Welcome to Michael's Article Collection

Search Engine Optimization - How to Improve Your Ranking

Rankings, Rankings, Rankings!How do you get your website ranked well by the search engines? Well, it isn’t as hard as you think, but it may not be as simple either. It takes patience and an ongoing commitment to making search-engine ranking a long-term investment in your website. You will need to give it time and energy – it isn’t a quick fix.One caveat before I dive into this: If you are a com. . .

Promote To Succeed With These 9 Proven Tips

Marketing a business entails targeting the right people, giving them what they want, and then making it the absolute best it can be. But getting people to your site is only part of the task. You need to make your offer desirable during your campaign and when they arrive at your site.The tips I’m about to share have been used by successful marketers for many years. How well you incorporate them . . .

How Stay at Home Moms and Dads Can Generate a Second Income

"I believe wholeheartedly in the importance of being a Mom who chooses not to work outside the home in order to be available for my children. However, I also have experienced the effects of a single income and it's not pleasant," explains one stay at home mom. Stay at home parents are finding it increasingly difficult to support their family on a single income. Their alternatives are not appeal. . .

7 Steps to Managing Your Time Better

The internet is one of those things in life that borders on the verge of a good versus evil battle. It can be the greatest money making tool in existence, or the most malicious time waster. When people venture into the business of internet marketing, they often think it’s going to be a piece of cake. Most people who decide upon internet marketing as a business venture love the internet to be. . .

Nine Proven Techniques To Stay Motivated Whilst Building ...

It's a fact of life - sooner or later your motivation to continue building your Internet business may start to drop. Yet if you want to build the best possible business you can't afford to let this self- destructive tendency get in your way.Here then is my own hotlist of methods that keep me constantly moving in the right direction...1) Monthly SubscriptionsThere are a number of high quality me. . .

Search Engines Are Doomed to Fail

A very provocative title, isn’t it? Based on the latest news it is not far from the truth. Over the years the search engines were the target number one on the hunt for visitors and traffic to millions of web sites. In an attempt to keep the search results accurate and still delivering what the user is actually looking for, search engines cracked down on spammers and other sneaky web masters who. . .

Work From Home Business Opportunities

Whenever many of us think of working at home, we think about working a full-time job to earn an income so we can leave our present jobs and work for ourselves. But there is a middle-ground that should be considered as we try to make the transition from working for someone else to working at home for ourselves. In addition to generating additional income and residual income with work from home o. . .

4 Tips To Ensure A Rewarding Experience When Hiring Others

Hiring an employee can be a big step for many small business owners. It means the end of doing EVERYTHING yourself and passing off some of the work!In order to make the experience rewarding for both you and your employees there are a few things that every boss and leader should do…1) Reward people for a job well done. Its frustrating working for someone who enjoys all the financial rewards of . . .

Starting an On-line Business – Three Things You’ll Need

Are you thinking about starting an on-line business? Maybe you have a vague idea of what’s required – maybe you haven’t a clue. This article outlines three basic, non-negotiable things that you will need.1. Premium web hostingI suppose it is possible to make a modest income on-line without your own website. But, it is practically impossible to make serious income without your own site. This. . .

Improving the Link Popularity of your site

What is important is not only the number of links to your site, but also the types of sites which are linking to you. A link from a site which is related to yours is more valuable than a link from an unrelated site.In this article, I explore different methods by which you can improve the link popularity of your site. I start with a method that you shouldn't bother using, then go on to the moder. . .

Are You Ready To Start Your Own Business? The 4 Key Quest...

Every year millions of people answer "Yes" to that question and every year that answer costs many of them money, time, confidence, and heartbreak. The Small Business Administration estimates there are 580,900 new small businesses opening each year and that number does not include the small one-person entrepreneurships that pop up every day. However even if you are your business's sole employee . . .

Buying Wholesale - A Few Do's And Don'ts....

As most of you know, I have worked with wholesalers both on and offline for many years and a number of my websites are based around helping people find and trade with wholesale suppliers.I receive a fairly constant stream of emails from customers and potential customers asking various questions about buying from wholesalers and this has been the case for the past few years. These questions alw. . .

The Only Way To Make Money On The Internet

There really is only one way to make money on the internet -- sales.Really it is the truth. Of course there are a lot of different variations in how and what you sell on the internet and another dramatic difference is the lack of the dreaded cold-calling forced on so many traditional sales folks.At first glance your choices are pretty straightforward:~ Sell other people's products~ Sell your ow. . .

What do you really need to go into business on the internet?

I have lost track of the number of discussion board posts and emails I have answered about that topic. I admit for those first venturing into the uncharted waters of internet business it can be challenging and more than a little daunting. There is a flood of products out there clamoring for your money and all claim to be absolutely essential to your success on the internet. Don't buy it, they a. . .

Fighting Back With Counter-Hypnotic Internet Marketing

If I was a fortune-teller and you just walked in my door I would tell you this:"I see you still seek the dream of earning money in your sleep. Enough to give you the time and freedom to do what you want, when you want and without the restriction of having to choose second-best."Don't worry, I can't read your mind. I can, however, manipulate how it controls you without you knowing it."No way" yo. . .

So You Want To Work At Home

5 tips that you definitely need to know when you’re starting your search for a work at home job.1) NEVER, EVER PAY FOR A JOB. Be very careful with this. Legitimate employers will not ask you for money. If you are looking to start a business (for example: Mary Kay, Usborne Books, Watkins etc.) you may have to pay for a set up fee, but this is to cover your kit that you will receive to start y. . .

Printable Web Pages as an Overlooked Marketing Resource

It becomes more and more clear, that online presence has to be viewed as just one side of our total presence in the market place. One aspect to improve the situation for many websites would be to make it easy for visitors to print web pages.This should be possible with longer texts as well as with product pages and pages displaying just overviews. The potential of prints from your website as a . . .

Full Automation

For many years I new that today’s technology was able to fully automate our marketing systems, but it seemed that nobody was using it to its full extent. Recently I came across a system that was so beautifully automated, I just knew immediately that this was going to work, and it did.Why is it then that so many people miss it, I asked myself. It is right here under our noses. But hey wait, “Wha. . .

How to Make Your eZine Work for You Long After It's Publi...

If you publish an email newsletter, do you convert the issues to HTML and archive them on your website? If you haven't been doing so, you should start now, today. "But the free mailing service I use already archives them." you say. That's great! That means the search engines will find that many more links to your site online. But it is worth the effort to put them on your website also. You can . . .

10 Costly Search Engine Mistakes to Avoid

If you have a website then you already know the importance of traffic. Traffic is to Internet marketing as location is to real estate. It's the only thing that really matters. If you cannot generate targeted visitors to your site, you will not make any sales. Usually the owner or designer of the website is the person designated to drive traffic to the site. The chief ingredient in generating tr. . .

6 Easy Steps to Separating Your Personal Life from Your B...

If you work from home, chances are you already know that you’re really pulling “double duty”. You probably work on your business while doing the laundry, corralling the kids, or fixing dinner... and let’s not forget all the phone calls from family and friends expecting you to run errands or just "go out" for an afternoon of fun. One of the hardest parts of running a home business is separating . . .

Find Your Niche - the Internet Marketer's Goldmine

If you haven't heard the word 'niche' being batted around by Internet Marketers then you haven't been listening. Finding a niche has become the antidote to competing in overly saturated online markets. What is a niche? According to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary a niche is described as "a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted... a specialized mar. . .

A Systems Approach To Home Business Success And Immediate...

If you were to compose a "Top 5" list of things to do, and not to do, in order to build a successful work from home business and income, it might look something like this:1. Make sure that you have (or acquire) an attitude for success.2. Take an inventory of where you've been, where you are, what you have, where you are going, and, more importantly, where you want to go.3. Do your homework. Bec. . .

Choose Xango™! The Secret to Success!

Since being a distributor within Xango™ for the past 11 months, I have been confronted with many questions. “What are the ingredients in your mangosteen juice?” “How can I get your mangosteen juice cheaper than $25.00?” or “How much money are you making at this time in Xango?”The biggest question someone has ever asked me while explaining that Xango™ is a booming network marketing opportunity w. . .

What In The World Are Reciprocal Links?

No one told me how important traffic was when I first started working online. To me, a neophyte to the internet marking thing, traffic was something that I was avoiding by working from home, now all of a sudden I needed this stuff.Traffic, I was to later find out, was about how many visitors came to my site, sort of like potential customers browsing through a department store. These browsing cu. . .

Your Interview Suit

OK. So you don't need an interview suit when you work online. That does not mean, however, that your appearance is not important. Your personal photos, your network pages, your websites all make your first impression for you... similar to an interview suit. These online presentations are most often the first contact a potential client will have with you. It is critical that you look your very b. . .

Home Business Success Requires A Targeted Marketing Program

It has often been stated that Internet traffic is one thing, but targeted Internet traffic is everything.You have no doubt seen dozens of offers similar to "10,000 hitsper hour driven to your website!". This type of website trafficis completely untargeted and will undoubtedly result in a verylow conversion ratio. It's basically "throw it up against thewall and hope something sticks". The big. . .

Paid Surveys Online - How Easy Is It To Make Money From T...

Paid surveys are being promoted as an easy way to make money online. Some ads promise you up to $250 per hour for taking paid surveys. Are they realistic? Can one really expect to earn that much money from online paid surveys? Let us find out the answers to these questions.Such advertisements are usually put up by paid survey database companies like Surveyscout. They charge you for giving acces. . .

These are the Big 5 Internet Opportunities!

All internet business ideas and concepts essentially fall into one of the categories below.Therefore to help you come up with your novel online concept, examine the big 5 below for guidance with conceptualizing your business model.There is nothing to stop you from using an idea that is already in existence if you think you can execute it in a better or different way.1. Selling Products a) One o. . .

Make Paypal Payments Without Signing up for an Account

PayPal has optimised the checkout experience with an exciting improvement to their payment flow for business and premier account holders.Anyone online seller who has explored the prospect of accepting payment by credit card knows it can be very complicated and expensive to set up. As an alternative, many sellers have incorporated Paypal payments into their websites. This is a much cheaper optio. . .

The Great SEO Chat Debate

As many of you in the SEO industry may know by now, one of the most popular SEO forums in the country recently made the controversial move of preventing search engine spiders from following signature links. On Friday, November 18, 2005, Developer Shed Inc. released a new version of their SEO Chat forums. While no announcement was made, it was quickly discovered that they had inserted code in th. . .

Integrate Your Affiliate Programs to Explode Your Affilia...

When you have been involved in affiliate marketing for a year or more you tend to accumulate memberships in a diverse range of Internet programs that are often disconnected.You will have memberships in a number of income opportunities, downline building programs, traffic exchanges, and payment systems. In addition, you will have one or more domains and web hosting services and access to autores. . .

Seven Strategies To Make Money On The Net Regularly

You can attract 1,000's of prospects to you. You only need to be equipped with your own web site and an unlimited product or service to sell.There are seven different strategies you can begin doing immediately to make tons of money in your chosen program(s). You may not be able to do all but every step should be taken to do as many of these as you can, these techniques are the only ones that re. . .

Top Search Engine Positioning Mistakes

1) Optimizing your site for the wrong keywordsThe first step in any search engine optimization campaign is to choose the keywords for which you should optimize your site. If you initially choose the wrong keywords, all the time and effort that you devote in trying to get your site a high ranking will go down the drain. If you choose keywords which no one search for, or if you choose keywords wh. . .

Trade Leads Distribution With RSS

Traders from around the globe come to http://www.import-export-guide.com/trade to post trade leads - their requirements for products they want to buy and details of the products they have to sell. New trade leads are added all the time and it's important that traders can easily and quickly find out what new requirements and product offers are posted.Most traders are busy people with lots to do. . .

Getting The Most From Your Advertising Dollars

You now have that website up and running. You have a great product. You are all set to start taking orders and making those trips to the bank to make deposits! And then you wait, and wait, and wait some more! Unless someone can find your site, you will have a very long wait! That is where the value and benefit of advertising comes in. Advertising is what brings potential customers into your "vi. . .

Wholesale Drop Shipping - How It Works

One of the most frequently asked questions on the Net is:"What should I sell online?"Many people know what products they want to sell. However, they don't know how to do this. Should they physically stock the products themselves or promote other companies through affiliate programs?Drop shipping may be the answer for some website owners who want to become stockless retailers, whereby they keep . . .

Success Is More Than A Word

I'm often asked, what is the secret to online success? Before I answer that question, let me ask you back a simple question... Is there a secret to any success?I've been working on Internet-based business since December 1998, so I have seen almost the entire history of this industry. I have seen what works and what doesn't. Now I'm going to give you a brief guide to what works...Hard Work Is A . . .

Affiliate Marketing: A Little TLC Goes A Long Way

What is one thing that separates the leading affiliate marketers from the rest?They show TLC – tender loving care – towards their downline members.This may sound very “touchy-feely”, but TLC is a real business imperative. If you ignore the intellectual, financial or emotional needs of your affiliate downline, you do so at your own cost.TLC means using accessible language – writing in a way that. . .

Increase Your Returns With Opt-in Email Advertising

The amount of marketing that takes place online is increasing exponentially, leaving marketers scrambling for ways to get noticed. Email marketing has become a sophisticated field, consumers are getting more savvy, and regulations are starting to govern what you can and cannot do. The days of buying a list of a million email addresses and blanketing the Internet are over. "Spam" never was very . . .

Death, Taxes and the Non-Automated Phone Systems

There are only three things I am certain of in life. The first is that we will all eventually die. The second is that if you earn money, you will inevitably end up paying taxes at some point. The third is that I will get at least five phone calls during the course of my workday that were transferred to me in error. If you are anything like me, your workday is full to capacity the moment you wal. . .

Ebay Fraud And Risks

I am one of many people who have had a negative experience on the internet auction website ebay. This article describes how I nearly lost a large some of money from a man who attempts to defraud people out of their hard earned money.I have read about many people who have had bad experiences on ebay, I hope you are not one of them. I must admit, I was having a great time on ebay, and also making. . .

Hold That Hold...Please!

It never fails. Whether ordering a pizza or making a doctor's appointment, I hear it almost every time. "Can I put you on hold?", they ask. Before I have a chance to even answer...I am on hold! What just happened? Was it a rhetorical question? Why even give me the option? Why not just say, "Welcome to XYZ, where we promptly put you on hold!". Some people hate automated phone systems, but not me. . .

7 Crucial Customer Reciprocation Strategies To Super-Char...

You've probably heard the Internet gurus mention Customer Reciprocation as a powerful way to profit from the purchase intentions of other affiliates. What many of them fail to mention is the strategies they themselves use to make Customer Reciprocation work in their favour.It is like comparing the novice share investor who buys and sells shares, with a stock market guru who uses gearing, deriva. . .

3 Free Ways to Promote Your Website

Let's face it, advertising is extremely expensive. Fortunately, there are some simple and free ways to promote your website without paying through the nose.1. Join an Online Discussion GroupThere are any number of discussion groups and bulleting boards on the Internet. Find one that interests you and is likely to attract the type of people who fit into your target market, join it and participat. . .

Leverage Your Writing to Increase Your Affiliate Income

There is a lot of advice around for anyone engaged in affiliate marketing, but much of it is un-focused and lacks integration.We are told that we need original, focused, keyword-rich content for our website if it is to attract search engine "crawlers" and targeted visitors.We are encouraged to update our affiliate marketing blog daily because search engines love regularly updated, keyword-rich . . .

Email Marketing Lesson: Your Marketing Reminds Me Of My G...

I moved into a new office recently and was unpacking when I realized I was fading fast and needed a caffeine fix. Seems my Starbucks cappuccino machine had gotten lost with the movers. I panicked."Now what?" I thought. I had never gone a full afternoon without a latte. I knew something would happen if I didn't get one, and it would probably be the kind of thing that would come up with my therap. . .

5 Secrets to Building Business Relationships When You're ...

I've tried any number of ways to market my business: attending networking functions, joining professional associations, exhibiting at trade shows, just to name a few of my tactics. However, despite my best intentions, I've gotten little or no business as a result of my efforts. I know that part of the reason for a lack of return on my investment in these items is my poor follow-up with contac. . .

The Biggest Mistake My Friend Made When Publishing His Eb...

Imagine publishing an ebook only to learn that you’re making no sales, no traffic to your website and no profits. How depressing will that be…A while ago my friend, Peter Vincent just finished writing and publishing his new ebook called “How To Be A Good Retail Worker”. He has no problems with writing an ebook. He knew how to write, he knew how to organize his work into a structured way. B. . .

Give a Professional Polish to Your Website

If you want to be taken seriously, particularly in the online arena, your website must have a professional look and feel. A professional-looking website will lend you credibility and legitimacy, and it will make your visitor feel more confident in you, your products and your services.Whether or not you have a designer or you go the DIY route, you want to make sure that you add the following to . . .