Purchasing Websites vs Building Your Own

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When you decide that you want to run your own online business, the question will soon come up in your mind about whether you should purchase an established website, or build one from scratch. The answers may surprise you, and in this article I want to go over both strategies in detail.

Building your own website from scratch is a lot of work. You will have to work very hard, and unless you have thousands of dollars up front to get started, you shouldn't expect to start earning any serious money until after a year has passed. It takes time for a brand new site to build link popularity, traffic, and content. It is necessary for a website to have these things before it can begin to earn money.

When you build a new website, you may find it hard for seasoned webmasters to take your site seriously. I've found that some webmasters will even refuse to exchange links with your site if it is brand new and has a zero page rank. You can avoid this to some extent by adding lots of content to your new site.

Purchasing a website is easier in the sense that if you buy a site that is already established, there is no need to wait long periods of time in order to get it to the point where it is earning money. If you purchase a good website, you should begin earning money within a month of making the purchase.

However, there are a few things you need to know before going out to purchase a website. You need to do careful research on the site you're interested in to make sure it earns what the owner says it earns. Request from the webmaster a copy of earning statements for the last twelve months.

Join webmaster forums and ask other veteran webmasters their thoughts on the site you're interested in. Listen carefully to their answers. If more than one person says that they wouldn't buy it, and gives good reasons for doing so, you may want to take their advice. It is also important to get the website appraised. Make sure that is is worth exactly what the seller says its worth.

You also want to make sure you buy a site rich in content. Check to make sure the content is original and not copied from another source. If you are a busy person who doesn't have time to build a website from scratch, purchasing a website would be an excellent choice.

However, purchasing an established website which is earning money will not be cheap. You can expect to pay at least $10,000.00 for a three year old website with a pagerank of 5 or 6 which is earning $500 per month. It is important to do your research and look at all the factors involved in both building and purchasing a site.

Internet Business Info That You Need When Starting a Business

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Everyone is drawn to the attraction that an Internet home based business offers. You can be your own boss and you don’t have to commute to work everyday. However, family can be one of the biggest attractions as well as distractions from a home based business. A home based business allows you to be home more often, but at the same time, your work time can be taken up with family responsibilities.

Another factor that you should consider is you will be transitioning to a completely different working environment. You will change from a people filled environment to a solitude work environment in your home. There are many factors you should think about when deciding to start a home based business. These factors will help you to decide if a home based business is right or wrong for you.

The first thing you should factor in is your personality. Are you the type of person who prefers to work alone or gets more work done when alone? Or do you prefer to work with people and become more motivated when you work with others? You should consider these very important questions before starting a home based business.

After this, if you still want to start your business then you should be sure to set your goals. You should know as much as possible about your business. An estimate on how much money you are going to spend and what your potential for profit is will help you in designing your goals. By being prepared, you can know what you can achieve and have your eyes set on a future goal.

For the best preparation, you should try talking to experts who have a business type similar to yours. Do thorough research on the business you are trying to start. This way you will be fully prepared for anything that may happen once you start your business.

One of the biggest and most important factors to consider is whether your home business is going to meet your financial needs. You should be sure your business is going to provide a steady, stable income that will meet all your needs.

It is also very important to make sure you are starting a business you are going to enjoy. Enjoying your job is the key factor that will help your business in the end. If you are not interested in your job after a few weeks or months, you won’t be progressing much with your business.

Once you have started your home business there are still several things you should consider to help keep your business running smoothly. The most important of these is your working environment organization. You should be very organized with every aspect of your working environment. Everyone should be within arms reach and the area void of distractions. It should clearly be an office, but yet comfortable.

In addition, you want to keep a well-organized work schedule. Make sure you daily schedule is well thought out as far in advance as possible. If you stray from your schedule and let daily distraction get to you then you will soon have a backlog of work, which will cause you to become stressed.

In your schedule, make sure you provide for breaks and meal scheduling. You don’t want to be in front of your computer alone in a room for more than two hours. Missing breaks or meals will cause a strain on your body and can lead to many illnesses.

There are many benefits to a home based Internet business. While you may not have the same job security as other businesses and you can have lonely times, it is a rewarding career. Just follow the suggestions here and you come to enjoy your home based business.

5 Steps To A Successful Internet Business

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STEP 1. Find something you feel is a good business opportunity. You can scour the internet for all sorts of different business ideas and opportunities. Doing a search on any search engine with the keywords Work At Home, Business Opportunities, Home Based Business, Affiliate Programs, Make Money Online, etc., will produce 1000's of different search results. Affiliate programs are THE ABSOLUTE BEST business opportunities out there because the ONLY thing you need to do to run your internet business is to market your affiliate link. With a traditional business you must deal with inventory, storage, packing, shipping, complaints, returns, phone calls, emails, checks and credit cards just to name a few! Not so with affiliate programs, once someone has clicked on your affiliate link your only job is getting the next person to click on it. Sweet deal!

STEP 2. Get your own webpage. You want to put your internet business on a webpage of your own. A webpage is like a store front. It projects respect to your business and who you are. Think about it. Do you feel the same about buying from a vendor on the street as you do about buying from a person in a store? They’re both vendors, but the store gives you a certain feeling about the person you are buying from that a street vendor just can’t give you! Your webpage dose not have to be fancy. If you only have a brief description of what your webpage is about along with individual descriptions of your product or products people will respect that. If it is affiliate programs you have decided upon, simply put a BRIEF description of what is being offered along with your affiliate link. Do not disclose too much in your description because people might THINK they know what it is all about and not click on your link. You want to let your affiliate website do all the selling for you. These sites are professionally designed to maximize the number of people who buy or join so a brief description, just enough to spike their curiosity, is sufficient.

STEP 3. Get your own Blog and make one post a day. A Blog, short for, “Web Log,” is a great way to establish yourself as an authority figure on whatever topic you decide. As people return to read your daily articles, they will eventually come to view you as an authority on whatever your Blog is about. They will eventually develop confidence in what you are saying, and will begin to trust you. As a result some people will check out your webpage to see what you have to offer them, and people tend to buy more from people they know and trust. Their confidence in you will be an additional factor that will compel people to buy from you. There are many places online that will host and let you set up your Blog for free.

STEP 4. Put Cost-Per-Click(CPC) advertising such as Google AdSense on your website. Having Cost-Per-Click advertising on your website is a way to earn additional income that can be VERY substantial. Most people who visit your website will not buy from you. If people are going to leave your website, wouldn’t you rather them leave through a link on your website that will pay you money every time someone clicks on it? Google makes putting their AdSense on your website E-A-S-Y! The ads are relevant to the content of your website. Google can even put its AdSense on your Blog as we’ll.

STEP 5. Write and submit articles to article submission sites. This is the most important advice you need to know. This is how you will get FREE advertising! People are searching the internet for free information. When you submit your articles online, the search engines will eventually find them and will spider every word. When people do a search using keywords or phrases that are in your articles, they will turn up in the search results, so be sure to insert highly searched for keywords and phrases into your articles! You will need to include at the bottom of all your articles your bio. Your bio will contain a brief description about who you are along with a link to your website. It might read for instance [ John Doe is the owner of yoursite.com. John helps people to work at home using various business opportunities that include affiliate programs. If you desire your own home based business visit http://www.yoursite.com] The more articles you write and submit, the higher the chances are of your articles keywords and phrases showing up on search results. The more links you have pointing back to your website, the higher your websites page rank with the search engines will be, meaning the higher up on the search results will your article turn up, so don’t stop writing and submitting articles! I do want to stress however, quality over quantity. Take your time and check your spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. No one will take what you have to say seriously if you don’t write correctly.

So there you have it! Having a successful internet business is simply a matter of understanding how things work, and applying that knowledge. It dose not take any special skill or any great intelligence. If you follow these five steps, you cannot fail. The most important thing, as with anything in life, is persistence. Continue following steps three and five and watch your internet business grow!

10 Tips For Web Success

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The webmaster's biggest job is to get their traffic up and keep customers/visitors coming back. Building the site is one thing, but simply building and posting a website does not guarantee traffic. In fact, a website could be beautiful and an example of all the latest technology and still not attract a single visitor if not promoted correctly. Here are 10 tips to guide you to success with your website.

(1) The internet is a new medium.
At least compared to print, it is. A website is a waste if it simply re-hashes something which could easily be put into print. Don't have the site be just an online brochure. Put up features which take advantage of the internet as a medium of communication. Filter information for them. Provide search capability. Provide interactivity with features like forums, quizzes and tools. Web visitors like to interact.

(2) Treat the Customer's Time as Valuable.
When a person visits your website, you have their attention for that point in time. You either need to use it or you will lose it - fast. Most visitors have short attention spans, what you need to design your site homepage so that it grabs their attention and provides what they are looking for right away. Its like walking into a restaurant. If you walk in and just stand there and nobody comes to greet you, you might wonder what is happening. But, if the hostess comes and greets you right away and walks you to a table, then you will be there for awhile and eat. The same analogy goes for websites. Don't overcomplicate your website homepage. Best results will be obtained if you make it very clear where to click to find what they need.

(3) Design the site for customers, not the company.
Your site needs to satisfy the needs of customers, not the company. So, don't post content which is not really useful to the site's customer. And avoid over-flattering marketing hype about the company. It inflates the ego of the company more than it helps your customer.

(4) Involve the Visitor.
Keep the visitor involved and make them feel like a valuable contributor. Actively ask for the feedback and suggestions. Ask for communication from your visitors and answer that communication swiftly. When getting that communication, capture their email address. This will allow you to communicate with them long after they have moved on and forgotten about you.

(5) Keep it Current.
You need to have content on your website which is timely and relevant to the customer's life. Posting month-old news is not interesting. Posting dry product information which never changes is not interesting. Yes, you need to have product information and other information on your site that won't change much, but you can also post more timely content. You can, for example, post content about how your products can be used in certain situations in life. Provide tips and techniques - things which are immediately applicable and solve a problem.

(6) Pay Attention to Form/Design.
Some sites simply over-do it on the eye-candy. Big graphics just for the sake of graphics often impress the site's designer more than the visitor. Do not use graphics that are large and purposeless. Remember, some visitors may still be accessing your website via dial-up. Your site needs to load up quickly for all users. A slow website will cause your users to leave quickly. Also, pay attention to graphic and design size. Many web designers operate on fairly large screen resolutions and sometimes forget that even though a graphic looks great to you, it will appear enormous to somebody on a smaller resolution. On the flip side, don't go too light on graphics. A site which is poorly designed and using the default font and no color is not very aesthetically pleasing. Any web visitor, whether they admit it or not, judges your company by your website unless they have something else to go on. A well-designed site communicates professionalism. A poor design makes the site seem like an afterthought.

(7) Promote.
When a visitor communicates to you via email, it is best to use a web form. not only will this keep your email address from being picked up by spammers, it will also allow you to ask your customers for their email address and then store that address for later use. Employ the "push/pull" marketing strategy. A visitor coming to your website is the pull, but later you want to push content back to them in the form of a newsletter or other promotional material. Start a mailing list and use it. Invite visitors to sign up. Promotion makes or breaks a business, and as long as you respect the ethical considerations of your mailing list, you should use it.

(8) Don't Operate in a Cocoon.
The internet is a medium which is shared by millions. When you set up your website, don't operate as if you are a self-contained island. Get out there and keep in tune with what is happening on other websites related to your own. Participate in forums. Post links to other websites and ask for a link in return. Form partnerships with other sites if it is appropriate. When it comes to communication, people like personal contacts. Hiding behind general email address like "sales" and "info" is OK as long as there is a way to also email you directly. A company site which allows email direct to the management is good. Just remember how much you hate calling a company and getting stuck in their phone system. Sometimes you just want to talk to somebody. Give your visitors that ability.

(9) Have a Plan to Attract Repeat Traffic.
Use newsletters, out-going email, contests, forums, clubs, auctions - anything that will cause people to return to your website. When posting links to other websites, don't just send your visitors somewhere else. They may never return. Provide them an exit page. Give them a pop-up when they try to leave your site. Or at the very least make external links open in a new window.

(10) Track Your Visitors
Pay attention to your site's statistics and react accordingly. What are people reading? How are they finding you? Do they just come and leave right from your homepage? How long as they are on your website? Do they return? This data is immensely valuable in fine-tuning your website based on customer needs and wants. Remember, the biggest mistake of any webmaster is designing the site for what THEY want. A successful website is designed for the target audience, not to impress the site's owner.

Start Your Internet Business by Finding The Right Niche

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Everywhere you go online you hear that you must focus on a niche for your business. If you are new to Internet Marketing, this is advice you will want to pay close attention to.

Every day thousands of people come online for the first time in search of wealth. Many jump right into the markets that are already completely saturated and then wonder why they are not making money.

Given unlimited time, money and patience, they might succeed. For those that do not have unlimited supplies of these precious resources, aiming for a targeted niche market can be a much smarter way to start your online business.

So just what is a niche?

If you want the long answer, you can buy any one of the thousands of ebooks being sold online about niche markets. You can go to a dictionary and see what definition of niche it gives. But the short answer is niche simply means distinct or individual.

Everyone and their mother wants to start a business focusing on Internet Marketing. This is how the big guns are making all their money, so it must be the way to go. That is the problem. The market is totally saturated with people who have years of experience in this area. A new person trying to compete in such a broad market does not have much chance of success.

On About.com, Susan Ward defines Internet Marketing as "the strategies that are used to market a product or service online, marketing strategies that include search engine optimization and search engine submission, copywriting that encourages site visitors to take action, web site design strategies, online promotions, reciprocal linking, and email marketing".

A new person coming online to start a business has little chance of knowing enough about all the above areas to be able to compete in this market.

So how is a new Internet Marketer to have any chance at success?

Thing Smaller - Think Niche!

From the above definition you can gather the following niches:

Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Copywriting
Web Site Design
Promotion
Linking
Email Marketing

Even if you are lucky and are extremely experienced already in one of the above niches, you will still have a lot of competition in such broad niches. This may be what you decide to do in the end, but at least be willing to explore niches within the broader areas. You may find a niche you are much better suited to.

When it comes to finding a niche market, a good resource available online is Wordtracker. Wordtracker brings several tools together in one place for those trying to find a good niche to go into.

Wordtracker is a breeze to use. If you want to narrow Internet Marketing down to targeted niche markets, just type "Internet Marketing" into Wordtracker and look at all the ideas that pop up. Each of these can become keywords that you decide you want to focus your business on. Or you can pop in and analyze those keywords and keep fine tuning your niche.

With Wordtracker you will end up with a list of niche keywords that you can focus your Internet business on. Having a smaller niche will give you a much better shot at being successful than trying to build a site around a broad topic like Internet Marketing.

Remember, success in any business comes from supplying a product that the public has a demand for and that the market has room for. Find the right niche and you are on the right path.

6 Powerful VRE(Virtual Real Estate) Business Models You Can Start Building In 2006 Using Google Adsense - Part 2

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Okay, it's now time for the next installment of... "6 POWERFUL VRE(Virtual Real Estate) Business Models You Can Start Building In 2006 Using Google Adsense" series.

By now you should have a good idea of what Virtual Real Estate is and why it's to your benefit that you start a network of your own VRE sites depending on the model you choose.

In the last installment of this series I covered "Article Directories".

In this part of the VRE series I'm going to cover "Web Directories" in general and then give you some examples of what they might be and look like.

Sound good?

VRE Model #2. Web Directories.

An "Web Directory" is simply a directory on the World Wide Web that specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links. Web Directory owners will often allow site owners to submit their site for inclusion. Then human editors will review their submission and if accepted, will be added to their database.

The one thing about Web Directories is they are often used as part of a website marketing strategy for being indexed in the major search engines like Yahoo!, Google, MSN to name a few.

The main strategy behind someone submitting there website to a directory is that a new site needs to quickly build inbound links from reputable sources. In doing this they will get a higher ranking within search engine results under there target keywords depending on the PR(popularity ranking) of that directory or inbound link.

That's the basic run-down of what an Web Directories purpose is and why they make a great VRE business model.

Web Directories can be and target anything you want them to. It's your directory, so you make the decision as to what it is about.

As your directory grows, so will its traffic.

And if you have targeted affiliate programs strategically placed on your directory along side your Google Adsense code, you could be making a nice, steady income form your directory like many others are right now.

Now... as I said at the beginning of this article I would give you some examples of some Web Directories with Google Adsense so you see for yourself whether or not this is something you want to venture into.

So, with that said, here are 3 directories that I think will give you a good idea of what to expect:


Free Stuff Directory:
All Free Things - http://www.allfreethings.com/

eBook Directory:
Wisdom eBooks - http://www.wisdomebooks.com/

Software Directory:
Software5 - http://www.software5.com/

Now remember, your Online Directory can be about anything you want. Your in control.

These are just some examples of whats out.

Did you happen to see the Google Adsense ads?

BINGO!

Also, pay special attention to where those Google Adsense ads are positioned because this is KEY to getting a good CTR(Click Through Rate) with your Google Adsense ads.

Now, at this point, it's up to you to make the decision on whether or not this is the type of VRE business model you want to use and start.

I recommend you surf around and see whats out there with your interests in mind. By doing that you will be able to get some good idea's as to what to expect and more importantly, model your directory and/or VRE sites from.

Well, that's it for now.

How To Make Money With Online Surveys

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If you’re got some spare time and you’d like to make some money without much work, online surveys are just the thing for you. With a computer and a little advice, you’ll be all set to make some extra cash for you and your family.

Be realistic

You first have to realize that when you take online surveys, you won’t be paid thousands of dollars. In fact, the people that do take online surveys regularly will usually say that the best way to make more money is to take more surveys.

You’ll need to sign up for a few different online survey sites in order to have a constant stream of surveys to complete.

Watching out for scams

When you do see ads to take online surveys that supposedly pay thousands of dollars, you can be certain that these aren’t legitimate claims.

In order to make money with online surveys, you will need to file your information with reputable companies. These are easy to find by looking for the company information to see if they give you ways to contact them. Those companies that seem to be hiding from you usually have a reason.

And if the company tells you that you need to pay money in order to make money, then go to another web site. You shouldn’t have to pay to earn extra money.

Market research

One of the best ways to make some extra money or earn some free products is to participate in market research surveys. These tend to come from the big name companies that want to know what their customers think. You’ll answer questions about their products and give suggestions about ways that they could improve.

In many cases, you can be rewarded with free products or cash payments.

Focus groups

Another way to make money online is to become a part of a focus group. This is an invitation from a company to set with other customers and discuss a particular product or service. You can also do these online in the form of chat rooms and message boards.

You are usually compensated for the time or the amount of information that you give to the company about the product.

Following the rules

The most simple advice for making money for doing online surveys is to make sure that you’re completing the surveys in their entirety as well as giving your correct contact information.

What many people don’t realize is that you may need to confirm your email address before you will receive new surveys to do. Check your email after you first register with an online survey web site to see if there are any other steps that you need to follow.

And check your junk email box too, as this important email may have landed in there.

Online surveys are a great way to make a little extra money when you have a little extra time on your hands. And you don’t have to get dressed up to do it.