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Why Micro Niche Sites will Help Make Money On the Internet

Guna — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:36:24 +0000

Micro niche websites are the latest thing in making money online. The niche website helps to narrow down your website to a certain product which will give you a more specific SEO ranking. You eliminate much of the SEO competition, which will make you more money.

What is a Micro Niche Website?

The micro niche website is based on a very narrow niche. Many niche sites are just blogs that people have written on a specific product. This niche helps to build a better website for more specific customers. This latest trend in marketing is to narrow down the SEO competition; this will allow you to get truer hits on your website. Many of today’s marketing techniques use this method. It is a good way to make money on the internet without having to spend much money.

How the Micro Niche Site Works

The first thing you need to do to make sure that your niche site is going to work, is to make it to be focused on a product that unique and searched for often. When you center your niche site around one specific product, you will get a better SEO listing. A simple longtail keyword with fewer competitors will work. There are many keyword tools available on the internet that you need to use to find these keywords. Once you find that keyword you will need to register a domain site that includes that keyword. That is the main goal to having your site listed high in the rankings on search engines. Use that keyword in the title, meta description and throughout your website as much as possible. Your site needs to be unique, attractive and full of as much information as you can find. Well written useful sites attract the most traffic, something that will fit in today’s world. The more informative your niche site is the more money you will make using this system.

Why a Micro Niche Site Makes Money for You

Most of the latest micro niche sites make money because they are blogs. Everyone loves to get on the internet and write about what they know. This is a good way to make money with micro niche sites. You can register for Adsense, Amazon or several other sites that will pay you to place ads on your site. The reason many micro niche sites are making money is because they are worldwide. Getting on the internet and just writing about what you know is easy for anyone to do.

If you are looking for a way to make money on the internet, then this technique is very easy to use. Making money with a micro niche site is the latest marketing tool. If you can write well, then just use your imagination and be unique. Everyone is looking for the latest new thing to make money on the internet. Although you can make money on the internet using these niche sites do not think it will all be roses and sunshine, it does take a lot of time and patience. Many sites take some fine tuning before they show real promise.

5 Ways to Make 2012 Your Best Blogging Year

Guna — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:45:42 +0000

The New Year, 2012 brings a fresh beginning and the unique chance to start anew once again. Do what you did in 2011 or you can turn 2012 into a memorable year by turning your blog into a money making machine – to make money on the internet. Look at 2012 as a new beginning for your blog. Look over the next few days and take a few hours to reflect on your failures and successes from 2011. Ask yourself why you didn’t achieve the goals you’ve set out to do last year. Ask yourself why you didn’t make the money you wanted to make on the internet.

If you are doubting yourself, just listen to Michaelangelo who said that “the greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” Don’t be one of the 95% of the people who are going after “realistic goals”, go after the top 5% and set your goals above your competitors. You will spend the same amount of time achieving the mediocre goals as you would with bigger goals. Then why set your goals so low? Aim high for 2012. I wish each and every one of you that follow my blog the vest best for 2012. Happy New Year.

Below are Five Ways to Make 2012 Your Best Blogging Year

Be a Serious Blogger

You have to take your blog seriously or else you are not going to achieve your goals. Because the startup cost for a blog is so low, many people tend to spend too much time in the beginning and then close to nothing after the first few weeks. As I mentioned in my book, it won’t happen overnight. You will have to take your blog seriously and learn to treat it like an investment or like a real business. If you had paid $150,000 for your blog, will you leave it for four weeks before you return to the business? Well visit your blog often and pay attention to what your audience are looking for.

Be Yourself

A blog is a personal site where you get to share your knowledge with your fans and it should remain that way. It is about building relationships. You and your readers will define your blog as it grows. Your readers will continue to help you build your blog BUT that will happen only if you be yourself first. Don’t start a blog pretending to be someone else OR don’t heighten the expectation of your readers by committing to things that you can’t deliver. Just be honest and share what you know with your readers.

Have a Mailing List

No mailing list No Money. It is that simple. If you are not building a quality mailing list along with your blog, you are wasting your time. If you want your blog to make money, you need to invest in a mailing list solution. I recommend Aweber whom I have been using for more than 2 years now. Their fees are affordable for newbies and as your list grows, your profits will justify the fee increases. Without a list, you have no one to speak to when you post an article or talk about a product, or whatever. Start building a mail list today.

Post Regularly

You MUST post on a regular basis. Now I am not the most fit to say that but like many of you, I am setting my goals high for 2012 as well. Your posting habit will dictate your blog success in making money on the internet. Like all of you, I started off this blog and have not made a single penny for months. Why? Because I was not posting as much as I should have. Once I started engaging my readers through a mailing list and postings, things started to turn around. Now, I could still do a good job on this and I hope like all of you, I will maintain a consistent posting schedule.

Own Your Blog

You have to get your own domain name for your blog. If you are using a blog provider like Blogspot or Wordpress.com, you have to switch today. It doesn’t cost a lot to have your own domain name hosted with a hosting provider. This way you will grow your blog and you will own full access to your blog. You can do whatever you want with it and you can choose to monetize it whichever way you want with it. There aren’t that kind of flexibility with other blog providers.

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At the end of the day, it is a decision you have to make for yourself. You need to decide if you want to take your blog seriously or not. It is all up to you. I recommend you take Michaelangelo’s quote and stick it on a sticky note to your computer screen. Just do it and you will see how powerful that is.

I wish you success in 2012. Happy New Year!

10 Tips for Using Google Webmaster Tool

Guna — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:28:23 +0000

To help out website owners, Google released its very own toolset called Google Webmaster Tools. This set of tools will provide solutions for problems related to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You can start using these tools by verifying that you are the owner of the site. Furthermore, learn the tips below to get you started with these webmaster tools:

Crawl Stats – This report found on the Diagnostics, summarize the crawling activity of Google for the last three months. Three more reports are found in this category: pages crawled per day; kilobytes crawled a day and time consumed for downloading a page. These three stats are useful for checking the performance of your WebPages online.

Not Found Errors – You would want to as much as possible to avoid 404 pages on your site. This is a problem which drives site visitors away. This webmaster tool found on the top right of the dashboard will gather inactive URLs on your site and redirect your visitors to the working web pages.

Defective Meta Descriptions and Title Tags – The webmaster toll have way too find the faulty URLs on your website. Just check into the Diagnostic and HTML suggestions to see problems concerning title atgs and meta tags of web pages. Frequent problems on these tags involve too short or too long descriptions or duplicate ones. Remember that title and meta tags have huge impact on page rankings.

Top Search Results – Though Google Analytics is helpful, the webmaster tool is also helpful in terms of showing the specific position of your site within Google. This will be helpful in giving you directions on what keywords to prioritize.

Links on the Site – Check into the sitelink section contained on the Site Configuration to take control of the links from your site that is shown. You can decide which of these links you want to be blocked.

Keyword Research – This is another tool which displays the list of keywords that are most relevant words that Google found in your site while performing the indexing process. This is a good guide in determining the keyword and phrases that your site is being ranked.

Reconsideration Request – You can’t afford to ignore this important tool interface that helps you tell Google to take another look at your site. This is usually useful if your site isn’t indexed in Google maybe caused by penalization for some reasons. Through reconsideration request, you can contact Google that you’ve fixed and cleaned any errors in your site and you are not violating the Google’s webmaster guidelines.

Google’s webmaster guidelines – It is strongly recommended to read carefully the guidelines before using the Google webmaster tools. By following the guidelines Google will be able to index, and rank your site smoothly. You need to read its Quality Guidelines to be acquainted with the unlawful practices that would cause penalization of your sites.

Content Analysis – This is a new feature in Google webmaster tools which supplements to the crawl error diagnostics. This will help site owners to improve the contents of their sites since this tool will give you feedbacks about the issues and problems that Google encountered while trying to index your site. The content analysis will show 3 valuable parts of the site and gives its diagnostic results. These are the Title tag issues, Meta Description Issues, and Non-indexable content issues.

Site Verification – In order for the Google webmaster tools to be useful in your site, you must first verify your site. You must also to verify that you are the owner of a specific site. You are allowed to add 1000 sites in your Google webmaster tool account. This step doesn’t affect the site’s performance and in the indexing process so with the Google’s search results. Here are the instructions from “Google webmaster tools help” on how to add and verify a site:

To add and verify a site:

Sign into Google Webmaster Tools with your Google Account.
Click Add a site, and type the URL of the site you want to add. Make sure you type the entire URL, such as http://www.example.com/
Click Continue. The Site verification page opens.
(Optional) In the Name box, type a name for your site (for example, My Blog).
Select the verification method you want, and follow the instructions.

Guest post by Sasha.

When History Repeats itself Apple will Tank – Steve Jobs resigns

Guna — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:06:11 +0000

It shouldn’t be a surprise to many that Steve Jobs has decided to take the “exit” from Apple. The question that I am pondering all day is when Apple will take the Exit from the smart phone/tablet market.

According to the history books, it didn’t take long for Apple to fall when Steve Jobs left Apple first time around. In fact, at that time, he was fired. Something Apple would still regret even now.

When he left Apple, Jobs found two other companies – NeXT and Pixar. We all know the history of those companies. If you want to learn more, you can read here on Steve Jobs personal profile on Wikipedia.

With furious competition in the smart phone/tablet market at the moment, it will be difficult to sustain the glow on Apple. Stock price has dropped by nearly 5% on this news.

To all those that are developing Apple Apps, I have one question for you – How do you feel about Jobs resignation today? Do you feel that Apple is on track and will survive without Steve Jobs full commitment?

I have such great respect for Steve Jobs. What a wonderful entrepreneur. I have previously posted a video of Steve Jobs’ Address to the 2005 Stanford Commencement. I still listen to that speech at least once a month OR whenever I feel that I need an energy boost for my entrepreneurial mind.

I was thinking about this so I thought I would share with you guys as well. Love to hear your thoughts.

Why 95% Of You Will Fail in 2011 – #1 Reason Why You will Not Make Money on the Internet

Guna — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:49:22 +0000

You probably wonder why I am starting off with such a negative posting as my first post for 2011. Well the truth is that about 95% of us will fail in 2011. We will not meet our goals nor get anywhere closer to where we want to be at the end of the year. I have been putting a lot of thought into StartupBoooster.com itself. I was trying to figure out where I want to be by end of the year. During that thought process, I thought I need to share my findings with you so you don’t waste your year as well.

A year is a very long time to waste. A year could be defined as having 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8, 760 hours or 525,600 minutes. I don’t want to get into seconds. Now that is a heck of a lot of minutes to waste! Do you really want to waste it this year? Well what would you have done differently if you were to go back in time to 2010 that would have made your year (2010) a successful year?

You may wonder where I am going with this. Well my friend, today I am going to lay it out for you why you will fail this year. It is then up to you to make sure you don’t fall into the trap like the rest of the 95% of the Entrepreneurs that wants to make money on the internet will. If you have an answer to the question I’ve posed above regarding going back to 2010, that is good. Unfortunately with today’s technology, you can’t go back in time. That time has passed. You will never get it back. However, you still have a choice to implement them for 2011! With a fresh year ahead of us, let’s start off fresh.

This post will be a bit lengthy. So I suggest you grab a coffee before you start reading it but MAKE SURE you DO READ the entire post. I don’t want to have to tell you that “I said so when 2012 rolls around!”

Are you ready to dig in a little deeper? Well the sad part is that about 95 % of the people that are trying to make money on the internet will fail at the end. You could be a web designer, you could be an internet marketer, SEO guru or whatever you call yourself.

Most of you will give up after wasting so much time and money. You will waste money because there are thousands of marketing materials and money making online materials out there on the internet. You are literally flooded with information such as ebooks, coaching, membership sites promising to make you a millionaire overnight, manuals, etc, etc. Their sales pitch to sell you the material is so convincing that it is hard to say “NO” and click away. I have done this many times myself. I have purchased eBooks that I’ve regretted the next morning because I wouldn’t know what to do with it OR the book didn’t give me anything more than what I already know.

DO YOU AGREE WITH ME SO FAR? How many of you have wasted money like this?

Now let me ask you this – Why are you reading this post? What will you do at the end of reading this post? Go back to what you do normally OR will you take action? Write down the answer and continue to read. We will get back to it.

Majority of the time, in my case all the time, we don’t go back to return the material we bought. We are true entrepreneurs and we don’t want to steal efforts put in by other entrepreneurs. Therefore, we suck it up and move on. Only thing is that we have less money in our pocket for the real expenses.

Please don’t take me wrong. Nothing is wrong with most of the marketing materials available online. Their intention is to help you make money on the internet. They do provide good information that you may already know. But it is you that have to do the work. It is you that can make a difference. They are not going to do it for you. This is the real challenge.

So in summary, you may belong to one of the following groups of people:

You have a big dream but you haven’t taken any steps to fulfill your dreams. You don’t know where to start so you stumbled upon my posting. Well I am glad you did! Make sure you read the rest.
You have been doing this for a while. You have purchased ton of materials promising to make you money online. You’ve implemented every one of those tips and techniques. However, you are not achieving your goals. You find it that no matter how closely you stick to the materials, you are not making huge strides.
You have been online too. You’ve bought some materials but instead of implementing what is suggested in those materials, you are constantly on the look out for someone to hand over a golden key to internet money making opportunities. You are just procrastinating and hoping that the door will open for you real soon.
You have been online too for a while. You’ve bought some materials as well. You have implemented a few things suggested on the materials but you spend most of the times on Forums and other sites digging for more and more insights on to how you can quickly make money. However, you are not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Then its you. You bought every single promising materials out there. You participate in many member forums and paid forums. Instead of implementing what you learn everyday, you are jumping from one branch to the other. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DO! All you want to do is to make money on the internet but don’t know where to start?
and finally its you. You are making money online. You have had some success but your dreams are big. You know what you need to do to achieve your goals and dreams but for some odd reason, you are filled with excuses. You are just not taking the steps required to achieve your dreams.

SO WHICH GROUP DO YOU BELONG TO?

There may be other scenarios out there but I am sure you belong to one of the groups mentioned above. No matter which group you belong to, the reason why you are not making money on the internet is SAME FOR ALL!

So what is that strange factor that connects all of the above groups and keeping you from being a successful entrepreneur? What makes you different from successful people?

What am I talking about?

Well before we go any further, how many of you have actually made a New Year’s resolution this year? How many of you have made similar resolutions last few years? How many of you have actually kept them?

Well let me tell you something. If you have kept them, you will probably not be reading this article. You will probably be cruising in a nice paradise island for the holidays.

So now, let’s get back to my point why about 95% of you will NOT make money on the internet this year. Are you ready for this?

I have just finished reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. I strongly recommend you consider reading this book. It is not a new book but it has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. In that book, Covey talks about human programming – not so in those words but he is referring to scripts that are operating in our system on a daily basis. Those scripts define who we are and how we handle all of the situations. Those scripts will define our success.

Covey talks about how majority of those scripts are provided to us through our parents, our friends and family when we were young. Basically someone else wrote the program for you! Strange eh if you think about it.

Many of us don’t realize that those scripts are running within us on a daily basis. Covey says, “the way we see the problem is the problem.” We are programmed from the early days in a certain way. In order for you to be successful, you need to start looking from within – an inside out way rather than looking from outside in. You have all the solutions and the knowledge required for success. There is nothing secret out there that is going to make you million dollars online overnight. You need to build a base and you need to build it slowly. That is going to take time but you need to first look at the programs that are currently running in your brain – your system – YOU!

ACT or BE ACTED UPON

The difference between successful people and the 95% of the people that will fail this year, is that the successful people know how to exercise initiative and the rest don’t. It takes initiatives to create success. It means understanding yourself and reprogramming your scripts so that you can be successful. Yes get rid of the programs that were programmed by someone else for you.

Many successful people take advantage of weak people to build their wealth. Weak people tend to be reactive and they continue to believe they will never be successful as his/her boss, peers, etc. These reactive language is programmed into their brains as built-in boundaries. Imaginary boundaries to success. They are not real but it provides the weak with an excuse not to believe the alternative is possible.

These scripts are embedded in our belief system. Therefore with these scripts still running, we are unable to…

be successful in anything we do
set higher goals because we don’t believe we can reach them
confront problems when it arises and believe me we all have problems to deal with on a regular basis
get a pay increase because we don’t know how to ask
fulfill the dreams of the children and family
live the live to the fullest
etc, etc…

Why because these scripts are programmed to tell us that we will never be successful with anything. Therefore strengthening our own inner belief system will help us succeed in real life. It will help us succeed with online marketing so we can make money online.

So How to ACT instead of being ACTED UPON?

Well it is simple. Just like you can modify or erase a software script from your computer, you can do the same for your own system. You just need to believe that you can do it. So find the script that is holding you back. See how you need to reprogram it. Make the changes in your head and live the life with the new script – yes the “can do script.”

Your belief system will either make you successful or make you fail. Once you learn to program yourself, you will be able to make everything a success. Not just to make money on the internet but also to deal with everyday problems in your lives.

So going back to the above six groups – no matter which group you belong to, your success will be limited by your inner belief system. Start reaching out to the other successful people. Create a relationship with them. Appreciate their relationship. Contribute and start building wealth for yourself.

Here is an example:

Let’s say you spent couple of hundred dollars to buy an eBook. In that eBook it talks about building a foundation around an email list. So you pull together a website and started with marketing. So far you’ve paid for the eBook and the designer for the website.

Now you are pumped up. In your own eyes, the site looks wonderful. You want to get the email list going so you go and join Google Adwords. You want to do some ad campaign to drive your initial traffic. You do some quick keyword research; pick a few keywords and setup your ads overnight.

Google started to send you some good traffic within a few hours. You stay up all night checking your email list for new sign ups… a few hours later, you see your first subscriber. You are excited! A few hours pass by. Now the next day has gone by. So far you have manage to grow your list to 3 subscribers. However, your Google Adwords account says they have sent in 500+ people to your website.

At that point, you may say – “oh well, it is just starting to come in and that you may need to change the website’s look and feel a little and the sales page.”

So you go off and spend a little bit more money with your web designer. Now you believe you got a convincing website or a blog and that your sales page is good to capture your subscribers. Well Google Adwords is continuing to send people but after 7 days, you only have about 10 people and 2 have already unsubscribed. Therefore, leaving only 8.

You thought you were going to have about 250+ subscribers by now and that you will be on your way to make lots of money. You are disappointed. Your Google Adwords account used up some cash to send all those visitors to your site. No one wanted to sign up with you. You basically believe that you are late in the game. There are better sites out there and that people will never go with what you have to offer. YOU GIVE UP!!!

It goes on and on and on until you either run out of money or your partner or your parents kicks you out of the home. You are programmed to try something quickly without a lot of thought into it and then give up.

This sort of failures only going to provide reassurance to your existing “can’t do script” that is is functioning properly. It is going to continue to strengthen your belief system that you will never be successful no matter how hard you try.

So working within that boundary belief system, as an Internet Marketer, you will never make money on the internet. You will only make others richer!

TAKE A BREAK!

Just take a break if you haven’t already. Just sit back and relax. Think about how you conduct business on a regular basis. Think how you can reprogram a certain script that will make you be more proactive and successful. Stop spending so much time gathering information after information. Take action!

Take your time to proactively plan out your new venture. Don’t just run and buy a new eBook or subscribe to a paid membership. there are ton of programs out there that is free. Just like this article, there are many articles out there that will help you. You don’t necessarily have to pay to learn. You just have to sit back and plan it properly.

So in conclusion, you will fail if you don’t change your own belief system. Get rid of your self-imposed limits and boundaries. Believe that you can do it. Start building it slowly and don’t try to make millions overnight. It takes time but if you plan it right, you will be the next millionaire to make lots of money on the internet.

What Action Will You Take?

Now going back to the question I’ve posed above – What are you planning to do after reading this post? Why did you read it? Why I am asking you this question is that I want you to take something with you. I want you to take action and do something for yourself in 2011. I want you to believe that you that you will be successful.

Download my free ebook and subscribe to my newsletter. I will keep you posted on my progress this year. I am just in the middle of hiring a full time Virtual Assistant out of Philippines to help me. I will share my experience with you.

Good luck and God Bless You in 2011! I wish you a prosperous year…

13 Quick Ways to Make Money on The Internet

Guna — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:18:10 +0000

Everybody can use an extra source of income. What better way to earn that extra money than to use the very technology that everyone is using and you’re completely familiar with? The internet offers countless money making opportunities. You really can make money on the internet. Don’t need to know too many things but just need to know the demand out there. Depending on your area of expertise or your interests, you may just find the online world as a lucrative field. From those who like to interact with people, gamers and entrepreneurs, there are hundreds of ways to earn money online. Scan over these recommended money making opportunities and see which one fits you best.

Article Writing – websites are all vying for good content. Good content maintains the lifeline of websites and the stream of visitors. Often, website owners outsource their content and if you’re someone with a passion for writing then this might be the right gig for you. You will find that there are just too many potential employers. Depending on the niche, you can probably find a steady employment online.
Moderating Forums – just like how website owners outsource writers, forums and online communities also look for forum moderators. You can get paid for a certain fee while looking over the online community and maintaining the site.
Forum Posting – if moderating is not your thing then perhaps you should try your luck posting in forums. There are clients who hire forum posters to help jumpstart their forums. You can be paid around $0.10-$0.25 per post depending on the contractor. In either case, you can earn money by simply participating and sharing a piece of your mind.
Blog and Ad Revenue – this one of the most popular types of making money online. You can publish your own blog and have a steady stream of readers. Once you get the much needed traffic, you can offer your blog space for ads and generate revenue over it.
Guest Author Gig – this is applicable for higher quality sites and companies that have large scale operations. You get join a writing community or organization and get paid for writing articles on number websites. Pay ranges from $20 – $400 depending on your article and the traffic it generates. The more readers you gain, the higher the company can pay you.
Forum Signature for Ad Revenue – if you’re already part of countless forums then you can offer your signature space as ad space. This opportunity is ideal for those actively participating in different threads. This money making opportunity is a good way to fuse your hobbies with.
Podcast – making videos and “broadcasting” them can generate a good set of audience especially if you’re vide is extremely relevant. Just like in blogs, you can offer spaces or slots in your podcast for ads.
Transcribing and translating – there are clients who look for people who can tribe audio recording for them. Your pay usually depends on the duration of the audio to transcribe. Further, if you speak more than one language then you can also offer translating services online. There are many companies who want their documents translated into different languages to reach a varied set of audience. You can get paid on a per word or document basis.
Coaching and Counseling – geographic location is no longer problem so people who need help can turn address their concerns online. If you’re a qualified coach or counselor, you can start your own website or helpline and make money online. There are people willing to pay on a per hour basis to get the much needed help. A word of caution though, it’s important that you back up your expertise.
Online Gaming – play poker or any game and win prizes. If you’re a gaming enthusiast and boasts of some serious gaming skills then you can just make a living out of online gaming. There are many gaming tournaments and even online casinos offer real money prizes.
Online Store – selling online can be a lucrative venture. Many people are opting to shop online for convenience so you might as well take advantage of it. See which products sell fast and good and which ones can you acquire. Make sure that you offer payment methods and guarantee that customers perceive you as a credible dealer.
Do referrals – there are companies who pay for good referrals. These companies usually try to outsource recruiters than having to go through all the trouble of looking for applicants. See if you can apply as a recruiter or find companies that are looking for referral personnel.
Linking websites – some sites need good quality links to attract traffic and work their way up the search engine rank. You can be a link broker and connect sites with each other. It’s either you help sites find a link or help individuals sell their own link. In either case, you can earn considerable income if you can sell and refer quality links.

These are just some of the ways you can make money online. Some may seem a bit challenging but taking time to learn and understand how things work should make them easier. If you can get started with any of these then you can proceed to bigger money making opportunities in the future. Making money online is all about investing in the right foundation. See which opportunity you can do best and which ones you can do at your own convenience.

How to Convert Visitors to Your Blog to Avid Fans

Guna — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:16:05 +0000

Every blogger’s vision includes having a set of avid readers – his or her own fan base. Having a solid “fan base” helps a lot in maintaining and even gaining more traffic. Once you have an avid fan base, it becomes easier for you to Make Money on the Internet.

As a blogger you will need all the consistency that you can get particularly because regardless of how many times a blog is viewed, it is often likely that a lot of those views may not come back. People have many choices. There are ton of content, mostly garbage, on the internet. You need to learn to gain your visitors trust and convert them into avid fans.

That is, users don’t come back because of two primary reasons: they don’t find your blog helpful/interesting or they just accidentally clicked on the blog’s link. Either case, you have to make sure that you retain your page views. You have to solidify your reputation and one way to do this is to get your own set of devoted readers.

If possible, you have to target making every user or visitor into an avid patron. Having avid readers helps you blog in different ways: they help provide consistent page views and they can even refer your blog within their own networks. These are the very users that will also participate on your blog. The are the users that will leave a comment on your blog, hence even increasing the credibility of your blog.

They can serve as your marketers. Here are some simple tips to help you convert users into your own readers:

Be simple and professional – people will likely regard you as an authority or someone trustworthy if they see your professionalism. One way to project a professional aura is by offering readers a good yet simple template. Having a polished and sophisticated blog not only adds to the aesthetic appeal of your blog but it also helps visitors feel at ease as they go over your content. A good template enhances the reading experience so make sure that you invest enough on this. The template allows visitors to feel comfortable. Flashy designs will also drive them away. It’s important to provide visitors with a user friendly interface. If they can easily access your site then they also easily access different pages and content that you have to offer. See to it that information is not cluttered or too condensed. Anything that provides ease to the access of the blog is a plus point and one step closer in helping turn visitors to avid patrons.

Good blog content – having a good design is not enough, you have to make sure that you also provide good information. A good template can only do so much but a good and well presented content is the key in converting users to your devoted readers. If users feel that they can learn a lot from you then it’s highly likely that they will come back for more. However, you have to be extremely careful and writing and presenting your information. You have to make sure that your content is also amusing while keeping it informative. Try to study your target audience and see what blogs they prefer. By examining other blogs, you can get a good idea on how you can approach your audience.

You may want to interact more with your readers to add a personal touch and build good rapport. It’s important that users don’t feel intimated. Once you’ve established good rapport, you’ll certainly have them as avid patrons.

Basically you need to engage your users and make them feel part of your blog. You need to show them the true you and invite them to be part of your Blog. When users feel comfortable with you and your blog, they will help you Make Money on the Internet and it will be much easier to do so.

Have I gained your trust? I hope so. Please share this with your friends by clicking on the social bookmarking buttons below. Also please leave a comment with your thoughts and ideas on how to make a blog visitor an avid fan of yours.

An interview with Mr. Martin Zwilling, CEO and Founder of Startup Professionals

Guna — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:35:33 +0000

Over the weekend I had the privilege to interview Martin Zwilling, CEO & Founder of Startup Professionals. He is also a Callaman Ventures Board Member and Executive in Residence; Advisory Board Member for multiple startups; Arizona Angels Selection Committee; Entrepreneur in Residence at ASU and Thunderbird School of Global Management.

I have known Martin since August of 2009. I have emphasized again and again on my previous postings how important it is to reach out to your peers within your niche. I’ve reached out to Martin and asked him to share my post, 21 Words All Entrepreneurs Must Eliminate To Be Successful, with his readers. Not only he got back to me right away, he also agreed to share my post with his followers on Twitter. Since then Martin and I kept in touch.

Martin has a lot of experience with startups. I thought it would be beneficial to all of you to hear from him. Below are few questions I’ve asked Martin. Martin also helps many entrepreneurs through is blog, Startup Professionals Musings. He blogs daily on various topics to help today’s entrepreneurs.

In your opinion, what does it take to be an entrepreneur in today’s world? (new technology, internet, etc).

The first challenge for any entrepreneur is to identify a real “need,” and then build a solution. Too many invent or fall in love with a “technology,” and assume everyone will want it. That’s a “solution looking for a problem,” and these usually fail. The second challenge is to make a business out of it – how do you make money?; who will buy it?, etc. The Internet social networking model, like Facebook, has convinced people that most things ought to be free, with businesses making money on the advertising. That model doesn’t work for small start-ups, and makes it tough for them to survive.

How difficult is it for an online entrepreneur to get initial funding through an angel investor (any investor)?

Getting initial funding from angels or any professional investor is very difficult. All now expect you to have something already, like a product built, a few customers to prove the business model, and significant “skin in the game.” That means initial funding usually comes from the entrepreneur, or FFF (friends, family, and fools). The myth that you can sketch out an idea on a paper napkin, and investors will throw money at you, is gone (unless you have a successful track record several times over, or a rich uncle who is an investor)!

What does it take to secure funding in today’s internet world?

In today’s internet world, you still need to start with a written business plan, and a strong team. Investors actually fund people first, a good plan second, and the idea last in priority. In all cases, networking to find investors is very important. Emailing your idea to hundreds of investors, or using Twitter and Facebook, is a waste of everyone’s time. Go to local business association meetings, talk to executives and potential investors, and ask their help to get an introduction to VCs, Angels, and potential business partners.

Who will they be competing against?

You compete against a thousand other peers, because the entry cost of providing a solution on the Internet keeps going down. Years ago, it cost a million dollars to develop a reasonable e-commerce site, now web design tools and platforms allow you to do it for a few thousand dollars. That’s both good news, and bad news, since almost anyone can jump into the game. Of course, you also compete against the “big gorillas” of the Internet, like Google, Yahoo, Travelocity, and many others. If they see you are getting traction with your new idea, they can jump in quickly with huge resources and kill you.

What is the one area that an entrepreneur MUST focus more on when writing a business plan?

I look first for a clear definition of the problem being addressed, and how your solution relieves the pain. Most business plans I see start right out talking about their solution, and how everyone will “want” one. “Nice to have” is not good enough – you can’t create real change until the pain level is high enough. The first page of your business plan better be your “elevator pitch” and it better have the “grabber” or investors won’t look for page 2.

In your view, how can an online start-ups get funding and where should they go to get it?

In my view, a lot of online start-ups don’t need funding, because the entry cost is so low. If they start by asking for $500K or $1M, they won’t get it, and they will lose all credibility, because it shouldn’t cost that much. In general, online start-ups should go to friends and family first, and then to local Angel groups if their needs are greater than $100K, but less than $1M. Angel groups are easily found online through www.angelsoft.net.

Do you get a lot of online start-ups for your help?

Yes, I talk to many of these. Often they just need pointers to resources, like how to incorporate, or how to build a business plan, or where to find Angels. These are the questions I try to answer with my blog articles, or via email, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Sometimes they need real help writing a business plan, or making sure it’s adequate for funding discussions with investors. That’s what I do.

If you want to leave one message with entrepreneurs, what would that be?

I think the Internet is a huge opportunity for new entrepreneurs – it doesn’t cost so much to start, it’s changing rapidly so there is a great acceptance of new and better ways of doing things, and it scales instantly to worldwide, so the potential is unlimited.

Do you have any businesses online that generates revenue? What was your first effort online in business?

My current business, Startup Professionals, Inc., is an online mentoring and consulting business that is my revenue stream. This is my first online business, but I have had “brick and mortar” businesses, as well big-company executive experience with IBM, First Data Corp, Fujitsu, and others.

How much time do you spend on the internet daily?

I spend at least a couple of hours a day, sometimes much more, writing blog articles, answering questions on Twitter and Facebook, and trying to absorb the wealth of information that rolls out daily from all the other online sources.

How did you get started? And what was your first gig?

Many years ago, I was on the team that developed the IBM PC, so I’ve been on the Internet since it started. I really only started mentoring entrepreneurs and start-ups a few years ago as part of my “give back” to local universities and business groups. It was so much fun that I decided to start my own company Startup Professionals, to see if I could make it a business. I’m a strong believer that your business should be fun. My first gig was joining the Advisory Board of a local new job site for Baby Boomers.

What would your advice be for someone looking to make money on the internet?

My advice is that making money should be part of everyone’s motivation, but it should not be the primary motivation. Your primary motivation should be to solve some people’s problem, show people a better way, and get a sense of satisfaction. If your primary motivation is to get rich, you may be short-changed.

Make Money Online – Internet Marketers Challenges with Building Backlinks

Guna — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:44:21 +0000

This is the final chapter of a 10 part series on Challenges faced by Internet Marketers. In the previous nine chapters, I’ve covered a lot of ground on internet marketing. I hope you had the chance to read them. If you haven’t, I encourage you to read them before reading this final chapter.

As an internet marketer, it’s highly likely that you’ve come across concepts such as search engine optimization and back links more than once. Since the first time people realized that they can make money online, the virtual market has completely changed.

These days you can make money on the internet not only though placing ads on website but also through making your website visible to many search engines (ex. Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.). For internet marketers to make money online, they have to attract as much potential clients as possible. In this case, ranking in search engines has been one of the most lucrative forms of marketing.

Millions of people are using search engines and to rank high in the page results means getting as much visitors to see you. However, to be able to rank high, you should understand how search engine optimization or SEO works.

Basically, SEO deals with putting in related keywords on the site and linking it from other networks to increase its credibility and relevance. The main building blocks of such are: keywords and back linking. These two components can either help you succeed making money online or the opposite. Read on to find out how you can.

What is a backlink?

A back link refers to an inward link directed to your website. This inward link may have or may not have a corresponding outward link. For instance, page A is linked to page B. The link that directs back from page B to page A is called the backlink.

Another example would be finding a useful article online and displaying a link on your website. Your website becomes the backlink for the article. Basically, any link which is not from the original website and that connects to another is considered the backlink.

If you’re going to use a backlink it’s also important that you know how to check how many sites have linked back to your own. Since you’re going to use it for the business, the number of backlinks should give you an idea on how useful your site has become.

One way to do so is through Back link Checker tool or iWebtool Backlink Checker. There are many other paid ones but for this purpose, these free tools are sufficient.

Backlinks are very important because they can contribute to your search engine ranking. The better rank you get the better chances that you have to make money on the internet.

What is the significance of backlinks?

Backlinks are important because their frequency determines how popular or relevant your website has become. Backlinks are essential in optimizing a website. For instance, Google usually gives credits to a website with a considerable number of backlinks.

The search engine tends to consider websites with more backlinks as relevant as opposed to websites with just a few. A website with a good number of backlinks often earns a good rank in the search page results.

However, search engines do not consider the number of backlinks alone. The inbound links should also be of quality. This means that it’s not enough for a website to get backlinks from random sites. Link juice, which is a commonly used term in SEO will be low if you are one of 100 links on a page. Link juice will be much high if you are the only outbound link from a page.

Search engines also evaluate the content of the linked website to see whether the link is made because the content of the original site is relevant or it was just linked for the purpose of increasing the number of backlinks. Only sites with similar and relevant content are considered. The more relevant the website is to your own site the higher the quality of the inbound link and the more credits you can get from search engines.

If your website is about dogs or dog products then the sites linking back to you should also be about dogs instead of random things like car racing. In other words if you are getting links from relevant sources, then your link juice will be high.

Since backlinking to other sites is simply easy, search engines have raised the level of credits in their search page results. Anyone can simply gain a considerable amount of backlink given the number of websites online.

However, getting backlinks from the same relevant site is another thing. It takes hard work and considerable amount of time to build such network. The purpose of search engines raising the level of backlink credits is to provide a more accurate and relevant results.

Clearly, there’s no point in raising the rank of a website with backlinks scattered at random sites. The business owner may just be the one behind it and people might not actually find the site helpful. This also helps prevent any sneaky and fraudulent strategies that some “scammers” may have up their sleeves.

Why quality matters for backlinks?

Aside from getting higher page points and a higher page rank, backlinks are also important because it helps attract more visitors to your site. This is very important to entrepreneurs because you need just as much traffic as possible to make the sales.

Since backlinks are linked to other relevant sites, they also ensure that they attract your targeted market. Basically, you can’t launch a site and expect people to just find it. As a marketer, it is your job to point the way and be seen.

How to build backlinks?

There are several ways to build backlinks for your site, these include:

Article marketing

The best way to market your article is through article submission. Commonly, article databases allow you to provide a link back to your site for every article that you pass and get published. Make sure that the quality of the article is really good because if the quality of your articles is really good, other sites will also use your content as reference. You can get a significant number of backlinks to your site.

Hubpages/Squidoo

You can develop your content using such. Usually, these sites are for informational articles. Thus, if the pages you have here links back to your site, you also get a quality backlink.

Backlink Builder Tool

Since it’s important to have high quality inward links, you have to be able to find networks similar to your own. This tool can help you find websites with similar themes to your own. This can considerably help you trim down the amount of your work you need to build a good network of sites. Link – Backlink Builder Tool.

Blog Commenting

You can gain good amount of backlinks by just participating in blogs that are in your niche. You leave a relevant comment along with your URL. Most blogs allow a link back to your site as part of comments.

Forum Posting

You can also participate in relevant forums and gain backlinks as part of your forum signature.

Why a support group/buddy system is important for marketing?

A support group is important in developing quality backlinks. They can function as both your colleagues and competitors. Basically, these are the same people or websites within your niche.

Through this support group you can each link your site to each other. This is considered a quality link in most cases because the support group also has the same theme in their websites.

It’s like a marketing community. However, it is important to maintain the quality of sites. Google and other search engines are very stringent these days when it comes to reciprocal linking. It’s important that the mutual agreement does not sacrifice the quality of the content.

Make sure to take these things into consideration. To make money online, you have to be able to develop a good solid reputation and presence in the market.

In today’s social media market, it is good to have a buddy system. You can rely on them to pass your sites/content on to their followers. It will definitely help you get quality traffic to your site and also expose you to search engines, etc.

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