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Reliable web hosting is vital for anyone attempting to earn money with a business website.

Choosing a host for your website is not easy when you are an Internet newbie and don’t really know bandwidth from Band-Aid. What selection criteria do you use? If you are a total newbie, about the only thing you will know how to compare is price but if you do a search for web hosting you will have ads coming at you for all prices from $10 per year to $25 per month. Should you go for the most expensive on the basis that you get what you pay for or should you go for the cheapest because saving money is a priority while you are getting your business running?

The first thing to rule out is free web hosting. There are many great free resources to be found on the Internet including excellent anti-virus and anti-spy ware software. Free hosting is fine if you have a hobby website but, if you are running a business online and wish to achieve credibility with visitors and search engines, free web hosting won’t do the job.

I discovered the hard way that cheap web hosting is not necessarily the bargain it might seem. When I started looking for hosting for a new website, I already had top class hosting that had come with my first website. There was an option to add on further domains for an extra $5 per month. That was cheap enough but I thought it would be a good idea to have my new website hosted completely separately (you know, the old eggs in one basket caution).

When I started checking around, there seemed to be millions of web hosts all offering what (to my untrained eye) seemed to be the same thing but at wildly varying prices, so I settled on a cheap hosting package. The cost was £1 per month (which was about $1.70 in those days) and I certainly got what I paid for!

At first everything was fine: I paid up, they hosted my website. The trouble is, you don’t realise you have bought rubbish hosting until things start to go wrong.

The first sign that all was not well came a few months later when I was unable to locate my website. I raised a support ticket and waited. Four days later came the reply “everything seems ok now”. Four days of downtime without a sensible word from support made me feel more than a little uneasy.

Things seemed fine for a while after that but then another problem arose: when I tried to log into my control panel all I got was a message telling me the licence fee had not been paid. This time the reply to my support ticket was quicker, it only took two days. Unfortunately, however, it was completely unhelpful. The reply was “It seems to be a site-wide issue”. Was I supposed to feel better because the whole site was messed up and not just my bit? They must have got round to paying the licence fee because after a few more days, login was available again.

After that, I wanted to move to a new host but I had never moved a website before and assumed it would be really difficult and technically challenging (actually it is extremely simple). As a result of this fear my website remained where it was.

The crunch came when my domain name came up for renewal. In response to an email from the hosting company, I visited their website to make the required payment. Their PayPal link and credit card options did not work and there were several error messages showing on the pages I visited.

Emails to their support and billing departments went unanswered. My only means of arranging payment was via their website, so I kept trying. Each time I visited, there were more error messages, nothing worked and it began to look as if the site was actually melting bit by bit. It seemed the company had just packed up and left their website to self destruct.

Enquiries revealed that the only way I could renew my domain name ownership was through the hosting company because they had registered it on my behalf and they retained control of it. As they could not be contacted, there were only two options available. The first was to pay an agent a pretty hefty (and non-refundable) fee to try to contact the hosting company and negotiate the purchase the domain name from them. The second option was to lose the domain.

When you have to choose web hosting, the first thing to look for is quality of support. To keep prices low, the easiest way for the company to economise is to provide sub-standard support. Forget the offers of unlimited bandwidth, hundreds of email accounts, spam filters and other freebies. If support is non-existent, give the company a miss no matter how good their other terms might seem.

You will find ideas about how to earn money working from home and useful home business resources at Elaine Currie’s Work At Home Directory For more articles about online writing visit Writing Tips

For many online marketers earning a full time income is the
ultimate goal. It is not an easy task but it can be accomplished
as long as you apply this one simple strategy along with all your
hard work. You will discover what most savvy marketers already
know, the major key to making a full time income is quite obvious:
“Residual Income”.

Just as the name states, residual income means you make one
sale and you earn follow up income automatically for months,
years or sometimes even for decades after you make the initial
sale. It almost sounds too good to be true but residual income
does exist and thousands of online marketers are reaping the
rewards.

It is a pure marketing strategy which makes perfect business
sense. Why utilize all your marketing resources to make one sale
and receive one payment, when you can just as easily use the same
resources to make a sale and then receive repeat payments for
years down the road? The beauty of residual income comes from
being rewarded for your hard efforts again and again. One sale
can equal long term income for years.

The Internet makes earning residual income possible for everyone.
Stay at home moms, the college student, the part-time worker…
you name it, anyone can earn a residual income on the Internet.

Why is this now possible?

Because the Internet has opened up a whole stampede of companies
and services looking for clients and customers. Services that
once were only offered locally before the advent of the web,
but are now being offered globally to a world wide consumer base.

Unfortunately, as many companies have discovered, the competition
has also increased a million fold as this new marketplace has
opened up. Competition for acquiring clients and customers has
become a lot stiffer mainly because companies don’t just have
to compete locally anymore but globally. It’s the new global
economy.

With competition so fierce many companies and businesses will
offer a premium reward for anyone who can acquire or find
clients/customers for their company’s products and services.
Many will even offer residual income for as long as the client
or account stays with that company.

Enter the Affiliate Marketer: You!

Affiliate marketing is tailor made for the Internet. Millions
of webmasters have millions of sites attracting millions of
visitors each day. These sites relate to a particular niche
or subject matter that attract targeted visitors interested
in the same topic. All any webmaster has to do is join an
affiliate program related to their site’s topic and promote
this affiliate company or business to their visitors.

Just connect the Dots.

The smart webmaster or online marketer will only seek out
affiliate programs or companies which will give them residual
payments for finding clients or accounts for those company’s
services or products. This marketing strategy has proven very
lucrative for those webmasters/marketers who are taking
advantage of these residual revenue streams.

Here are some pointers on how to make this strategy
work to your advantage.

* Affiliate Networks. Use very reputable Affiliate Networks
like Commission Junction, LinkShare, ShareaSale… these programs
offer a whole range of Top 500 companies that you can promote.
I find CJ and LinkShare to be extremely reliable, with excellent
tracking and prompt payment.

* Private Deals. However, the most lucrative rewards
and residual income can come with private or individual deals
you make with a particular company. My experience, if you
manage to attain top rankings for the top keywords in a
particular industry these companies will come to you with a
private deal. Your job is to acquire or find clients/accounts
for that company and receive a commission or percentage of all
revenue this client generates for the life of that account.

* Smaller Companies. Sometimes it is the smaller less known
company in your particular industry or niche that will offer the
best deal. It may be harder to promote a lesser known company
but the rewards may even be greater.

* Cookies. Keep in mind, another version of residual
income is the good old cookie; you refer a customer to a
company and this customer is cookied with your affiliate id…
any sales made from your cookied referral will earn you money.
Check the length of these cookies, some are 24 hours, 90
days… the longer the better. I seek out companies which
give life-long cookies, they are rare but they do exist!

* Major Point: The key to picking the best affiliate
programs for residual income is picking companies that offer
services like web hosting, phone services, cable services,
marketing services… anything that people sign-up for and
then rarely change. This will earn you a monthly commission
for as long as they use this service. I am presently earning
commissions on sales I made 4 or 5 years ago.

* Use PPC. Pay Per Click advertising can be a very
effective way of kick-starting your residual income if you
know what you’re doing. This form of advertising can get very
costly very quickly so proceed with caution. I found even with
a low conversion rate and a high cost per click charge you can
bid higher with a residual income affiliate program because it is
not a one time sale. You can afford to outbid your competition,
but don’t try for the number one position; I have found the best
place to have your PPC ad is in the third spot.

* Never Put All Your Eggs In One Basket. Don’t just promote
one affiliate company or service, instead spread your marketing
over difference services and companies to earn multiple streams
of residual income from different sources. If one should dry up,
you will have plenty of others to rely on. Besides, getting 10
or 20 monthly checks will always put a smile on your face.
Trust me!

Of course, there are many more factors involved in producing
a full time residual online income but these points will help
get you started in the right direction. Don’t get the wrong
impression, this income won’t just suddenly appear, you do have
to do some hard work marketing and promoting your chosen affiliate
companies or services to make the initial sales. But the rewards
are very sweet, and they just keep coming and coming and coming…

…
The author is a full time Internet Marketer with numerous sites
on the web, including two niche sites on Internet Marketing.
His main site is Internet Marketing Tools
For the latest and most effective marketing tools to boost your online marketing
try: Marketing Tool Guide
Copyright © 2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed
with this resource box attached.

Many internet marketers keep hearing more and more lately, that they need to add value to their websites in order for the sites to rank well in search engines, and to get higher paying click amounts on ads they have running on the sites. But how exactly do you add value to a website? Well there are actually many ways to do it, and here we’ll look at just a few.

1. Useful content. Most marketers already know this, but the more useful your content is, the more valuable it is deemed to be by both search engines and visitors alike. Having useful content is not always the same as having unique content though - it just needs to be really good in some way.

2. Unique content. Yep we’ve all heard it many times: Unique content is best. And while this is usually true, it’s not necessarily always true. It’s easy to create “unique” content that’s pure garbage. That’s why all these automated spinner software solutions keep hitting the market. The software can mix up words any way you’d like. And sure, they might be considered unique, but they sure aren’t usually any good.

A combination of useful and unique is usually the best way to add excellent value to your websites. One more thing you can do though, is add different types of content. Now many people believe this additional content should be in the form of videos, but I disagree. Videos are wonderful yes, and they can be quite engaging and viral. But they also suck up a lot of bandwidth, and they draw in a lot of traffic that just wants to watch the video, but aren’t necessarily interested in anything else you have on the site.

Videos tend to be fairly stand alone media. In other words, you don’t need words, links or related content to go with them, because everything that’s wanted or need is often within the video itself. And while this might be entertaining sure - and entertainment is a form of “visitor value” on a website - this might not do much to help you make money.

A more profitable way to mix in other types of content while still adding value, is to use pictures instead. When you publish an article on your website - whether that article is completely unique or not - you are only fighting with words. And yes, words play a major role in ranking well with searching engines, and holding visitor’s attention. You can reinforce and enhance those words though, by simply illustrating the concepts talked about in your articles.

If for instance, you have an amazing Italian Spaghetti recipe on your website, people will be very happy to have found it. If you include a picture or two with that recipe however, people will love you for it. Pictures help to sell things, illustrate concepts, give ideas, and even reinforce ideas that you may have written in your content. They’re also easy to integrate into existing websites, and they don’t waste nearly as much bandwidth as videos do.

So consider spiffing up your content based websites with a few key, professional quality, related pictures, and you might just see many positive results shortly thereafter.

© 2007, Kathy Burns-Millyard. Need great pictures you can legally use on your websites? Click here to see how you can get 200 professional stock photos for a flat $7 bucks! - http://www.stocktography.com/Photo-Packs/

Ezine advertising can be an incredibly targeted source of traffic online. It is nice because the subs you get are already proven to open emails, and if they are targeted, they will be interested in your emails.

So how do you do it?

Simply go to the ezines, inquire about advertising rates, and select a few smaller ezines and purchase a few small ads. Do not run solo ads until you have tested your ad script first. If they won’t opt in to your list from a quarter page ad, they will not from a full page ad either. Now you will get more subscribers with a full page ad, but if the smaller ad doesn’t pay for itself, the larger one generally won’t either. But you should always start small and let the ezine pay for itself.

Since you are building a list and not trying to sell something right off the bat to the ezine subscribers, you can generally get a pretty decent response rate by offering a free report to new subscribers. One thing with ezine advertising is that because they are not free, the people advertising are often trying to recoup their entire investment with the responses from the ad. Which is fine. But you aren’t looking to recoup now, you are looking to bank big in the future.

But the good thing for you and me is that the readers are used to reading sales ads, directing them to sales letters. Imagine if they come across your ad that does not sell them, ask for money, or anything of the like. It will be like a breath of fresh air. So take advantage of it. Offer them a free gift. They will accept your free gift, and you will have a new subscriber. Now that you have a new subscriber, treat them well- impress them with your generosity and your knowledge. Literally.

Ezine advertising can be wonderful for your list – but go slow and be careful.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 800 articles in print and 9 published ebooks.

Many small, home based, and internet only businesses have to get everything started on a shoe string budget. Sometimes in fact, they have no cash to work with at all in the beginning, so they look for free tools, services and content that will help them get started.

A popular way for many to get some kind of income going these days is to create websites designed to earn money from the Google AdSense program. These are often referred to as AdSense sites, and many people tend to build their first few sites using completely free content.

Getting content online at no cost is possible as long as you follow the rules. And most people understand how this works. They go to an article directory, choose their content, and as long as they keep the author’s name, copyright, bio and website links and information with that article, they can use it without charge.

The problem lately though, has come more often from the use of images online. Many people seem to think if they see a picture online, they can just take it and use it any way they want to. And this is not the case. In fact, it’s completely illegal and it can get you into a lot of trouble.

Many webmasters have recently received large invoices in fact, for using pictures on their websites that they had no legal right to use. And some of those webmasters didn’t know they weren’t legally allowed to use the pictures, but that will not unfortunately hold up in court. Whether you know it or not, you cannot just take and use any picture you want to online.

The problems don’t stop there though. Some webmasters and internet based business owners have discovered the world of royalty free micro stock photography. With this system, you can legally license professional stock photos for as little as one dollar. You have to read the fine print though, because there are many ways you’re not legally allowed to use those photos even though you’ve paid a fee for them.

In most cases for instance, you’re not allowed to use stock photography to create website templates that you’ll resell to others. And often you’re not allowed to use the stock photos to create website graphics and headers that will be sold to others either.

Paying just a dollar or so for a professional stock photo usually only allows you to use the photo for your own business projects and purposes. You can create your own advertisement for instance, or use the photo on your own website. But you cannot sell that photo to other people, or give it away either. In fact, you never actually fully own the stock photos. Copyrights on photography are always retained by the photographer, so you are simply buying the right to use the photo in certain ways.

So if you want to make sure you’re using photos on your website completely legally, you need to be sure you understand the terms of the service you’ve gotten the photos from. Royalty free does not mean free of charge, and buying a license to use a photo does not mean you own the photo completely and can do whatever you want with it.

© 2007, Kathy Burns-Millyard. Need great pictures you can legally use on your websites? Click here to see how you can get 200 professional stock photos for a flat $7 bucks! - http://www.stocktography.com/Photo-Packs/

Internet marketing can be extremely profitable, as I am sure you have probably seen by the many people who have become millionaires online. But what happens with too many people is that they learn and learn, but never put it all into practice. The problem with that is that they never make any real money – but they know all about how to do it.

You can have the most knowledge of anybody online about how to write an email, but until you write a few and start mailing them, you will never make any money. You simply have to commit to action.

When you sit down to work online, have an action plan. For example, write 3 emails, write 3 articles, spend one hour posting to forums, or building 5 squeeze pages. If you do not have an action plan, it is too easy to read your email, read about all the newest, hottest ways to ‘get-rich-quick’ online, and 3 hours later you have nothing to show for your time. The biggest source of failure online is probably the lack of action. To become successful online, you must create action, you must create. And if you do not, you are being robbed by the internet marketing profit robbers.

Commit to doing something productive online every day. If you choose to use article marketing as your primary source of traffic generation, write three articles a day and post them to 20 directories. If you choose forum posting, do it–every day. Commit to 40 posts a day. If you are paying for your leads with PPC or ezine ads, you must monitor every account every day. Know every day which campaigns are making you money and which are not. Constantly test your squeeze pages and email sequences. You must always know why and where you are making money and why and where not.

Internet marketing can be extremely lucrative, but you must apply what you know.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 800 articles in print and 9 published ebooks.

Whether you are an online businessperson using article marketing or a freelance writer, you need article ideas. And as many writers will tell you, coming up with ideas can be quite challenging at times. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be. Keep reading for three simple ways to find fantastic ideas for all of your articles.

1. Utilize Forums and Boards — On forums and message boards, you can find great ideas for your articles. To find forums related to your subject matter, try a simple Google search. If you were writing about widgets, your search might be something like “widget forum” or “widget message board.” Ezboard is a great site that has thousands of different boards on every imaginable topic. Simply explore the forums and look for postings with lots of replies. The more popular the thread, the more likely it contains a great idea and plenty of information for an article.

2. Read Plenty of Magazines — Magazines are ideal places to hunt for article ideas. Try reading magazines that relate to your subject matter. You can often find plenty of good research material and excellent examples of what makes a good article in magazines. You don’t want to copy the magazine article, of course, but what you do want to do is find inspiration and information on your preferred subject. Because magazine articles are usually much longer than the average online article, you might even be able to write two online articles using one magazine article!

3. Harness the Power of Government Websites — Believe it or not, government websites are an amazing resource for any article writer. You won’t believe how much information you can find on a multitude of different topics. To find government sites on your preferred topic, do a Google search with the term .gov included. Such as, “widgets gov.” Or, visit http://www.firstgov.com and perform a search there.

By utilizing these three easy techniques, you’ll never run out of article ideas again. You may want to keep an idea file where you store all the ideas you’ve come across that you’re not ready to use. That way, you can simply refer to your file when you need a new idea. One precaution is that you should never copy or plagarize any material that you find. You can use the material, but you’ll need to write it in your own words. Great ideas plus original, high quality writing equals fantastic articles that can take your business to the next level of success!

To learn more about

article marketing research, get a copy of Jason Waganer’s special report
called “Article Marketing Power Tactics: A Blueprint for Article Marketing
Success”. You can get your copy at

http://www.contentfortunes.com/articleblueprint.
For more information on articles on
Internet Marketing, visit the Web Profits Blog Today!

I’ve been on Myspace for quite a while, and I’ve learned a thing or two about how it works. Myspace is huge; it is the largest social network on the internet. Everyone has an account, regular internet surfers, businesses, and even politicians have started to tap the power of Myspace. I’ve even gone into bars and made fun of girls for taking pictures for their Myspace profile and it always gets a laugh. You’ve already built a cool profile if not check out my article called “Myspace Image” You want to show everyone what you’re made of right? So how do you get noticed? There are millions of other people competing for attention, how can you possibly rise above all that competition?

Well first you need to decide who you want to show off to. Do you want to get a bunch of cute girls or guys to notice you, maybe you just want some random people to tell you how cool your profile is, or maybe you want to add everyone you used to know in high school. Well the best way to do this is using demographics. Demographics are a set of people that you can find on myspace based upon a certain criteria such as school, age, location etc. Use the Browse feature and set up the information and you’ll get all the results you could ever want. Then you can manually add each one by one.

I personally use a friend adding program; it makes life so much easier. It will automatically find and add Myspace friend for you and you can even use the same demographics. Want to meet a those single girls/guys in your area? Boom set it up and hit go, I’ve been having great conversations ever since. Want to show your music tracks to people all over your state? Boom set it up and let it go, I keep getting offers for gigs. There are thousands of potential uses, and more importantly there’s one for you. Everyone can find a way to improve their Myspace experience by finding a way to Add Myspace Friend.

If this is of interest to you, I run a website called MySpace Image that offers a bunch of cool things for your Myspace page for free, and under the Add Myspace Friend link, I have more information for you on using Friend Adder. Maybe I’ll be seeing you on Myspace.

The reason why a lot of people fail in internet marketing is the dearth of sources on best internet marketing strategies. Since most people who are involved in this business are conscious about the value of information, you will rarely see free helpful data to assist you in this venture.

Gather Information

Since your best asset in internet marketing is information, one of the most precise ways of attaining the best internet marketing strategies would be from doing your personal research and information gathering. There are lot of useful information that may not directly guarantee your success in the business but will give you points of analysis on how to choose or formulate one of the best internet marketing strategies.

Information regarding your competitors, public ideas, market needs, and prospected partners will be easy enough to gather and analyze. Neither are these types of information financially burdensome. However once gathered and handled carefully, these data can be crucial footholds in your climb to the top of the internet marketing business.

Product Study

Another approach that will help you attain the best internet marketing strategies is to better know and understand your products or services. Find the weaknesses and strengths of your product to help you market it properly. Knowing your product,s weakness will let you formulate ways to minimize the attention on these weaknesses. Knowing your product strengths lets you devise best marketing strategies that emphasize these strong points.

Target Market

For the best internet marketing strategies, you must also identify and analyze your target market. For example, if you are selling anti-aging supplements, ask yourself who your consumers are. It is used to be that anti-aging products marketing should specifically be targeted towards a certain age range of females. However, nowadays, the age range and gender distinctions for anti-aging products are becoming more indefinite. The best internet marketing strategies should be able to effectively market the product even to a widely heterogeneous target market.

Website Appeal

Since internet marketing is mainly for online businesses or offline businesses that have an internet presence, it is only to be expected that the best tool for achieving success will be your website. Remember that this is your sales tool, so the best internet marketing strategies generally incorporate website design and layout.

Additional Media

And lastly, understand that even the best internet marketing strategies will not be as effective alone as it would be if used in coordination with other offline marketing strategies. Learn to use other tools such as the telephone, fax, TV, radio, print, and mail marketing media to reach your customers. They will not only help sustain internet marketing efforts but will also give you a better hold on your customers.

Offline advertising is a safeguard against the possibility that your internet marketing efforts are not as effective as you wanted them to be. Remember that not all people may recognize your company over the internet. This means that not all people know that if they want to avail of your products or services they should go ahead and find you online. Introducing your company or business via other media will improve your market,s recognition of your company.

Written by Steve Pavis
In the last year Steve’s companies have generated over 1.5 million dollars worth of business using different strategies one of them been internet marketing online at http://onlinemarketingelite.com Steve is a leading expert with 25 years experience in the business sector has offices in both the United States and the UK. The most solid advice you will ever hear is “find an easy market” with little competition and research your keywords correctly, research is the key

Article Marketing, what is this ?
If you can write, you can make money. Did you already read that ? I did. It’s like the “Content Is King” formula. The words you write are essential. What you say determines your conversion rate. Adding content to your website makes it growing. And search engines love big websites, with fresh content updated regularly.

So, is article marketing writing for a website ? Hmmm, yes, and no.

Yes, you will write for a website : to promote it. No, because your articles will not be on your website or the one you promote. You will submit your articles to article directories. Of course when you write articles for your website to make it bigger and indexed by search engines, you basically do the same work : writing.

But the reason why this is not really the same is because of search engines, again. You know how important it is for your website to get indexed. If content is king, traffic is gold (or silver ? I don’t remember). Search engines love fresh content, but unique content. Search engines hate duplicate content and may not index your page if your article is already on hundreds of page.

That said, the articles you submit to articles directories should be different from the ones on your website. Yes, that means more work. And another question comes to your mind, should I submit my articles to all article directories. Again, if the articles is on hundreds article directories, this is duplicate content. From what I learnt, this is better you stick to several ones. I read that 10 or 15 are enough.

Here is a list of articles directories you should submit to :

EzineArticles.com (considered the best)
Digg.com
GoArticles.com
ContentDesk.com
ArticleCity.com
ArticleDashboard.com
IdeaMarketers.com
www.ArticleAlley.com

Check this page for more :
http://www.articlepr.com/Article_Submission_Sites.shtml

Now, how do you promote your website ?
Well at the end of your article is what is called a “resource box”. This is where you “sell” yourself. After giving useful informations to your readers, you can tell about you and your business. You are allowed to put a link to your website or to the affiliate program you promoted on your article.

The link. Why is that important ? Search engines, again. The more links you get to your website, the higher it will be ranked in search engines results pages (SERP). If you submit an article about a software and link to the software page of your website, this is relevant : the article content matches your webpage content. Search engines like this.

So be smart : articles directories are big websites, with lots of content, updated regularly. They rank high in search engines results pages. When people look for information, they can find your article. I read somewhere that it’s better having 100 articles from 1 article directory (100 links to your website) than only 1 article from 100 article directories (100 links too). I think the eZineArticles.com founder said that.

To avoid duplicate content penalty, you can try to change your article words when submitting to different directories.

Tom Leroy is an internet marketer. He writes articles on various topics and created several websites. You can check his Work From Home website to learn more tips about making money online.