Basic Internet Marketing Tips To Make Money At Home

These days, there are hundreds of styles and steps to make money at home. Those styles can help you make an income and can take your online business to a success. However, the problem is that we tend to do a lot of things at the same time until we lose focus.

What you have to do to easily make money at home is to stay focus on each step that you take. Then, you have to decide on the project that you have chosen and stay there until it is finished.

A lot of people abruptly become too excited to make money at home. The fact that it is easy and there�s a possibility that they could even earn a lot. To make money at home, you need to plan things first, don�t jump on the first product that offers you to become an instant overnight millionaire. You can make money at home by looking deeply into the opportunities that is coming across you. Moreover, you have to know a bit of the basics of internet marketing.

You don�t need to be an expert. You need the basics of internet marketing to make money at home. Some of these areas are, knowing some basic �html, ftp, codes, registering domain names, hosting.� Another important thing to make money at home is to know some of the techniques to make your online business stress-free. Without knowing some of these techniques, you�ll make yourself frustrated.

You don�t need to be an above average person to be successful. To make money at home, you need to finish one project after another, you have to be patient, you must work hard and have the desire to achieve your goal in internet marketing.

As a matter of fact, it isn�t easy on the first time, but once you have started to do well on to make money at home, you have set everything up properly, things really get so easy. But then again, you must work hard for it and be determined.

One thing you also have to remember is not to treat your business as a hobby. You do a lot of hard work for it. Business is always a business and you have to treat it as such. You will have to invest time and money to make money at home. You will also sometimes feel that you are getting nowhere. However, to make money at home, you should not just give up.

You have to begin with picking a product that will teach you the basic internet marketing to make money at home.

If you want to be successful like the others, you have to endure all the problems you may encounter face challenges.

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16 Questions Critical To Starting An Internet Business

It is usually overwhelming for a prospective internet marketer at the point of starting an internet business.What with the many aspects he has to consider.


1. Does it matter whatever domain name I pick?

2. How much should I invest in this online business initially before it starts generating revenue?

3. What advertising sources do I invest in and which do I get free?

4. What website type do I use � static or dynamic?

5. What online marketing training program do I join to put me through? Which are the best of these online marketing training programs?

6. Which forums do I hang out at where I can find my colleagues in a similar niche? Which are the best of these forums?

7. How do I get my website set up? Do I design it from scratch, use templates or even go for an already completely set up website?

8. What plethora of internet marketing tools and resources am I required to keep and utilize?

9. On completion of my website set up, how do I subsequently keep updating it? Update myself or outsource?

10. If I learn to update my website, what software or web platform is most ideal for me to get this done?

11. What blogging platform do I use � blogger or wordpress?

12. Do I start with just one internet affiliate program and after making some progress begin to add others?

13. Of the available internet affiliate programs, which do I join?

14. How will the internet affiliate programs I intend selecting pay me my commissions?

15. How fast will I start to make money online with affiliate program?

16. Can my country�s nationals fit perfectly into the internet affiliate programs I intend getting involved with?


As you can see, these are all valid questions that arise in starting an internet business and I can go on and on.
It should by now be apparent that there are so many other necessary questions that you cannot even imagine, given the depth of your training and experience in internet marketing as at now.
It is thus best you seek guidance in starting your own small business, as some mistakes made at the outset cannot be corrected later on, along your internet marketing journey.
The objective of pointing out a microcosm of the necessary questions that should arise in starting an internet business therefore, is for you to get assistance before it is too late.

This assistance is best with an online marketing training program and many are free.
When you join such a program, it is like killing many birds with one stone, as you discover that most of these questions get addressed and you get tailored towards achieving your objective.
Of course, you have to join the best of these online marketing training programs which has the characteristics of a good online marketing training program, to get value, as there abound many out there that are mere theoretical programs which will not serve your purpose.

The questions identified above are not theoretical such as can be addressed in an e-book or a theoretical course but requires a multidimensional practical approach which is best given in a good online marketing training program.

Let us quickly drill down to just one of the above questions � How do I get my website set up? Do I design from scratch, use templates or even go for already completely set up money making websites?
When you are new to internet marketing and web designing, I will advise you to go for pre-setup money making websites as there are a lot of things to take into consideration in setting up a website for internet marketing purposes such as on-site search engine optimization.

It is also for this reason that it is advisable you get money making websites from an online marketing training program rather than just have a web designer design one for you as many things that are internet marketing related have to be taken into consideration if your website is to perform optimally in the search engines, which you may not know contributes about 70% of traffic to websites on the internet.
Again, perhaps you do not know yet, traffic is the lifeblood of any internet marketing business, as your website is as good as dead without traffic.

Is it any surprise therefore that in starting an internet business, you have to carefully select an online marketing training program to lead you along the right path?

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Affiliate Marketing Super Tricks

Affiliate Marketing such as CPA, CPS, CPL programs are only paid when a specific action is performed, however, affiliate programs can be really a good source of earning online. This action might be filling a form, a poll, a purchase or register, but regardless, you are not paid until you�ve lead your readers to act.

Here are Top 5 super tricks based on the concept above for affiliate marketing success.


1. Be Trustful and helpful
Think of affiliate ads as additional resources that complement your content. Give value to your content by making it trustful, helpful, useful and informative.
Readers are savvy. They know an affiliate link when they see one. If you break their trust by promoting a product you don�t believe in or take advantage of their visit with too many ads, they will leave and never come back.
It is your repeat visitors that will drive traffic. They are the ones who will give you linkbacks, spread the word, and recommend your site as the go-to place for valuable content. You need to build a relationship based on genuine content.
Don�t put up a list of your recommend products, hoping people will click on the affiliate linksand purchase the products. Take some time to write a detailed review, and use affiliate adsto point them in the right direction if they decide to act on your information. That�s whataffiliate ads are for.


2. Get to Know Your Audience and Customer
The most successful way to use affiliate programs
is to anticipate and meet the needs of your readers. Consider what are you providing that they are looking for and why they coming? Make sure the affiliate products you are promoting provide a solution to your audience�s problems. The more relevant the ads are to your readers, the more likely they will use them.
If you are writing about pets, don�t put up affiliate ads for computer just because the people who are coming to read commentary or get stats for their favorite pets aren�t thinking about those things when they�re on your site.


3. Be Transparent
Honesty and full disclosure is a necessary part to building a loyal reader base. Always disclose your affiliations. Your readers will appreciate your honesty, and will feel better about contributing to your earnings. If they sense that you are being less than honest about your affiliations, they are savvy enough to bypass your link and go directly to the vendor just to avoid giving you referral credit.


4. Try Different Programs and Select Carefully
If one particular program doesn�t seem to be working for you, try another one. Take the time to go through all the different options for products or services available through the programs. Put some thought into which products or services your readers may need or like. Also, change the ads around often, try different ones, and use different graphics and text to see which are the most effective.Affiliate programs don�t look the same. They offer different products, services, and payment structures. Some programs will have a lifetime payout on sales while others will limit it to 30-90 days. Some programs allow much more flexibility in the types of ad units available, as well as colors and design so it fits better on your site�s layout. Also, check your favorite vendors to see if they run their own affiliate program.


5. Write Timeless and Relevant Content
If visitors come across your older content first, and find that it offers dated information, they will leave right away. Of course, information moves forward, so relevant content changes quickly. You can make your content timeless simply by adding links to your updated articles on your old ones.Many platforms allow you to show �most recent� or �most popular� or �related articles� on every page, so no matter how old the article is, it will always show access to your new ones. Your old content can make money for you indefinitely.Keep up to date on the latest offerings of your affiliate programs. New ad units, advertisers, and tools are constantly being added to improve usability and be more visually appealing. Small changes go a long way in motivating action by readers. You may be left out in the dust by being complacent with your strategy.

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Making Profit From CPA Affiliate Marketing

Modern marketers knew the secret of affiliate marketing. If you want your company to be known globally and make good business, affiliate marketing is the best. Strategically, companies have their products marketed through affiliate marketing. Cost per Action or known now as CPA is an unbeatable market strategy in advertising via the net.

Featuring products and business on sites is known as marketing through CPA! There are lots of innovations in marketing and many software products are sold to advertise your products, but CPA is a great way of earning lots, as it is efficient in earning you points and the payment is dependable, every time you sell one of the products online. Advertisers pay the website owner or the publisher every time a site visitor eventually buys the advertised goods on line. Affiliate managers will gladly assist you on how to sell through their existing affiliate marketing assistance and you can also view lots of other web partners whom you can learn from!

You can experiment on how to use CPA on your site. It�s good to place advertising ads on your webs, by connecting with social networks to increase site traffic. It�s good to read on tips to maximize traffic and profit.
It is important to place ads where you customer can easily see your products, so they can easily get attracted and click on it.

Choose ads which you think can attract majority of your site visitors. It�s good to put in relevant advertisements on your site, so it can attract clicks on your advertised products and eventually buy them.

Most internet marketers and webhosts offer CPA affiliate marketing. It is important to have your landing page really attractive to make your site visitor eventually express interest in the product you are recommending. The affiliate managers and marketers assist you on how to make your CPA affiliate internet marketing work, that�s how to increase page relevance and increase site visits.
It is important to make your site a possible income generating site to make your affiliate marketing service really earn you lots.

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How Do I Monetize A Classifieds Website?

I�d like to setup a classifieds website for a fairly large community. The community actually had one, but the person running it moved away and shut down the site. People keep asking for a new one so I think it�ll be a good opportunity.

My question is how can I fully monetize the opportunity. I was thinking of charging local businesses to place small ads on the site similar to your sponsors section. Any other thoughts?

There are several ways to monetize a classifieds website, and the best model will depend on the nature and size of your website. Here are some examples:

1. The Traditional Model: Classifieds emerged in newspapers and other print publications. The model was to charge people who wanted to place an ad in the classifieds (usually according to the length of the ad, with options to highlight it). This model can work on the Internet as well, but you would need to have a very specific focus and a large audience to showcase the ads, else advertisers would not get a good return on their investment.

2. The Craigslist Model: Craigslist revolutionized the classifieds industry because it created a really popular classifieds website where posting ads is essentially free. You can browse through different categories and cities, and the volume of ads you�ll find is always amazing. How do they make money? By charging money for ads in very specific categories (e.g., job postings and brokered rentals). The model is quite effective because they only charge people who have a lot to gain from using their services, and hence are willing to pay for it.

3. The Inverse Model: Depending on the nature of the ads being placed on your website you could actually make the viewers of the ads pay. For example, there are freelancing job boards that charge for people who want to see the contact information of the job seekers. The advantage of this model is that posting an ad becomes free, and it increases the overall activity on the website.

4. The Sponsorship Model: As mentioned in the question itself, another possible model is to let everything be free, while getting sponsors who want to showcase their products and services to your audience. This model works well if your website has a local focus. For instance, if the classifieds website is for your local soccer community it wound�t be hard to get a sports store to sponsor it.

Keep in mind that you can also experiment with two models at the same time, and that you can also start with one and migrate to another one over time. For instance, I would definitely start with the last model, making everything free. This is to make sure that people would join and participate on the website. Then once you reach a critical mass of users you could consider start charging for specific parts of the website.

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10 Simple Tips To Get More Page Views Per Month ~ Must Read

IF you need a traffic on your website or blog then no need to use Paid Traffic Follow these simple steps and Get 2,50,000 Page view per Month.

1.Get some professional help at the start

We paid a small amount of money to get our blog designed by a professional at the start as well as getting somebody to add in the proper SEO plugins. Since then we haven�t really touched it design wise and have instead focused on the content. If you are serious about blogging or creating a business around your blog then you should invest a small amount of money at the start making it look professional.

2.Integrate Facebook wherever you can

Facebook is the most important social media tool we use in terms of bringing traffic to our site. It accounts for just over 18% of the traffic on our site and the 11,000 odd Facebook likes we have are people who come back to our site on a repeat basis to consume our content. Make it easy to share your content through Facebook and if the content is good enough it will spread like wildfire.

3.Forget about getting traffic from Twitter

Many people get obsessed with Twitter as a social media tool that drives traffic but let me save you lots of time and energy now because it simply does not. Less than 1% of our traffic comes from Twitter on a monthly basis despite some of our stories getting 100s of Retweets. You can certainly share the odd link through Twitter to gain some new readers but it is not the magic formula that you have been looking for.

4.The old blogging tricks still work best

Read many of the great posts on there or on any of the other great blogging advice sites and they�ll give you great advice like to make sure you add catchy titles (probably why you are reading this post in the first place), to write often and to guest post on other blogs. These are old pieces of advice but in a world where people are obsessed with social media and the new tools those are the tools that by far and away work the best. They are the easy wins.

5.Give everything away for free

As a business we sell advice on social media. We also do a very strange thing in that we give that advice away for free on the blog all the time. There is nothing in our heads that we keep for ourselves but instead focus on sharing as much of that knowledge as possible. By giving valuable advice away you make sure that people keep coming back to your blog for more advice and that�s how you build and audience. People are selfish, if they are coming to your blog they want something for free and that is what you will have to offer.

6.Be Social In The Real World

A huge amount of people who read our blog are people that we have met in the real world. Being social online is one thing but forging a social relationship with somebody in the real world is still far more powerful than anything. Try and attend conferences within your niche, meet people with similar interests and if relevant share your blog with them. If you are lucky enough to be able to speak at any events then work your blog in to the presentation and pitch yourself as the person of authority on your given subject.

7.Use rich media content if at all possible

Text is great and it�s an important part of blogging but not everybody is a good writer and even people who can write should try and support their content with rich media content if possible. I think it helps you stand out form the crowd. What do I mean by rich media content? Photos, videos, podcasts, diagrams, slidehows or presentations. The technology is there now for you to post most of these things for free and they�ll push your content out even further to new platforms.

8.RSS is still the dream subscriber

These days you�ll see plenty of ways to subscribe to blogs including email, Twitter and Facebook to name but a few but one stands head and shoulders above all the others for me and it�s the oldest one in the list�RSS. Getting an RSS subscriber is getting somebody who is totally committed to receiving your content every single day. I cherish RSS readers in a way that I would never think about Twitter followers or Facebook likes. The social subscribers are doing it as an impulse but an RSS reader is somebody who wants to get your content every single time you publish it instantly. You should take RSS subscribers over everything else in my opinion.

9.Build A passionate community around your blog

This is by far the hardest point on the whole list and there isn�t really any written rule on how to achieve it. The one thing I think you have to do most is be nice to everybody and reply to as many comments as you physically can. Comments on your blog, comments on Twitter, comments on Facebook or Youtube or wherever the person has left a comment. People fly through the web these days pausing for a second at a time on sites these days so if they are taking time to leave a comment oon your blog then the very least you can do is stop and answer them. Building community take a lot of time but you should never underestimate the power of word of mouth when it comes to your blog or business and a passionate community is just about the most powerful thing around today.

10.Never give people the hard sell through social media

Once you build a community or a large audience for your site the temptation is always there to try and sell to them or to push your products. We never ever write blog posts asking people to use our services. Make no mistake that they can find our services within one click if they are looking for them but we�ll never push them because people can smell the hard sell a mile away and they�ll never go for it and you�ll end up pushing them away instead. The idea with social media is to engage people and have a meaningful conversation with them. That is what works best in the long run.

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7 Tips For Making Your Blog Posts More Readable

You might have a lot of ideas for your blog posts and you might know many tricks on how to successfully promote your blog. However, the content on a blog is as important as your marketing tools. The reason is simple: you want readers to come back. If you get readers to come to your page, but they don�t enjoy reading your blog posts, they won�t be back.

You might have a great interesting idea for a blog post. But if the blog post you come up with is not readable, your idea just goes to waste. Writing good blog posts takes practice and there are a few things which you can do to make your articles more readable and enjoyable to your audience.

1. Structure your blog posts. When you write an article, make sure you have an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Your introduction should state the main idea that you�re going to discuss. The body will develop your argument, in one or several paragraphs, and can contain lists and bullet points if applicable. The conclusion should be a short summary of the whole article and a restatement of the idea from the introduction. A structured text is easy to go through, and your readers will be able to get your points only by skimming it.

2. Use sub-headers. Online readers are not very patient. A long block of text will bore them and they�ll be gone in seconds. Sub-headers are a great way to make blog posts more readable. They allow readers to get a quick idea on what issues you�re tackling in your article and to skip to the topics they�re interested in.

3. Make your blog posts coherent. Organize your ideas into paragraphs and don�t suddenly skip from one topic to another. All the arguments and ideas in your blog posts should flow in a logical manner. You might know what your point is, but if you jump around from one idea to another, your readers will get tired and confused and will simply quit trying to understand.

4. Use pictures. Not all blog posts can be illustrated with pictures, but many of them can. Depending on the length of your blog post, you can use one or multiple pictures. Images attract reader�s attention and make texts look friendlier.

5. Avoid using numbers and technical details. Unless you�re writing for a limited number of highly specialized readers, avoid using a lot of numbers, technical names and specifications. Scatter them through the article, and try to use a conversational language.

6. Don�t overestimate or underestimate your readers. You probably shouldn�t explain what Facebook is, but do explain things that your readers might not understand. If your not sure how to make the difference between what you should detail and what you shouldn�t, think whether your friends would understand it. If they would, it�s probably common knowledge. If they wouldn�t, explain it or provide a link where your readers can get some information.

7. Don�t use too many keywords and don�t include irrelevant links. It�s understandable why you want to fill your blog posts with keywords and why you want to link both to your blog and to other websites. But remember that blog readers can easily make the difference between a text written with the audience in mind, and a text written only for SEO purposes. Place keywords strategically, only where they fit naturally into the text, and only include relevant links. Your readers will get mad if they click on a link and get to an irrelevant page.

In time, you will be able to write excellent blog posts without thinking to much about it. But, in the beginning, you have to establish a step by step routine and follow it every time you want to publish something. And checking if your blog posts are readable should definitely be part of that routine if you want to build a solid returning audience.

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How To Fake It Till You Make It In Blogging

Building an active community around a new blog can often seem like an uphill struggle. You�re constantly working to create the best possible content and to promote your site yet often the initial returns are meagre. The fact is that most websites experience a �snowball� effect where the results can be slow to start but over time you will start to see your readership, natural inbound links and commenters increasing at an ever-increasing rate.

The problem is how to get to that exponential growth phase in the first place. After all, the internet is littered with �dead blogs� that have been forgotten by their owners due to lack of results. And even a blog that is still being worked on can look a bit sad with a feed readership of just 5 people and a total of two comments since it was launched (one of those being from your Mom).

It�s important to appreciate that �social proof� of the value that your blog brings is important and social proof can either be positive or negative. Visit a blog with hundreds of comments, a massive readership, a well-known name and so on and you�re likely to sit up and take notice. The evidence suggests this is a blog worth reading even before your eyes have glanced at a single article.

But the reverse is also true. And that�s what this article is all about; quite simply how to build up your blog without it suffering from �digital tumbleweeds� that are driving away the few visitors you currently receive.

Blog Comments

Blogs are built for comments; they�re built for discussions and interaction and a blog without that discussion is going to give a bad first impression. Worse, as anyone who has ever tried to start a forum will attest, getting your first few commenters is hardest. Nobody wants to stick up their hand and be first in line. But blogs that already have a number of comments are far more likely to receive additional comments both because of the �social proof� factor and because of course there is already a conversation going on. More comments mean there are more things for other people to comment on and so on.

There are a number of ways to deal with the lack of comments on a new blog.

The first is simply to turn off the comment function until you manage to build up a significant readership. Then once you have lots of people visiting you can turn comments back on at which point the discussions can start. This is simple enough to do but there are risks involved. One example is that if you operate in a niche in which there are lots of blogs your visitors will no doubt expect to be able to comment. Not giving them the ability to do so may frustrate or annoy some people, reducing the odds of them returning.

A second option is to start a blog comment contest. Offer up some kind of prize for the �top commenters� at the end of the month to encourage people to start adding comments. I took part in a contest like this last year where I spent significant time adding content-rich and useful comments to a new blog and ending up winning an iPod Shuffle for my efforts. Let me assure you there was quite a bit of competition so this method clearly works.

Commenting on other blogs can be helpful as many bloggers will check out the websites of those people who comment on theirs. We all know that commenting can drive traffic so there is a good chance they will return the favor and comment at your blog hoping to generate extra traffic as a result. So load up your feed reader and take some time each day to comment on other blogs.

There are a number of free plugins that will display comments about your content that have been made elsewhere. For example if you tweet about each of your new posts then Twitoaster will gather any retweets or comments relating to that tweet and display them as comments beneath your blog post. If you make a video version of your content and upload it to YouTube then the Genki YouTube Comments plugin will draw any videos comments that get placed on YouTube and display them as normal comments at the end of your blog post.

You can also use a number of WordPress plugins to reward your commenters. Examples of these include the Top Commenters plugin to show who has commented the most, the CommentLuv plugin to offer a do-follow link to any commenters blog and KeywordLuv which allows these links to be keyword rich.

Whatever you do ensure that you are actively requesting comments such as ending your blog posts with a specific question you�d like your readers to comment on and try to respond personally to every comment made.

Feed Readership

If you use Feed Burner then it�s easy to display a button that shows how many people subscribe to your blog. If it says you have 28,000 readers then paste it up nice and prominently because it�s another form of social proof to show how popular your blog is. But why do people add this same little widget when it says there are currently just 16 subscribers to your blog?

Until your subscriber numbers get into the hundreds I would strongly advise you *not* to display your subscriber stats publically even if indirectly anyone interested can find out your readership through Google Reader.

Twitter Followers

In a similar vein it is possible to use TwitterCounter to display how many followers you have on Twitter and of course the higher the number the better. So again until your follower numbers grow it�s best not to display these figures.

However this is one area where you have a degree of control. After all, when you start following other people a percentage of them will start to follow you back so simply by searching for, and then following, people with similar interests you can quickly grow your Twitter following.

Whatever your opinions on such software there are also automated solutions that with a few clicks of your mouse will start to find and follow hundreds of other tweeps. In a short space of time this can grow into a significant number of followers, at which point TwitterCounter can start to become beneficial to your results.

Post Regularity

Blogs that don�t get updated look unloved and forgotten. If I visit a blog that hasn�t been posted to in months (or even years) then I take it as a sign that the information on it may be dated, that the owner doesn�t really care about it and so I�m far less likely to visit it again or subscribe for updates. Why would I if there simply aren�t updates being made?

As a result of this, even if you currently only receive a trickle of readers try to post on a semi-regular basis at the very least so at most a few weeks have gone by since your last update. The more content you�re adding the more reason there is for your existing visitors to actually bother subscribing.

As Featured On�

One form of social proof that you can have some control over is who your blog is associated with. There isn�t always a direct link between the quality of your blog and the traffic that you�re receiving and it�s possible to leverage your great content into higher traffic and more community through th use of guest blogging.

If you really know your subject well and put the effort into your writing then there is no reason you can�t get some guest posts featured on the top sites in your niche. Doing so will not only offer direct traffic as a result of people clicking on the link to your website that is added to a guest post but also by association you will gain credibility. If you�re featured on ProBlogger for example then Darren Rowse thinks you know a think or too about blogging and other readers will pay more attention to you.

Furthermore you can add a section at the top of your blog navigation panel that displays a list of the authority blogs you�ve been featured on. If I see you�ve been mentioned or featured on the top 5-10 blogs in my niche you better believe you just increased my interest in digging deeper into your blog.

In closing try to think of your blog from a new visitors perspective. What do they see? What is the first impression? Does your blog suffer from �digital tumbleweeds� or does it give the impression of an active and valuable resource � irrespective of your current traffic levels?

What have you done to �fake it till you make it� on your blog? Are there ideas or suggestions you feel we�ve missed? Please leave us your opinions in the comments form below�

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How To Start A Blog For Free

Learning to blog is fun and easy, and it doesn�t even have to cost a cent. In this post I�m going to show you how to start a blog for free (maybe you don�t need this info, but I am sure you know someone who does).

One of the great things about blogging is that anyone can do it and the barrier to entry is nill, nought, zip, zilch assuming that you have or have access to a computer with an internet connection. I don�t know many people without a computer that don�t have an internet connection. Blogging is as easy as playing with Lego.

I have always been the creative type. When I was younger I used to love playing with my Lego, I was totally awesome at it and could build models on the back of the boxes without any instructions. I even built a whole Lego land from scratch it was huge.

When I grew up and got my own PC I discovered web design. Back when I first got on the net blogs and blogging never existed so I would build my web sites from scratch. My first web site was horrible. Then blogging came along, it took off like a rocket and soon the net was soon littered with blogs. It didn�t take long before blogs became a great alternative source of information besides magazines, newspapers and other media outlets.

What I have learned over the years is that building a blog is pretty easy. You don�t need to be a designer or know how to code (although it does help if you can design and code) because building a blog is like building a Lego model.

How is building a blog like building a Lego model? Lego models are made up of lots of little Lego parts that fit together to make a model, you can even buy individual bricks and elements to build your own model. A blog is like a Lego model except that the themes, posts, pictures, plugins and widgets etc� are the building blocks. Although you still have to know how to put those blocks together and combine elements to build a good blog. And blogging is free, Lego is really expensive these days!

Anyone can play with Lego and build things without any knowledge but it doesn�t mean that they can or will build anything really cool. Blogging is the same, you can take a theme and build a blog but that doesn�t mean it�s going to be any good. I have seen plenty of good themes totally murdered by bad design choices, cheesy useless plugins, ugly colour schemes that make my eyes bleed.

When you first install WordPress you get a pretty plain default theme, themes are like a Lego base plate that you build things on top of. Plugins, widgets, and posts are the building blocks for your chosen theme.

Like Lego blogs, plugins, themes & widgets come with instructions but the instructions wont instruct you on building a great blog they will only tell you how to use the theme, plugin, widget or what ever it is. You will have to teach yourself how to build a good blog. There are plenty of blogging resources out there to read and learn from. Reading alone isn�t going to make you a good blogger, you will have to get your hands dirty.

Your first blog probably isn�t going to be the best and you will make mistakes but don�t let that stop you because you won�t learn without making mistakes or building bad blogs. Mistakes are good but only if you learn from them. Unless you learn from your mistakes then you are doomed to repeat your past mistakes like ground hog day until you learn from them.

I have built plenty of web sites and blogs, I have also made a lot of mistakes and bad design choices but I have learned from my mistakes and become a better designer. I still have a bunch of web sites, backups of old blogs and mock-ups of web sites that never got built sitting on my hard drive. If I were to look at some of them now I would cringe, one thing that I would see is that my designs and web sites got progressively better.

So you have decided that you want to blog, and you have chosen WordPress great choice! You have two options. Do you drop some cash on a domain name (so you can have www.yourblogname.com) and a web host so you can have full control over your blog? Or do you go with WordPress.com which is free but will get you stuck with www.yourblogname.wordpress.com and very little control over your blog?

The choice is basically WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org, one costs money the other doesn�t, one offers full control over your blog the other offers next to no control.

Neither of those options sound appealing? No money? No problems. There is a third option if you want full control over your blog but have no money to drop on a domain and web hosting. There are many free hosting plans out there. Just Google �free web hosting� and you�ll find them. Although there are a few things to be aware of.

• The host needs to support PHP version 5.2.4 or greater and MySQL version 5.0 or greater. What you will get is generally listed under �Features�, �What you�ll get�, �Spesifications� just have a poke around any decent free web host will list what they offer
• If you choose to find your own free hosting be aware that some free web hosts will require that you let them put advertisements on your site, there are some free hosts that don�t require you to advertise so check carefully before signing up.
• There is one trade off, because you are using free hosting you will get stuck with whatever URL they choose to let you have, usually it�s just a sub domain like www.yourblogname.zymichost.com, or www.yourblogname.freeaspwebhosting.org. Although it�s an acceptable trade off for having full control over your blog.

If you are starting a blog for the first time, want a personal blog and don�t care if the URL doesn�t look that professional or just want to learn before you drop some hard earned cash on a domain name and hosting this is a great way to get started. If you start a blog get lucky and it becomes popular you can always buy a domain some better web hosting and move your blog to your new host.

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Meet the People You Need to Meet: LinkedIn in 5 Simple Steps

LinkedIn is perhaps the most  game changing tool to come along in the world of networking since the invention of the business card. In the past, to network with people who could help you with your business or career, you had to physically go to a networking event. You had to go to your local Business Networking International meeting, your local Toastmasters club or your local Chamber of Commerce to meet like minded people.

This took time and could only be done every once in a while. Even the most avid networkers could only manage about one mingler a day. Most won�t even go to one a month. LinkedIn changes all that by making networking all digital. Today, connecting with the people you need to connect with is just a few clicks away.

That said, navigating the world of LinkedIn can be very tough. Movers and shakers have dozens of connection requests every week. How do you make yourself stand out, so you can build a relationship with them � where so many others fail? These five steps will help.

1. Come Up With a Winning Value Proposition

Before you connect with someone, think of something valuable that you can do for his or her company or career. Don�t go looking for handouts.

In other words, don�t begin a new interaction with someone you�ve never met by asking them to help you get a job. Instead, come up with a way that you can help them. This is the value proposition you�ll use in your initial message.

2. Find People who�ll Compliment Your Business or Career 

Look for people who could help you move forward in the world. Look through your friends� connections, your clients� connections and your business associates� connections.

Look for people with whom you could form a win-win relationship. For example, let�s say you�re a real estate agent. Ask yourself: What kind of people could you find win-win connections with? One answer might be a mortgage broker or loan associate.

People will often go to get pre-approved for a mortgage before they go looking for homes. People will also often look for homes before they�ve secured financing. Both of you will be able to refer business to one another. Win/win.

3. Making the First Contact

The first contact should be all about them. Lead out with your value proposition. Tell them exactly how you want to help them and why it�d be worth their time to accept your connection and discuss your proposition further.

Make your first message concise, to the point and powerful. Don�t tip toe around the issue. Your value proposition should be powerful enough to get people to listen. Going on and on will just dilute the power of your message.

4. Think Relationship, Not Transaction

People often look at LinkedIn as a single transaction that they�re trying to complete. For example, they�re trying to get this person to give them a job interview. Or they want someone to connect them with an investor. It�s a one-time transaction.

Real LinkedIn power connectors don�t think this way. Instead, they think in terms of relationships. They aim to connect with more people and build real relationships with more people.

In a great relationship, you�ll regularly help one another out and continue to benefit each other�s lives and careers over a long period of time. If you�re getting in contact with movers and shakers, this is often the onlyway you�ll get them to do things for you. They simply don�t have time to help people who�re just there for a one-time transaction. Winners and to work with people who�ll help them win in the long run.

5. Help Connect Other People 

Finally, help connect other people. Once you�ve been using LinkedIn for a while, your network will be considerable. People will come to you asking for connections. Or, even without asking, you�ll spot people in your network who should really know one another.

When you spot these connection opportunities, act on them. Help people meet other people. Helping connect two people who�d benefit from one another�s connection is one of the highest value things you could do for someone. You help two people and generate a lot of professional goodwill in the process.

If you follow these five steps, you�ll be able to meet just about everyone you want to meet on LinkedIn. Whether you�re looking for an employer or an employee, an investor or an investment, a vendor or a client, these steps will help you find them, connect with them and develop a relationship with them.

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6 Ways To Make Your Blog A Success ~ Must Read

6 Ways To Make Your Blog A Success

The whole point of having a blog is to get traffic to it, and as difficult as this may seem, your best option is to work at it. The World Wide Web can be likened to a bottomless pit of information, with an endless flurry of users trawling it, day in and day out.  To get these users to consider your corner of the web, by which I mean to drive more traffic to your blog, there are a number of things that need to be done, things that cannot be avoided and have to be done with a generous dose of passion.

It is heartbreaking to see the number of blogs out there that have excellent content but can�t seem to succeed. They have rotten rankings and fail miserably. Don�t let same fate plague your blog, kick back and crack the Technorati 1000 by getting your house in order.

1. Make Your Blog Successful Or Die Trying: First thing to remember is to never give up, to keep on trucking, or rather writing, and remember that if the content is crap, no marketing effort will make it a success. No one starts a blog just for the hell of it, ensue that you have something to say. More publicity, promotion and, consequently, traffic will come your way, but only if the content is truly great. If you cannot write, get a writer to do it for you. There are loads for freelance sites online, where a blogger will write for you at a small cost.

2. Be An Expert: You know the old saying jack of all trades, master of none, become the master of your subject matter.Read and learn; write with intelligence and knowledge about your subject; with experience, your reputation will grow and people will seek you out. This will attract more comments in your blog, which can help you get cross promoted; always respond to your comments too, it is vitally important.

3. Be A Better Publisher: Publish full feeds particularly on controversial matters, this gets the attention of content scrapers which re-post your content and creates traffic. Use Feedburner too as this will allow you to find out how many people are subscribing to a particular feed.

4. First Impressions Always Count: Do you remember your mother telling you this? Well she was right and design matters. Set yourself apart from every other blogger with your design and be serious about it. If you cannot afford a professionally developed blog, then learn about photoeditors and CSS. You can also tweak your Wordpress theme, your blog, when done, has to scream out loud to people, READ ME AND LEAVE COMMENTS. A professional theme will get more readers to your blog.

5. Get Up-To-Date With SEO: Find out what makes it tick and what will make your blog tick too. Your blog needs to be tricked out with unique title tags, and keyword rich headlines to enjoy complete SEO wellness.

6. Be A Good Host: Host contests, polls and other interactive features to encourage even more participation in your blog. Make them fun or funny, controversial or challenging, but keep your readers interested. Your little corner of the blogging happy-hunting-ground needs to buzz with a life of its own. Make your blog successful, it will pay dividends.

Get your blog in order using these six tips, then set about promoting it using the prevalent internet marketing methods like social bookmarking and other means of social media,  and you�ll find your blog flooded with traffic in no time.

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4 Indispensable Tips On Viral Marketing

If your goal is to promote your business, whether it is online or offline, you cannot do better than to rely on viral marketing. Viral marketing, in case you were worried, doesn�t involve viruses; the term alludes to the super-fast rate at which viruses spread. Viral marketing involves relying on techniques that will help spread your (promotional) message through a �viral process� and reach a web-wide audience within a short amount of time.

The success of your viral marketing efforts depends on how expertly you play your social graph to use as a medium though with to push your message. However, if your message finds no takers, it can hardly go viral, which counts on people indulging in some furious sharing, and no one shares bad content. So, it would be a good idea to remember that a successful round of viral marketing needs both good content and some decent social networking skills.

Here are some handy dandy tips that you can fallback on in your hour of viral marketing need. (I love puns, can you tell?)

1. Giveaways. Everyone loves free things. Free makes everyone happy. I could delve into the exhaustive scientific studies that attest to these statements, but really, there is no need for it. The giveaway model always works, it works off the Internet, it works equally well on it too. You can offer ebooks or Internet tools, or even sample mp3s if your music is what you wish to promote, and set the ball rolling. Just ensure what you give away is not sub-standard junk that you won�t use yourself. If people like the stuff, they�ll share, talk about it and generate interest in your business.

2. Videos. Create a really cool video about your business and upload it on YouTube and your site. You just need to take a look at the most popular viral marketing examples till-date to see the importance of this exhortation. Videos are very viral-friendly, so using them as a medium can almost guarantee you viral success. And it wouldn�t hurt if they are funny too.

3. Social Media. Work your Network. Today, it is fairly impossible to hope to market virally without using social media. That very fact has also made viral marketing far easier than it was before. Ensure you build a strong social network, then pass your message on to the social sphere through your connection. You can also use it as an avenue to enhance your other efforts too, share your YouTube video on Facebook or retweet a link on Twitter.

4. Visibility. Create a buzz. Then sustain it. The idea is to have people talking about your business. All the time. To constantly reside in their collective conscience. Memes are a great way to create viral buzz, the Armageddon meme started by the promoters of the movie 2012 was successful in generating so much viewer interest that it raked in over 500 million in profits no one was really surprised. If creating a meme is beyond you, write a post on a current topic, take a slightly controversial stance, then promote it on various social sites. That will sure get people talking.

When done the right way, mostmarketing efforts on social media has the potential to turn viral. What distinguishes a success from a failure, in most cases, is the initial momentum it manages to build. A slow build up doesn�t a viral campaign make. So, follow the tips mentioned above and learn to launch your viral marketing campaign right off the bat.

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How engaging is your Facebook page?

How engaging is your Facebook page? When people land on your page, do they feel inspired to engage with you, or do they simply �like� your page and never return?

Getting someone to �like� your page is simply the first step in a long two-way relationship. It�s not the end goal. Once someone has identified themselves as a fan of your organization, that�s when the real work begins.

Here�s how to engage your Facebook fans.

Aim to be Interactive

The idea is to pull your users into engaging with you. The dialogue should be a two way street. Engaging users isn�t just about putting out great content, it�s also about pulling the user into interacting with you in meaningful ways.

A lot of brands make the mistake of just sending content at their user in a one-way street. Instead, aim to be interactive. Get your user base involved.

Ask Questions

One easy way to get your user base involved is to ask questions. Multiple choice questions as well as open ended questions both end well.

The questions can be related to your market or current events, they could be personal or they could just be random and off the cuff. Experiment with different kinds of questions to see what your user base responds best to.

Create Polls and Quizzes

There are many, many tools you can use online to create interesting polls and quizzes.

Polls and quizzes are a fast and easy way for people to interact with you and with one another. The quiz should ideally be very short, only about 10 to 15 questions long. It should feel like a fun and entertaining thing to do, rather than a survey.

Try Hosting a Contest

To take user engagement to a totally different level, try hosting a contest with a juicy prize. 

There�s nothing that generates user engagement quite like a good contest. A good contest will bring people around a common cause and can get a ton of people to really excited and passionate about your brand.

If you can, try to tie your contest back to your Facebook page. For example, make it so that whoever is winning is posted on your Facebook page every night, so friends of your fans will naturally join your page to see if their friend is winning.

Should You Get Personal?

Getting personal with your fans is one effective way to engage your Facebook fans. If your brand allows for it, you should absolutely go for it.

Instead of just keeping your status updates business related, try asking your readers random things about their personal lives. �What did you want to be when you grew up?� or �Have you seen Avatar yet?� can help build rapport and commonality, even when they have nothing to do with your target market.

Share Meaningful Content

Another way you can engage your fans is to regularly share meaningful videos, news articles and content pieces.

A good percentage of these content pieces should be created and published by you. However, there�s no harm in also linking to other people�s content if you believe your audience will love it.

Don�t overdo the content linking; but as long as what you�re linking to is relevant and your user base is getting value out of it, you�re good to go.

Comment on News Events

One area that often gets a lot of people engaged is news items. If there�s a hot news item going around, comment on it with your own thoughts and opinions. Then ask your audience what they thought.

Make sure to avoid political discussion however, as that�s an easy way to alienate people.

These are a few different ways you can engage your Facebook fans. Get creative. There isn�t a set formula when it comes to Facebook. The key is getting people to communicate in a two-way street, so they feel part of your brand�s experience, rather than just being talked at.

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4 Fundamental Building Blocks of Successful Social Media Contests

A good social media contest can bring in tons of new visitors, build excitement among your existing user base and create buzz in the industry as a whole. Pulling one off successfully requires a lot of planning. Just one or two mistakes can not only bring down your whole contest, but even put your company in jeopardy.

Here are four of the most important things to know before starting your social media contest.

#1 � The Legalities

When you�re doing an online contest, you should almost definitely have a lawyer look over your legal disclaimers and the contest as a whole to make sure you�re fully compliant.

Different states have different laws about what you can and can�t do in a contest. Sweepstakes can never require a purchase. Contests that are based on skill or participation have special rules as well.

Your contest will need to have appropriate disclaimers. These should be written by a lawyer. It�s important to realize that you can actually get sued if you don�t have your legalities down.

#2 � Understand Cheating

Cheating is an often under looked aspect of online contests. If there�s real monetary value to the prizes you�re offering, there�s a very good chance you�ll attract people who won�t play by the rules.

Forms of cheating include using proxy servers to vote on their own submission, hiring out voting or other processes overseas or even downright hacking.

Start by studying how contest players game various different kinds of systems. Then implement basic protections, such as one vote per IP, cookies to track users, etc.

Finally, check your logs regularly to see if there�s any suspicious activity. For example, if you suddenly see 2,000 users an hour coming from Vietnam voting on one user, you might start to get a little suspicious.

#3 � A Prizing Strategy

Having a great prize is at the heart of every successful contest. Your prize has to be good enough that people will spend time, put in energy and enroll their friends all for the chance to win.

If you want your contest to really take off, you�re going to have to have prizes that are worth at least hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

Popular generic prizes include iPads, computers, gaming consoles, around the world tickets, vacations and cash cards.

Industry specific prizes tend to do really well. For example, if you�re in the fishing market, give away top of the line fishing rods worth hundreds of dollars. If you�re in the hotel market, give away a free 5 night stay at your hotel.

If your prizes are great, you could make a lot of other mistakes and still succeed. With bad prizes, you could do everything else right and people still won�t be excited about your contest.

#4 � A Viral Strategy

Finally, you need a strong strategy that gets people to pass your contest along to their friends. If you�re running the contest on social media, you need a strategy to get people sharing and linking your contest. 

How do you make that happen?

There are a few different ways you can do this. One common way is to use liking as a voting mechanism. In order to vote for their friends, people first need to come to your page and �Like� it.

Another common method is to post the results on a page that�s only visible to people who�ve liked your page. That way, if people want to follow their friends� progress, they need to first like your page.

You can also center the contest around how many other people you can get to join the contest.

Spend some time thinking about the viral strategy of your contest. Why would people want to post your contest to their friends? How can you increase the virality of your contest?

These are the four most important things to think about before you launch your contest. On one hand, knowing the law and having proper anti-cheating provisions will help you protect yourself from losses. On the other hand, having stellar prizes and an effective viral strategy will help you skyrocket your contest�s success.

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