vJdlyrKZ38T2sAHXJS2qtn8IzfIDxZ: 2012

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Landing Page Videos: What Do You Say?

Videos on landing pages and "video sales letters" have become super popular in the past year or so. When technology shifted and making videos became a LOT easier, videos became a new tool anyone can use to build a greater connection to an audience.

Having a video on your landing page or your homepage can cultivate a more personal, engaging experience for your website visitor. Not only can they read the text, but with a video, they can hear and see visuals to compliment it. If you're talking into the camera, they can also get to meet you. Because so much is taken in from first impressions, this gives you an opportunity to make a more lasting impression than text alone can.

Videos are also entertaining. Whether simple and goofy or professional and flashy, videos entertain as much as they can inform.

With that in mind, here's a few tips to guide you in making a compelling video for your landing page or homepage.

9 Elements of a Successful Landing Page Video

1. Grab the Viewer's Attention On the First Slide - Traditional squeeze pages have headlines that function as attention magnets for their visitors. In video, you may or may not have a text headline on the page. But you can add text to a slide and use that as your thumbnail on your video.

This acts as a headline because it's the most prominent visual that people will see once they enter your video squeeze page.

2. Establish the problem - Next, to really connect quickly to your audience, the key is to talk about THEM, not you. You want to acknowledge where they're at: what their problem is, how they got there, why they are stuck.

As humans, we have 2 motivating forces in our lives: to increase pleasure and to decrease pain. Some of us react more to one or the other--but we all respond to both. By identifying the problem that your viewer is facing as well as what they want to happen if the problem was fixed, you demonstrate to the viewer that you "get" them. This builds rapport. If you do it authentically, this can really catch attention right from the beginning.

Problems can be anything from weight loss difficulties, struggles in search engine optimization or even the inability to land a date. The problem you describe needs to be relevant to the statement you showed in the beginning of the video.

3. Put the problem into context -This might be what you call "twisting the knife"... it's emphasizing the pain the viewer is in because of their problem, then describing the result that will happen if they don't fix the problem. This is painting the picture of the nightmare future they DON'T want, to increase the importance of finding a solution to the problem.

4. Introduce the solution - After introducing the problem and giving your viewers a more aggravated perspective of it, it's time for your video squeeze page to introduce the solution.

This is when you present your free content that will help them with their problem. This free content is something you've created to help your prospects with this problem you've identified. It can be a free report, free video training, an app, a checklist, an ebook, whatever. As long as it's something that's of value to your market and you're giving it away free of charge, it's a compelling element that will drive the viewer to give you their email for it.

You want to be clear on what they're getting and why it's valuable to fixing their problem. It should be able to give your viewers a sense of hope and leave them with a yearning to find out more about you, your product or services.

5. State the features, advantages, and benefits - This is the part where you get into more detail about your free content. Features are the definite attributes what it is they're getting, like the number of pages, its total length if it's a video, its size if it's a physical product, and so on. Advantages, on the other hand, are qualities that make your content superior to others. Meanwhile, benefits are the end positive results of the features and advantages when they go to work for your prospects.

6. Issue a strong call to action - If your viewers are still watching your video after you've stated the features, advantages, and benefits of your free content, there's a good chance that you've already made a good case and you can now ask them to opt in. Tell them how to do just that by issuing a strong, clear and easy-to-understand call to action.

In a video squeeze page, this is very important. People will sometimes be clueless as to how they can get whatever it is you're offering them, so they need to be given instructions. Calls to action are usually as brief as "enter your email address in the field below and click the 'Get Instant Access' button to receive your free whitepaper." The call to action in the video should then be supplemented with a brief phrase on the call to action button for good measure.

7. Establish authority - Sometimes, your content alone won't be enough. You need to establish authority with the viewer as to why YOU are qualified to be the source for their problem's solution. Why do you understand them? What experience do you have? How qualified are you to be creating the content that will help them?

8. Set the deadline - Unless people have a reason to act fast, they often won't. If you can use scarcity, you can compel them to take action NOW instead of waiting and never doing so. Say that you're limiting to only a certain number of downloads, or only offering for a week, or offering a bonus to the first 100 sign ups. This creates more excitement so they don't miss on the opportunity you are giving them.

9. Issue a final call to action - After making it known that your free content offer won't be there forever, it's time to give your prospects another call to action. Tell them again to enter their best email address in the field below your video and to hit the action button.

The difference is, you'll be sprinkling in a little bit of fear and guilt this time.

Tell your prospects that, unless they act now and take you up on your freebie, nothing will change in their current predicaments and their problems can only get worse. It sounds a little dramatic, but it enforces the situation they are in, and why doing something as simple as entering an email can alleviate the pain.

There you have it! There's 9 keys to a successful video message that can lead your viewer to take action.

Consider videos you may have seen, pitching an offer or describing a service. Do you remember any in particular? What stood out for you?

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How To Make Money With eBay By Starting A Web-Based Business

The process of learning how to make money with eBay can be an ongoing one. The more time that you invest into developing your sales and marketing skills, the more profitable your efforts will ultimately become. Getting started can be relatively easy, however, it is always best to take it slow.

eBay is one site that allows consumers to post a lot of feedback on sellers. This process of rating merchants is very beneficial to buyers as it helps them to determine the best places to shop for the goods they want. For those who wish to sell on this site, however, it places a constant pressure for people to always do their best.

Due to this fact, one of the best ways to get your company going is by first taking on the role of buyer. This will help you to develop a consumer perspective of this process and the platform that makes it possible. There are essentially two ways in which goods can be offered or purchased. You can buy an item immediately by paying an upfront or flat rate price, or you can buy it at auction and vie with other interested parties in an effort to place the highest bid.

As a buyer, you will have an opportunity to gauge the different areas that sellers can be rated in. You can tell others how fast and efficient your seller was in sending off the goods and whether or not these things matched the listed condition. Some sellers go above and beyond by taking the time to communicate with buyers about the status of their shipments and to thank them for their business.

Once you have completed a purchase or two, you will have a fairly clear understanding of what the characteristics of a good online merchant are. The next step is to determine what you will sell and how you will build your stock. You can use wholesale and dropshipping companies for this end of your business. Both are affordable options and both will provide you with access to a broad selection of goods that people really want.

Another very vital aspect of learning how to make money with eBay is finding out how you will market to consumers. You can use the sales platform itself to attract attention by using keyword-rich listings and in-depth product descriptions. You can also use social networking sites and blogs to get the job done. By making an effort to invest a considerable amount of time into building your business and your understanding of how this site can be optimally used to generate revenue, you will be able to start gaining phenomenal returns from your efforts.

What Keyword Numbers Can I Rank Well For?

Keywords are probably the most vital ingredient to getting good traffic flow but as importantly targeted traffic because bottom line that's what you want & need.

Many people including us have quite a bit of difficulty in trying get their websites to rank well in the major search engines. It is definitely not something you can just do with your eyes closed, but as with many things having a foundation and starting your journey to the top of the rankings in the right way is very important.

Research is the absolute key

Many people want to rank for specific keywords, but have no idea what they are up against. It might be with some luck that they were able to find a keyword and rank easily for it, but in most instances that would not be the case. It is therefore crucial that you do some proper research at the start to identify the keywords you will be able to rank for.

Attaining top rankings for very competitive keywords are not impossible. It should just be looked at as a long-term goal. There are however often hundreds of related keywords you would be able to target and then in turn get to those top rankings with far less resistance.

Work out a Plan First

The first thing you should do is think about what your end goal is and think about: "What are keyword numbers that I can rank well for?" Explaining this with an example is the easiest way so here goes:

Here's An Example

Say you have a news website. It would be wonderful if you could start ranking for a term like "online news" or just "news". The problem is that you would then need to work past all of the major newspapers as well as sites like cnn.com and bbc.co.uk. So it is better to take a step back and rethink your approach.

A useful tool to use in determining the search volumes for keywords is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, I've covered this many times before in previous blogposts, it's a great tool, quick, simple and free to use. You can type it in Google and it will be the first result that pops up. When accessing this tool you can then type in the word "online news". You will see that it gets searched around 2,74 million times a month globally. Any keyword that has this many hits are usually very competitive and that means very difficult and time consuming to rank for.

Don't Try to Run Before You Can Walk

When browsing through the list below it, you will however see a number of related terms and they would have varying monthly searches. You can then start grouping these into different levels. For example get all the words that have over a million monthly hits, those between 100,000 and an million, those between 25,000 and 100,000 and then the rest under 25,000.

This is just a guideline and you can adapt it any way you want to. When you start out it would be the best to try and rank for the lowest group. In this group you will find many longer keyword terms, as I covered in my last post. Targeting these terms works better because you will be able to rank well for them a lot easier.

This point Makes Sense Picking the low hanging fruit just makes sense. Wouldn't you rather get 5,000 or 10,000 hits per month each from 5 keyword terms or no hits for a keyword term that gets 250,000 hits per month, but you are stuck on the 10th page? You would have put in the same amount of effort into both, but the path of less resistance will deliver positive results.

As you work on finding the right keywords to rank well for, you will quickly start to understand the value of ranking for the less popular keyword terms first. As you start getting more and more of these rankings, you will also see that you start making progress on the more difficult terms. The sky truly is the limit if you start with the right keyword research.

Make Money From Home Online With These Three Key Concepts

Creating a successful internet marketing business to make money from home online is entirely possible for anyone willing to make a substantial commitment and put in the necessary work. But there are a couple key concepts that you need to understand to be able to have a chance of success. Applying these concepts does not necessarily guarantee success, but a failure to understand them and apply them is almost certain to lead to failure.

Each of these concepts requires a shift from the way most people think. Most people learn as they're growing up from parents, teachers and others that the path to success is to do well in school, get a good education and then get a good job. Work at that job for about 40 years and then retire. But most people start to realize in their 30's or 40's that they're stuck on a treadmill that's not getting them to their goals, and that they're not likely to ever achieve the success they've dreamed of for years.

Fortunately, there's another way. Learn and apply a few key concepts and there's no reason you can't achieve the success you've dreamed of. And it's easier than you think to make money from home online once you understand these ideas.

The first thing to understand is that there's no magic button that will drop success into your lap. The hype that is so much a part of the sales pitch for most internet marketing products and a number of investment schemes is simply a bunch of empty promises. Believe the hype and you'll probably end up losing a lot of time and money while your attempt to build an internet marketing business accomplishes nothing.

So don't fall for the instant, push-button success sales pitches. An honest marketing company with a good network marketing or affiliate marketing program can rest easy knowing it has a solid product that can actually produce real results for those who are willing to work. Such a company will typically have a long track record, solid credentials, and numerous real testimonials. Find one of those and you're on the right path.

Too many people believe in the miracle, the instant success. They bet their dreams of success on a lottery ticket or trip to Las Vegas or Atlantic City or a $497 internet marketing training program. I'm not saying you can't go have fun in a casino - there's no reason not to enjoy yourself. In fact, your life should be all about enjoying yourself. But the lottery or casino is not your ticket to big money and a life of luxury - it's simply a form of entertainment. Poor people bet on that chance and pray for it to come into their lives. Wealthy people enjoy the game without the expectation of making money, and with the simple hope they might get lucky. Put your efforts into achieving wealth in a reasonable manner with work toward an achievable goal, and that leads us to the second concept.

Success can be achieved, and when it arrives it can be vastly greater than you might have expected. It won't show up instantly with a push-button miracle, but if you do the work needed to create success it will show up and you'll be able to make money from home online.

The key is to set a specific goal and set that goal at a level that might seem to be a stretch. For example, set a goal to make your current annual income your monthly income within a year. Is that attainable? Yes! Will it be difficult! You will have to work for it - there's no such thing as a free lunch. Will it be worth it? Only you can answer that question. Take that question seriously and contemplate it - would it be the fulfillment of your dreams to have your current annual income become your monthly income? What would you be willing to do to make it happen? Is it worth is to worth working 15 or 20 hours a week to achieve that?

Here's how I answer it - I will work daily to build my business to achieve the success I am seeking, and I will not let any difficulty or setback deter me. There is a solution to any problem I encounter, and the solution is usually easier than I think it will be. Success is mine, and I'm taking steps daily to achieve it. I will reassess my goals and reset them as needed until I achieve my ultimate goal, and I will not stop until I have reached my goal.

In order to measure your progress toward the success you're seeking, set intermediate goals. For example, if you're just starting out, you need to realize that you have to make your first sale before you'll start making $1000 a week. Yes, it's possible to hit the home run the first time to step up to the plate, but it's not likely. Plan to start small and grow your business, and hope for the home run! The idea that you can spend some money on a program and start making big money quickly is part of the hype mentioned earlier. Most of the people who are actually making money online have started slowly and put in a lot of work before they achieve success. Prevent yourself from getting discouraged by setting intermediate goals and then make a firm commitment to your success and work consistently to reach each goal.

The last concept deals with the value of investing in your business. Many people who attempt to start an online business will approach it timidly and are afraid to invest in their business. Their concern comes from not knowing if the investment will be worthwhile. If your cash flow is tight, spending $20 or $30 or more a month may be difficult on the budget. This is where learning to think like a business owner can make the difference.

Many people who are just starting out in internet marketing will worry about the $20 or $30 each month. An owner will look at the income potential, and realize that the expenditure required is small compared to the income potential. How much would you be willing to spend to assure yourself of an income of $50,000 annually? Would you be willing to spend $500 a year? $1000 a year? Realize that most businesses only see gross profits of about 20 to 25%, which means that if you were to open a coffee shop your expenses to produce $50,000 in annual revenue would typically be in the range of $35,000 to $40,000. Makes that monthly investment of $50 or $100 seem rather insignificant, doesn't it?

You can build a solid, income-producing business without any monetary investment, of course. But doing so means you will have to work for it. If you have the resources to invest in your business then you can achieve the results you're seeking quicker. Having no money to invest in your business is not a problem. It simply means you need to set your expectations accordingly. There are two choices here: either you build your business quickly with some effort and some investment in the business, or you build it more slowly with consistent effort.

Learn these three lessons and apply them. You can use them to create the success you wish to achieve with your online business. To recap:

1. There's no magic, instant push-button path to success. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.

2. When it comes, success will show up to match the expectations you have set and worked to achieve. Creating an internet marketing business that produces $25,000 annually is not very different from one that produces $250,000 annually. It's simply a difference in scale resulting from the expectations and goals that were set at the beginning and the effort applied to achieve the result.

3. An investment in your business, even a small one, can significantly speed up your results. It still requires work (you can't simply buy success) but the investment can make the work easier and reduce the amount of effort required.

Put these principles to work in your business and you make money from home online and realize your dreams of financial freedom.

How To Learn How To Sell On eBay Without Spending A Cent

Everyone needs a little extra cash from time to time. One of the best ways to pick up extra cash without having to get a part-time job is to use online auctions. eBay is one of the most respected and recognized online auctions and has been responsible for millions in sales. If you would like to learn how to sell on eBay without spending a cent, here are a few tips to get you started.

If you don't have a PayPal account you need to sign up and get your account verified so you can get paid. You can do this by adding your bank account to your PayPal account, or you can apply for the PayPal Extras MasterCard. Verifying member banking information is probably the most used method.

Sign up for your eBay account and decide what you will be selling for your first listing. Perform a quick search to see how much is being paid for similar items. You don't want to undercut the going rate for similar merchandise and lose money or overprice your item and not make a sale.

Create your listing with an accurate description. Use the model number if it has one so it will show up if someone uses it as a search term. The more information you use the higher the likelihood you will be matched with a buyer. Buyers will want to see what they are purchasing so you need to take photos of your item to upload. Remember, be very descriptive and truthful.

Photos help sell physical items. Usually if a buyer can see something from more than one angle they are more prone to making a purchase. If at all possible add more than one photo to your listing. If your photos do not come out clear and crisp retake them because bad photos will kill your auction.

If you already know how much you want from your auction you can select a fixed price. By starting the auction at a low price point and accepting bids you may get more for it. For bidding, set your auction at seven days. If you get questions about your auction, answer them as quickly as possible.

Once the items sell, you must ship them promptly to avoid getting bad reviews. That is all there is to it. When you learn how to sell on eBay it allows you to earn money for about ten minutes of easy work and the time it takes to ship the item. All things considered, it's the best way to make quick cash online.

Improve Email Deliverability With Relevancy, Segmentation And Testing

You will hear the word "relevancy" used frequently in the email world as it relates to email deliverability. Relevancy is key to delivering email to the Inbox. But what really is relevancy and how do you achieve this holy grail?

What is Relevancy?

Merriam-Webster defines "relevant" as "having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand." In short, a relevant email is one that matters to the recipient - it bears to the matters that are important to them.

How Do You Achieve Relevancy?

You can achieve relevancy by sending an email that:

- Is wanted and expected

- Is sent exactly at the right time

- Is sent only as often as it will be opened and read frequently

- Includes a subject and content specific to that recipient

Boiling all that down, let's reduce it to this: Relevancy means "sending the right person the right message at the right time".

Email marketing is effective when customers respond. Customers respond when they receive targeted messages from companies they care about. They like when they're emailed about things they've already shown an interest in.

Achieving Relevancy?

So, what is the key to relevancy in email? The answer is to think like your customer. Find out what they are interested in and why. Then you can use what you know about your subscribers so you can send them exactly what they want, when they want it. A key to increasing relevancy is through segmentation - Marketing Sherpa also found that companies with segmented campaigns produced 50% more opens and 30% more clicks.

Segmentation

Knowing that relevancy and segmentation are so important, how do we segment to increase relevancy and engagement rates? By following the guide outlined below for "Right Person, Right Message, and Right Time".

How to Send the Right Person the Right Message at the Right Time

1. Choosing the Right People

- Start with a great sign-up page to get the clear permission to email new recipients. For example, using a pre-checked checkbox will decrease the relevancy of your email, because many people who don't want your email will end up unknowingly "signing up." You want recipients on your list that have specifically requested your email - and are excited about getting it.

- Remove any subscribers in your lists that have not opened a message from you in over a year. The chance of any one of these subscribers actually buying something from you is about as likely as seeing Elvis walking down the street. It's not going to happen. Get rid of them. If you are paying a CPM rate to your ESP to send your emails, this dead weight is costing you a bundle. Even if you are paying a flat rate, you are losing money as a result of poor inbox delivery due to the negative mailing reputation this causes at the ISPs.

- Next, break down the remaining subscribers into 5 categories:

1. Inactive - No opens or clicks in the last 6 months - 1 year: Use win-back (reactivation) campaigns to wake up lapsed subscribers or direct them to other channels to receive your messages. Remove lapsed addresses that don't respond to win-back campaigns.

2. Fading - No opens or clicks for 3-6 months - You may want to decrease the frequency of emailing these recipients or use a strong special offer.

3. Active - Have opened or clicked a message in the last 3 months but have not purchased in the last 60 days.

4. VIP - Have purchased in the last 60 days - Treat your very best customers as VIPs with exclusive offers and content.

5. New subscribers - consider an auto-responder sequence to deliver a sequence of your best performing messages to new subscribers before adding them to the Active group. Or you may add these subscribers into your Active or VIP group.

- Track the click and open rates for each of the above categories, and use that data to improve your messages, or potentially determine any categories that are not profitable to email - where your emails are no longer relevant to that category of subscribers.

2. Sending the Right Message

- Put yourself in your customer's shoes and think about what would be important to them.

- Use a preference page to allow your recipients to tell you exactly what categories they are interested in when they sign-up. For example: "Special Offers" and/or "Industry News" and/or "Tips".

- Look at open and click information to see what kinds of email content is generating the best response, and use this to learn how to create more relevant content going forward.

- Your content and design should be short and sweet, and your offer clear and straight-forward. You may have one second of skimming to grab someone's attention before they delete!

- Use personalization and "dynamic-content" based off of tracked data such as first name, location data, past purchases, past email campaigns they have shown interest in, and any other relevant data that can be used to increase relevancy -- but don't overdo it. You want to create trust, not creep them out. Understand your audience.

- Make sure the web landing page is specific to the offer. Don't make the customer search around to find what you offered them.

- State a relevant offer in pre-header text which will still be seen even if images are turned off. Wet the reader's appetite so that they turn on images and read the rest of your email.

- Make sure your emails look right on mobile devices. A 2011 Neilson survey found that 45% of the time spent on a smart phone was used to check emails.

3. Choosing the Right Time to Send the Message

- Day of the week: emails sent Tuesday-Thursday have been shown to receive the highest open and click-through rate, as the mindset towards emails tends to drift Friday through Monday, with emails getting "lost" or ignored.

- Automate your behavioral emails. For example, automatically send a birthday greeting email with a coupon on the subscriber's birthday; send an email a certain period of time after a purchase; or remind a customer when it's time to renew or repurchase.

- Send email that is triggered by real-time events -- such as a welcome email immediately after subscribing, a cart abandonment email, or other relevant messages based on the subscriber's activity on your website.

- Drip Marketing Emails - These are similar to triggered emails in that they are prompted by an event, however these are a predefined series of messages. A series of welcome letters could also be drip marketing emails.

- Frequency: don't numb the reader. Subscribers who have been on your list longer will tend to respond less frequently, especially if they are inundated with too many emails. They may even unsubscribe because it all looks the same. Decrease the frequency to these readers or pause for a while, then offer them an incentive as a loyal customer.

- Set frequency limits - Don't over send. Especially with triggered emails, have rules in place so that you are not sending too many emails in one day or too close together.

4. Finally, test, test, test... then test again!

- A/B testing: Track what worked and what didn't work particular to each segment.

- Test separately for each of the 5 categories of subscribers (see above).

- Test for reaction (open rate, click through, and conversion) as well as Inbox delivery, complaint rates and unsubscribe rates.

- Remember that even minor changes can lead to a significant result.

- Always test during a limited timeframe to reduce the chance that your results will be skewed by time-based factors.

- For best results, only test one variable at a time when A/B testing. (If you want to test more than one variable at a time, use multivariate testing instead which goes beyond the scope of this article.)

- When a new champion is determined, run the same test more than once, perhaps to a bigger group to solidify the findings and to eliminate the "random chance" factor.

- Retest your champions periodically - reactions can change over time.

With attention to relevancy in your messaging and timing, mailing list segmentation and the results of your testing, you will see better delivery of your messages, and greater success with your email campaigns. The above are some of the many helpful tools and tips to consider towards achieving relevancy in email. However, sometimes choosing which steps to take requires an expert guide who is removed enough from your email campaign to see it with different eyes. If you are interested in experienced consulting to help you take your email program to a higher level, make sure you choose a knowledgeable Email Deliverability Consulting company that truly understands your email delivery needs and offers a complete solution to help you achieve the best results possible.

Introduction to Internet Marketing (Part 6)

Now that we've got those specific tips out of the way, it's time for some general tips.

Although these may be general, they are the most important...

1. Try the product for yourself, first!

This is vital to your success as a marketer.

If you haven't even used a product, then how are you supposed to give a genuine opinion or valuable information about it?

That's right...

You can't.

By trying the product, you can provide your potential customers with actual, valuable information.

This helps build the trust between you and the customer, and you know what that means...

They are more likely to purchase the product through you!

Don't feel like wasting money on a product just to test it?

Well you are in luck...

Most of the time, if you visit the Affiliate's page of the product creator's website, you can find some contact info. where you can contact the product creator and ask to sample the product.

Most of the time they will gladly comply with your request.

To find the Affiliate's page, simply search the site of the product you are promoting.

You will eventually find a link that will take you to the page. (Almost every product will have an Affiliate's page, it is very rare not to provide one.)

2. Only promote high quality products.

This one is kind of self explanatory.

If you are promoting low quality products, then what are your customers going to think about you?

Most of the time if the customer isn't happy with a product they will just request a refund anyway.

Believe me...

Recurring customers are a WHOLE LOT more valuable than a one time customer that you scare away.

Having your customers trust is the most valuable asset in this entire business.

SIDE-NOTE

All these statements about trust will make more sense later.

The techniques that I am hinting at with these "trust" comments are a little more advanced...

But believe me...

That is where the REAL money online is being made.

Money that can not only compliment your current job's income, but also completely replace it with more income than you thought imaginable.

These advanced techniques will be coming up!

END OF SIDE-NOTE

Think you are just going to stay anonymous?

Well good luck building trust...

Without building a respectable name, you are just like EVERY OTHER MARKETER OUT THERE!

That is not where you want to be...

Sorry I got a little fired up there...

It's just that building trust and having a good relationship with your customer is SO GOSH DARN IMPORTANT!!

Keep that on your mind tonight and try to let it sink in...

Pinterest App for iPad and Android Review

While Facebook dominated photo sharing even a year ago, the advent of Pinterest has totally changed the way you share photos these days. With the Pinterest mobile app, it has added more charm and ease to the entire sharing experience. While the web version is easy to use and manage, let's look at how the app works, for the iPad the Android platforms. Here's our brief review of the Pinterest app in the iPad and Android based gadgets, with respect to the available features, advantages and disadvantages.

Getting started with Pinterest: The biggest advantage of Pinterest is that you can get started very easily as it only takes a minute to set it up on your iPad using the iOS. If you do not have an account, you can easily link it to your Facebook account and get started. Once you have linked your account, the app asks you to choose from a series of photos to understand what kind of photos you are into. Once this is done, you are free to browse through the app as well as the web for photos that interest you and which you want to share.

Layout: The layout of the Pinterest app on iPad as well as the Android platform is the same as the web version. However, there are minor changes to incorporate the touchscreen factor present in the iPad and other similar gadgets. The layout is attractive and easy to use, making it really simple for a new entrant to become a master.

Functionality: Browsing for photos through your Pinterest is a little difficult with the iPad app version. Here, you can use either Google or Safari for your browsing, and once you have found what you desire to pin, simply use the Pinterest browser and type the address into it to pin it. That you can't pin directly from Safari could be irritating for some, but it is nevertheless a minor point. However, this is not an issue with the Android app as it easily uses browsers to browse and pin photos from the main app itself. Another problem related with functionality of the iPad version of the app is the fact that it often freezes when uploading or sharing photos, which often means that you cannot really get back to where you were when the app froze. Additionally, editing your board descriptions and profile information is often not possible from the iPad app and you might have to use the web version for the same.

Uploading photos: With the iPad version of the app, uploading your own photos is not possible. You might have to download another app like the Photo Uploader to upload your photos onto Pinterest. However, the Android version works like the web version, which allows you to upload your own photos.

In conclusion, it is safe to say that while the apps are really useful, iPad apps need a little more in terms of functionality tweaking before they could become really popular. The Android based app, on the other hand, is similar to the web version, which makes it better and easier to use.

How MLM Works As A Start Up Low Cost Home Business

So you would like to start an online business and you ran across this MLM Company online. They are almost too good to be true. If you work with them, they have you believing the sky is the limit to your success. They show you a wonderful pay plan and based on your initial investment you can hit the road running or start out slow. The presentation has you believing that you can achieve your goals and dreams if you just apply some effort and follow the plan that your sponsor lays out for you. But you are hesitant because you ask yourself "Is this how MLM works?" Is this all I really have to do?

How MLM works can only be answered by the person asking the question. MLM works differently for each person. Sure there are basic guidelines and rules that you must follow but for each individual the climb to the top is always different. The time you have to put into a business, whether it's MLM online or offline or a traditional brick and mortar business, will mean a lot. Your business since or your business education can make a mountain of difference. During your presentation to the MLM Company, I am sure you were told anybody can do this business and for the most part they are correct. But it almost every case there is a learning curve about the business and how each company runs its business. So you should always do your homework before making the decision to join any MLM.

Fitting in with the right MLM Company can make a big difference. Make sure that the MLM Company works for you. Make sure it fits you. Don't try to fit a square peg in a round hole. There are many MLM businesses to choose from.

One basic thing about how MLM works is you must sell some product to make money and you will need a team of people committed to selling product if you want to achieve the financial status of top distributor. This means sells of product and recruiting new distributors to work on your team. You must understand this because if you're not good at either sales or recruiting others you better get good at it quick.

Sometimes you find someone who joins a MLM company and in six months or less they score some big pay checks. However more often beginners struggle to make enough money to pay their monthly expenses to keep the business going. So understand that your income and or your success depend on your efforts and knowledge and resources. How MLM works is answered by asking yourself, "How do I work within a MLM Company?"

Many companies are very low-cost start. This low-cost is often the lure that attracts so many people. Do your homework and choose only what you can afford. This will minimize your investment and risk. Be sure to steer away from hype and high pressure. Remember you are looking for a win-win deal. You must keep in mind it is not just how MLM works, it's truly how MLM works for you.

How To Make a Living Working From Home

So many people today are looking for the opportunity to work from home. Unfortunately, when most of us seek out a work from home position we are typically looking for a job.

While there are jobs that can be done from home they are normally very hard to find. Some of the more reputable jobs that can be done from home are like a customer service agent. You can find more info on how to become a customer service agent from LiveOps.com

Another position that people tend to do from home are things like medical transcription, sometimes these types of jobs require classes and accreditation in order to be considered for the positions.

What People Don't Know

The thing that most people don't understand, especially those who are new to the internet is that work from home jobs tend to not be legit.

There are plenty of home based businesses out there, but those are just that - businesses. Not jobs...

If someone is looking for actual employment, then the likelihood of them finding something that they can do from home on the internet is next to nothing.

Why Work From Home Anyway?

Due to the turmoil in our economy today one of the most feasible explanations for one wanting to work from home is to save money on their commute.

With the incredible hike at the pumps it only makes sense that many people today would seek out telecommuting positions that enable them to work from home and not have to spend a small fortune on gasoline every month.

Another benefit of being self-employed, whether that be working out of the home or having a home based business is that it gives you more flexibility.

Many of the positions that can be done from home allow their employees to create their own schedules. Also, any home based entrepreneur can obviously work whenever they feel it is appropriate.

The Disadvantage To Being Self Employed

If you plan on working at home one of the advantages is that you are your own boss.

One of the disadvantages to being your own boss is that you are your own boss! What's that mean? That means that you won't have anyone around you looking over your shoulder harassing you and encouraging you to get tasks accomplished.

Therefore, everything will be left up to you, and you will be the sole person that is responsible for your success or lackthereof.

If you plan on doing any type of work from home jobs or business opportunities it is highly recommended that you perform your due diligence in researching the potential opportunites before hand.

How to Write Articles to Increase Your Lead Generation

Here is something to help write articles and launch your MLM business. You probably have heard by now that writing simple, 400-600 word articles is one of the best ways available to you for getting tons of free MLM Leads for your network marketing opportunity.

In fact, writing articles to get MLM Leads is one of the many killer strategies to producing MLM leads.

This is because it WORKS, it's FREE and thanks to this strategy you can now be on your way receiving endless leads.

In fact, this strategy has been the difference between spending endless hours "wasting time" with little or no results to show for it, and getting MLM leads, money, new distributors, and sales to flow into your network marketing business like clockwork, automatically. Practice this strategy for writing articles to get the same results while only spending 20 minutes of your time.

T stands for "Topic"

The first step is to pick your topic. A lot of writers think their topic must be related to the keywords that they're trying to target. But that's not always true. It actually depends on the next letter, P.

P stands for "purpose"

When you're developing the purpose of your article, answer these 2 questions:

What is the emotional impact you want to have on your reader? What action do you want your reader to take after they've read your article?

You don't want too broad of a purpose. You should write your articles to boost your website's search engine rankings, while also generating interest from your reader so that they'll want to learn more about your products, opportunity, or whatever else you're promoting. In other words, you're going to turn the reader into a lead for your MLM business through the interest that you generate.

And if you aren't sure how you're going to convert your reader into an MLM lead, you're going to do that by using what's called a Resource Box. The resource box gives your reader the opportunity to learn more by visiting a link you provided. That link then leads them to your capture page where they can leave their contact information and become a fresh lead for your network marketing business!

M stands for "main idea"

Answering this question: "What is the one thing you want the reader to get out of reading your article?"

Create a direct and concise "main idea" in the opening paragraph of the article - often in the first sentence. You're trying to generate interest from your prospect, and the best way to do that is to leave them wanting more (in a good way). So don't try to cover all the bases with just one article.

S stands for "supporting ideas"

This is the meat of the article. Make clearly defined supporting ideas before you start writing. Because if you fail to have clearly defined supporting ideas you'll only generate confusion from your reader... and confusion hardly ever converts into leads and sales for your MLM business.

But when you use this simple formula you'll be amazed how much faster you'll be able to write quality, lead producing articles. Just remember, consistency is KEY. The more articles you're able to write, the more free MLM leads you'll have flowing into your business!

Web Design for Internet Marketing

Building a website means you need to have a great web design to entice people into visiting and staying it more often. Scouring for a professional to do the graphic design of your site can be a little taxing as there are literally thousands of companies that offer such service not to mention those freelance individuals who really knows how to make a smashing website at a much lesser price.

Web designing could do more than just making your website look good. It can also be a means of internet marketing if done correctly. To do this, you need the help of an experienced individual to create a design that you can easily transform as part of your marketing campaign. The best web designer is one who has the following qualities:

1. Has worked on projects that are quite the same with what you have. He should be familiar with the functionalities that you have in your plan.

2. Prefers to make a clean and easy to navigate interface.

3. Must be experienced in branding his works.

4. Must have positive referrals from previous clients

5. Must agree with your budget for the project.

Web design sometimes make or break a website. There are a lot of people who do not spend too much inside a website due to the fact that the navigations are quite difficult to figure out. This is why at the start, upon hiring someone who will do the site's design and even the graphic design, you should be able to clearly state how you want your website to look and how it should work for them to have an idea how to realize all of your conditions and make it happen.

In order to avoid miscommunication with your designer, you should be front of the following factors:

1. Color scheme- stick to a single color scheme that your visitors will associate into your company.

2. Functionality- It should contain functions that are needed for a specific type of website that you will have. Whether it is for retail or if you want it to showcase your products, the users should be able to navigate the site seamlessly.

3. Objectives- Whether you want more visitors, subscribers, or just the bragging rights of owning such site, you should be honest about it to avoid getting a wrong impression.

4. Site maintenance- will it be easy for you to update? Will you need a thorough tutorial for you to be able to update the site? Or will you need the help of your designer every time you want to have a few adjustments in your site?

5. Mood- your site should have a certain vibe that kind of reflect at you are feeling. This creates an instant bond with them assuring you of precious hits.

Generally, you want your website to convey everything that you want to say to your visitors. It basically needs to be created according to how you view it in your mind for it to become effective especially for your internet marketing goals. A design could easily paint every idea that you have so had it done by a professional web designer who has all the capabilities to do it right.

How to Price Your Coaching Service

Are you charging too much?

The short answer is probably not, so good luck and have a great day! Really though, what fun is a short answer though without an explanation?

Pricing is a tricky subject because in many cases your feelings about pricing are also tied to your feelings of your own value in the marketplace and face it, we've all got self esteem issues.

You may not realize it, but your pricing is a huge piece of your brand. If you price yourself too low you're going to look "cheap" and will attract a much different clientele than if you are charging a premium price.

Then of course, you also run the risk of pricing yourself out of the market. So what's a coach to do?

You first need to decide how you want to be perceived in your brand.

Do you want to be the bargain brand, or the premium? There is nothing wrong with either choice, it will depend on the image you want to put out there, and what kinds of clients you want to attract.

If you're charging a lower price it will mean that you need to find more clients in order to reach your financial goals. So when you're figuring out how many clients you can feasibly serve a month, make sure that with your pricing you're going to be able to pay your bills. This may sound like a "duh" piece of advice, but you'd be surprised!

Try to steer clear of hourly pricing.

As a coach it is so tempting to give yourself an hourly rate, based on what you see other coaches charging. Sometimes hourly rates are okay for a one off appointment, but in general you should be creating coaching packages which will allow you to leverage your time and get out of that money for time mindset (for both you and your clients).

Another reason you want to get out of the time for money mindset is because it's easy to base the price per hour on the hour you are actually on the phone with a client, but there is so much more to running your coaching business and your fees need to cover those costs.

What do I mean by that? Well…you need to cover the cost of marketing to find clients, the administration of managing clients, the work you do to improve your coaching skills or coaching process, the time it takes for you to create worksheets and assignments, not to mention the in between session emails or question answering. Suddenly charging hourly for your time on the phone doesn't sound very lucrative does it?

You also need to know your market and what level of pricing is appropriate.

Do your research and check out other coaches that are serving the same market as you. Make sure that you don't compare your prices to the coaching world as a whole because depending on the service you're offering, and your target market, the pricing can vary greatly.

It always boggles me how much executive coaches can charge for nearly the same services as those that serve other types of clients. It all has to do with the market, what they can afford, and the value they associate with coaching services.

So know your market, and your competition and price yourself accordingly.

This brings us back to the self esteem issue in the beginning. Many coaches will price themselves dependent on how they feel they measure up to the competition which is a terrible idea.

You can't price yourself based on how you feel you measure up because, quite frankly you're always going to be underselling yourself.

Even if you think that another coach has more experience, or is "better at coaching" than you, they don't have what you have. Each of us brings a different set of experiences and talents, and they all have tremendous value.

So stop thinking of others as better, and recognize that they are just different. The value you bring to clients is probably so much more than you think and you'll be surprised what people are willing to pay for the results you provide.

Price is almost never the barrier to buying.

The barrier is the perceived value in exchange for the price. If you deliver killer results that are exactly what a prospect needs in that moment, then you could be charging the moon and they'd take out their check book.

During your initial consultation calls you should always be asking your prospect what has held them back up until this point from getting help to solve their problem. The answer is nearly always NOT money and by asking this you'll get great insight into your market and how you can overcome the actual barriers.

So do your research, find your sweet spot in the market that is in alignment with what your audience can afford, how you see your brand, and ultimately what you can quote someone without throwing up on their shoes.

Niche Marketing - Are You Making This Deadly Mistake?

Surefire advice and tips that will help you avoid these costly mistakes

Building a successful online business is all about careful organization, finding the proper niche market, and putting all one's effort to make the business a success. A lot of online marketers get too excited that they end up picking the wrong market because of a friend's success in a niche or rumors.

The foundational level is very important and niche marketing is all about building a successful business empire. Take it or leave it, if you fail in niche marketing, there's no hope your business will survive.

I care about your business and I don't want you to make costly mistakes in niche marketing, that's why I piled up useful insights and tips you should take into consideration before choosing a niche market.

There are so many things I want to begin with but I'll try my best to keep it short and detailed. Before I go into the main '' power gear'' in this article, I think you should know this.

Although there are so lots of information on the web about this subject, it's also very important you know the ''nitty gritty'' so you don't make costly mistakes.

Just because an online partner is succeeding by choosing a niche market doesn't mean you will succeed. Never base your decision of picking a niche market because of a friend or partner, center your decision on passion and careful constructed tips I'll be sharing with you in this content.

We'll also be discussing these mistakes and how to best avoid them.

1. Not researching the niche market.

The most costly mistake you should avoid is not researching properly the niche markets.

OK, how will you make money or succeed if you don't really know the market you're establishing your business in? I mean, it's really insane.

Help tip: begin with proper research. I mean, searching for what people are looking for in the search engines. ( Why would you waste your time searching for keywords that people aren't going to search for?). This is very important ( Please keep it at the back of your mind).

Another thing I advise you do is to target buying keyword. ''Buyer keywords'' are filled with desperate people who are willing to get solutions to their challenges ( they're willing to spend any amount to get out of the state they're in). Won't it be fun if you can offer them the solution and make more cash doing so?).

Let me give you an insight

The ''lose weight'' niche (although very competitive, there's still a better chance you'll make more cash if you know what you're doing).

You can browse through Yahoo answers to check through questions people are asking for in your niche market (this will help improve your keyword research and will make it more effective and productive).

2. Stocking yourself--choosing a niche you don't really know about.

Don't make the mistake of choosing a niche solely because of the traffic, instead look at the niche with the potential for expansion. Pick a niche that allows you to churn out lots of great content in a matter of hours. This is very important if you really want to woo ''mother Google''.

For example, if you wish to build a niche site on how to get rid of acne, you can choose keywords like how to get rid of acne effectively, how to reduce acne scars, how to cure back acne, how to cure acne naturally and much more... Did you see the keyword variations? It will give you the opportunity to expand your niche market anytime ( Which is really juicy to the search engines).

A helpful tip: never and don't think of building a niche site that doesn't have keyword variations ( very risky, it shuts the ''door of expansion'').

So many people believe that there are advantages in picking a niche market that's small ( there's a belief that there's less competition in this market). I'm not advising you shouldn't pick a small niche market, instead don't pick a niche market that's too small. These days, small businesses easily run out of customers or prospects to sell to ( Believe me).

Help tip: choose a market that's very big to test your services.

3. Choosing a niche you're not passionate about

Passion is the secret to any successful niche market. It's very important you choose something you're passionate about. Being passionate about it drives you to go the extra-mile to deliver your best. Pick a niche you're passionate in and be very hard working. With time, your efforts will pay off.

If you don't have the passion or you don't believe in the niche you're in, it will reflect in your content, the design of your blog, and your readers will sense your fears ( they'll turn back, and will see you as someone who has no confidence). Being passionate about a niche market gives you the inner drive to deliver your best.

Help tip: pick a niche you're passionate about, and with time, the cash will follow ( Trust me, I'm a testament to that).

4. Depending only on ''mother Google'' ( Keyword research).

Never depend solely on keyword research. I recently found out that people depend on software programs instead of crafting out their personal marketing program. This is very important if you want to speed fast your business. You should only use keyword research as a powerful tool of marketing.

Over to you-- your decision

So that you don't make costly niche marketing mistakes, ensure you put into consideration the above killer tips ( they'll make it easier for you to pick a niche that will make you more money, build a balanced online career, and makes you feel real good about business). Don't you want that kind of life? I bet you do...

Online Business Opportunities - What To Look Out For

In this article we will look at the main attributes that the best online business opportunities should consist of in order to increase your chances of success.

Use this as a checklist when deciding on which is the best way for you to start your own online business:

Automated Selling Of Information Products - Selling digital products in an automated manner is one of the best ways to earn a residual income from home. Many internet marketing beginners try to set this all up by themselves by creating their own products, sales pages, and a marketing system in which to sell them. But the easiest way to start a home based business is to sell products that have already been created and are proven to sell and already have a high converting marketing system that does the selling for you. The way to do this is to do affiliate marketing with your online business opportunity of choice.

Online Traffic Generation - Many businesses operate in the old school mindset of offline advertising and meeting people in person and talking over the phone to close the sales. But the easiest and quickest way to scale you home business is to use modern day internet marketing techniques. If you have a great offer and a proven system then all you need to do is send traffic at it. So make sure that either the business you join teaches you how to market online or that you learn techniques that drive traffic online yourself.

Sales Funnel - Make sure that the online opportunity that you are promoting has a sales funnel in place that will convert your traffic to sales. A good home business sales funnel will have low cost products to start with that sell very well and then your buyers are sent separate promotions leading them to buy higher priced products. At the backend of your successful home based business sales funnel you should have high ticket products in the thousands of dollars to really make your paid advertising profitable.

Keep All The Leads - Make sure that you get to keep all the leads when marketing products online. Don't just send them to a lead capture page where they end up on someone else's email list. You want to ensure that the leads end up on your list and that you have complete control over them to advertise what you want to them. So if your internet business opportunity also has access to the leads make sure that they don't interfere with your initial follow-up.

Turnkey Business In A Box - When you are a newbie you don't want to have to try and create your own products and sales pages and handle customer support etc. That is why in all my home business tips for success articles I recommend that affiliate marketing should be a big part of your online business opportunity of choice. That way you just send traffic to an existing offer and earn commissions without handling the customer support or selling side of things.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

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