Welcome to Michael's Article Collection

Are You PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Prejudiced?

I was reading an article one day, that ironically I found while searching through Google for subject matter to write about. I wish I had bookmarked the page, but I didn’t. I do remember the content of the article:Pay-Per-Click Fraud.Now, being in and out of PPC advertising off and on as the mood strikes me, the title of the article hit me in the forehead like the snap of a strategically aimed. . .

How Much Do You Know About Online Auctions?

Online auctions are a great way to find a bargain on almost everything and it is an excellent way of getting the best price for selling something of your own. These are Virtual auctions on the Internet. The seller sells the product to the person who offers the highest price. These products include houses, cars, seized electronics, jewelry, books, antiques and others.Online auctions are differen. . .

Getting Started in ECommerce - Part Two

In Part One we talked a little bit about what Ecommerce is, getting a domain name and setting up a merchant account. Ecommerce is more than that, much more. To have a really good online presence that gets people to stop and shop you need a strategy for success. Your strategy must include your USP or Unique Selling Position in the marketplace. What makes you stand out from all the other onl. . .

One Page Websites: Pro's and Con's

One Page WebsitesThere’s a lot of talk in the infopreneur world about the difference between a website with a dozen pages or more and a one page website geared toward selling a particular product. I’ll be discussing the pro’s and con’s of each type of site, and hopefully clarifying some of the current issues.Portal Websites for Service ProfessionalsMost professionals I speak with have sites tha. . .

Home Based Internet Businesses – Can It Be Just As Good A...

“He must be crazy” you say, “How can he possibly link the lottery with home based internet businesses?” Now that’s a bold claim I know, but not so far fetched. Let’s take a look at it together and see why…Winning the lottery, what images does that conjure up?No more hourly commute to and from work to slave for an ungrateful boss, psychotic manager, whining customers or self-righteous taxpayers.. . .

What Are Focus Groups & How Do They Work?

Focus Groups, Surveys, & Other Market Research Opportunities DemystifiedBusinesses and other organizations use focus groups to research consumer and public opinion concerning a variety of issues. Corporations look to focus groups for general help in selling their products to the world at large instead of any type of direct marketing efforts.Focus groups are usually conducted by Market Research . . .

How to Explode Your Online Sales!

If you want to be successful online, there's one thing that you need to spend more time on than anything else.It's more important than flashy graphics, more vital than amazing ad copy, more necessary than huge bonus offers."What is it?" I hear you ask ... Your HEADLINE!Your headline is the heart and soul of not just your site, but your ENTIRE business.It is the first thing that people see when . . .

Complete Website Ranking Optimization

Search engine optimization does not have to be complicated but it does require some work if you plan on having your Website in the top 10 on the major search engines. Many Webmasters want their Websites on the first page of Google, MSN and Yahoo when their keyword is put in the search. Unfortunately they believe one of two things. The first being that it is too difficult for them to do it thems. . .

Why Are So Many People Failing?

I decided to write this article because I have seen far too many people who are desperately trying to make money from home, fail miserably, and I thought that maybe this could help some newbies who are coming onto the net for the first time thinking it’s easily done.So here it is.I have been online for over 5 years now, and I started out like most thinking that all I had to do was join certain . . .

6 Steps To Picking Profitable Adsense Keywords

Knowing how to find the best keywords for use in your Adsense ads is not a straightforward process. Finding and implementing high profit, low competition keywords in your ads really is the trick for making Adsense payoff big.The following process should yield profitable, low competition keywords for your Adsense ads. This process is not perfect, but when you analyze it and try it for yourself, . . .

Home Sweet Home Page

“Your home page is the world’s introduction to you and your company. Make it COUNT!” – Heidi Richards Think of your home page as the cover of your brochure. It features exciting information about your company, but like a brochure it must be opened to reveal the rest of the message. It is connected to other pages in a way that allows other visitors to your site to move from one page to anothe. . .

Greet Your Online Visitors With One Big "HELLO"

Let’s assume that you have a website and you are using it only for statically presenting your company, while running your offline business runs smoothly. Recently you read an article about Online Live Chat Support, and now you ask yourself: Why should I put extra effort into serving my online visitors? The story goes like this:If you were your customer, where would you search for information ab. . .

Angry Customers - What Can We Do With Them

"You are the worst company I have bought from!" - writes the client. Oops, bossss! What should I write back? It is very hard to select words when some of your customers is angry and complains about your company. Read more for an insight into it.All is well when it ends well. And until it ends be sure not to panic; no matter how bad it looks. Your customers only want you to do your best when the. . .

Making Money Online: What Are You Doing?

If you are doing something that is a lot better than most!!! Let me put it to you plainly, it is/has been your intention to make money online, by means of a business venture, an affiliate program, by an online retail outlet or possibly by selling some information of which you are an expert(?).Let us say you started doing this last week, you have good excuses for not having put the fatted calf o. . .

10 Essential Trading Elements

1. You can't take more risk than you are comfortable with - emotion is the enemy of the trader. Most of us are slaves to our emotion, which is why most traders fail despite the apparent simplicity of trading. To be successful, you have to manage emotion, and the first step toward emotional mastery is to not take more risk than you are comfortable with. If you can't sleep at night over the poten. . .

5 Must Have Questions In A Sales Letter - Must Know

People have included all kinds of sales pitch in their sales letter but sometimes still wouldn’t achieve the results they want. The importance of a sales letter is likened to having a shop to sell cars. If the looks of your shop isn’t delivering a good impression, no one will be going to buy your cars.Thus, you must make sure that your sales letter have answers to the most basic questions, and . . .

E-Power - The EZine Advantage

"Regular communication with your customers is essential to your success." - Heidi Richards - Ezines - The alternative of choice for many companies is a great way to market your company. All you need is an e-mail account and permission from your customers/clients to send the ezine. In fact, I have found ezines to be so powerful that I write and produce five a month. They are: Self-Marketing News. . .

How "Fake Cocaine" Can Send Your Sales Over The Top!

Dear Reader,Let's start with a story:Once upon a time, in the 1980's, copywriter Gary Halbert wrote an ad for Entrepreneur magazine. The ad was for a business opportunity... and for some reason... Halbert put a bullet point in the ad that said:* Fake cocaine: A legal substitute that fools even the experts!For the record, this business opportunity was not being promoted by the Mafia... and... st. . .

Provide A Good Home For Your Website

Selecting a web hosting company is like sending one of your children off to college. You may have complete confidence in your son or daughter’s abilities but unless they are placed in the proper environment they will not have the opportunity to thrive. Likewise, no matter how sophisticated or impressive the website you have designed may be, if you do not place the site where it can perform opti. . .

Easy Tips to Avoid Phishing Attacks

What is a "phishing" scam?Phishing is a type of online fraud where the perpetrators attempt to acquire personal, financial, and/or other account information (such as user IDs, passwords, credit card numbers, PINs, etc.) from unsuspecting victims. This type of fraud is typically initiated by sending an unsolicited but official-looking email claiming to be from a reputable company, such as a bank. . .

How To Get Rich ONE Site At A Time!

Are you fickle? (Do you even know what "fickle" is?) According to Merriam-Webster Online, "fickle" is defined as "given to erratic changeableness." And when it comes to website success… If you're fickle, you're in a pickle!One of the biggest problems that crops up with my clients is that they always to seem to be too focused on the *NEXT* "big thing"…long before they've perfected the science. . .

Losing Sales By Overcharging For Shipping And Handling

As a serious seller on eBay you’re familiar with their fee circumventing rules. If not, then click here. http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-circumventing.html. In a nutshell their rule is that you are not allowed to put an item up for bid for a penny and charge $100 for shipping and handling (S&H) in an attempt to avoid the transaction fee. Since we are not trying to avoid fees we all . . .

RSS is Not Only for Blogs

Contrary to popular opinion, RSS is not only good for delivering content from your blog, although blogs are what made RSS so popular.In fact, RSS can be used to deliver a great variety of content and content types. If you can break down your content in to individual stories or individual pieces, you can deliver it via RSS.Just to give you an impression of the power of RSS, here are some example. . .

Ten Sure Fire Ways To Lose Bidders

When you realize the cost of placing an auction includes everything from auction site fees, cost of electricity, internet access, your time, and other auction management issues and expenses, why is it that many auction sellers lose bidders they’ve worked so hard, and spent so much money to get to their auctions, by making easy to fix mistakes?The way some auction sellers approach their auctions. . .

Online Auction Fraud

As the e-commerce industry continues to grow, so does internet fraud. Most people aren't aware that the fastest growing segment of internet fraud isn't identity theft but rather online auction fraud and it's not just buyers who are being ripped off but sellers as well.eBay sales may have grown 51% last year over the previous year, but general online complaints jumped by 66.6% over the previous. . .

It's No Good Having A Killer Product If You Don't Have A ...

Read the title of this article over a couple of times in your head so it really starts to sink in.So what does this title really mean. Well, there's no beating around the bush with this one... it means exactly what it says.If your site is NOT an order-pulling, money-sucking mean machine then it's not really worth promoting your product, whether it's a killer product or not.It is vital that your. . .

Can Your Customers Pay By Electronic Check?

What's the Real Story About Electronic Checks? Accepting electronic checks is essential to any business, and should not be overlooked. As many as 20% of America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe users pay for their internet access by electronic check. Are you curious about how some web-sites take checks? Have you ever paid your electric bill or cable TV bill by check over the phone? Have you pai. . .

3 Powerful Types of eBooks You Can Write and Sell Online

A big part of knowing how to write and sell ebooks is understanding exactly what will turn a prospect into a hungry buyer. As you may have already discovered in my "Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's Success Package", earning months and years of leveraged income from a few weeks writing has virtually NOTHING to do with your writing ability, but EVERYTHING to do with understanding how to identi. . .

When a Customer Has Done Everything to Get Your Goat

You try to make your customers happy. You sincerely WANT them to be pleased with your products and service. You go out of your way to provide quality and integrity in everything you do.So, why is it that every once in a while there's a customer who insists on totally, absolutely and completely pissing you off?How long is a string?There are some questions, the answers to which, will always elu. . .

“7 Incredibly Simple Ways To Profit Wildly From Public Do...

If you’re in the business of marketing online, a major portion of your income will come from your ability to deliver quality content and products to your market.Now, besides creating these yourself, one of the quickest and cheapest way to acquire all the content and products you need is in the public domain. Whatever your requirements, you can find almost anything in the public domain. Examples. . .

Internet Business Benifits

Working at home on your internet business is very gratifying. You are now the captain of your ship. You are the one who is steering the wheel. You can use your full creative capacity to bring your business to be a mega success. The advantages of an internet business is that you don't need a physical location. You don't need to rent or buy a place to start your business. Imagine how much it will. . .

Are You Safe Ordering Online?

Even this day and age people are very insecure about ordering anything online. Even though many people order and give their credit card information over the phone they still are hesitant upon ordering online. This article will show you what to look for to see if it is safe to order online, the general process on how things are processed online, and the securities involved. Knowledge is the k. . .

A Successful Satellite TV Affiliate Website

Satellite TV has exploded on the scene during the last decade, providing expanded channel offerings and new technologies that were not previously available from regular television. When the “mini-dishes” were developed and the satellites put in place by Dish Network and Direct TV, satellite TV became available to almost everyone. Now, more than 23 million households subscribe to satellite TV wi. . .

Finding A Host That Cares

This was one of the hardest things to do for me and I thought I would share my experiences with you. Wow! I got my website done just the way I wanted it. I now needed to find a host to host 'My Perfect' website. I thought, 'How hard can this be? The hard part was getting my site built'. Well, the experience didn't turn out to be that easy...... Now remember, I was a 'Fresh' newbie. I didn't kno. . .

Are Paid Surveys a Waste of Your Time?

Recently ,while visiting one of my favorite business forums, I ran across some interesting comments concerning paid surveys. The gyst of these comments was that taking online surveys is a waste of time. Here is my answer to those comments... .... Just because you didn't earn any money with surveys, that doesn't mean that they are a waste of time. Like any other online opportunity, it takes time. . .

Financial Freedom – Are You Ready To Take Control of Your...

You are probably all too familiar with the supposed road to financial freedom. It may be the road your parents and grandparents took to their brand of financial freedom. This road usually involves working for 30 or 40 years, scrimping and saving along the way, then hoping that the nest egg you’ve been able to accumulate will provide at least some level of financial freedom in your golden years.. . .

Motivating Shoppers with Online Coupons (Part 2 of 2)

Last time we discussed how online coupons and promotion codes can motivate buyers. We discussed examples of coupons and some of the aspects of these offers that can boost sales and generate urgency to a purchase. Today we’ll focus on how to create great landing pages and the use of affiliate programs to further enhance your marketing efforts.Creating good online coupons to offer customers is . . .

Turn Worm Poop into Cash

Two University students, Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, entered their "Worm Project" into a business plan contest at Princeton. The project involved taking organic garbage from the dining halls at Princeton University and feeding it to worms. The worms processed the garbage into organic fertilizer for flowers, house plants, and vegetables. - Most fertilizer products available today use synthetic ch. . .

Optimize Site Navigation For Higher Adsense Earnings

A lot of webmasters that use Adsense as a source of income, are going after the so called high paying keywords. There are methods to determine this, you can even buy lists that hand them over to you. However, after they have put up there “high paying” pages there is no sound of the expected cash. Having those pages is one thing... Driving visitors towards them, is another. The easiest, and most. . .

Internet Freebies and Cheapies to Help You Grow Your Busi...

Do you dream of running your own business? Well, get ready to make that dream reality. The internet has leveled the playing field so that just about anyone can bring in big bucks doing what they love. Welcome to the global marketplace! Thanks to the web, now you can make business connections the wide world over for virtually no money... without ever leaving your home or office. What can you sel. . .

Creating Your Own Blogging Empire!

One of the goals of most marketers today is to create a consistent monthly income which requires little or no effort on their part. This was usually accomplished through residual income programs like mlm’s or network marketing programs.Lately, these methods seem to have fallen out of favor because of the difficulty in recruiting and maintaining downlines.With the popularity of Adsense and other. . .

The DPAPR - Formula For Success!

The What if.......... factor! Can also be translated as if only.... It freightening how many people have regrets about things they said, lost opportunities,love lost, etc. The vast majority of employees are unhappy with their jobs, a big chunck of our society live in constant denial and depression. The actoress who jumps out with a smile on her face and a sparcle in her eyes is a far cry from o. . .

3 Very Simple Steps To Making Money Online

Network Marketing or MLM (Multi Level Marketing) is one of the biggest earning potentials on the internet today. The internet is a multi billion dollar industry where the advantages of trading are virtually endless. Here are some of the key reasons why I highly recommend Network Marketing.The ability to not only work from home but from almost any location in the world as long as you have access. . .

Twenty Ways To Profits Online

1. Offer to write exclusive articles (that means you only submit them to one place) for high traffic web sites in exchange for a link back to your site.2. Create a positive online image. Tell your visitors about fundraisers you have sponsored or that you donate a part of your profits to charity.3. Improve your customer service on a regular basis. Try out new technologies that make it easier to . . .

What Makes A Winning Online Ad?

Most people who have been involved with sales & marketing for any length of time have heard the axiom, “Sell them what they want. Then sell them what they need”. But what does it mean? It sounds a little odd doesn’t it?Does it mean that people are frivolous & go around making irrational purchases that don’t meet their needs, before more serious ones that sustain them? Should you try to sell tri. . .

10 Tips To Help You Choose The Right Business

With so many opportunities available today, it is hard to decide which business is the right one for you. Choosing the wrong business can cost you both time and money, not to mention the loss of your hopes and dreams. Use the following tips to choose the right business for you on the first try. Make a list of your hobbies - Often hobbies can be turned into a business. You want to enjoy your bu. . .

How To Profit From HOT Niche Markets - Every Time!

Do you want to learn two proven niche marketing business models that are virtually guaranteed to succeed – in all niches? So do hundreds of my clients. They ask me every day. Beg me to share them. Demand that I reveal them. So I did. In a short article. This one. I'm sharing it with you, so you can benefit from this powerful insight too.There are TWO approaches to niche marketing: Following you. . .

Earn Money From Your Web-Site With Affiliate Links

If you have a website with some traffic, you can make money by having links to merchants' online shops on your site.If someone goes through your links into the shop of the merchant, and buys something, you earn commission from the sale, between 5% and 40% depending on type of merchant. Some merchants also pay for each click or each lead. A lead is a new visitor to the shop that asks for more in. . .

Tips for Curing Bad Customer Service

Bad customer service is everywhere these days — unmanned front desks, surly servers, clueless staff, employees talking on the phone, and managers who refuse to acknowledge a customer. It’s no longer an exception ... poor service has become the norm. In an all-too-typical scene, a customer walks into a retail store with a question about where to find a product. The employee, who is busy and doe. . .

A Basic Introduction to Blogging

Web logging first appeared on the net in the mid-1990s. The term “web log” was initially coined refer to a server’s log file and then expanded to include the meaning of online personal journaling. Later on, to avoid confusion, the word “blog” was adopted to refer to personal journaling. Today a blog is defined as an online publication where an author puts his or her personal thoughts and opinio. . .