The Headless Newbie - don't burn that credit cardWritten by Marc Howlett
Copyright © 2004 Marc HowlettAre you a headless newbie? I know I was when twelve month ago when I started looking into setting up an online business. Whichever way I turned people were willing to offer me advice, e-books, freebies, newsletters, amazing money making opportunities, advertising, search engine placement and much more. This was great but my head started spinning and my credit card started to melt and worst of all I wasn't making a cent. I learnt a lot during this time and have started to see my commission cheques increase so here are my top 5 tips to help newbie with credit card rush to stop sit back and actually start earning some money. 1: Before you sign up for anything read sales page fully and see what you are actually getting for your money. Many of these pages contain a lot of information and tendacy is to skim them for interesting parts ie: How much does it cost. This is exactly what they are desinged to do, so slow down and read everything fully. When I first started I signed up for several programs just because they seemed to offer a lot for not a lot of money, this was true but none of it was at all useful. 2: Join some relevant forums and ask questions about affiliate programs you are interested in. People are only too happy to help and you will get some good honest feedback both good and bad. 3: When you decide on a program give it time and if it doesn't work straight away keep going. One of biggest mistakes is to jump from program to program to find one that will work. As with any business it takes time to build and see results so stick with it and keep telling yourself what brought you to internet marketing.
| | Work Smart: Sharpen Your Business!Written by Scott McGraw
Have you ever cut down a tree? Did you use an axe or a chainsaw? Was blade dull or sharp? If blade was dull, you undoubtedly found project to be a lot of HARD WORK! In contrast, if blade was sharp, you accomplished your goal a lot faster and with much less effort. No matter what project, we use tools to help us get job done faster and easier. A well designed and maintained tool will be much more efficient and will save us a great deal of effort and frustration. The tool will actually do most of work for us. In other words, working smart is better than working too hard. So it is with running a home business. Our work at home business is a tool to help us make money. How well it does that will depend on whether we are diligent at keeping it "sharp" and efficient. Take a look at each component of your home business. Typically you have: - Product or Service--this is what you are promoting, possibly an affiliate program
- Webhost--don't underestimate value of a quality host for your site
- Website--what everyone looks at, it represents your business
- Advertising/promotional plan--may include email, autoresponders, classified ads, ezine advertising, traffic exchanges etc.
- System for monitoring/tracking your website and promotional efforts--don't neglect this
All these components together constitute your home business. Why examine each part? Well, they say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.You can have a great product or service to sell, but if your advertising is "dull", not doing job, your great product probably won't make you any money. Now look at it from other side. If you have a "dull" product, something that nobody wants or needs, you had better have a fantastic promotional campaign. Even then, you're going to work much harder to make money than you would if you had both a "sharp" product and a "sharp" promotional campaign.
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