Welcome to Michael's Article Collection

Improve Your Business Using The Principles Of War

The art and science of war has been studied and developed since the dawn of mankind. Many business principles and terminology have military origins. For example the word entrepreneur was originally a French term used to describe a person who undertook a military mission. In Asia today , many business leaders still study Sun Tzu's ancient text "Art of War" written 2500 years ago. It contains tim. . .

Internet Marketing Secret - Know Your Competition

Okay, you’ve got your website up and running; you’ve crammed it with all kinds of interesting content; you’ve researched your keywords and you know who your target audience is. The next question is: Do you know who your competition is? Understanding your competition, what they do and what they don’t do; is a critical Internet marketing secret that can easily help you win or lose the race in att. . .

Why Slicing and Dicing Your Customer List Can Give Your C...

Have you ever received a sales letter or marketing piece that didn't speak to you at all? What about receiving a communication that addressed you as 'madam', when in fact you are a chap? (... and vice versa)One of the biggest secrets of getting a better response and a higher ROI (Return On Investment) for your marketing messages is to ensure you 'BEST FIT' the communication to the differing seg. . .

Are You Running Your Online Business Efficiently?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a few ways in which business owners' waste time online. After the article was published, I received countless emails from readers all agreeing that yes, they did waste far too much time in exactly the ways that I had described! Glad it wasn't just me then :-) So this week I am going to continue on a similar vein and ask you the following question: 'Are you do. . .

The Pitfalls of the Work From Home Craze

More than 4 million people currently have the good fortune of working from home. From major corporations letting their key people set up a home office to the many inspiring home based business owners. Having the ability to set your own hours is the key benefit in choosing to work from home.Home based businesses are continuing to grow at an incredible rate. The Internet has opened a window of op. . .

Medical Transcription Schools – Avoiding Online Scams

Medical transcription is a lucrative profession which allows you the flexibility to work from home. Unfortunately, it’s this appeal that has opened the doors for less than honest online medical transcription schools. If you don’t know a lot about MT, then I will assure you it is a real profession and a real possibility. It is not a get rich quick scheme or overnight money maker. If you’re sh. . .

The 11 Secrets to Sales Leadership

In his classic book, “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill discussed the eleven secrets of leadership. Recently, as I was reading the book, it occurred to me that the attributes of strong leadership and effective selling have a tremendous amount in common. After all, to be really successful in sales, you need to be a leader, both within your own organization, as well as to your clients and cus. . .

Five Knockout Affiliate Tips

Here are five “hook em in the jaw” affiliate tips that really work. Implement them and see how well they work for you. (1) Develop a positive and realistic mindset. Do you believe that you can get rich quick or that your business will take time to grow? Those who believe in the online hype are the ones who normally lose. Think positive and know in your heart you can earn an income from your eff. . .

Internet Marketers: How To Solve Any Problem In Three Min...

Being an Internet entrepreneur running your own business comes with a whole list of problems: How do I get my sales page to convert? How do I get traffic to my site? How do I optimize my site for the search engines? How do I convince joint venture partners to work with me?Then you have life’s problems on top of that: How do I keep my spouse or lover happy? How do I meet the bills? How do . . .

Internet Marketing Guide

If you are considering launching a website for your business or entering the lucrative world of e-commerce by starting an online business, there are a few things you need to keep in mind in order to assure your web site’s success. Without taking the time to understand how the Internet and search engines work you will certainly guarantee that no one will see your site. The Internet is a whole ne. . .

Internet Marketing Help

If you’re looking for Internet marketing help you’ve come to the right place. Below you will find several tips to help you navigate your way through the mystifying world of promoting your website and e-commerce business. Internet Marketing Help Hint #1: Surveys: To find out what your customer thinks of your site try using a survey. A little constructive criticism can go a long way in helping yo. . .

Internet Marketing Idea: Publish an Ezine

Chances are if you surf the net much you have noticed that almost every website offers a free newsletter or ezine in some form or other. Wonder why someone would go to so much trouble to publish a newsletter and offer it for free? The answer is because it is a brilliant Internet marketing idea. True, it does take some work to publish a quality ezine, however the benefits you can reap in sales f. . .

SPIN, Relevant To Both Salesmanship & Advertising!

What can face to face selling tell you about online salesletters & advertising? Plenty, once you understand the basics of direct response marketing. Remember, the Internet is the ultimate direct response vehicle. Using a website, or email as an advertising medium gives you two very important elements that are critical for direct response success. You have virtually unlimited messaging space, so. . .

Promoting My Affiliate Programs. How?

Getting your website up, is really just the first phase of your journey to a career on the Internet. You must promote your website, your product or your service to the world. Well, how do you do it? Maybe this article might help you in getting started or give you additional ideas.There are many different ways to promote your affiliate program, however, it depends upon what type of program it is. . .

Soaring With the Direct Marketing Eagles

Many years ago, there was a popular humorous say that went something like, "It's hard to soar with the eagles when you hang out with the turkeys." The message of course was that your accomplishments are limited by those that you spend most of your time with.Experts on what it takes to achieve great things have long recognized this fact. Look at any person's 10 closest associates and you can est. . .

The Emergence of Managed Event Services

Managed event services have been around for some time, this service is quickly gaining ground as a time and money saving practice. Several conference calling vendors have offered these services for some time, and others are taking note and joining the marketplace.Event services are basically the blending of teleconferencing, web conferencing, and conference participant management. These service. . .

9 Steps to Success in Affiliate Marketing

1. Join an Affiliate Program: Join programs that interest you personally. There are affiliate programs for almost any product or service you can think of so do some research and find one that is right for you. If you have a passion for your product niche it will be a whole lot easier to stay motivated and be successful.2. Build your own website to promote your product: You will need to build a . . .

Eleven Things You Must Know About A Drop Shipping Directo...

At a minimum, there are eleven key parameters you should take into account when considering a drop ship directory: Balance - You want to find a directory rich in many different categories of products rather than the quantity of products available. Many of the directories try to advertise how many products are available in their directory (i.e. 500,000 products). Why is the number of categories . . .

10 Benefits to Becoming a Coach

Coaching is a very personal experience, but we all share in the benefits that coaching brings to our clients and ourselves. If you're thinking of becoming a coach, this list may persuade you to take the leap. If you're already a coach, it will remind you how lucky you are!1) Coaching is extremely fulfillingYou get to partner with people in whichever area is MOST important to them right now. You. . .

Advance Online Networking - Getting Others To Read Your E...

Do you get emails from people asking favors and stuffs. Probably JV requests, or perhaps sending a press release or anything like that.Well, that's normal, right? I get some from time to time.But here's the thing - with all the JV requests that you get, in between the SPAMs, and also important emails that you are already waiting for, those kind of emails are mostlikely to get ignored.Now imagin. . .

Google Takes Care of Idiots Too

There's an old saying that goes, "God takes care of babies and idiots."Truly this statement applies to me, because when it comes to my search engine optimization skills, I'm on the idiot side of scale. But that's okay because idiots are loved, and can easily survive in the search engine game too. Let me explain.Although NONE of my 6 web sites rank in Google's top 10 (or top 20 and 30 for that m. . .

What If?

What if you just signed up with one of the many on-line Home Business Opportunities?Good for you! This is an important first step to financial independence. You probably are an optimist and you are excited to see the results that are to come. But it won’t be long and you are second guessing yourself as to whether it will really be paying off. If you are like me, that first sign-up gets you . . .

Do Your Tools Really Make Your Job Easier?

It’s funny. We in the Internet marketing business really pride ourselves on the amount of effort we put forth toward our customers and prospects. We know that if we don’t provide useful information, they’ll get rid of us like week old fish. At the same time, however, we want to do everything we can to work as little as possible. Seemingly contradictory attitudes about our business relationships. . .

Is The eBay Fee Increase Actually Good For Business?

Fee Increase Leaves Some Sellers Angry, Others ThrilledMuch of my email from readers this month concerned the recent announcement from eBay that it will increase many seller fees on February 18, 2005. Since many business people use eBay’s online store system as their primary ecommerce point of sale, it’s no surprise that most of the emails I received were of the angry variety. One email in pa. . .

Getting Paid for the Gig

You’ve launched your voice-over business. You market your demo. You network. You audition. You get gigs. Now all you have to do is get paid.Union or Non-Union?For AFTRA and/or SAG union talent, getting paid in a timely fashion is a benefit of union membership. It’s built into the union contract. Union talents fill out a form at the session and then submit it to a paymaster (someone contracted w. . .

Who Else Wants To Know Brian Tracy’s Secret Key To Double...

Brian Tracy, the most listened-to self-help expert on earth, recently revealed cutting edge time management and personal efficiency secrets that will skyrocket your online business income.In an interview for the List Crusade program, he shares powerful, proven ideas and strategies that you can immediately use to get more done faster. What will you do with the two extra hours of free time you'l. . .

Building Homepage – Where To Start

Now a days owning a website is not an exceptional happening. But many people think that having their website on the Internet is an expensive venture, fortunately though, this need not necessarily be true if you find the right web host, the benefits of having a web site will definitely outweigh the costs.There are many different ways to benefit from having a personal homepage, whether it is for . . .

Marketing Your Voiceovers Business Online

The Voice-Over RevolutionThe Internet is revolutionizing the voice-over business. Today quality remote recording of voiceovers can be done virtually anywhere. With a PC, mic, and Internet connection, almost anyone can set up shop as a voice talent.A few years ago, a remote session entailed a voice over talent standing in a commercial production house studio, say, in L.A., taking direction over . . .

Relationships Are A Vital Part Of A Network Marketing Bus...

Heavily branded websites like amazon.com are household names and carry an implied trust with visitors. However, the vast majority of websites are not well known and are found and visited as a consequence of search results provided by search engines. In these instances, the visitor is probably arriving at the website for the first time and human nature often dictates fear or suspicion of the unk. . .

Win Your Customer Over with Simple Courtesies

Walk into any store any day and there’s probably a lesson in customer service waiting for you. You could learn a great deal about how to treat your customer just by observing how you are treated as the customer!Just the other day, I went to a food court at a shopping mall for lunch. Food courts are a popular self-service concept in Asia of food cubicles arranged usually in circular fashion with. . .

Magnetize Your Business Success

Our brain is a marvelous creation. It receive and transmit information like a wireless phone. Our thought are made of wave. We call that brain wave. It is around 10 to 40 cycle per second when we are awake. In fact our thought are MAGNETIC. Like a magnet we attract circumstances and opportunities. We litterally ATTRACT the life we want with our POWERFUL thought like a magnet ! You might say :" . . .

Creative Ways To Make Money With eBooks

How creative are you when it comes to making money and increasing your subscribers using ebooks or other digital products? Here are some tips on how to increase your profits with ebooks.You could show your prospects a sample page out of your ebook. This will make your prospects curious to buy. You could even give away a free version of the ebook and then give people an option of buying the paid. . .

What Company Does Your Business Keep?

A man is known by the company he keeps. We have heard that phrase so many times. Our folks have cautioned us often with that in our silly childhood. Do we heed to that advice in our business? Where do you hang out? What is your business surrounded by?Have you heard about Christian Huygens?This genius of early 17th century did something awesome. He discovered a law of resonance. A law which was . . .

How To Make Your Website More Successful? (Part I)

Building a website and getting it online is easy. Driving visitors to it is the more difficult part. Most people are not patient enough when it comes to build up traffic. They expect thousands of visitors a week after they go live with their website. But that is not how it works. We share some secrets of how to make your website more successful. Provide content: Search engines love content. As . . .

How To Make Your Website More Successful? (Part II)

In part I of our series of how to make your website more successful we already showed you some important tricks to build a more successful website. This time we are going to expand the scope a little to further improve your website and to make it work harder for you on the Internet. Outbound links: Search engines love to see outbound links every once in a while. It proves to a search engine tha. . .

The Simplest, Easiest Way to Create Your Own Product

Having trouble coming up with product ideas? Did you know that there is a product that you can create in as little as one afternoon? An interview is the easiest way to create a new product for you to sell online or off. By far! Let's talk about it.There are generally three ways to conduct an interview: In person (face-to-face interview) By telephone By emailIn this article I will be focusing . . .

3 Critical Questions To Answer If You Want To Make A Full...

If you came online looking to establish a real business, then it's possible you got sidetracked and confused along the way to success.This is because there are just too much hype and false information being preached about making money on the internet these days.Fact is it'll be highly unlikely you can make thousands in your first month online from base zero. It took me 3 years of hard work and . . .

Virus Nightmare..Lessons Learned

I got a virus the other day, Thursday I believe and since then I have been making FRANTIC efforts to save all my info.The most important thing for me to save are my Outlook Express emails and my Roboform passwords. That way I can at least access all the places I need, to download and re-install all the software I use.Thankfully I was able to still access my Laptop and very, very slowly (the sys. . .

Traditional Vs. Untraditional

Many times as I listen to people tell me why they think that network marketing, affiliate programs, and multilevel marketing is not for them, I am amazed at how little time these people have actually spent comparing the traditional job with those untraditional methods of earning a living.I mention this because if you take a serious look at it, it appears to me that many so called regular jobs a. . .

Can Three Words In Webster's Dictionary Be The Key To Cus...

Are you concerned about customer loyalty? Are your customers so loyal that they will stick with you through hell and high water? And if not, you really need to question how you can create a customer relationship that’s so gluey, that you never go bluey in the face. Funnily you don’t have to go far. Reach for your Webster’s dictionary and you’ll discover a hidden secret to customer loyalty. Do y. . .

Is Your Success Predetermined?

Your on-line success is based on your efforts and yours alone. Sure there are many tools that help you, but it is still you. If you are going to succeed, it will take all the time you can put forth. After all it is a business and yes you work from home, but that does not mean post a website and make money. An on-line business is like any other business, it needs to have a plan and goals or step. . .

Lessons from the masters - getting it right

I've been working with software on the web since 1997, and have had the pleasure of experiencing the different ideas, strategies and personalities of more than three hundred software companies. During this time, I've witnessed an astonishing mix of products, features and marketing methods - some of which have worked better than others. One of the questions that I am frequently asked involves th. . .

There's More to Selling than Finding the Need

Many of us in sales are taught to believe that the most important job of the salesperson is to “find the need” of our prospects. If we can uncover “needs” then our job is easy; we just need to show our prospect how our product or service fills that need. Right? Well, the problem with that approach is that it only addresses part of the pie. Think about it. What do you do when YOU need s. . .

Online MLM promotion - the 4 wrong ways and 4 right ways ...

Contrary to popular belief (or what most MLM people would prefer to believe), online MLM promotion campaign is somehow different from an offline MLM promotion campaign. You can not simply try to apply the same successful offline MLM campaign online and hope that it will be as successful online.There is basically one major difference between offline and online MLM promotion: one-on-one approach . . .

What You Should Know About Working From Home Before You S...

There are literally hundreds of thousands of people discovering the benefits and flexibility of working from home in multi-level markeing businesses throughout the world. MLM is a great equalizer where anyone can succeed because success is independent of age, race, sex, or any demographic and MLM therefore holds great appeal for many. Are you ready to start your own MLM business? Before you em. . .

Pay Per Click Advertising Can Be Very Risky Business

Click fraud is an unfortunate byproduct of the pay per click advertising business. Many people with an online business spend large amounts of money on pay per click advertising only to discover that many of the people clicking on their ads weren't really interested in their products or services. Bogus "visitors" to a pay per click ad represent click fraud. This is a serious scam that threatens . . .

7 Tips to Setup your Home Business Budget

Every Home Business entrepreneur in the world has a clear and well defined goal: to earn money with his/her Business. Then the next question would be: how can we know if we really ?earn?or are just loosing money? Allthough it sounds trivial, it is not. I assume that only in few cases a fellow home business entrepreneur will be able to have an own accountant to calculate the Profit/Loss sheet. S. . .

How To Beat The Home-Based Burnout Blues

I went to visit a friend who had quit the corporate world to start his own art-based business. This was a guy who wore, if not a suit, at least a tie and jacket to work every day for a decade. All the curtains in his house were drawn and his bed was littered with color samples, catalogs and all the assorted detritus of a home-based business. With his unshaven face and sunken eyes, he bore a fri. . .

7 Crucial Elements of Visitor Friendly Websites

Approximately a decade has passed by since the birth of Internet commerce and online service users and shoppers have grown up. They know what they're looking for, they know where to get it from and they grab it in an instant. They're in and out of your virtual shop in a second. They're fast and furious...especially if the can't find what they were looking for.So how can we make them stick? How . . .

Basics of Starting a Home Based Business

There are many advantages to starting your own home based business. You can become independent or just earn some extra supplemental income. Your home business will create new tax deductions which you can take advantage of thereby reducing your taxable income. Your own business can also create a sense of purpose and accomplishment for having created something of your own. It really is fairly eas. . .