So many blogs -so little time.

Recently I found my log in for this blog, after having a melt down as I had screwed up my Roboform. You really dont know how much this can mess up a marketer until it happens to you! Anyway I have updated this blog now and will continue to add to it.
You can visit my many other websites and blogs by going to one site now.

Thanks

The Most Common Social Networking Mistakes

The Wall Street Journal lists the 4 most common mistakes individuals and businesses make when trying to use sites like Twitter and Facebook.


August 21, 2008, 9:55 am
Social Networking: Common Mistakes Small Businesses Make
by Kelly Spors

Many businesses these days are venturing into the Wild West of social media, trying their hand at things like blogging and Twitter and creating profiles on social-networking sites. But along the way they’re making lots of mistakes.

These mistakes shouldn’t be taken lightly. How your business is perceived in the Web 2.0 world will affect your reputation and your ability to connect with customers, associates and potential customers. (Who wants to hire a company that can’t even manage an engaging, thought-provoking blog?)

Sta.rtup.biz, a small-business social-networking site, recently had some thoughts on how small businesses are botching their forays into the social-media world. Here’s a look at some of the most common mistakes from them and other social-media experts:

– Bare Profile: Signing up for a Facebook account is the easy part. Before you blast emails to 1,000 of your customers and friends, a business should spend some time thoughtfully building a profile with an attractive photo, background and contact information.

– Too Little Personality: Lighten up. The social-media world is about engaging customers on a more personal level. Your “About Me” shouldn’t just be dry facts about your business. Make sure you add some personal touches. Humor often helps.

– Too Much Hype: Using social media shouldn’t be about blatantly selling a business. It’s about making connections and creating credibility so that people will like you and trust you and eventually want to buy from you. Use it to interact and meet new people – don’t get overly promotional.

– Not Enough Fresh Content: Engaging others through social media needs to be an ongoing, frequent process. You can’t just build a profile and let it sit idle. Preferably you want to be refreshing your content regularly (daily, if possible) so people come back for more.
________________________________

SO ASK YOURSELF DO YOU HAVE A:
* thoughtful profile/attractive photo/ background & contact information on your sites?

* “About Me” that is not just be dry facts about your business. Add some personal touches. A little Humor goes a long way.

* way to build relationships, interact and meet new people – don’t be overly promotional.

* engaging people through your social media,on a ongoing, frequent process?

I hope that you are doing all this. I'm pretty sure that I am.
Check my wordpress blog for more on my site. Newly updated info on
Web 2.0 Info like Twitter and Face Book.

You can find out more about social networking http://www.workingathomeincomeblog.com/

Forums

Forums can be a great place to discover new ideas
and get your questions answered. However there is a
downside to them .... if your not careful they
can be terrible time wasters. Your time is money.

If you want a short list of great forums to keep you
organized where you can get answers to
your questions from people that know and more
importantly where misinformation is addressed
and removed.

Getting quality feedback can be invaluable for
growing your business. Getting it from people
that actually talk the walk even more so.

Now this has a cost but you can try it for seven
days and if you don't find information that will
grow your business cancel before you get
billed.

Getting an answer to your question from people
like Paul Myers, John Taylor, Liz Tomey and Mike
Paetzold to name just a few are really invaluable.
Saves you time and time is money right?

Here is the link:
http://www.linkbrander.com/go/46603



I recommend "Forum Know How" if you really want expert advice on marketing. See you on the forum. I am on most boards -KathrynMac

Join our New Ezine about working online

Sunday morning - just a quick note.


If you would like tons of info about working online you can go to my new site and sign up for our newsletter /Ezine.
I now have a form page you can opt in on at my new blog site...
Look for "Insiders Secrets"




Please feel free to leave any questions or comments here on the blog.

Whats a SQUEEZE page?

Well there is something BRAND NEW on the net this week that promotes your business by asking people to use a sign in form to get a free product as well as info about your product.

You might be even more interested if I tell you that its FREE!

You need a autoresponder and I use the best one I have seen, AWEBER. You connect the squeeze page to your auto responder using the form sign up box.

http://www.aweber.com/features.htm?221295


Promote it on traffic exchanges, safelists, your website. Plus if you sign up as a GOLD member you can use back end products such as OTO links that directly go to pay your Pay Pal for immediate sales.

So far I have 5 pages done and will be making more for every product I have. This is really great stuff.

Here is my link to Robert Puddy's Squeeze pages

http://www.instantsqueezepagegenerator.com/index.php?rid=760

I have much more information about this and other forms of marketing on my main website.

http://www.internetincomewah.com

How to Succeed in Internet Marketing

So what exactly is the magic formula needed to become a successful internet marketer? The bad news - there is none. The good news is that you can create it. Nothing comes easy or without effort and the same is true for internet marketing.

First of all you need to develop a plan. Decide exactly what is is you want to achieve. Silly as it sounds, but a lot of people start out with no defined strategy in place. A lot of the time they don't even know what they want to achieve. So firstly, sit down and consider what success means to you and then draw up some steps to take to make that happen.

You will always come up against challenges and setbacks, everyone does at some point. This is when it is important to stick with your original plan. Always look for ways in which you can make changes if necessary, but never lose sight of your goal. Decide which products or services you will promote and explore all the ways in which you can do that. Don't be afraid to experiment or be innovative.

The internet is full of 'overnight success stories'. Do not expect this to happen to you. You will have to put a lot of work into your business. You need to look at it in the long term. You want to create a business that will provide you with a long-term stream of income. It is next to impossible to speed up that process. Eventually your hard work will pay off, so keep persevering.

At times it will seem like you are going nowhere. Nothing you do seems to work for you. A good piece of advice is to seek out forums where you can build relationships with like minded individuals. In this way you can stay focused and receive help and encouragement.

It is also important to know exactly how you are progressing. To do this in an informed way you will need to have set your goals. As you reach them, congratulate yourself on having achieved your aim. Then progress onto your next goal. Each goal should be designed to take you up to the next level. Doing so gives you short term successes and also helps to keep your enthusiasm up while giving you feedback on your progress.

It is not an easy route though it will seem to be from all the success stories you see every day. Understand that it is worth the effort to achieve your dream and vow never to get discouraged. Look on problems as stepping stones that need to be overcome. Others have done exactly as you are doing and the difference between success and failure is not being consistent and doing something each day to further your efforts.

Be confident and build the desire to succeed in every thing you do. You are creating your own internet marketing business which will give you a long term income. Always keep that in mind and do not get discouraged or into a negative state of mind. The goal is worth achieving and when you get there all the hard work you put in will have been well worth it.


About The Author:
Ben O'Rourke is an Online Marketer and Software Developer. Free eBooks: http://seazzy.com Free Software: http://seazzy.com/software

Are You an Affiliate ?

I am an affiliate for many different business products,
see my site Internet Income w.a.h. http://www.internetincomewah.com/


Setting up an Affiliate System

Affiliate programs enable businesses to generate a lot traffic and consequently boost sales through promotion by third party individuals or sites. It is a cost-effective way to advertise your products and services as you dominantly pay for only efforts that turn into sales.

Setting up an affiliate system can be an easy or overwhelming task depending on how many affiliates you want to recruit, your payment policy, availability of time and the kind of product or service offered.
When it comes to affiliate systems, there are two options for a business : you can outsource the entire system or run your own customised affiliate system on your web host. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

If you have a relatively small amount of affiliates to deal with, then you can run your own affiliate software but if you are going to recruit an unspecified or a large number of affiliates, then you may need to outsource.

The reason is, you will find it easy to deal with a huge number of sign ups, track payments, manage banners, monitor clicks, among others. The shortcoming is that you will have to pay flat fees or a percentage of sales generated to the company maintaining your system.

A self-managed affiliate system will work well if you have a small number of recruits , have the time to answer queries and send out a few checks each month.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF AFFILIATES
There are several types of affiliate programs you can choose from. There is the pay per sale whereby an individual is paid only if a sale is generated from that affiliate’s link. It’s certainly the least attractive to people unless the product or service is in high demand and the most profitable for businesses.

Another type is the pay-per-lead whereby you pay for traffic only. Here the affiliate is paid only if a visitor is generated from the affiliate site. Its attractive to affiliates but costly to website owners because of the possibility of non-converting visits. This type is good for high-sales producing sites as you can pay affiliates from sales generated.

Another option is the pay-per-click in which case you only pay if your link is clicked. If you have a site which has a high conversion rate , then this option is ideal for you.

You can also opt for the tiered system. With single tiers, your affiliates receive a single payment whenever someone refers a client to you and it is ideal for less popular products or services or when you are starting up. In a two-tier programs, an affiliate can receive a percentage of sales generated by an affiliate who signs up from his site and it is profitable for websites with high conversion rates.

A variant of this, the multi-tier, offers an affiliate residual income from sub-affiliates who sign up under him and indefinitely. This type is good if you have high sales and can support perpetual payments.

CONSIDERATIONS
An important consideration in setting up an affiliate is whether you will approve affiliates manually or automatically. It may be recommendable to start an affiliate program with your established customer sites and progress to new ones. You may have to control the affiliates if you are dealing with pay per click as the quality of visitors will be a factor in sales generation. Manually reviewing also enables you to judge the website or individual affiliates to see if he befits your company status (for example is the site objectionable?) or likely to spam which case may bring you trouble.

If you use your own affiliate system, then one of your biggest challenge would be how to pay affiliates a percentage of what you receive from customers. In this regard, you can rely on a software such as Affiliateshop(www.affiliateshop.com) to track and manage recurring commissions.

CONCLUSION
So depending on your needs, you can go for an outsourced affiliate system or a self-run type. You may go for an outsourced affiliate system such as Commission Junction(www.cj.com) or Linkshare(www.linkshare.com) if you anticipate huge transactions. If you would require credit card processing such an affiliate involving downloadable products like ebooks, then clickbank(www.clickbank.com) may be a good option.

If you intend to run your own affiliate system, then a popular choice is AssocTRAC which comes with a wide array of support.


About The Author:
Mark Kenny runs the affiliate program at Trading-Web-Solutions. To join our program or for more details, visit http://trading-web-solutions.com/affiliate.php

Sick of Spam?

Heres something you can do about it!


Spam... SPAM . . SPAM . . SPAM . . Yes it really was named after the famous Monty Python sketch featuring the intrepid Erik the Viking. http://support.antenna.nl/spammonty.html

What Is Spam? Unsolicited e-mail. Over 60% of all e-mails are now unsolicited sales messages - and it's growing. Junk mail is the scourge of the Internet. While it's a real shame that something as useful as e-mail should be contaminated by this claptrap there are serious implications to it's phenomenal growth.

EU businesses spend £1.5 billion a year trying to counter it and now Governments are looking at ways legislate against it.In 2004, the UK Government brought in legislation to discourage the spammers but the penalties are derisory compared to those introduced by other countries. This has had the unfortunate effect of making the UK a prime target for international spammers. It is estimated that by the end of 2005, 80% of all UKJ e-mails will be spam.There are no ways to avoid it completely that we know of but you can take steps to minimise it.

Common Sense Tips to Reduce SPAM

*Never visit web sites advertised by Spam mail If you do, never, NEVER buy anything

*Do not reply to the e-mail or click an unsubscribe link - doing so merely confirms that your e-mail address is active and that the message has been read.

*Delete Spam messages immediatelyIf certain domains are particularly bothering you report them to your ISP.

*Don't register for free services - especially those that don't allow you to opt out of third party and/or related products and services - they'll forward your address on to other Spammers.

*Set up a dummy web based e-mail account such as Hotmail and use this address as a scrap bucket if you can't avoid providing an e-mail address. Organisations such as Hotmail routinely clear out dead messages to save space which means once you have set up your dummy account you can forget about it.

*Blocking Unsolicited Mail In Microsoft Outlook Express
Once you have received an unsolicited mail into your inbox select it by clicking on it once.

- Move the pointer to the MESSAGE menu option on the top menu bar
Select BLOCK SENDER This action adds the senders address to a growing list of blocked senders. Each time a mail is received from any of those in the blocked list the mail is moved automatically to the DELETED ITEMS folder and does not appear in the INBOX.

- Blocking Unsolicited Mail In Microsoft Outlook 2000/2002/XP
Use the RULES WIZARD within the TOOLS menu to create a rule to send any mail suspected of being Junk Senders to the DELETED ITEMS folder.When an unsolicited e-mail arrives in your Inbox then select it by RIGHT clicking on it once and choose to add it to the junk senders list.Delete the mail manually from your Inbox The next time a mail arrives from the same source it will be moved automatically to the DELETED ITEMS folder. As the list grows the amount of junk mail in your Inbox will diminish.

There may be light at the end of the Spam tunnel. Uncle Bill at Microsoft is known to have 'a thing' about Spam and is determined to kill it off. Governments too are looking for better ways to reduce this nuisance.



About The Author:
Steve Latimer is Systems Manager with Arrival Computers
http://www.arrival-computers.co.uk
PC Doctor+ Guides are aimed at users new to computing. They may be reproduced and included in web sites as additional content provided a link is added back to the Arrival Computers Web Site.

I am going to post business articles at least once a week, be sure to bookmark and return.