. Directory listings are important, in helping you to squeeze every possible drop of search engine placement out of your links and your website.

The only way to get the most from submitting to Web Directories is to make each submission keyword/phrase orientated. Target each of your keywords in turn, obviously starting with the most important and submit at the very least on a weekly basis. This will build links into your business for your chosen keywords and so increase your ranking for those particular keywords. Never submit just a general description, your submission must always be keyword focused.

Actually submitting to web directories is really very easy although a little tedious and should be within the scope of even the newest of online marketers, but as with anything else, the best way to learn is just give it a try, if you have any difficulty, which i doubt, simply persevere until you get the desired results.

To locate the sites you need to submit to simply search web directories and the same for social bookmarking sites.

Social Bookmarking is another excellent method of getting increased back links and driving traffic to your business, Web promotion is all about getting links and driving traffic to your business, you can build as many websites as you wish, but without web promotion you will never earn a cent and be very lucky if you see even a trickle of traffic to your business.

With Social Bookmarking you can tap into an unlimited amount of laser targeted traffic and very high quality backlinks for free, but as with all web promotion it can be very time consuming and decidedly repetitious.

Social bookmarking sites are basically sites that categorize and store bookmark links, links that will lead the searcher to specific websites, very similar to web directories, and considering millions of people search these social bookmarking sites for information it would be foolish not to take full advantage of this excellent traffic generating method.

The idea behind social bookmarking is to post links back to your business from social bookmarking sites. As with article and web directory submissions you will gain the best results by keyword targeting your bookmarks. You need to specify your keywords, which in turn serves to categorize your bookmarks.

This allows others to search and even vote for your bookmark, as far as link and traffic generation, social bookmarking is in a league all of its own. Social bookmarking is quickly becoming the mainstay of online business promotion, and the results can be phenomenal.

So, what are the main benefits of social bookmarking for you and what effect can it have on your ability to earn a substantial living online?

More targeted traffic, since your bookmarks are categorized into different keywords (tags), you will get laser targeted traffic from people searching within a particular tag. They will click on your bookmark link and visit your site.

Higher search engine ranking, most of these social bookmarking sites have a very high page rank with the search engines, ranging from 5PR to 8PR. Therefore, search engine spiders visit these sites so often that your links will be crawled almost immediately.

Better page rank for your business, having high page rank social bookmarking sites linked to your site will improve your site’s page rank. With a higher page rank, you can link to your new/existing sites and improve their ranking also. You can even, at a later date, monetize on it by selling links from your site.

But as I stated earlier, bookmarking and web directory submission is a tedious process if done manually.

In order to bookmark your sites, you need to manually create your accounts at social bookmarking sites. Creation of accounts doesn’t take much time because you only need one account. The problem lies in bookmarking your pages. You have to manually login to your account at each of these social bookmarking sites and add your page’s url, keywords and descriptions.

Considering that you will want to be social bookmarking your business on a daily basis, and along with all the other business promotion you will be carrying out to push your website to #1, you really need to automate the process.

Choose your submission software carefully, you need it to be able to log in and create your accounts and submit your links and tags, and even provide you with a report at the end of the submission. Also ensure the software is updated on a monthly basis so you can be sure that unlike some submission software, you are not trying to submit your links to non-existent or defunct sites, and with something as important as your future at stake, you need to be sure that any software you use to help with your business promotion is bang up to date and performing exactly as it should.

That about covers the basics of directory submissions and social bookmarking, as with any promotional system it’s all down to how often you use it and to what extent you understand the workings of the software and the reasons for employing such methods, and as such I could go on all day about certain subjects. but in this instance I can only offer you a brief description of how to use recommended applications, you must take the time to familiarize yourself with all the tools needed for effective marketing and use them as best suits your own business.

Building Your List, The Art of Effective Email Capture

Collins Mike — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:23:08 +0000

When ever you purchase a product online you no doubt had to surrender your name and email details in order to do so, and as such your details are now on a list. So, why would they want your details and what use will they make of them now and in the future.

But let’s look at your reasons for email capture, how you should do it, why you should do it, what system you should use, and when and how to follow it up to ensure that you are always not only adding to your list but at the same time you are building a relationship with your list in-order to gain trust so that should you wish to, you can approach them with another of your quality offers.

Whatever website you have, you must have email capture facilities within the site and if you don’t at this time then make it your main priority to remedy that unfortunate situation. Building a business is all about building customer relations and no where is that more important than online.

The Internet is a very impersonal trading environment and whilst you may make a sale once, if you don’t have, keep and maintain that customer’s details then you have had all the sales you are ever going to get from that person.

So, how do you effectively build your list?

The most effective method of building your list from scratch is to either give something away on your website or, compile something that is very useful to other marketers and sell it very cheaply.

If you think back to your last online purchase you were directed to an email capture box where you submitted your details, then you were prompted to confirm your e-mail address and finally you were able to complete the purchase
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During that process, they managed to obtain your first name and your email address and also ensured that the email address was genuine when it was required that you confirmed it before you were allowed access to the product.

This is exactly what you must do every time you give or sell anything, never allow any visitor to your site to leave without first having given you their contact details and always completely assure your visitor that you fully respect their privacy and never sell, rent, or allow any third party to use your list, if you do, you will lose them and the trust you are working to build will be gone for ever.

How do you maintain your relationship and why would you want to, after all you have had a sale, what more can you ask?

When you initially make a sale to someone online you probably do so with a low ticket item, something relatively inexpensive. You may have done this already but purely because the product you are selling is of low ticket value. Low ticket value items can build your opt-in email list very quickly, but you will never get rich online if you simply sell a few thousand e-books at $7.00 each, or if you give the e-book away.

Once you have a person on your opt-in list you have to contact them on a regular basis, and that doesn’t mean that every time you contact them that you should be trying to sell them something, you first need to build your relationship and to do that you have to give value.

They have to learn to trust your judgment and trust that when it’s time to up-sell to them that they can be confident that the product you are selling is of the highest quality. Which means; that within the first 28 days of having obtained their details, you must contact them, and they must want to hear from you.

The best way to keep them interested is to give them something of interest, produce a monthly newsletter, fill it with useful content appertaining to the content of your business and send it to them, articles are a great source of useful content, and they don’t need to be your articles, build your relationship and use that relationship to up-sell a higher ticket value item at least four times a year.

This may not seem much, but if you consider an information product that can be delivered instantly as opposed to a physical product then the profits can be massive.

Because you maintained your relationship with that customer there’s a very good chance that when you do up-sell your high ticket value item that a reasonable percentage your list will be at the point where they trust you and value your opinion and will probably purchase your item.

This is simply because you have supplied them with quality information for the past few months and never asked for anything in return, now they will trust you enough to think that the product you are selling is of even better quality and well worth the asking price.

At this point or ever, don’t try to sell junk, you will have a mass of returns and the relationships you have worked hard to build will be instantly destroyed.

So, what system should you use to capture your emails, send your monthly newsletter and so maintain your online relationships?

Do your research and choose the company who have the facilities to handle all of this from one application. Ensure it will generate the html code so you can add your email capture box, you can set the system to suit you so that it replies to your entire list at once, sends your newsletter, replies to your new sign-ups and all on autopilot.

It’s not coincidence that the majority of the top online marketers use one company in particular, they use them because they have been around for a number of years and really truly know exactly which tools you will need, and offer sound advice on how to use them to the greatest effect.

don’t go for cheap alternatives,in my opinion it’s false economy.

Check your email, I’m sure you receive emails and newsletters from other online businesses, just do a quick survey for your own benefit and check those marketers and see who they use. This should tell you something!

Right, you have your list, you’re maintaining it regularly so how do you protect it? Your opt-in list is your MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION and as such you should have it backed up at least on cd, if not on a removable memory stick, although your list will be on file you must take steps to ensure that your list is safe from all eventualities and the only way to do that is to copy it onto a removable storage system just in case.

It may seem paranoid, and you might be thinking its safe on my computer, but my computer memory crashed a while back and I was unable to retrieve any of the information contained on it and if I hadn’t had a back up for my list I would have lost it. If I had lost my list I would have lost my means of trading online and would have had to start building it all over again.

Treasure it and protect it, it’s your future.

Articles, What to Write, Where and How to Post Them

Collins Mike — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:11:43 +0000

The most essential step any business owner can take is to get your business recognized on the Internet, it may be your new business, it may be your current business; it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you become a household name, ‘Brand Recognition’. To achieve this you need to start letting everyone know you exist. And the most efficient way to get that recognition is by writing and submitting articles.

Stop groaning, I can hear you. Before you say I can’t do this, I can’t write articles. Let me tell you how effective this is and hopefully show you the benefits of sitting at your keyboard for twenty minutes every day and knocking out a simple article.

This is your business, you are passionate about it and you intend using it as your vehicle to earn your living online and retire from the daily grind. To achieve this you must crawl outside your comfort zone and do what needs to be done or, carry on with the daily grind until you are old and tired.

Article posting is one of the most effective methods of gaining brand recognition and all important quality back-links to your business, so now you’re going to learn what to write, how and where to post and you are going to drive back-links and traffic to your website.

What you must do is carefully select your main keywords, just the main ones for now. And you must write articles relating to, but not directly advertising your business. Let’s take a simple example: you are operating a business that advises people on pet care and in particular ‘dog grooming to competition standard’. Your business and site name is shaggy to shining and your main keyword/phrase is ‘dog grooming’.

Your article title would be something on these lines ‘From Shaggy to Shining in Three Easy Steps, Dog Grooming to Competition Standard’. Can you see what’s happening here, you have got your business title and your main keyword/phrase contained within the title of your article, but it doesn’t appear to be a direct advertisement? Now, this is your business and if you are passionate about dogs and dog care I am positive that you could write an article, 500-800 words describing the most effective methods to groom your dog to competition standard. There after, choose each keyword and write articles using your keywords in the title and at various places throughout the article and what you will see happening in record time is links to your business appearing highly ranked for your main keywords.

Each time you write an article you also add what is known as ‘a resource box’. In the resource box you are allowed to advertise your site and your business, when your article is posted, it is posted with the resource box intact, and anyone who decides to use your free article does so on the understanding that they must also include the complete unedited resource box.

But, who is it who reads this material and who would want to use your article? Simple when you think about it, I’m sure you have noticed the explosion of ad sense advertising online at the moment, these people are now your best friends. You may disagree with the quality of the content of these sites and the fact that they are nothing more than advertising vehicles but it’s the content that matters, these advertisers are mad hungry for content and they trawl the article sites picking up articles, yours included in order to have content for their ad sense sites.

You could write a simple article and it could be viewed along with your resource box maybe 10,000, 20,000 or even 100,000 times and each one of these ad sense sites is advertising your business as its main feature and creating a link to your website. The search engines pick up on this, and this method is by far the quickest way to get your site indexed with the search engines and this can happen, as it did for me within 48 hours of going live.

Another added bonus is that you quickly become recognized as an expert in your field, you have hundreds, if not thousands of articles describing your particular business buzzing about the Internet, this affords you the kind of business credibility that otherwise could take years to achieve and it pushes your website up the rankings at breakneck speed.

Right, you’ve composed your articles and now you need to post them, so what do you do? You don’t want to do it manually, which means visiting thousands of article directories and submitting your work, so now you need an article submission service, and for something this important you need the best. The best is Article Marketer. This is the premier online submission service and one of the few where your article is actually scanned by a person and not a computer prior to being distributed. They will distribute your article to thousands of article directories, and you can submit as many articles as you wish.

I have tried submission software, it’s not very effective, the software is never up to date and it will submit your articles to directories that no longer exist. The other major benefit of using a submission service and dealing with people in preference to a piece of software is, they are there to help and advise you, they will help you get the very best exposure for your articles.

One final point on articles, you’ve no doubt heard the term ‘Content is King’? Every article you write and some that are relevant to your business that you can pick up should become a part of your website, it doesn’t need to be visible in a public area of your site, hide it away within your site map if you choose, but the moment you add these articles to your own site you are adding fresh content and the search engines will re-index your site. I would advise that you leave your articles on public view within your site with a link in your navigation bar; it allows perspective customers to read them and further establishes you as an expert in your field.