Bill Gates's Top 10 Rules For Success (@BillGates) - Part 1

How have you done your market research for your business? Would you use a telephone marketing company? Perhaps call your clients and customers and ask for their input?  Have you considered simply using email or online survey?  It may take a little more effort but this article covers reasons to consider and tips for using this approach.  The article is in three parts.  It covers 3 tips today.  Come back for 3 more tomorrow.  Let me know how useful you find this article with a comment below.

Successful Surveys: 10 Tips for Better Results – Part 1

By: Kathy Gulrich

Why would you use an email or online survey when you could simply call your clients and customers and ask for their input?

Lots of reasons.

·         standardization

·         easy to get large numbers of responses

·         easy to tabulate, analyze

·         easy (and often fun) for your clients and customers

·         inexpensive

·         non-intrusive

·         time-efficient (for you, and for your clients and customers)

·         protect your customers' anonymity (if important)

·         professional

·         no "cold calls"

·         no answering machines!

And have you figured out how long it would take to have 100 fifteen-minute conversations instead? (I don't have to do the math to know that it's WAY too long!)

So in this article, I'm going to talk surveys. How to find them, how to do them, and how to make the most of your results. Here goes....

1 - Clarify Your Objectives

What's your reason for doing the survey?

You might want to get your clients' input on your products and services, let them know you really care about what they think, or learn what keeps them up at night. (Or anything in between....)

Before you start, be very clear about what you'd like to accomplish. Then, be sure that each question on your survey will get you a step closer to your goal.

2 - Choose a Survey Company

You can write and produce your survey yourself, or (easier) use one of the many companies out there that provide survey services.

These services come at a variety of prices (from free to quite expensive), and with a variety of options (from basic to quite extensive).

Zip around the web a bit to find what's out there, and what seems most appropriate for what you're doing. In your wanderings, you may want to check out:

·         www.EZsurvey.com

·         www.zoomerang.com

·         www.pollcat.com

·         or my favorite, www.surveymonkey.com

3 - Keep it Short

Most often, we're asking survey recipients to do us a favor by filling out our survey - even if the information we gather will help them, longer term.

So be respectful of their time by keeping your survey short (no more than 10 questions, unless absolutely necessary) - and easy to fill out and return.

The easier it is do complete, the more responses you're likely to get.

Author Bio
Best-selling author Kathy Gulrich helps clients get from idea, to action, to results - more quickly, and more easily - whether they're looking to write a book, develop a new product, or market their product or business. Clients love her direct, no-nonsense approach - and her gentle insistence on great results. Find out for yourself: Check out one of Kathy's teleclasses, or pick up a free worksheet, at www.smARTbusinessCoaching.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source: By Kathy Gulrich

http://www.articlegeek.com/business/marketing/successful_surveys_tips_results.htm

12 Highest Paying Work-at-Home Jobs of 2018

Deciding to work from home?  The internet has the most potential and this article looks at how to make the most out of this potential.  Check it out and let me know what you think of this article with a comment below.

Adding Profit to Your Work from Home Internet Business

By: Jeff Casmer

Many individuals, from all walks of life, are making the decision to work from home. There are an unlimited number of work at home business ideas; however, the internet has the most potential.

Internet websites are often developed for personal or business use. What once may have been considered a personal site may now even be used to make money. Affiliate programs, commonly referred to as associate programs, are a way for website owners to make money through internet marketing. Affiliate programs work by connecting people to another website. There are a wide number of well known national companies who use affiliate programs to increase the traffic to their website. 

Individuals who have their own website will generally display a banner or link to a certain website. The linking website is often a business that sells something. Affiliate programs are profitable to website owners because whenever an internet user signs up for something or buys a products, they are paid commission. Affiliate programs are an effective marketing technique that offer benefits to everyone involved. Website owners are paid for their participation and the businesses on the other end are promoting and selling their products.

Deciding to participate in an affiliate program is a fairly easy process and can sometimes involve little work. If you are a website owner, the more work you do on your website, the more likely you are to receive affiliate clickers. This is due to search engine optimizations. Many articles or topics inside a website contain keywords that search engines may pick up. If an individual is searching for information on popular children's toys and your website has articles or information concerning them, they may be linked to your site. Internet users love to see new articles, information, or products. For this reason, constantly updating your website may bring in new visitors and also keep existing visitors coming back.

Developing a website can be for fun or a part of home employment. Home employment is on the rise and many individuals are making the decision to work from their home. Home employment allows parents, elderly, or disabled individuals to work from the comfort of their home. Although these individuals are common work from home people, just about everyone has the ability to work from inside their home. 

A work from home internet business can including selling merchandise or offering a service. For instance, many individuals sell homemade or wholesale merchandise or some offer their web design or writing skills. Affiliate programs are an effective tool in obtaining additional profits for a work at home internet business. Although affiliate programs are used and are widely popular among internet businesses, they are also successful with personal websites. Blogging has greatly increased in popularity. In fact, a large number of internet users have a blog. It is possible to link up affiliate programs with a blog. 

Affiliate programs are becoming extremely popular among website owners or bloggers. It is a fairly simple way to acquire additional profits through an existing work from home internet business. It is great programs, such as affiliate marketing programs, that allows many individuals to successfully work from home and make a profit.

Author Bio
Jeff Casmer is an award winning entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and internet marketing consultant. Visit the work at home directory

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source: By Jeff Casmer

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/online_business_articles/work_from_home_profit.htm

How to Make $11,600 a Month Online w/ Web Tools (Lazy Affiliate Approved!) - Part 2

Are you wondering how you can be a super affiliate? Are you wondering where the most money is being made as an affiliate? What are the secrets? Read on to find out.  This article is in two parts so welcome back to part 2.  Let me know what you think and leave a comment below. 

How To Be A Cash-Rocketing Super Affiliate – Part 2

By: Seth Chong

Have you heard of the term "Super Affiliate" else where? Actually, we bet you already know what it is: Super Affiliates are greater affiliates. If you don't know what affiliate marketing is, it's an interesting job selling other people's products and earn commissions for yourself.

Offer time-Sensitive bonuses:

When you are selling your affiliate product, you can always include a bonus or free stuffs along, a report, an e-book, anything that suits. People who buy from you in that limited time will get the bonus you offered, a good incentive isn't it?

Pre-selling/Back-End Selling:

You've probably seen this being mentioned everywhere, but really, there are too many lazy affiliates around that don't practice it! After you sell an affiliate product to your customer, it doesn't mean that you won't need to bother about him/her anymore, in fact every single customer is your source of "gold mine". Not only can they become your repeat customers but also working partners in the future!

Don't make it sound too hard for you, for most Super Affiliates doing these become their everyday habit, as easy as breathing and they can do it anytime they want, anywhere they are. Once you have a huge opt-in list, the send button on your auto-responder will be your ever-needed money machine. When you need cash, pick a good affiliate product endorse it to your mailing list and that's all, wake up the next day with all your affiliate earnings!

Other than your own opt-in list, you can definitely leverage on other people's list, by purchasing solo ads from ezines or joint venturing(partnering). A solo ad is an independent, single email advertisement you can buy in ezines and they normally allow up to 300-600 words for your ad copy.

Joint venturing although doesn't seem as appropriate because you don't have your own product to be offered as an affiliate marketer, you can definitely have an ad-swap with other Internet Marketers, which is to endorse each other's solo ad to your own subscribers. If there is a huge difference between the numbers of opt-ins, you just need to endorse the solo ad of the other Internet Marketer a few more times, until both of you are equal.

When there is time, focus more on creating websites to endorse the other affiliate programs and build your list. It's just that simple, a concept which is repeated over and over again, and grow more and more each day. Successful affiliates work harder and smarter, while broke affiliates hardly work at all.

The Super Affiliate:

·         Have their own domain names, hosting and websites!

·         Carefully selects great products to promote.

·         Consistently chooses to promote products which pays high commissions, or those which have a higher price.

·         Knows the value of building highly targeted and highly responsive opt-in lists.

·         Focus on improving and maximizing the activity/efficiency of each affiliate sale/campaign before thinking of moving to the next one.

·         Find multiple affiliate programs to build multiple streams of income.

·         Consistently work hard for more traffic and sales, while lowering any other costs of advertising.

There are a lot of places for you to find great affiliate products you can sell, here's a few of them:

www.cj.com

www.clickbank.com

www.affiliateguide.com

www.affiliatemathc.com

You can easily exceed the other 98% of affiliates and become the 2% of Super Affiliates that are responsible for more than 80% of the sales for an affiliated product or program, once you have gained your momentum, it really is as easy as breathing.

Author Bio

Seth Chong is the owner of IMViral, one of the largest, greatest viral Internet Marketing Newsletter which is being spread around the world, you can sign up for the Newsletter(worth $297) for Free at www.imviral.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source:  Seth Chong

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/affiliate_articles/choosing_an_affiliate_program.htm

The Best Gear For Starting A Podcast

Have you ever wondered what podcasting can do for your business?  Is this a tool that you should be using to promote your business?  Check out this article for some answers and let me know what you think.  Leave a comment below.

Podcasting Used As a Business Marketing Tool by Media Publishing Giant Simon & Schuster

By: Rodney Rumford

Podcasting has hit the marketing world big time with the recent launch of a new podcast by Simon & Schuster. I was recently involved in a consulting role with a podcasting project with publishing giant Simon and Schuster and their website www.simonsays.com. They are using this podcast RSS feed to interview world famous authors and have authors read excerpts from their books. This is a brilliant marketing strategy for their website, authors, products and brand.

They are actually using the podcast to promote the products that they publish. This is a very innovative business marketing strategy. They are publishing 30 minute podcast shows every week. This allows potential consumers to get exposure to their products. This will create increased interest in their products. This will in turn drive sales and increase the branding for their business. This professionally produced podcast series of shows will undoubtedly become a favorite of many consumers.

It is also noteworthy to mention that you do not need an iPod to listen to a podcast. You can simply listen to podcasts on your desktop computer. You can subscribe to podcast feeds with Yahoo, iTunes, Mozilla Firefox, Google Desktop Search Toolbar 2.0, or any variety of desktop podcast RSS feed reader software tools.

The business benefits of a proper podcast marketing strategy can be quite immense. Podcasting is another business communication and marketing tool that allows businesses to communicate with their target market. Subscribers to the podcasts RSS feed will automatically receive new podcasts when they are published. Businesses that create podcasts can have a direct communication and marketing channel online.

Having a quality professional podcast that delivers value added exclusive content can increase your online visibility. Search engines such as Google will index podcasts feeds, Blog and podcast directories will list podcast feeds, and targeted traffic will subscribe to those podcast feeds. Let's also remember that a quality podcast has the opportunity to be listed in the iTunes podcast directory and found by over 40 million users.

Leveraging podcasting as a business promotion and marketing tool is going to be part of the business landscape online for years to come. When media giants such as CBS, Viacom, and countless other business giants such as IBM and Oracle are podcasting; you can bet money that this marketing media format is here to stay.

Your business should give serious consideration to creating a podcast marketing strategy with experienced professionals in this field. This is a marketing and communication medium that your business will want to execute and leverage for maximum marketing and business benefit online.

You may want to read an informative white paper about this new business marketing technology. You can read this white paper at www.leveragedpromotion.com/products.html

Author Bio

Rodney Rumford is the founder of http://www.Podblaze.com and is a business marketing consultant specializing in new media marketing tools such as Podcasting and Business Blogs. He is also co-founder of www.leveragedpromotion.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source:  by Rodney Rumford

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/podcasting_articles/podcasting_marketing_tool.htm

RSS in Plain English - Part 1

Want to know what your competitors are up to?  How can you stay informed and maintain a strategic advantage over your competitors?  Read here to find out.  Today and tomorrow this article will set out several sites where you can carry out your free RSS Ego searches.  All comments welcome.

RSS Ego Searches – Part 1

By: Sharon Housley

Ego searches are free and simple searches designed to monitor blogs and news portals for mentions of your company, product, competitors or other specific keywords. Conducting ego searches not only allows you to stay informed, but also allows you to maintain a strategic advantage over competing companies. A number of new Internet services are freely available that make these 'ego searches' painless and easy.

Dynamically created keyword based RSS feeds, update in your RSS reader or news aggregators, each time new information containing the keyword appears in the searched resources. The dynamic feeds match requests against new information, as it comes online in real time. The following free services allow for RSS feed ego searches.

Google News

Simply conduct a keyword search of Google News and then click the text that says "RSS" then save the url of the RSS feed in to your news reader. Every time a new article with that keyword appears in Google News the feed in your RSS reader will automatically update.

http://news.google.com/news

BlogPulse

Find out what is being said about your products, company or your industry in the blogosphere. Conduct a keyword or url search on BlogPulse. Click the orange RSS icon above the search results and save the feed in your reader. Each time the keyword appears in a blog indexed by BlogPulse you will receive a new item in your feed reader. Another feature of BlogPulse is it will graph the keyword occurrences, providing a picture representation so that trends can be easily visualized. Hovering over the lines of the graph will provide details of actual blog mentions.

http://www.blogpulse.com

PubSub

Search on a keyword, then save and add the feed to your RSS reader using the icons provided. Optionally with PubSub you can direct your search to only alert you of posts in specific areas of interest including Press Releases, SEC/EDGAR Filings, Newsgroup Posts, or Weblog Entries 

http://www.pubsub.com

Technorati

Create watch lists, by entering the search term add item to the watch list and then scroll to the bottom click the blue RSS icon to obtain the url of the RSS feed that can be added to your reader. Technorati is a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in the blogosphere. In order to setup a watchlist you will have to create a Technorati account.

http://www.technorati.com

Although they sound daunting ego searches are simply good business sense.

Author Bio
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for FeedForDev http://www.feedfordev.com an RSS component for developers.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com

Source:  by Sharon Housley

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/rss_articles/rss_ego_searches.htm

Two Ways to Market Yourself Without Spending a Dime

Do all marketing strategies require spending money? Here are some ides you can implement without costing you anything. Let me know what you think and leave a comment below.

Two Ways to Market Yourself Without Spending a Dime

By: Jay Conners

Unfortunately not all of us have a budget to fit what we believe to be our marketing needs. No need to get down, here are a few very simple things you can do that have stood the test of time, and are proven to attract more business.

For starters, smile often if not always. I'm sure you are familiar with the phrase "smile it's contagious." Well it is.

Think about it, would you want to speak with, or do business with someone who frowned all the time. It just is not attractive and it turns people in the other direction.

Smiling says a lot about your personality and attracts people to you. It tells a potential customer that you are friendly, upbeat, and most of all it tells them that you enjoy what you do.

When someone approaches you about your products and services, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. By smiling, you will have easily accomplished this.

The second tip for marketing yourself and your products is having a good posture, or portraying an over all positive body language.

Again, body language will speak volumes to your customer.

Imagine approaching someone who looks as though they have just lost their best friend. Shoulders hunched over, no eye contact, no smile, with a whoa is me attitude.

Nobody wants to approach this kind of sales person. This type of body language sends a message to your potential customer that you are seriously lacking in confidence. Or, that you just flat out do not like your job, or the company you work for.

If a potential customer believes that you don't care for your current job or for the company that you are working for, than they will most likely believe that you will not care about them and their needs.

Customers want to approach upbeat, confident people. They want to know that they will be receiving the best possible products and services you have to offer that will match their needs. A presentable, positive, and confident image will portray these messages to your customer.

So smile, stand up straight, make eye contact, and shake hands with your customer.

Once again, these two tips have proven over time to attract and obtain customers. It is easy and it is free, so begin today, and good luck.

Author Bio

Jay Conners has more than fifteen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry, He is the owner of www.jconners.com, a mortgage resource site.

Source: By: Jay Conners

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content 

http://www.articlegeek.com/business/marketing/market_yourself_without_spending_dime.htm

Affiliate Marketing Success Secrets Revealed – Part 2

Welcome back to day 2 of Balraj BaalLee’s article.  As promised, here are his secrets 5-8.

Have you found this article valuable?  Let me know with a comment below.

Affiliate Marketing Success Secrets Revealed – Part 2

Secret #5: Create quality Ads

This task requires a lot of involvement and innovation on your part. First you have to choose how to advertise your product. PPC advertising is the best bet as your Ads are seen by only targeted visitors. Few points you should keep in mind for while writing your Ads are:

1. AdWords allow a limited amount of text in Ads. Hence ‘brevity’ is the keyword.

2. The only way to stand out from the rest is to be different.

3. Always pre-sell your product with your pitch page. 

4. Instill some sort of urgency in your prospects for buying in some limited time.

5. Always bring out free offers if any.

Secret #6: Capture Leads First 

Fewer than 5% of the people those see your Ads will buy the product on the first visit. So what happens to the 95% or more who don’t buy? 

Another big mistake that people generally make is spending time and money on advertising and send buyers directly to a product owner’s website. 

The truth is...If you aren’t capturing your visitor’s name and email address, you’re wasting your money on advertising.

For long-term success in affiliate marketing, you must build an opt-in list of buyers...people who trust you and purchase the products you recommend. You can sell multiple products to the same prospects and maximize your advertising efforts. All you need is a simple pitch page to capture leads and an autoresponder.

Secret #7: Offer a Strong Incentive 

If you want people to opt in to your list, you have to give them a strong incentive. If you can create a PDF report on a high-demand topic that’s actually good enough to sell and then give it away, people will like to download it. But how much information you should give away in your free product. Give your customers just sufficient information to make them want more and then recommend a product that fulfills their needs. 

Secret #8: Track Your Ads

Tracking is critical for determining how well you're converting visitors to leads and leads to sales. Sometimes you just need to tweak your ad copy and run the ad again for better results. You may also like to disable the keywords which are not converting.

You need to know how many visitors, leads and sales you get for each ad you place so you can determine whether or not you want to keep using that traffic source or discard it.

Author Bio

I am in internet marketing business for about a year now and have considerable success and experience in affiliate programs. I am also maintaining my site at www.10by10guide.com

Source: By: Balraj BaaLee

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/affiliate_articles/5620-affiliatemarket.htm

Invasion of the Blogs

Are blogs taking over? What happens if blogs take over magazines?

Diddy explains why he thinks blogs have taken over and Meryl K Evans gives her views and what you should consider if you are going to keep a blog.

Invasion of the Blogs

By: Meryl K. Evans

Lemmings are cute, but dumb. If you tell them to jump off a cliff, they will. Just like the people who start blogs because everyone is doing it. Guess what happens after a little while? The blogs die.

In managing a list of many Web sites, most of which are blogs, I deleted countless sites from the list because the sites and blogs no longer existed. The people ran out of steam or had no reason to start them in the first place.

How do you know when a blog is right for your business? Learn why people start blogs, how they find their niche and how blogging tools can be used for more than blogs.

Blog content is king

Some people like to read blogs, others like to read newsletters, still others like to rely on feeds and some read a few or all of them. No matter the method the information is distributed, each medium has one thing in common: content. Having a blog connects your newsletter and your business with all of these readers and delivers important content in a particular style.

I've been blogging since June 2000. If you review my early blog entries in meryl's notes, you'll notice they're more personal. When blogs first hit the scene in the late '90s, they were personal diaries and journals. Like the blog business, my blog has transformed from personal to business speak, although I still add personal notes here and there.

A few bloggers tend to talk about their work, their products and their little world. That might work for celebrities where fans want to know everything about them, but it doesn't work for the average business person. Other business people want information on how to succeed and when a blog spends time hawking products offering information of no value, few people will return. The people whose products sell well are the ones who provide valuable information. Readers already know what kind of information they're getting, so they trust that when they buy something, it will be of the same or better quality. This value must be reflected in their blog. It's much like people who only sign up for a newsletter after first seeing an example.

Who should venture where one has not blogged before?

No one wants to be a lemming (I would hope). How do you decide whether or not to set up a blog? The answer isn't black or white (what did you expect?). Ask these questions:

·         Can you regularly update it -- at least five times a week?

·         Do you have something to say other than just linking to others?

·         Do you read other blogs or feeds?

·         Can you provide information of value to others not just to yourself?

·         How large is your newsletter subscriber list?

·         How many unique visitors do you get on an average day, week or month?

The big decider is whether or not you can write in the blog almost daily. The people behind the high traffic blogs post multiple times a day. Though resourceful, merely linking to other sites doesn't give visitors much reason to make the effort to come to yours. Reading other blogs or feeds is a great way to learn how to carry a discussion. Find other blogs covering topics similar to yours and check them out. Disagree with their opinions? Write about it and explain your reasons. Cross-blog discussions are common, and that's where trackback comes in handy.

Trackback is a blog feature. If you decide to comment on another blog posting in your blog instead of in that blog's comments page, then you link to the conversation through the trackback link. Trackback is similar to the permalink, the permanent URL for the blog entry, but it has a different URL for copying and pasting in your blog's trackback box.

Aside from the technical aspects of operating a blog on a daily basis, subscriber list size and Web site traffic are good indicators of what kind of reaction you'll get when opening a blog. Starting from scratch with little traffic means you have a long road ahead and lots of work to do. There is no magic formula anyone can sell you for $97 to make your blog an overnight success. But with some perseverance and ingenuity, your blog can engage many prospects and clients.

Pick a niche

Considering there are numerous blogs out there, pick a niche topic when starting a blog for a better shot at attracting and keeping an audience. meryl's notes focuses on three areas: webby, geeky and wordy. In reality, this is too much. What I need to do for my readers is create three separate blog entry points, so those interested in writing, newsletters and Internet marketing get nothing but the wordy entries. Those interested in Web design get the webby stuff and the technophiles receive the geeky content.

I also manage a personal blog separate from meryl's notes. It's about cochlear implants and deafness. This could fall under the geeky category, but it's a personal blog and doesn't belong in meryl's notes. This blog is written for a different audience.

The blogging tools for both of my blogs come with syndication capabilities so those using feed readers or aggregators can read the content through the software. For an explanation of syndication and feed readers, refer to What Is This RSS, XML, RDF, and Atom Business? When sending a new issue of a newsletter, comment on it or link to it in the blog, that way the blog and feed readers will get the goods, so all three bases are covered.

Blogs in disguise use the same tools

Blogging tools aren't just for, well, blogging. Such tools are an excellent way to help you update your Web site more often than you otherwise would. I use it to manage the list of tableless Web sites. Using blogging tools is much easier than the way I managed it before, updating the HTML files by hand. Though using a blog tool, it isn't a blog. In this case, the blog tool has become a content management system (CMS).

Small business owners don't have a need for the fancy and pricey CMSes out there. They find it easier to use blogging software to manage their sites or hire someone to adapt the tool for their site. Women's Spirituality is one such site. Karen Casey may not use the blog, but she does have discussions surrounding the articles she writes.

Blogs have found a place in businesses and people are finding creative ways to use them. Some companies have a blog on the intranet for communicating project status, jeopardies and metrics. They're used for knowledge management. With information pouring in, blog tools provide a way to share, organize and process the information.

Being a follower can be good or bad. No one wants to walk off a cliff with the lemmings, but everyone wants to succeed. Best practices won't help, since the decision to blog is based on the organization's mission, needs and goals along with its target market's desires and needs. A blog about lemmings? There is one, sort of. Or maybe you'd like to start your own and talk about dumb business moves.

Author Bio
Meryl K. Evans (www.meryl.net), Content Maven, is the editor of eNewsletter Journal and Shavlik's The Remediator Security Digest. She writes columns for PC Today, InformIT, and MarketingProfs. Contact her to get content that inspires action.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/blogging_articles/blog_for_your_business.htm