Thursday, February 22, 2007

Ecommerce And Advertising

Did you know the same rules that apply for print, audio and video advertising are also true for Internet advertising?

In the United States the Federal Trade Commission is charged with the enforcement of 'truth in advertising' standards - even on the web.

Interestingly, it is the web designer or advertising agency that must validate the claims of the business. Essentially the manufacturers claims must be validated if advertising is going to be distributed that will make a claim. Since the ad agency or the web designer may be held partially liable for the advertising on a site it is always in their best interest to make sure the claims of the manufacturer can be validated.

Because certain product descriptions are lengthy and certain claims have conditions the use of disclaimers (or fine print) may be required to ensure you are following Internet advertising laws.

The FTC does allow autoresponder emails to 'fill in the blanks' on Internet advertising in some cases. If a potential customer signs up for more information then a full-disclosure of the products claims, contest conditions or other disclaimers may be sent to the prospect as a condition of full disclosure.

It is safe to say that many online businesses either are unaware of these rules or simply believe they will never be caught, but the FTC does look into fraudulent advertising - even on the web.

Understanding the rules of advertising will not only help you avoid problems later, it can actually help you devise a credible, well established advertising campaign now.

When deceptive Internet practices become commonplace, we begin to see a drop in consumer confidence in ecommerce. In effect, when an online business decides to flaunt the rules it provides a lasting distaste for other ecommerce solutions - even those who are above reproach.

If disclosures or disclaimers are needed the website owner must either provide all information in a conspicuous location near the originating claim OR they must provide a conspicuous link that will direct the consumer to the full extent of the advertising claim.

This does not ensure that the consumer will actually read the claim, but it must be readily accessible to the consumer for their inspection.

If you are reading this and you are a consumer you should know that if you visit a site that provides some pretty incredible claims it might be worth your time to look for disclaimers or disclosure notices. If they aren't provided or can't be substantiated you may wish to visit another ecommerce solution that does.

About the author;
Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects.

Creating Traffic With Articles

Are your headlines prompting prospects to learn about your products and services or click to another web site or throw away your letter?

You will only make $100,000 this year if you first believe you can. If you do not believe you can you are telling yourself you want it, but it is truly not obtainable. The truth of life is that man's limits are self imposed by what the mind is given to believe. If you expand your belief of your own abilities, you will also expand your true realm of accomplishment.

An Affable Article

It doesn’t really matter who you are; you definitely know something or know something differently. It is our particular sense of logic and humour that make us interesting.

Interesting and informative articles are in big demand. Article directories meet this demand by amassing them in one location.

Who can do this or what qualifications are needed to submit articles?

Providing that the content is “clean”, anyone can submit, and the only qualification needed is that your article is interesting and informative, or close to it.

How to, why to, why not to, how not to, or anything in between, should be okay. If it is easy to read and worth reading, then it should be perfect.

Would you read it? If your answer is YES, then it is probable that others would want to read it.

From gardening snippets of wisdom, aliens to alligators, strawberry soup to strangulated hernias, people to pigs (transformations may also be interesting), simple to sublime, technical to basic, your perspective may be anywhere from useful to universal.

Does your English or language of choice (think global), need to be grammatically perfect?

The short answer is NO. Specific directories have specific guidelines or terms, but the webmaster/editors of these directories usually have “worldly wisdom”, understand that your first article may not circumvent the globe and also understand that with time and some experience, others might. These people don’t want to edit everything (too time-consuming), so some effort on your behalf is always a good and rewarding goal.

Benefits to individual contributors or writers:

Exposure.

More on Article Submitter Reviews at http://www.article-market.info/articlesubmitreview/index.html

This exposure is limitless and articles can be submitted to thousands of directories and any site that will accept them. All articles include a resource box. This is a few lines of information about the writer and can include a web address.

This address or u.r.l. is the key.

When the various search engines index the directory, the hyperlink to the writers chosen site is noted. This alone improves link popularity. Incoming links from major sites (as many directories are), will improve your chances of getting search engine traffic.

For example only; if two sites, using the same keywords and similar content are in competition (normal ), the one with links from high quality sites will be favoured.

So you get traffic to your site because of search engines and the possibility or probability of someone reading the article, by simply clicking your link.

Without a clear system of values for ourselves, it is impossible to believe in something with a passion that has no value to us. Once we have established our individual value system we are then able to determine how we can achieve success based on our priority of values. What must we five up in one hand to accomplish what we desire on the other. Without a value system we can never move forward for we may be trading without increasing our potential for success.

Here is why people have success backwards especially in the area of sales and marketing. They mistakenly go about trying to sell their product or service, thinking people will want to buy from them. Instead of thinking how can I be of value to others. How can I give away my value so I receive even more in return.

One of the main reasons for publishing articles is to generate keyword focused backlinks with appropriate anchor text. You want your article picked up by as many sites as possible.

Double whammy shortened; search engine traffic via linking popularity and your name or associated site/program presented for perusal. Sites lacking content go to directories to find content. This is “VIRAL MARKETING” at its’ best! That is around the clock, around the year, exposure. Such exposure can theoretically last forever, where the info. is good, amusing or of interest to people on this planet.

Brilliant! So how much will it cost? It’s FREE.

So what should I do?

Find or create a site to link to. Get a free one if necessary ( search engine, then, “free hosting”).

That’s great, but I’m a nobody!

I go to college or I’m an unmarried mother, a pensioner, a prisoner, a priest, or indeed, all five in combination.

That is great! That means that you do know something or know something differently!

Tell us (the world) about it.

Tell your grand parents that someone wants to know!

Tell your grand children that someone wants to know about your experience!

Enhance your resume/Curriculum Vitae.

Bring free traffic to your site.

Develop a new skill. Before the advent of the INTERNET, it wasn’t easy or nearly impossible to get “published”. All excuses are rapidly dwindling. Indeed, they are gone!

Maximise work already done ( you may already have a wealth of articles on you P.C.; just paste them into relevant category of directories and you can use your favourite search engine to find them).

You may have the stories within a diary or in your head. Unleash your experience and discoveries.

Within a local context (family, friends, work), your experience may be ignored, but the world is a different setting. Exploit it; it was never easier, and benefit from being a contributor to the INTERNET, and the people that it is meant to serve.

Benefits to the directories.

They amass volumes of information.

They get traffic because of this. Their respective content is favoured by search engines.

Summary.

Articles favour the writers and directories that support them.

Articles contribute to the free end of the INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY.

Articles are VIRAL (marketing speak).

Articles compliment sites that don’t have time or don’t have experience within a specific field.

ACTION.

NOW. You may forget tomorrow, what you know today so put it somewhere that it will be remembered.

NOTE; If you absolutely need to mention your mother-in-law, then you should mention her affectionately for you’ll never know where she could read about it.

Delete Vague Descriptions and Statements
Statements like, "Our purpose is to connect you with
information and resources to achieve your maximum
potential", could apply to a number of different
professions. It could refer to a cooking school, a
management consultant or an eldercare program.

Mastery of Communication - To take charge and run your own mind. To learn the techniques of NLP and no longer allow our mind to run our lives, but rather take charge of our own mental abilities and cause them to work for our own accomplishment of success.

FLYERS OR LEAFLETS: In the U.S.A they call it flyers in Britain we call it leaflets, they are both the same, you can reach new people offline through leaflets, write a decent,simple,short,advertisements of your business in the leaflets, give it to a printer,to print them out for you, make sure that you include your web site address and email in the flyers, then, share out to people, either through their door posts, or stand near a shopping centre where people walk past,and give your flyers to people walking past you, do not expect to get result from all the numbers of leaflets your gave out, but do not worry, you will get some few result, the few people are the people who are genuinely interested in your business,you can build your business from their on.

BUSINESS CARDS: Make sure you have business cards that contain your web site and email addresses, give your business cards to the people you know or meet. People rearly throw away business cards,ask the people you want to give your business cards to, have you got friends? or do you know somebody who like to save money on his or her shopping bills?,if the answer is yes,give some extra cards to them,to give to the people they know. This methods of marketing works well and work everytime,it will bring you some businesses.

About the author ;
More On Article Submitters. Compare Top 4.

How to Start an Internet Business? - Blueprint To Your First $1000 Online

Here's my experience. It is difficult to push your first internet business from ground zero to a success story.

It is difficult to make your first $1000 online. Once you do this the formula is simple. Just duplicate your success to build more and more success.

The biggest thing to get started is to not make huge assumptions like everyone says. Donot expect to make $1000 from your first month, this won't happen.

You have to take one step at a time and when everything is on the place making an autopilot income of $1000 is very easy.

Put aside your TV time every day and start working part time on your internet business. Atleast commit to give 3 hours per day to your internet business if you are stuck up with your job.

Make a list of your hobbies, your passion, topics that excite you the most. It can be golf, schooling, drinking soups or just hanging around at a multiplex.

Make a list of your interests and then research whether there is demand about the topics that excite you.

If yes, keep researching different sites and get ideas as to how they are doing business.

What are they selling?

How are they satisfying their customers?

How they have structured their website?

Is there something related that you can think of selling?

How they take you from a visitor to a customer? - Make a note of your entire journey.

Researching few sites will give you a whole lot of ideas about how to start your own internet business.

Research a killer product in your niche, create a stunning website with a killer copy, automate your website and start attracting lazer targeted traffic to your site.

There isn't enough room to show you how to do all this right here, but these are the steps that will get you in business.

The easy route you can take is to signup as an affiliate of a website and start promoting their products and make commission in return.

You will save yourself from hassles of product development, customer satisfaction, product delivery, support and lots of other stuff. All you need to do is promote your affiliate link and collect checks.

Once you get good experience in this internet marketing world you can get started selling your own products and services in your niche in future.

Whatever you do, I encourage you to take the first step and get started. You can thank me later.

Check out part 2 and discover one of the most profitable internet business you can start today and make upto 90% easy profits for lifetime...

Check out part 3 and discover the exact 4 block formula that will put up a rock solid foundation of your internet business to pull in profits for years to come, no matter what happens...

Check out part 4 and discover how you can quickly and easily get quality traffic to your site and get them to purchase your product and services...

The Best Home Based Biz Review

If you are serious about building long-term online income streams, and want all-round comprehensive training, as well as an extremely professional system that you can harness to start making from $300 - $1000 per day then you absolutely need to check out our top program - The Profit Lance Automated Wealth Course. We simply love it and have not seen anything so professional for such a budget price over the past few years. Best investment for 2007.

If you want to read on, then there are a few very basic and fundamental lessons you ought to learn before you start out trying to make money online.

What Ways Can A Person Make Money Online? There are literally tens of thousands of ways to make money online, and this is no exaggeration. As we speak there are hundreds of new markets emerging all the time. One can get lost in the sheer potential to make money online. However the easiest and quickest way to make money is this: promote and sell the products and services that other companies have already created and set up in exchange for a percentage of the selling price. This model is called "affiliate marketing". This is extremely easy because the tools to perform market research are so readily available. Tens of thousands of people are currently earning incomes equal to their day jobs by marketing online. There are also other established methods such as Google Adsense, selling information products and many others requiring more technical knowledge and experience.

What's The Secret To Making Money Online? In a nutshell it is this: Visitors. We call this "traffic". If you can successfully send visitors to a website, and not just any visitor but a visitor who has an interest in the product or service being promoted, then you will be highly successful. Now this sounds like a very simple concept. But it's one half of the picture. Provided that you can present the offer in the right way, you will be able to convert a lot of those visitors into buyers. So basically, you need to know proven and established ways of making money, and learn the skills and use the tools that allow you to get high quality visitors which in turn are converted to buyers. There are a few websites that we have found to consistently provide superb results and that teach the proven and established methods. Websites such as Profitlance.Com provide courses, online tools and ready made sites to teach people how to be extremely successful in making money online through some of the established ways already mentioned.

A profit of $300 per day is considered to be on the low end for people who have been successfully using these methods only for around six months. Provided you know the right methods and techniques and have the right tools and resources you can make much more than this fairly easily.

The Skills Needed To Make Money Online This is good news. You do not need to be a computer savvy person to be able to make money online. Because of the nature of some of the money making methods, you do not even need a website, and nor do you even need your own product. This is absolutely great news! Even better is that previous experience is not necessary either.

Beware Of Scams And Be Careful About Where You Take Your Knowledge From Being scammed, especially in the make money online field, is something most people will have heard of. For the most part, we can say that many companies offer good techniques and strategies for making money, but their products and their presentation of the information is very poor. Coupled with that is the lack of support and help once the purchase is made. Therefore, you have to make sure that you get good solid information, good instruction, and good support.

To make real big money is very doable for almost anyone provided they are equipped with the right knowledge, are given good instruction and are dedicated enough to reach their goals.

Programs like The Profit Lance Course have been designed to present the core techniques in a very clear manner, and provide the necessary tools and resources to ensure a person is not left on his or her own. As long as you have a real strong desire to be successful, and you lay down clear goals, with the correct knowledge, you will definitely reach your goals.

About the author ;
We Review Business Opportunities And Money Making Programs And Separate Those That Are Genuine, Legitimate And Offer Value For Money, From Those That Are Scams Or Rip-Offs.

Online Opportunities - Is email Marketing Dead?

Is the money still in the list?

I feel compelled to ask the question because of my reaction to Online Opportunities in my inbox recently.

You know the scenario. You switch on your computer to find maybe 30 or 40 new emails begging your attention. A quick scan tells you that 98% can be deleted without opening them. Why? Because you have been getting bombarded over a period of time with the same old stuff. New launch, resale rights, teleseminars, the best pay plan, joint ventures etc. Sometimes I even get 4 or 5 of the same offers on the same day from several Joint Venture partners. I wonder if I'm alone here, but I have reached the point where I just cannot be bothered reading them anymore.

I now only join mailing lists where I perceive I am going to receive something of value. So how many more people are feeling the same? And, if lots of folk are thinking this way, doesn't this make it more difficult for me to build my list and you to build yours?

Have we reached saturation point? I think the answer to that is...almost. So where do we go from here? How are we going to market our Products, Services and Online Opportunities. Free Traffic Exchanges are bulging at the seams with sellers, not buyers. Pay Per Click Advertising is becoming increasingly more expensive, especially for Affiliates.

RSS seems to be the way forward if you have your own website. The main advantage is it's Spam Free. People have subscribed to receive updated information so there is none of the problems associated with Spam Filters and trying to get your message across. When using RSS feeds there is no problem with placing an advert as long as the overall content is useful to your readers.

Speaking of content, I believe we have now come full circle right back to where we were meant to be in the first place. That is, building properly optimized websites with quality content that will bring the customers to us and enhance their experience by offering something of value. Online Opportunities can be promoted and sold without a barrage of sales copy and "in your face hype" when the customer derives some pleasure from visiting your site.


About the author ;

For good content and everything you need to profit online visit:

http://obo-opportunities.com

How Often Should You E-mail Your List?

Last month someone on my e-mail list wrote me a long e-mail calling me an "Internet whore." He went on to say he was un-subscribing from my newsletter. He added that I was "slocking ***** and that I had "lost my ethics."

I thought about the anonymous writer and reflected on what he said. It made me wonder how often any of us doing business online should send out our email. Weekly? Monthly? Hourly?

Are there any rules at all?

Let's explore this together ...

Personally, I only endorse products I use and believe in. Because of my perceived status in the world these days as a best-selling author and marketing guru, I'm contacted by dozens of people *per day*, all asking me to sell their latest what-have-you. I do not endorse or sell 99% of them. That saves me from mailing my list too often.

Usually, as in the case of helping Kevin Hogan's book hit #2 at Amazon and Peggy McColl sell $30,000 worth of books in one day using the strategy I taught her, I don't make a dime for my efforts. I'm not complaining, either. I wanted to help them, and did. But I did not profit in any way. I felt telling my list about their offers was a gift to my list. So I mailed them.

Often I will discover something that sets my soul aflame. That's what happened when I discovered "The Millionaire's Mindset" book from Slovenia. I felt it was a great gift to the world and am honored to share it with people. I'm profiting from that, and gladly so. It's an astonishing book. I didn't mind sending out three e-mails about it to my list. My list didn't seem to mind, either, as hundreds of them ordered almost instantly. My friend, Rok, over in Slovenia said --

"Your list actually outperforms lists that are up to 8 times bigger ... and it outperforms them by about 85%. Your last mailing (which was the third mailing you did for the same book) generated 85% more responses than any other affiliate mailing in the pack."

I continue to create new products, too. Obviously, I want the people on my list to know about these. And just as obviously, I believe these products will help them -- or I would not be offering them. They are not ***** or in any way fluff. They are all useful and inspiring. Even when I release three e-books in one week, I think my list should be the first to know about them.

So back to the question we are wrestling with:

When is it too much? When are you e-mailing your list too often?

Now what I'm about to tell you may shock you. But it's the key point of this article.

I think if you have something of importance for your list, you should tell them as fast as possible. If that means you mail twice in one day -- again, assuming you just got news your list would want to hear -- then you mail them twice in one day.

I did that once. I sent an e-mail to my list in the morning. A few hours later I received an e-mail with such thrilling news in it that I couldn't resist sending out a follow-up email. I did. I knew I might be flamed, but felt it was worth the risk. As a result, 12 people thanked me. No one un-subscribed.

Look, if you are doing business online and have news of value to your followers, why *aren't* you telling them?

I think the only reason you wouldn't tell them is -- fear of being flamed, which means fear of receiving hate e-mail.

If you are afraid of being flamed, then you probably know you don't have anything of value for your list.

Think about it.

I'll repeat my statement: If you are afraid of being flamed, then you probably know you don't have anything of value for your list.

Let me explain:

If I'm on your list because I want to hear of your new products or services, and you have a new product or service and don't tell me, I have every right to be upset. I should have been given first shot at the offer.

For example, I'm a member of the Kenny Wayne Shepherd fan club. He's a hard rocking blues guitarist in the tradition of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Well, I signed up for Kenny's email list to be notified of his new releases and concert appearances. You might imagine my surprise -- and disappointment -- one day when I saw a new CD by him in a music store, one I never heard about by any e-mail from him. While I was glad to discover the new music, I was upset that no one notified me. After all, that's why I signed on to get his e-mails in the first place. I un-subscribed.

Here's another example:

Another friend of mine is a professional entertainer. I sat in the audience at one of his shows and heard him tell people, "If you sign on to my email list, I'll send you occasional updates about my appearances." He added, "I won't abuse your e-mail and send you too much e-mail."

Well, he blew it. Anyone who signs up for his e-mail *wants* to hear from him, not just whenever he has an appearance, but whenever he has news of interest to them. In my opinion, the entertainer was thinking of himself, not his audience. He was coming from pure fear.

I also know an executive coach who mails his list once a quarter or so. I keep wondering, "Doesn't he have a life? Doesn't he have any news? Doesn't he ever come across anything he's excited about and can't wait to tell his list?" Apparently not. To me, he looks lazy, inept, or just plain scared. I would never hire him as a coach.

According to Newsweek magazine, 90% of all spam is sent from a group of under 150 people. You're probably not one of them. Neither am I. But if you were considering doing bulk emails to strangers (known as spamming), you should also know that one spammer admitted she got only 25 responses -- after sending out 1,000,000 e-mails. And naturally, even the 25 responses weren't what she was looking for. Never, ever, spam -- ever. It doesn't work.

BUT if you have a list of people who have *asked* to receive relevant information and offers from you, then not sending them e-mail when you have news for them is a big mistake.

Are you with me here?

I'm *not* advocating e-mailing your list mindlessly, just because *you* think you have something to say.

I *am* advocating e-mailing your list whenever you have news *they* will deem important. If that means every day for a week, then so be it.

Finally, what about the person who wrote me the flaming e-mail and called me an Internet Whore?

I have no idea who he is. He may not know who he is, either. I showed the e-mail to a peer and he said, "That guy needs a therapist." I don't know if he does or not, but the great gift in his e-mail is that he prompted me to again think about how often we E-mail Marketers should e-mail, and it resulted in this article.

I hope it has been thought provoking.

Now, I have another important mailing to get out to my list ...

======================

Joe Vitale is world's first Hypnotic Writer. To learn how you can hypnotize people into buying your products and services, check out "How to Write Hypnotic Articles."

Click here for immediate access: http://www.HowToWriteHypnoticArticles.com/g.o/isaacobumneme

isaac okoye

Can A Beginner Be A Success With Affiliate Marketing

If this is your first time in online marketing, it's quite understandable how
you may have seen or heard internet marketing spoken about as if it
were one big group of people scamming other people into scamming
more people. I'm sure you've figured out, that is definitely not the case.
This is a serious business, it's a real business, and it involves real
people and real products, even though many of them are published and
brought to our attention through a digital format, and many contain pure
information.

There are many reasons to promote affiliate products - no matter what
anyone says, there is lots of money to be made in affiliate promotions.
As long as you do it the right way.

Reasons to promote affiliate programs:

. No Customer Service
. Access to unlimited niches
. No product creation time
. No need to invest time and money in
product
. Bi-weekly/Monthly/Quarterly checks
. Self-generating income - even when
asleep
. Choice to promote more than one
program easily
. Minimum business investment

Now, nothing is perfect, so let's discuss some drawbacks of being an
affiliate.

. Only earning a certain percentage
. Not building a customer list/base
. Not being able to do Joint Ventures
. Having limited authority
. No control over merchant website/promotions

The main reason EVERY marketer should be involved in affiliate
promotions is because it immediately allows them to promote a product to
any niche in just minutes.

Affiliate promotions allow everyone to build a secondary waive of income
that generates itself (if done right).

What is an Affiliate Business?
-----------------------------------
An affiliate is someone who simply promotes other people's products.
Meaning you don't have to go through the headache of developing your own product, providing customer service, marketing, processing payments - nothing.

You simply refer people to someone's website and get paid every time they
buy something. It's a genius concept.

You never have the hassle with processing the order, shipping
the order, providing customer service - you do nothing more
than get that person to that website!

If you're worried that you can't succeed, or that people won't like your work, have no fear because you're not alone, and I believe that this is healthy to an extent. What you mustn't do is let your past experiences get you stuck in a rut, and get you all worked up about not being able to succeed in the future.

Everyone makes mistakes, and you can't please everyone all the time
even though it would be nice. So no matter what you do with online
marketing, or any other business for that matter, don't let past
experiences stop you from moving forward. If someone doesn't like your
stuff, that's fine, as long as you're comfortable with it, give them a
refund, or just take it on the nose, say ok then and move on.

Don't let this type of thing hold you back. I solidly believe that this is one of the big reasons so many people out there can't succeed, because although they may be working long hours and putting everything into their business, they're avoiding the things that they really need to do because of past experiences.

Don't fall into this trap, keep moving and be true to what you're doing. Don't hide from it. If what you're doing isn't working, you have to make a conscious effort to look at what you need
to do to move forward, then do it, because when you do, you'll find
yourself with a lot more cash in your pocket, a lot more spare time on
your hands, and a business that is moving forward not standing still.
This is a hurdle you will need to get over if you're going to get
anywhere in online marketing.

Read more about Affiliate Programs

How To Become Rich Without Investment or Products Online

An affiliate programs are internet merchant who will pay you commissions for every sales generated from your site or your links.

Join affiliate programs you like and interested to promote. Be serious to become an affiliate marketer because in the coming months you may become one of those who have became very successful earning 5 digits to 6 digits monthly income from affiliate programs.

Even without a website, you can still join any affiliate programs and enjoy huge commissions if you know how. Affiliate marketing is very easy and profitable anyone can do by just becoming serious and persistent to make a huge income.

There is a large shortage of affiliates in the market. Many people signed up to become an affiliate but do not have the skills and time to become successful, the future opportunities they have already started have already been thrown in waste. They will then blow off future opportunities simply because they failed with one affiliate merchant.

Learning and reading articles about affiliate marketing makes the difference.

You need to know many things about affiliate programs and affiliate marketing to become successful and earn huge income in the future. You need to research and learn from the best affiliate marketing articles gather from the internet that will show you how to become successful and how to start right in any affiliate programs. Persistence to learn and time is the secret to become successful from rags to riches.

About the author
You can join affiliate showcase at http://affiliateshowcase.com/?56424 -- Then learn all your affiliate marketing techniques strategies and guide at http://getrichinformation.blogspot.com -- Highly recommended products for any affiliates, businessmen, studens or people on the go around the world is a handy translation tools and software at http://ectaco-store.com/com/refid=24251