Archives for September 2009

I Got A Piggyback Ride From Obama!

September 29, 2009 by

I thought I would take a quick break from coming up with my own content, and have asked several prominent bloggers from around the world to guest post on The New Business Blog.  The first such blogger is Marshall Wayne.

Marshall is a world renowned entrepreneur and self-made social media expert.  I’m truly honored to have him guest post on The New Business Blog.  Without further ado, here’s Marshall’s post:

I Got A Piggyback Ride From Obama!

I really did get one, but it’s probably not what you think.

I’m going to show you a valuable “trick” that I use to get more people to watch my videos, read my articles, and for the search engines to pick them up as well.

To better show you what I mean, look at the following two subject lines that I might title an article or video:
____

My Thoughts On The Movie, “The Secret”.

Or…

What Oprah and Will Smith Really Think About “The Secret”!
____

Doesn’t the second one seem quite a bit more exciting?

Sure if you know me you might watch the first one, but many more people will watch the second one.

It’s just much more exciting.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Social Traffic

Is It Really That Important to Write Down Your Goals?

September 29, 2009 by

Remember back when you first decided you wanted to try your hand at internet marketing and running your own business online?  If you’re anything like me you were incredibly wide-eyed and excited all while trying to do a million things at once.

First there was making sure you had all of your paperwork in order, then there was buying domains and hosting, getting your sites set up, writing content, getting traffic, and finally, seeing all that hard work pay off with your first affiliate sale or Adsense check.

Unfortunately, in getting caught up in all of the hoopla, you probably skipped one of the most important steps of all: coming up with and writing down your business goals.

One of the downfalls of jumping into internet marketing is you can get caught up in doing just that, and not ever really be forced to come up with specific goals you would like to achieve through or as part of your business.

I know that when I first got started I never took the time to write down what exactly it was I wanted to achieve though my business, and because of this lack of direction my business suffered.  After taking some time to really think through what it is I want to gain from my business, I finally took the time to write down my goals about two months ago.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Entrepreneurship, Starting a Business

Things to Consider When Looking at Affiliate Offers

September 24, 2009 by

Of all of the ways you can make money on your blog or site, one of the most profitable and popular ways is through affiliate marketing, which is essentially promoting other people’s products for a portion of the sale price.

While on the surface affiliate marketing seems like it should be pretty easy, it’s something that takes a very long time to learn and master.  In order to get it right you have to pick the right products, have a big enough audience, be able to write persuasive copy that gets people to buy… the list goes on and on.

That being said, becoming a successful affiliate marketer isn’t impossible to do either.  After all, there are thousands of people out there making a living simply promoting other people’s products.  If they can do it, you can do it!

In today’s post I’m going to focus on product selection, which might be the most important piece of affiliate marketing.  You can have all the traffic in the world and write incredible copy, but if you pick the wrong product you’re going to be dead in the water.

Here are some important questions to ask yourself when selecting which products  you want to promote.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Affiliate Programs, Miscellaneous

Want Action From You Readers? Tell Them What You Want!

September 23, 2009 by

The more I work at my online business – and just deal with people in general – the more I realize that you can’t really assume anything, especially when it comes to wanting to get a specific action out of your readers or customers.  You may think that you’re being clear as to what you want, but in many instances, that may not actually be the case.

It’s not that your readers or customers are dumb, it’s just you need to make sure that you’re not leaving any room for doubt or misunderstanding.  Your job as a writer is to make it clear, beyond any shadow of doubt, what it is you want your readers to do.

You’re not talking down to your readers, you’re just being explicit.  It’s as simple as that.

Here are two simple mistakes that I think all beginning bloggers make that unfortunately leave a lot of money and traffic on the table.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Marketing

Farming: The Next Big Business Boom?

September 23, 2009 by

It might be chilling to read in the U.S. Census that the average age of an American farmer is fifty-five years old, until you realize that means one thing: They’ll be a high demand for farmers in the future. Few trends are so clearly linked to a supplier demographic with a clear understanding of a the large demands for food production as population growth continues ever higher.

If that weren’t enough, we understand that today’s farmers aren’t just people who grow vegetables, they’re also business owners who must be aware of technological innovations in their field, how to obtain small business funding during times of drought or market price drops, and some even want to be labeled “organic” farmers. Clearly, there’s a wide swatch of opportunity for the right people to take hold of and create innovative farms that meet specific market niches.

Business Opportunities Abound

There are a variety of ways that farming can be good business in the future. One can invest in a farm, even if you don’t want to own one. In a way, having a CSA (community supported agriculture) is a model that has a number of private citizens investing in a farm’s produce by way of memberships that delivered fresh produce during certain months for a set fee. However, there’s no reason you can’t just start buying up foreclosed farms and then getting new farmers to work the land for a share of the crops.

Many established farmers are seeing opportunities to create a teaching forum with their skills and knowledge for the next generation of farmers. Obviously, if you have skills in organic growing, this will be highly marketable both in a classroom and in printed materials.

Another way to get in on the farm wave is to invest in agricultural commodities. As demand continues to rise and supply falls off, those agricultural commodities are due to rise. Add the specter of biofuels to that equation, and you can see why many people see a bright future for farming, despite the aging demographics.

Filed Under: Marketing

How To Leverage The Crap Out Of Social Media

September 21, 2009 by

It seems no matter where you turn lately, some internet marketer is pushing the importance of social media (or social networking) for generating free, targeted traffic to your sites.  Whether it’s using Facebook, Twitter, Digg, YouTube or some other Web 2.0 phenomenon, everyone has an opinion on which site is the best for pulling traffic into your sites.

After spending some time figuring out how to maximize each of these sites individually (which is something I will go into detail in subsequent posts) I’ve come up with a little system in which I can have each of these powerful social media sites feeding off of one another, and ultimately drive even more free and targeted traffic to my sites than I could ever imagine.

Here’s my powerful little system in a nutshell:

Let’s take one of your recent blog posts; it’s something that you put a lot of time into, is relevant and useful to your blog’s target audience and is a post you think has the potential to go viral.  You’ve written an attention grabbing headline, along with thorough and entertaining content, and now you just need to get it out to the masses so you can sit back, relax and watch your opt-ins and affiliate sales go through the roof.

Take your great post and submit it to Digg, Reddit, Fark, StumbleUpon and Yahoo Buzz.  When posting to these sites, make sure to write attention grabbing headlines.  Don’t be bland, go for broke and be bold, funny or controversial.  Writing a good headline is the most important part of doing well on these social bookmarking sites.  You could write the greatest content in the world, but if you mess up the headline on your submission, nobody’s going to vote for your article or bother to click on it.

If you’re required to submit a synopsis as well, make sure it’s just enough to wet the whistle.  Make it a slight extension of the headline and don’t give away too much.  Entice the reader to click through to your site to read the whole article.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Social Traffic

Adsense Still the Preferred Way to Make Money Online

September 16, 2009 by

One of the most beautiful things about being an internet marketer is the fact there are so many different revenue streams.  Whether it’s contextual ads, affiliate marketing, advertising deals, you name it, there shouldn’t be any reason you can’t start to make a little bit of money from your websites.

So, how to most people do it?  The answer might surprise you a little bit.

Despite claims of its death and lack of “real” revenue generating power, Adsense is still the preferred way of making money for most website owners.

Here’s how nearly 100 people responded when asked: What is your primary source of online revenue?

  • Adsense – 70%
  • Affiliate Sales – 15%
  • Private Ads – 9%
  • Product/Service Sales 6%

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Adsense, Affiliate Programs, Marketing

Clickbank Code Review

September 14, 2009 by

Clickbank Code Review

Now that I’ve gotten serious about really trying to make an effort to maximize all of my online income streams, I figured it was about time to venture into affiliate marketing, and more specifically, marketing products from Clickbank.

While I had known about Clickbank for some time, I was definitely intimidated by it because, to be quite honest, I didn’t even really know where to begin.  That’s why Clickbank Code is such a helpful product.

After doing some research, I decided to check out Clickbank Code, a new product from Michael Jones that shows in a step-by-step manner how to quickly get affiliate sites up and running and leverage Clickbank so that you can start making money in a matter of days.

Clickbank Code, clickbank code review, click bank code, click bank code reviewIf you haven’t heard of Michael Jones, you’d better get used to the name, as he was able to turn himself from a relative newbie into someone making nearly $50,000 per month using the steps he outlines in Clickbank Code.  Considering I’d be happy at just 10% of that success, I figured I’d give it a try!

In Clickbank Code, Michael Jones goes into detail about how to:

  • find the hottest and best selling digital products on Clickbank
  • leverage free search engine traffic to maximize your profits
  • use social media to drive targeted BUYERS to your sites
  • track your campaigns to maximize the most profitable ones and ditch the duds

Clickbank Code is different from another learn affiliate marketing program I recently reviewed, Affiliate Classroom 2.0, in the sense that it is more of a “paint by numbers” sort of program, meaning it gives you a step by step process.  In Affiliate Classroom 2.0 you’re given a whole bunch of lessons that allow you to sort of figure out affiliate marketing on your own.

For me personally, I do better with the step by step process because I just want to hit the ground running.  Don’t get me wrong, Affiliate Classroom 2.0 is a great system and I learned a lot from it, but in terms of learning how to quickly get cash coming in from affiliate marketing (specifically from Clickbank) I thought Clickbank Code was more along the lines of what I would need to succeed.

If you’re serious about making money from Clickbank, buying the Clickbank Code program (as well as many of the extras) will be an amazing investment for you.

Clickbank Code Review

Note: In compliance with the new FTC regulations, please be aware that if you purchase this product through my website by clicking on any of the links above, I will be paid a commission by the products creator/seller.

Filed Under: Affiliate Programs, Marketing, Social Traffic, Traffic

Why Life is Good as an Internet Marketer

September 14, 2009 by

Internet marketers have it good.  I mean really good.

The reason internet marketers have it so good is pretty simple: internet marketing is the least invasive marketing that’s around today.  Think about it, if you’re an online marketer — whether you’re trying to sell your own product or acting as an affiliate marketer — for the most part your customers are seeking YOU out.

This alone should increase opt-ins, conversions and sales by a factor of 100!

Your potential customers are the ones who are typing the search terms into Google, or clicking your links on Twitter, Facebook, or Digg.  They are actively seeking out the information or product you’re trying to provide.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Marketing

Target Key Buying Words, Not Just Key Words

September 14, 2009 by

One of the most important things you need to do when trying to build up traffic to your blog or site is to determine which keywords you’re going to target.  You’ll want to pick keywords that are broad enough that they generate a lot of searches, but specific enough so that the traffic you do it is targeted.

Unfortunately, this is a pretty fine line to walk.

To give you an example, I worked incredibly hard to get Daily Fuel Economy Tip ranked on the first page of Google for the search term “fuel economy.”  I figured if I could get this widely searched keyword I’d be set and get thousands of free visitors each day on this keyword alone.

Yeah, not so much.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Traffic
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