How to Improve Your Search Engine Ranking on Google

It's been some time since the last article on Google appeared in this blog, giving tips on how you can improve your search engine rank on Google. This article updates the Google search engine promotion tips given in that issue and extends it with new Google search engine positioning tips.
Background: Google's Page Ranking Algorithm

As many of you are probably already aware, Google ranks a page according to the number and quality of links leading to that page. For example, if your page has 100 quality links leading to it, it will rank higher than another page that has only 20 links pointing at it. Quality links come from pages that are themselves "important" (Google's own terminology).

Note that this is not a secret. Google actually publishes information about their ranking algorithm on their website. You can read it for yourself at http://www.google.com/technology/.
Improving Your Page Rank on Google

There are numerous tips floating around in webmaster circles about how to improve your ranking in search engine results on Google.

1.
Get Those Inbound Links

Since Google ranks your pages according to the number of links pointing at your page, it stands to reason that you should try to get as many links pointing at your pages as possible. This is so obvious that I'm only mentioning it for completeness sake.
2.
Your Title Tag

(title) tags in the (/title) Google seems to give weight to the title of your page. By title, I mean the text that is sandwiched between the HTML section of your web page. If you use a Web editor that automatically inserts a title like "New Page", remember to change it to some meaningful text with your keywords inside to reap the benefit of this feature.
3.
Content-Laden Pages (Keyword Density)

It has often been observed that Google considers keyword density a large factor in ranking pages in search engine results, more so than many other search engines. You can read more about keyword density and how you can improve it on your pages from my other article, Improving Your Keyword Density for Search Engine Positioning, at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/keyworddensity.shtml
4.
Keyword-laden Links?

According to a paper published by one of Google's founders, if the links pointing to your page has the relevant keyword text in them, it will cause your page to be ranked higher in search engine results. For example, a link with the text "Cheap Shoe Store" pointing at your site will cause your site to be listed earlier if a visitor searches for "cheap shoe store" than if the link simply said "click here". You can find a copy of the paper online at The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine.

Other Google Tips

1.
Will Disabling Caching of Your Page Affect Your Page Rank?

Some time ago, it was claimed that Google would penalise pages that forbade it from caching their pages. As you know, Google caches the pages it indexes unless otherwise instructed. To avoid problems with people who feel that this is a copyright infringement (and other reasons), they allow sites to instruct the Google spider not to cache those pages using various means. One such method is outlined in my article on using META tags to manage the search engine spiders and listings, at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/metatags.shtml

Google has apparently publicly denied that disabling caching would affect the page's ranking in any way. I tend to believe their claim.
2.
Dynamic Pages and Google

Unlike some other search engines, Google is able to index dynamically generated pages, so long as a link exist to those pages somewhere. For example, a page like "http://example.com/showstuff.php?page=19" can be indexed by Google.

So if you have a dynamically generated page that you think should be indexed, make sure you put a link to it somewhere on your site.
3.
ALT tags on Images

If you have been placing images on your website without bothering to place ALT tags, now is a good time to add ALT tags. Google apparently indexes the text given in the ALT tags of images.
4.
META Keywords Tag is Ignored

Google ignores the META keywords tag, so, optimising of this tag is not going to help you any with Google.

The Google Toolbar
(You can download it for free on this page only. On the right hand side you may find it.)

The Google Toolbar can be obtained free of charge for Firefox and Internet Explorer. It gives you an idea of how important Google thinks your site is (in general) by showing the Page Rank of any page that you visit. ( Get Firefox with Google Toolbar )

Unfortunately, to obtain the page rank of the pages you visit, the toolbar actually transmits information about the pages you visit to Google. Thus if you are worried about people tracking your Internet activity, you might want to restrict its use to times when you check your site's ranking. You can easily enable or disable the Page Rank feature from its Options menu.

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Cloaking - Black Hat Or Not.. an info

According to Wikipedia

“Cloaking is a black hat search engine optimization (SEO) technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different from that presented to the users’ browser.”

DAMN! I am writing again a BLACK HAT SEO ARTICLE.

Cloaking is a term used for presenting a different page to human visitor whereas an entirely different page to search engine spiders or bots for the same url. Means the page you find at www.abc.com is entirely different than the page a Search Engine Spider find at www.abc.com

Cloaking is done by cloaking softwares that compare the IP address of the coming request for a webpage to a database of known IP addresses of specific search engine spiders. If the IP address matches one on the list, it serves a page that was specifically written for the search engines and if not than it shows a page made for human visitors. Most cloaking software has all the search engine spiders’ IP addresses indexed plus they are updated regularly.

So where is BLACK HAT In there ?

Ahh! I get it. You can build hundreds of targeted keyword rich pages designed specifically for the search engine spiders, or a link farm having 1000 links pointing to a website( HINT: USE 50 Links pointing to Google.com), while at the same time building a regular page for human visitors so they don’t get annoyed. So whenever a search engine spider visits your site, it is detected and sent to your that exclusive pages for them. On the other hand, whenever a human visitor arrives, the software detects that it’s not an IP from a search engine spider, so the human arrives at the non-exclusive such that a regular page.

A cloaking software see that following things when someone comes to a website

• IP address
• User-Agent
• The HTTP_REFERER header
• The HTTP Accept-Language header

Types Of Cloaking
There are two types of Cloaking

• User Agent Cloaking
• IP based Cloaking

User Agent Cloaking
In User Agent Cloaking, the cloaking script compares the User Agent text string which is sent when a page is requested with its list of search engine User Agent names and then serves the approp riate page. enerally, if a search engine spider requests a page, the User-Agent variable contains the name of the search engine. If the cloaking script does not detect the name of a search engine in the User-Agent variable, it assumes that the request has been made by a human being and delivers the page which was designed for human beings.

IP Based Cloaking
This is the more complicated method to do cloaking. It invloves IP address od search engine spiders. When a visitor (a search engine or a human) requests a page, the cloaking script checks the I.P. address of the visitor. If the I.P. address is present in the I.P. database, the cloaking script knows that the visitor is a search engine and delivers the page optimized for that search engine. If the I.P. address is not present in the I.P. database, the cloaking script assumes that a human has requested the page, and delivers the page which is meant for human visitors.

How Search Engine Detects Page Cloaking?

• If a site using user-agent cloaking method than a search enigne send a spider which does not report a user agent name.

• If a site using IP Based cloaking method then the search engines can send a spider or bot from a different I.P. address than any I.P. address which it has used previously.

• A Human representative from search engine. Emm. Well It may be possible

So Is this Technique still have Some Worth?

I don’t think so cause now Google don’t give importance to number of link but the quality and relevancy of link. So such type of thing now don’t work or caught after sometime resulting in that sweet ban in Google.

Here is great visual representation of the whole process of Cloaking.

This image and is from ELLIANCE: LINK. From here you can aslo find some more Visual representation if duifferent SEO Process.

Here is a Fire Fox Extension to change your user agent name to see if a site is claoking or not. Extension

Any suggestion or comments are welcome.

On-Page SEO

SEO is categorized in two major types

1. On Page SEO
2. Off Page SEO

On Page SEO
All the tweaks and changing you do for SEO purpose, directly on a website is termed as On Page SEO.

Important OnPage Optimization Factors Include

• Title Tag
• Meta Tag
• Keywords
• Navigational Structure
• Content (Heading tags, Keyword placement, formatting, Internal Linking)
• Images
• Size Of Page

TITLE TAG
and This is the title of your web page. It appears within the head section of html of your web page under tags . It appears in the search engine results. This is one of the important factors of onpage optimization. Here are some points you should consider to optimize title tag of your website

• Use unique title tag for each page of your website.
• Title Tag should be type in Proper Case
• Your title tag should not contain more than 64 characters
• Title Tag describe a page. So titles and content on the page should be related.
• Use your major keyword in title tag
• Don’t think title tag is a keyword tag.
• Don’t Use ASCII Characters in your title tag
• Avoid using Stop or Common words like AND , Or in Title instead use special characters like | or -

META TAGS
It appears within the head section of html of a web page after title tag. Major Meta Tags includes
description tag
keyword tag
http-equiv tag
meta refresh tag
meta robots tag

We need to optimize description tag, keyword tag and meta robot tag only

Meta Description Tag
Meta description tag is a tag fir a brief description of the page. It looks like..
(meta name="”description”" content="”Brief")

Remember these point while optimizing meta description tag

• Limit your description to at most 200 characters.
• Use unique description for each page
• Description must be relevant to the content of the page
• Start description of the page with major keyword for that page.

Meta Keyword Tag
Meta keyword tag is the tag contains related keywords for a page. It looks like…
(meta name="”keywords”" content="”keyword")

Remember these point while optimizing meta description tag

• Use your major keyword in each page meta keyword tag
• Don’t STUFF keywords
• Use the title tag keyword in keyword meta tag
• Never use same keyword twice for examle “keyword” and “Keywords”

Meta Robot Tag
Robots META tag indicate to visiting Web crawler that this page should be indexed, or links on the page should be followed. It looks like this..

(meta name="”robots”" content="”all”")
(meta name="”robots”" content="”index,follow”")
(meta name="”robots”" content="”noindex,follow”")
(meta name="”robots”" content="”index,nofollow”")
(meta name="”robots”" content="”noindex,nofollow”")

Beside these tags there are other tags too but they are of no use in ranking process.

KEYWORDS
Every single person who knows about seo cant deny the importance of Keywords cause all your SEO Campaign base on them. Keywords are the words that people use to search. All the words which are related to your site topic or market can be your keywords.

Here is a HOW TO CHOSE KEYWORDS GUIDE. Read it for better strategy to get most useful keywords for your site that will increase your site ranking in search engines.

When using keyword remember these points

• Use all your major keyword in the content of thepage
• Use major keyword in title tag
• Link those keyword to related pages of your site or blog.
• Use keyword in bold and itlaic.
• Use keyword in H2-H5 heading tags.
• Use your important keyword in first and last paragraph of your content.
• Use keyword in URL of the page
• Use related keywords instead of words like “READ MORE” or “NEXT PAGE”

NAVIGATIONAL STRUCTURE
Navigational Structure plays an important part in SEO process by both SE and human visitor point of views. If your Navigational Structure is too tough to follow than both human visitor as well as search engine spider will leave your site. no matter how much cool thing or service you are offering. This factor directly effects your site human visitors so better take good care of it.

Remember these key points when deciding the navigational structure of your website

• Use your major Pages Links in side navigation bar displaying on every page
• Don’t use buttons or java scripts for the menus, instead use TEXT LINKS
• There must be a HOME PAGE link on every page of your site
• Don’t use fancy fonts which are a little bit harder to read
• All your major pages should be no more than two clicks far from homepage

CONTENT
Every one has heard that quote again and again..

“Content is King” But its better if you alter that quote by “Good And Relevant Content Is King“.

This is the major On page SEO factor. Remember these points while creating content for your site

• Use relevant and Unique content
• Use all your major and minor keywords naturally in the content
• Use keywords in first and last paragraph of the content
• Link keywords to the related internal pages of your website.
• Use bold and italic styles in content for keywords.
• Use heading tags in content

IMAGES
Now a days many of you have already heard and read articles about imporantce of image optimization. Images are playing if not major than a good role in ranking in search engines. Here is an article on simple yet highly effecting tips for image optimiation.

IMAGE OPTIMIZATION(search in google)

SIZE Of PAGE
Your Page size must be between 50 to 60 K. It helps decrease the loading time of your site hence saving your bandwidth. Plus lesseer size pages have more good rankings than heavier size pages.

note*: use <...> instead of (.. ) in tags. I've used due to the inconstancy in posting.

mail me for further: mahaneesh@

11 Free Ways To Promote Your Site/Blog

To increase your site ranking or visitors, you have two options.

1. Pay someone else to do that
2. Consume Time

But you don’t always need money to increase your website visibility, ranking and visitors; which results in increase in your conversion. There are many free ways to do that. Here is a list of some highly effective free ways to increase your site ranking and visitors.

1) Submit Your Site to Directories
Directory submission is still means a lot in any link building campaign. Submit your website to quality directories. Here is a detailed article about Directory Submission Tips

2) Request Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal linking is a good way to promote your site and its free ;). Make a page on your website or blog offferign link exchange service. Remember these key points when doing Link Exchange.

• Always link exchange with sites that are related to your site market.
• Consider the amount of links on the page where your link will be placed
• Number of clicks from homepage to access the page where your link is.
• Use different Titles for link exchange
• Use your internal pages too for link exchange.
• See the site basic data in Google - Index page and Inlinks

Here is a more detailed article on How to get Link Partners: Link Exchange.
3) Write Articles For Others to Use In Their Newsletters
This is a good way to increase visibility of your site. Send your article to different sites and ask them to use it in your news letter and in return ask to remain your link in content.

4) Write Blog
This is the best way to increase your site ranking and visibility. Make a blog and cover all the news related to your industry. You don’t need to always create new content for it. You can use any news related to your market in your blog from other sources and give a link of actuals source in end(with some useless phrase). You have to just blog regularly which ends up in a great link-pot for your main site.

5) Press Releases
Whenever you write an article or introduce a new service, announce it via free press release service.

6) Offer Something Free
This is the best thing to increase your site backlinks and visitors at a same time. Offer some free tool, tutorial or service related to your industry. Make a buzz of it through Press Release and social media sites.

7) Forum Participation
Participate in Forums and put your site url in your signature. Don’t spam forums.

8.) Submit Your Article In Article Directories
Submit your articles in article directories like Ezinearticle. Put 2 to 3 links to your site anchored on your major keywords. Here is the detailed article about keyword suggestion and Analyze.

9) Social Network Sites
Participate in social media sites, like Digg, Delecious, Yahoo Answers

10) Submit Your RSS Feed in RSS Directories

11) Use Signature In Email
Always include your website url in signature when sending an email.

or mail me with subject "info" : mahaneesh@

Social Media And Social Media Optimization/Marketing - An Intro

According To Wikipedia (Yeah its still the best source to get any definition)

“the online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. Popular social mediums include blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs.”

Social Media is a kind of media that empowers people to create content and give them authority to classify the content as good or bad and let them communicate and met with similar minded people.

Types Of Social Media

• Blogs
• Social Networks like Mybloglog, Myspace etc
• Content Communities or Social Bookmark Sites Example Digg, del.icio.us, Flickr
• Forums
• Wikis

Social Media Optimization/Social Media Marketing

According to Wikipedia

“Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites.”

Since the theory behind SMO is same that is to drive visitors. It has eased the life of folks that always asking why there site is not getting visitors . You don’t need to be a professional to do SMO. Any one can do SMO or SMM for there website or blog by sticking to some basic rules.

The main goal you should consider is to increase your visibility and authority. You just need to show your presence that you exist. Brand yourself. Once you get the voice that influence then marketing or gaining exposure for something is not a big problem for you.

Here are some Do’s and Don’ts when doing Social Media Optimization o rMarketing.

What To Do

• Join different communities.
• Add friends
• Vote and comments on others stories
• In general Participate
• Be Gentle

WHAT NOT TO DO

• Spamming
• Bulk Messaging(Its annoying dudes)

Social Media Optimization/Marketing Benefits

• Provide links for your site
• Provide traffic that has interest in your industry
• Your Community or page at a social media site serve as an alternate page for your site helping you in ranking for your main website
• Increase your site visibility

In coming days I will write about top social media sites individually, giving a research data about each site which helps you to get more from social media. So don’t forget to subscribe the feed or you may miss something valuable.

Any queries mail me: mahan_eesh@ebizel.com

How to Make Money With Your Blog?

Make money blogging is fun

: you enjoy blogging and getting money from blogging. As long as "making money with your blog" is concerned, it doesn't matter matter actually whether you enjoy or not. The way generating money from blogging is the same regardless of whether you enjoy blogging or painfully doing.

Let's get to the point.

Every business has the same process. That is, make potential customer come to you and sell your product, service or information. Paraphrasing it into blogging term, let the readers come to your blog and make them click the link like "Buy now", "Join Now", "Adsense Ads", etc.

We call readers as traffic. And about how many out of your readers click the link refer we as conversion rate. Of course, the higher the conversion rate, the better.

Specifically, make-money blogging follows for steps:

• Step 1: You blog, if not, start blogging.
• Step 2: Bring traffic to your blog.
• Step 3: PREsell with your blog.

  That is, your blog content attract your reader to do some kind of action: buy your own product or go to the link you prepared, for example. But did you notice the word "PREsell"?. That's the most important thing in your make-money blogging plan. Many experienced Internet marketers say that people are not buying anything when you extensively try to sell something. This makes sense if you recall your own experience. Did you buy something when a blogger tried to sell something? Maybe not! Instead, give your readers useful information and create the warm mood by giving them the benefits of product that you have in mind. And then, only then place a link so that your readers click through. This is so called PREsell.

• Step 4: Monetize: This is your final goal and the monetization has two streams.

  -Sell your own product, service or information, if you have one.

  -For the blogger who don't have their own product, it's still possible to earn money from their blog thanks to the many affiliate programs among which most popular one is "Google Adsense". But it's just one example out of hundred affiliate programs. if not thousand.

In short, make-money-blogging is doing step-by-step action: that is, you blog, bring traffic, PREsell your blog readers and finally monetize. Without bringing traffic and achieving PREsell, it is not possible to monetize your blog. That's why you need to keep in mind the fact that make-money-blogging is step-by-step action. Due to the space limitation, I can't explain all the detail. If you want to know more about each step, you can read it from the article, what blog can make money?. or mail me @: mahan_eesh@ebizel.com

Getting Honest With The Search Engines

By Mahaneesh chandra.

Getting Honest With The Search Engines

I spend a lot of time reading newsletters and forum postings about Search Engine Marketing. More often than not, people are asking about methods used to improve Search Engine rankings: what works, what doesn't, and what will get you in trouble.

Search Engine*:

A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found.

Algorithm*:

A formula or set of steps for solving a particular problem.

Frankly, no one can predict what will happen from day to day with the Search Engines. Only the Search Engine companies themselves know if the algorithms will change from one day to the next. Even the Search Engine rules change from month to month, sometimes daily. Think of the changes that have happened since pay for inclusion and pay-per-click have taken over the market for Search Engine results.

It seems so simple to try and comply with the Search Engine rules. Even though optimization adds to the basic content of a site and source code, there are ways to approach this without stepping over the line.

We personally do not use the methods mentioned below (methods to avoid, methods to be wary of) in order to play it the absolute safest way, using a long term plan in providing you optimum ranking in the Search Engines.

Methods to avoid

* Keyword stuffing. "Stuffing" keywords into places where keywords don't belong, such as comment tags, image ALT tags where the keywords have nothing to do with the specific image

* Invisible text. Text color the same as background color

* Automated submissions. Using automated tools to deliver huge numbers of pages to submission pages of Search Engines

* Submissions to "thousands" of Search Engines. A waste of time, since the major Search Engines/Directories drive the majority of the traffic to websites

* FFA (free for all) links. Link popularity is good, but only when the links are relevant; a link from a page of random links is not worth nearly as much as a link from a site that is relevant to your site

* Search Engine Marketing companies hosting your pages on their server. The marketing company "owns" your pages, and if you decide you want to move them, you may have a hard time wresting them away. (This is not always the case with marketing companies that also provide hosting, but you need to carefully choose when using this option.)

Methods to be wary of

* Cloaking

* Doorway pages

* Maintenance programs

Cloaking*:

Also known as stealth, a technique used by some Web sites to deliver one page to a Search Engine for indexing while serving an entirely different page to everyone else.

Cloaking is very difficult to do correctly, if you do not have an expert providing this service you could well be banned by the Search Engines. There are ways for this to be done that are accepted by some Search Engines. In general, cloaking is not always accepted by the Search Engine rules and can be a gamble unless you are certain your service provider knows what they are doing. Check credentials and get referrals from people who have used their services.

Doorway page**:

A page made specifically to rank well in Search Engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the main content.

Doorway pages are not accepted as they used to be by the Search Engines. A carefully crafted doorway page done by hand is entirely different from an automated doorway page generated by software. A few well-designed pages are a far cry from mass generated automated pages sent in large numbers through the Search Engine submission page, which are often considered as spam. Again, check credentials and get referrals from people who have used their services.

Maintenance programs

There are times when a page drops from the Search Engine listings or you re-design the page which might give you a reason to re-submit the page to the Search Engine. Re-submitting your pages every month is not always necessary. Having a log stats program in place will help you see which pages are still listed, along with a monthly ranking report. If you have these tools you should be able to see if any of your pages have changed. Be wary of people who consistently re-submit your pages, since re-submission can sometimes cause your pages to be dropped if they are already listed in the database.

My own experience with a very large website I did Search Engine marketing for, showed that the older (longer) the pages were in the Search Engine results, the better for link popularity and ranking. Of course, paid inclusion can give you more security in having your web pages stabilized in the Search Engine results.

A good maintenance plan will include providing consultation, a ranking report, tweaking keywords in your source code as needed for a monthly/six month/yearly fee and may also include log stats so you can see where your traffic is coming from and what keywords your visitors are using to visit your website.

Methods that work

Good content Content is one of the most important items you need for your website. Once visitors arrive, you need to keep them there. Adding keyword-rich text that makes sense and serves the concept of the web page improves your ranking and keeps your visitors interested. The more text, the better for Search Engine spiders when they index a website.

Good navigation There is nothing worse than arriving at a website and having difficulty understanding where to go for the information you are seeking. Have easy to use, clearly marked navigation so your visitors click through instead of click-away in frustration. Search Engine spiders (robots) index text and links; having good navigation is important to the indexing of your web pages.

Title/META tags Individualized Title and META tags for each of your important web pages gives you the best chance for optimum success in ranking. Title tags are necessary for Search Engine ranking, in particular with Google's Search Engine. META tags have decreased in importance, but are worth using for clarity and search results. The META description is still used by some Search Engines as the default text indexed by Search Engine spiders for the search results. The keyword tag is the least important but is still used by some engines. My theory is, you never know when the rules of the Search Engines will change, or a new engine will want them, so take the time to include these tags in all your web pages.

Link popularity Links from other popular websites back to your website are one way of increasing your site's popularity. Finding websites with similar content (but not your competitors) and high link popularity, then trading links to be posted on each site, is one way of increasing your site popularity. Good content is vitally important because visitors who stay longer while visiting a website help measure the popularity of the site in the Search Engines.

Paid Inclusion Paying a one-time fee or (as is most recently the case) a yearly renewable subscription fee to be included in the Search Engine results. Directories also use this style of service to accept submissions. Paid inclusion does not guarantee that you will be listed with the Search Engine or Directory, but gives a shorter time-line of acceptance if they do.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Overture is the most popular PPC engine. You bid an amount per keyword phrase to get the highest ranking in the Overture search results compared to your competitors.

Google AdWords Select Google AdWords is a program that uses your chosen keywords in an ad in the Google Search Engine results in order to promote click-throughs.

Log Stats programs Having a log stats program is very helpful in tracking your visitors, finding which keywords they are searching on to enter your website, tracking which pages they leave from and much more. Analog is a good free log stats program. WebTrends is a popular paid logs program used by many businesses.

Free submissions take patience After paying for inclusion, try submitting to some of the secondary Search Engines and directories. Long before Google was a household word, I thought it might become popular and submitted the company website. It certainly paid off a year later when Google became the best of the upcoming Search Engines.

Another avenue to venture down are specialty directories. As the web grows larger over time, specialty directories (also known as vertical portals or "vortals") focused on your business area may help you get more link popularity and your company name out to the public.

Stay Honest

Stay honest, create good content and do your homework when hiring for services. Using affordable Search Engine Marketing services you will add to your audience exposure on the web. In this way you will always be ahead of the game and hopefully, ahead of your competitors.

How to Make Money From Your Website

by Mahaneesh chandra.

Now that you've got a website, how do you make money from it? There are at least two ways in which sites can make money:

1. Advertising Revenue
2. Selling Goods and Services

I shall deal with the second case, "Selling goods and services", in another article. In this article, I will address the issue of how your site can actually make money from advertising.

Making Money From Advertising

If you look at many websites, you will probably notice that there are banner advertisements displayed on most pages. If you are a newcomer to the scene, you might think that you must either be a company or that your site must be famous before you can get advertisers, just as it is the case in hardcopy publications.

In reality, anyone with a website can get advertisers. While it is true that if your site is well-known, you may get companies contacting you to offer to advertise on your site, you can get advertising revenue even if you are just starting out and your site is relatively unknown.

The way to do this is to join as an "affiliate" of various sites, either directly, or through an affiliate network. An affiliate network is simply an intermediary where you can select from a variety of advertisers.

Payment Schemes

Before joining any program, you should probably be aware of the different payment schemes available.

1. Pay Per Impression

   Here, you are paid according to the number of times the advertiser's banner is displayed on your site. The amount you earn is typically calculated based on the number of thousand impressions of the banner (impressions = number of times the banner is displayed), often abbreviated CPM (cost per thousand, with the M being the Latin numeral for thousand). That is, $5 CPM means that you get paid $5 for 1,000 displays of the banner. In general, the amount paid is usually small, but it is easy to earn since everytime a visitor loads the page, you earn. This is known as a "high conversion rate". Needless to say, this method will allow you to automatically earn more if your site attracts a lot of visitors.

2. Pay Per Click

   When you are paid per click, you are only paid when visitors click the advertiser's banner on your site. The amount paid is usually higher than the pay per impression scheme. Whether you get a high conversion rate here depends on the banner (whether it attracts people to click it), although in general, it has a higher conversion rate than the pay per sale method. A high traffic site will probably enjoy a higher click rate than a lower traffic site, although you will probably get better results if your banners are carefully selected to suit the target audience of your site.

3. Pay Per Sale or Lead

   While you will probably get the highest payment rates with this method, it has the lowest conversion rate of the three schemes. You will only earn if your visitors click through the banner and either purchase an item from the advertiser or take some other prescribed action (eg, sign up for a service). Like the Pay Per Click method, you get much better results if you carefully select your advertisers to suit the target audience of your site.

In general, to avoid wasting resources in issuing cheques for very small amounts, advertisers will usually accrue the amount owing to you until it reaches a certain level (such as $25) before they pay you.

Where to Find Affiliate Programs

You can find a list of affiliate programs and affiliate networks on google.com

To join an affiliate network or program, simply go to the site and complete their online application form. Some programs will give you instant approval while others require a human to check out your application before it is approved. Once it is approved, you'll be given some HTML code which you can cut and paste into your web page. Note that some affiliate networks and programs will not accept you unless you have a domain name.

How To Choose An Affiliate Program

How should you choose an affiliate program? My suggestion is not to choose a program according to the payment scheme, but rather according to the kind of people who are likely to visit your website. For example, if you are targeting parents on your site, links to affiliates with educational software, books and the like may generate more revenue than banners that link to web hosting companies. The most important rule of choosing an affiliate program is to know your target audience.

Another point to consider is whether you really want to join every single affiliate program that comes your way. Some studies suggest that sites that make the most money from affiliate programs are affiliates of only a small handful of programs. Furthermore, concentrating your advertisements from one network may allow you to be paid faster. If you advertise for hundreds of different affiliate networks on your site, you may wind up earning only (say) a few dollars per month from each network. If your advertiser's minimum payment amount is higher than what you can earn each month, it may take you a long time before you accrue enough to be paid.

On the other hand, that formula does not necessarily hold true for every site (or every page on your site, for that matter). For example, if your site has a particular theme, and an affiliate network only supports one or two suitable advertisers, you might want to sign up for a few affiliate networks so as to get a greater number of relevant advertisers. After all, advertisements that are relevant to your audience are more likely to be taken up than general advertisements. (What's the point of putting banners from only one affiliate if nobody is going to click them?)

Get Started

Advertising revenue is one of the most effortless way to earn money from your site. You merely have to put the banner there and wait for the money to roll in. (Well, okay, not quite. You will still need to have some visitors first before you can make anything.)

Why wait? If you already have a website, let it earn even while you sleep (literally). Every day you let your site "idle" without advertising is a day of lost opportunity.

All the best in your endeavour! Remember also to check out our other article, Increasing Your Affiliate Program Income, for more tips on earning from your website, mail me: mahan_eesh@ebizel.com

TIPS FOR SUCCESS IN INTERVIEWS

Tips for success in
INTERVIEWS

• Plan Ahead- Research the company and the position if possible, as well, the people you will meet with at the interview. Review your work experiences. Be ready to support past career accomplishments with specific information targeted towards the companies needs. Have your facts ready.
• First impression is the best impression. You will be judged by the way you dress. Your educational qualification, work experience, body language, manners, and ability to absorb the information and interpret it intelligently and clearly. so take care to be at your best.
• Carry your relevant documents in order- like certificates, copy of application sent, bio-data, etc. in a folder so that it can be easily shown when asked. Take a pen as well.
• Present the document only if the interviewer asks for it.
• Never be late for an interview.
• Listen carefully and pay attention to the question. If the question is not clear to you ask politely for a repeat.
• Reply confidently and immediately to the point, keeping your answers short unless asked for a longer description.
• While answering, look directly at the person asking the questions and try to be pleasant.
• Replies connected to any details regarding your biodata should be authentic.
• It is better to admit it if you don't know something.
• Remember to say 'sorry' if your opinions or answers are rejected.
• You can ask when you can expect to hear from them before you leave. Is the single most important quality to have for a model.

The job interview is your single most important step in securing employment. Failure at this point means all that went before it counts for nothing.

Also, it's your future in the balance. When it's your future in the balance, you need to deliver a superb interview performance.

We all spend time and effort getting: The right training, the right qualifications, the right experience, the right contacts, the right interview opportunity, etc.

But no matter how impressive your credentials are or how brilliant your experience is, it's your interview ability that makes or breaks your job application.

It's not the best candidate who gets the job ... the best interviewee does!

You may already know (or suspect) that there is much more to interviews than tough questions and clever answers.

Yet how much time and effort will you spend on actually preparing and training for interviews? Sadly, very little I suspect - even though knowing how to cope with and be successful at interviews is such a vital, yet simple skill.

Therein lies an opportunity for you, because your competitors won't be as well equipped for interviews as you. So it is also quite possible that you can beat other people who are are better qualified and more experienced than you, all because you came across better in an interview situation.

It makes good sense to spend some time and a little money to master this life-skill that will ultimately determine your career success or failure.

How to Impress for Success at Job Interviews is the exciting new interview guide that equips you 100% with the knowledge and skills that you need to successfully sell yourself to even the toughest interviewer.

Get the guide now... HOW TO IMPRESS FOR SUCCESS AT JOB INTERVIEWS

So you want to know the best advice for someone getting started in network marketing? Alright well I hope you're ready because here it comes. The biggest and best advice is to just relax. Well that's it, alright there is more to it than that.

Relaxing is absolutely essential to your success. There is about 500 things that are going through your mind when you first start up your business. You can think of 20 things that need to be done and they needed to be done yesterday.

When I first started my business I basically had a panic attack, true story. I ordered my product and then got a message from my upline leader explaining what to do next. I started to panic as I saw all the different "assignments" to be done. I felt as though I had to get everything done that day or something horrible would happen.

Then something occurred and all the sudden everything came into perspective. It's as though a light bulb turned on similar to the one you would see in a cartoon. I came to the realization that building a business is a process. Everything isn't supposed to happen all at once.

I wrote something out on a piece of paper and taped it to my computer monitor so I would see it every day. This piece of paper changed my views on my business forever. It read, "Relax, this is a process it will take time. Just make sure everyday you are moving toward your goals." Sounds pretty simple right? Well I still have that little note on my monitor and will never take it off.

I suggest you try it and see if your mentality changes, I can almost guarantee you will become more relaxed about the business building process. Say it everyday when you rise from bed, who knows you may even feel refreshed. My advice is conquering one thing at a time. Don't get hung up on the little things just concentrate on the important activities.

What do I mean by this? Don't go out and try to master every kind of advertising that is available. Pick one to start and get great at it then move on. In my case I started with articles, I would write two a day and submit them and all the sudden traffic started coming.

After the articles I moved onto PPC advertising and so on. Everything will come into place in the long run, trust me on this one. Just make sure you concentrate on one thing at a time. Remember that success isn't an overnight event; it is achieved through steady and consistent action towards an ultimate goal.

MLM made simple for you! What is MLM? It can mean all these things: Make Life Meaningful, Make Lots of Money, Meet Lots of Masters and Make Love More!

How do you Make Life Meaningful? Do you think there are millions of people out there who want to live a meaningful life? Who want to be happy, healthy and wealthy? MLM give ordinary people a great opportunity to earn extra-ordinary income! It works with powerful, proven and tested universal laws such as The Law of Cause and Effect, The Law of Multiplication, The Law of Averages and The Law of Caring and Sharing.

How MLM can help you Make Lots of Money? Ask yourself what you are doing now, does it gives you great leverage? MLM is able to give you great leverage because you will be leveraging on the efforts of hundreds and thousands of people! Is it easy to sell $100,000 worth of products yourself or to get 1000 people to sell $100,00 worth of products? Of course, the answer is the latter, because to sell $100,000 worth of products by 1000 people, all you need is to have each selling $100 worth of products! That's how you leverage, you don't want to do it alone!

If you can make 5% of $100,000 that will be $5,000 monthly residual income for you! $5,000 a month is a lot of money to millions of people who are struggling to pay their monthly bills! Do you think you can help make life better by working on this wonderful business?

In MLM you get the opportunity to Meet Lots of Masters! There are many successful people in MLM who are willing to help you become successful too because they undertand that your success is their success! Isn't it wonderful to participate in a business where people think "win-win" and are willing to go out of their ways to help you be successful? You are not alone, you have lots of support from top network marketers and the company support you with trainings and prospecting tools.

How MLM can help you Make Love More! Many people are stressed out by the rat race and when they return home, they are tired, frustrated and in no mood to make love! MLM gives you lots of opportunities to go on free holiday trips and conventions where you will be a good mood and especially for husband and wife team, the chances of you making love more is much greater!

Keep it simple and practise TTP which stands for Take The Products, Talk To People and Teach The People to do the same! MLM is a simple business and everyone is already doing it, recommending something good to a loved one, friend or relative! The only difference is MLM has a system to reward you for recommending something good!

For more information on how to get your free info on How To Be Successful in Network Marketing and onine coaching, go to: mail me at mahan_eesh@ebizel.com

Feel free to share this article at your website or ezine as long as the following information about author and website is included.

Let's talk money. Not numbers, but feelings. Because the way we feel about money says--and shapes--more about us than we realize. Usually money is seen in black-and-white terms: We have enough of it or we don't. "But money is also a hugely emotional, psychological and symbolic entity in our lives; we each bring our own meanings, emotions and experiences to our relationship with it," says psychotherapist Kate Levinson, Ph.D. In leading her "Emotional Currency" workshops, Levinson finds that such feelings can be a catalyst for personal transformation. "It's an incredibly good vehicle for seeing our issues and vulnerabilities because it touches on almost all aspects of life and it reveals deep parts of our psyches, including our needs, fears and desires," she says.

Money affects career and relationship choices, and shows up in issues of control, safety, self esteem and well-being, says Deborah Price, a money coach in Healdsburg, Calif., and author of Money Magic: Unleashing Your True Potential for Prosperity and Fulfillment. "Just about every decision we make, and much of our personality, is formed in some way, shape or form by our beliefs around money." Price, like Levinson and a small but growing new breed of money therapists and holistic financial planners, believes that talking about money is not just good for the bank account, it's also good for the soul.

Women, couples and baby boomers in particular seem to be responding to this new approach to money management. "People are looking for help with the whole picture," says investment advisor Christopher Peck of Holistic Solutions in Sebastopol, Calif. "There's a growing perception that things like money, feelings and what happens in your community aren't separate."

love and money

Equating love and money is a habit we often pick up from our families, says Price. Rather than saying "I love you" or spending time showing it, parents indulge their children with material gifts as a way of demonstrating or compensating for affection. When these kids become adults, they can feel unloved unless they are being given something.

Money can be a hot-button issue for women because it's intertwined with the concept of caretaking. "You could take two independent, capable people, but when you put them in a relationship, their expectations around money change. A lot of old stuff surfaces," says Price. Suddenly, a woman may feel that the man should be the provider, and if he isn't, then he doesn't love her enough, Price explains. Self-worth issues easily become magnified in relationships--and the lower the self-esteem, the higher the need or expectation.

That's what happened with a couple who came to see Levinson. Both partners were self-sufficient, with good jobs, incomes and credit ratings. But after their wedding, the wife began mismanaging money and racking up debt. Marriage uncovered her need to feel taken care of, and overspending was a way of asking for attention. Once the couple understood this, the husband made a greater effort to look after his wife--but in non-monetary ways like cooking and running errands. The wife's overspending stopped, and she had become aware of a powerful, hidden desire.

"When couples sort out their money problems together," says Mark Zaifman, of Spiritus Financial Planning in Santa Rosa, Calif., "they learn how to work as a team to solve other problems as well."

health and wealth

Money is the No. 1 source of stress for 73 percent of Americans, according to a recent survey conducted by the American Psychological Association--"and stress over money definitely has an effect on your physical well-being," says Zaifman, who teaches a Financial Wellness Series at Santa Rosa's Integrative Medical Clinic.

These connections are prompting experts to redefine their concept of financial fitness. "It's about attending to both the financial and the emotional aspects of our money lives, and integrating our beliefs, needs, values, relationships, passions and desires into our decisions about earning, spending and investing," says Levinson.

Advisors like Peck help create portfolios that reflect this. He wants people to ask themselves, "How is what I'm doing with my money helping to build a better world?" Similarly, Price queries her clients, "How are you using money in your life to transform yourself and the world around you?"

These are the right questions, says Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Life. "When our money life aligns with our heart and soul, that's financial wellness, that's prosperity," says Twist. "It's through the act of generosity that we experience our financial wellness."

strategy and change

So where do we begin? Price tells clients to write a "money biography," a personal history that documents their experiences with money from childhood to the present. Another tool she utilizes is a "life inventory," an overall net-worth statement. (See "How to Create Your Perfect Money Relationship," at right.)

Earning Money With Paid Surveys
by: Lydia Quinn

Can you really earn money taking surveys? The answer is YES! We've all seen them, advertisements, banner ads, even spam emails promising us extra cash just for taking the time to fill out a survey. But how much can you really make? What exactly do these companies want in return? Read on below to find out.

First, the survey companies actually do get a lot in return for their money. Whether they are researching and developing new products or experimenting with new advertising methods for existing products, the information these companies gleam from your consumer responses is invaluable to them. They can use your responses to find the right market for their product, gauge interest in certain products and even test advertising before they spend a huge amount of money on a national advertising campaign. Not only do the companies get a goldmine of information from consumer responses, but they can even use the aggregate information to form very specific ideas of what a certain market segment wants or needs. Consumer testing and surveys are one of the most important methods of research and testing that the big brand names use to research, develop and market their products, it's a win-win for them, for the consumer and for the people taking the surveys.

There are different types of paid surveys and they each have their own pros and cons, I'll list the two major types below:

Surveys For Cash – This type of survey is the most prized, because you give them your time and they pay you in real money. These survey companies will usually send you a check, but some of them send actual cash in the mail. Ranging from $2, $5 all the way up to $10 and $20. Higher payouts happen, but they are more rare and usually require much more time and information from you, such as keeping a daily journal of your shopping habits, Internet surfing habits or your banking habits or testing out actual products.

Surveys For Rewards – Some survey companies will offer you points for each survey you take, say 50 points or 500 points. Then these points can be redeemed for products, gift certificates, gift cards, airline miles and other items. Sometimes, the points can even be redeeemed for cash. There are more of these types of survey programs available since you must commit some time to faithfully taking the surveys they send in order to gain enough points to be redeemed for something worthwhile. However, these companies tend to send more surveys than the companies that pay cash, so you may have more opportunities to redeem your accumulated points for a cash or a tangible prize in the end.

Avoiding The Scams

Most survey companies are legitimate, but some you may want to watch out for. Listed below are some ways to make sure you are taking surveys for legitimate companies:

Reputation – Before signing up for a survey program, check it's reputation by doing a bit of research to make sure the company actually pays it's members or sends out their prizes. You can check with the Better Business Bureau online, check Google and the many message boards and forums dedicated to taking surveys and making money online in general. It should take you just a few minutes to find out if a company is for real or is just collecting information to spam you.

Privacy Policy – Make sure the site has a clearly stated privacy policy and be sure to read it carefully. Make sure they aren't going to keep and sell your personal information to third parties and that the information you do give is used for reasonable purposes.

Survey Directories – You can find some excellent listings of paid survey companies on the web. These directories will often have a description and review of each company. You'll often be able to see what types of payment or prizes they offer. Be sure to check these out. An excellent paid online survey directory is PaidSurvey24.com.

Helpful Tools

There are some helpful tools available for those that would like to take surveys but don't type very fast or well. One of the best is the Google Toolbar. It's completely free and installs right to your browser. Once it's installed, you should click the OPTIONS tab on the bar and check the box next to AUTOFILL. Then click the AUTOFILL SETTINGS button and fill in all the information there. This enables the autofill form tool so that you can fill out forms asking for your name, address, email address etc. just once and then you can simply click the AUTOFILL button on your browser to fill in each of these fields. Extremely handy and a HUGE timesaver! With the Google toolbar, you can also search Google without having to go to Google's main page, so you can research paid survey companies even more easily. You can get it from Google's site, just go to their main page and click on MORE, then EVEN MORE and then click on TOOLBAR.

In summary, while you may not be able to make a living taking surveys, you certainly can make some extra money and earn some nice prizes. So the question is not, why would you want to take paid surveys, it's why wouldn't you want to take paid surveys?! It's easy, often fun and has many benefits! Good luck!

About The Author

Lydia Quinn writes for PaidSurvey24.com, where you can find a completely free list of companies that will pay you or offer rewards for taking their paid online survey. Visit us at: http://www.paidsurvey24.com

New Ways to Earn More Money as a Writer
by: Pamela White

NEW WAYS TO EARN MORE MONEY AS A WRITER by Pamela White

One common theme among writers is how to make more money. Unless we have a spouse whose job includes health insurance, 401K's, and have a fortunate ability to pick winning lottery numbers, we all plot and plan to earn more each week, each month, each year.

Just like a varied diet keeps our health on track, a varied approach to writing keeps our income healthy.

A common dilemma is that once we get in tight with an editor at a well-paying magazine, the editor moves, the magazine closes, or both. Newspapers cut back on weekly columnists; magazines are narrowing down their stable of regular writers so it's hard to break in somewhere new.

While we are living with the changes in our writing opportunities, why not focus on opening new doors instead of fretting about familiar doors shutting in our faces.

Learn to write press releases. Every business needs someone who can write a kick-butt press release to get them free publicity. You can grab some books or search for articles online but writing a press release varies little from writing an article. It's just that you and the editors you're sending it to understand that you are pitching a story that they can run without paying for it. Add press releases to your resume and you can bid on freelance auction sites and earn over $120 per press release as a novice. Seek clients locally, build on your successes and you could end up living off your publicity earnings.

Love to write how-to articles? Why not expand on your favorite topics and turn them into ebooks? My first venture into ebooks was to take an old writing class that I was no longer teaching and simply turn it into one document, each lesson equaled a chapter. I turned it into a PDF, opened an account on payloadz.com, and sent out an email to my list saying I had a new ebook. I made dozens of sales the first week, and the sales continue today. Total time? I spent one day creating the ebook from lessons I had already written. You could do the same from information articles you've penned, or from information you have stashed in your head. You can sell ebooks from your website, booklocker.com, or on ebay.com .

Learn SEO. Imagine my surprise when someone asked me to write a series of articles based on instructions from his SEO advisor. I had to look it up. Search Engine Optimization is hot and will continue to be a skill that puts you in front of the parade of writers. Simply put, SEO is using keywords (or words that people use in search engines when looking for what you have to offer) throughout your website and meta tags that are picked up by search engines. You want your website to have the words that your potential readers and clients will use to find someone who will provide the services that you long to sell. Yes, it's getting more complex but for more website owners looking for a content provider, you can learn to use online programs that will help you determine which string of search words will bring the most visitors to any site.

Teach what you know. Write up a workshop, pitch it to a local college, church, association, group, or community center. With a little publicity, anyone can fill a class on the subject of her choice. Do you want to teach cooking classes? Would it surprise you to know that Food Network star, and now talk show host, Rachael Ray started teaching 30-minute cooking classes near her home to pay bills, and that led a local tv station to offer her a special, then weekly show. Then came a cookbook, Food Network, special appearances, and on and on. You may not make it as far, as fast as she did, but you can make money to pay bills by teaching workshops. People are willing to pay between $35 to $135 for a half day workshop. And as a writer, you know how to organize and write a class.

Try to get a column (or two). At one point I was writing four regular columns. I had to do little more than those to meet my financial goals. Start off by choosing a theme for your column, write down a list of 12 to 36 ideas and find local, regional and national markets. The guarantee of regular income each week or each month from a column is a wonderful feeling for freelance writers.

Prepare yourself for the ups and downs of the writing life by learning new ways to make more money!

About The Author

Pamela White is the author of Make Money as a Food Writer in Six Lessons (available at Amazon.com) and the publisher of two ezines for writers. Visit http://www.food-writing.com and http://www.thewritingparent.net to subscribe. She has had over 600 articles, short stories, and essays published in markets as varied as newspapers, Writer's Digest, ByLine Magazine, Home Cooking, County Families, Absolutely Business, Writers Weekly, Soul Matters, Low-Carb Energy, Healthy Living Today, and Spirit Communications.

Copyright 2006 Pamela White. You may use article in its entirety in any freely distributed ezine, print publication or on a website. You must include the about author resource box at end of article.

Are Your Strengths Under Control?
by: Brian Strachan

I first learned of this particular concept of strengths and excesses in the context of annual performance appraisals. Periodic performance feedback, coupled with an annual performance appraisal, is an integral part of a well-run business. Honest appraisals which inform the employee of his or her development needs are critical to helping the employee improve. They also help the business improve because its employees are improving their performance. It’s a “win-win” proposition.

Unfortunately, not all appraisals are honest. The one for the outstanding employee is easy to conduct and is a pleasure. The one for the marginal employee can be difficult because the discussion can become argumentative and contentious. I have seen too many managers avoid the tough performance appraisal by simply deeming an employee’s performance to be satisfactory and avoiding any discussion of development needs.

This is unacceptable because it is unfair to the marginal employee. Sooner or later the true assessment will come to light and it will be a shock to the employee. Perhaps it will come in the form of a layoff notice. Perhaps it will come with a new manager who believes in giving honest performance assessments. Whatever the form, the day will come and it won’t be pretty.

I never understood why many managers don’t give honest appraisals. Again, the employee deserves honest feedback. If a manager can’t conduct an honest discussion, he should not accept a position as a manager.

In one particular staff discussion this subject was being discussed. The general manager stated that he expected his managers to conduct honest performance appraisals with their people. He further stated that there is no need for the discussions with marginal employees to be contentious if the discussion is in terms of strengths and excesses.

The theory he was discussing is that no one inherently has any weaknesses. We develop weaknesses when we carry strengths to an excess.

Self-confidence is a trait we admire, we strive to have, and we count as a strength. If we carry the strength of self-confidence to an excess, it becomes arrogance, and a weakness.

Consider one’s ability to trust others. This is a strength and one which you need to develop as you need to delegate more to others. If you carry trust to an excess it becomes gullibility.

Being strong and forceful are strengths.
Carry them to an excess and you become a bully.

Being cautious is a strength. Carry it an excess and you become indecisive.

Being cooperative is a strength. Carry it to an excess and you become a pushover.

Taking risks is a strength and a necessary ingredient to being an entrepreneur. If you carry risk-taking to an excess you can become reckless.

Having ambition is a strength. In this case I’m thinking of the person with the desire and ambition to get ahead. You’ve recognized that in some people and you admire their drive. However, I have seen some people carry their ambition to an excess. They become obsessed with getting ahead and start doing some pretty dumb things which have hurt their chances. They carried their strength right into a weakness.

Again, this was presented in the context of having performance discussions with marginal people in a positive manner.

Like many of the lessons I’ve learned I have thought about them long after and have extrapolated them beyond their original context. In this case I have tried to self-assess my weaknesses to see if they are indeed strengths carried to an excess. Not surprisingly, the theory fits the case.

I feel one of my strengths is the capacity to speak out when I don’t agree with something being said. In other words, I am not a “yes-person.” I think of this as a strength which adds value to the organization.

In my later years I came to the realization that this strength was of value to me if I utilized it in moderation. If I carry my outspokenness to an excess I become argumentative. I have learned to speak out more sparingly and with more caution. I will speak out when I think something is wrong or if I think something can be done in a better way. However, I don’t play devil’s advocate as much as I used to and I’ve learned to pick my fights.

I think it is a very healthy exercise for everyone to periodically make a list of his or her strengths. You should know yourself pretty well and should be able to easily list your strengths. Which of your characteristics make you proud? What do you do well and which characteristics contribute to your doing that well?

Once you have your list spend some time thinking about what those characteristics would become if they were carried to an excess. Then ask yourself, “is there any characteristic on the list that I might be carrying to an excess? Are any of these strengths becoming weaknesses?” If there are, you need to consider what you are going to do about them.

From time to time you must ask yourself, “are my strengths under control?”

From the book “IT AIN’T OKAY TO FAIL”
By Brian Strachan

Visit http://www.brianstrachan.com for more information about “IT AIN’T OKAY TO FAIL”

About The Author

During the past forty-four years, Brian Strachan worked for the Navy Department, General Electric, AMF and Leggett & Platt. For almost four decades he has managed organizations in engineering, sales, marketing, and manufacturing. His leadership experience has ranged from leading a unit of six engineers to general management of four different businesses.

He is retired from GE and is currently continuing his career as Corporate Director of Program Management for the Leggett and Platt Aluminum Group in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization: Any difference?
by: Mikhail Tuknov

For many casual internet users, the terms SEM and SEO rarely enter their minds when they are busy jumping from one website to another. However, it is these terms that determine much of what comes out on the results page whenever we type in a word in the search tab of any accessible search engine. These terms are also responsible for all those advertisements and pop-ups that link us to even more websites, whether they may be connected to our original search or not. So just what are SEM and SEO?

In the simplest way possible, SEM and SEO are tools which website creators, especially those who are promoting and selling a certain service or product, use in order to gain a lot of exposure and better ranking for their website. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the simplicity ends there.

To make it a tad bit complex, SEM and SEO are not the same. As suggested by the names, SEM, or Search Engine Marketing, deals more with how a website is marketed to gain exposure in the different search engines available on the internet, while SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, deals with how the web creators develop and re-develop the content, quality and structure of their entire websites so that whenever an internet user types in a particular word in the search tab, their websites have a better chance of appearing on the first few search engine results pages (SERPS).

Now, to make it even more complex, although the functions of SEM and SEO seem different, they are more effective when used together. Since the main function of SEM is to gain more exposure for a website, the more common means for attraction are online advertisements, blogs, internet articles, partner and sponsored websites, and anything that can catch the eye of the internet user. SEM also makes use of PPC (pay-per-click) and paid inclusion to further push a website’s visibility. Lastly, it is also an important process in SEM to submit the name and URL of a website to different search engines and web directories if only to inform them of the website’s existence. All this is carried out to ensure the popularity of a website.

So how does SEO come together with SEM? Well, despite having all the advertisements provided by SEM, it is truly the SEO that allows the internet user to easily and conveniently find what he is looking for. Since the function of SEO is to gain a better ranking in the SERPS, the web creator has to constantly optimize his website in order to cater to the needs of the internet user and to make it easier for spiders or web crawlers to judge whether the website’s content is relevant to the word/s being searched. Optimization is not a simple and easy task. It involves having to restructure the website regularly (by editing the html code and meta tags, changing content, reorganizing the site map, developing an easier navigational structure, etc.) so as to adapt to the rapidly changing demands of the internet user. Still, when done properly, not only does SEO help a website become more useful and therefore, more often visited by the internet user, it also helps gain more exposure since it increases the website’s chances of gaining a better rank in the SERPS.

Both SEM and SEO success rely heavily on the words or context which Internet users type in whenever they search for something on the internet. Take PPC under SEM, for example. PPC is an ad that is triggered by a particular word or context used by an internet user. Once a particular word or context is searched, a corresponding PPC ad for a website comes out. SEO works in the same way. The web creator inputs a particular Meta tag (or keyword) in his html that he believes many internet users will use when searching for information, information which the web creator’s website may contain.

Although all of these processes involving SEM and SEO are tedious and time-consuming, it all boils down to knowing and serving the target audience. A web creator must be discerning enough to know what the internet users need and want, and at the same time he must have the real passion to inform and provide the internet users with the right service and product.

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How To Get Higher Converting MLM Leads For Less
by: Don Luttrull

If you are involved in an mlm or network marketing business then you probably have tried to find the best ways online as well as offline to get qualified people either to your website or to the companies website. There are many different ways to find qualified people who are actually looking right now at starting a home based business.

The thing that you first need to realize is that most people who are looking for a home based business are not actually realizing what it is they are looking for and for the most part are simply getting some answers. These types of people are the non targeted leads that you will find being sold by countless mlm lead companies online.

These types of mlm leads for one have a terrible conversion rate and also end up putting your excited mood into one that makes you start second guessing yourself and possibly the opportunity you are marketing. What is needs to not only help you build a successful mlm business as well as the right mindset to succeed is actual quality mlm leads from an actually mlm leads company with proven results.

If you were looking to compare mlm lead companies odds are you would start possibly with your sponsor or upline in the business you are currently marketing and this method is actually not the best method at all. What will end up happening is your upline simply trying to get a commission or a bonus off of you by sending them to one of the low converting mlm lead companies.

You may take the above statement as being rude or labeling all sponsors but in all honesty most people in mlm and network marketing companies are following the same pack of people barely making any real income. What you need to do is set yourself apart from the pack and become a leader in your company.

If your sponsor in your company and or business is trying his or her best to teach you the correct methods on building your business but has not actually seen any real success themselves then you need to find a new method in which to build your business. Mlm is mainly duplication of a proven method and if your sponsor is not seeing the large monthly income then that is something that I personally would not try and duplicate.

With all the many different ways to get mlm leads which can be done with pay per click accounts and even door to door methods there is one truly proven method that has the highest conversion ratio as long as it is done correctly.

You need to find a mlm lead company that not only has proven results but also offers you a residual income that will actually end up paying for your leads as your downline signs up under you for the leads also. There are only a small handful of mlm lead companies that are even worth comparing and sometimes they can be hard to sift through. Most mlm lead companies are selling leads that have been sold 1,000 times already and will not convert for nothing.

What you should do if you are actually looking to build a solid mlm business is to research and compare mlm lead companies. You need to look for a company that allows you to buy at minimum 72 hour fresh leads. Along with being extremely fresh you also need to find a mlm lead company that actually offers a monthly residual income plan. Having a matrix payout plan attached to a solid mlm lead company can actually end up paying out more then your mlm company is paying you.

Remember also when researching and checking the many mlm lead companies out there that you will most usually get what you pay for. Any company offering you 1,000 fresh leads a day for $20 is nothing but a scam style company and will end up giving you a very bad name in the mlm community. Find a company that has been proven successful and has mlm leads that are actually converting into real mlm sign ups and sales.

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These days, very few people can ignore the opportunity that the internet offers. Unless you are among the affluent few, internet home based businesses can give you a very large boost in your income. Thus, it is important that you understand how they work and how you can make such businesses work for your benefit.Internet home based businesses can help you earn a salary, and they can help you earn residual income as well. Residual income, of course, is money that you earn for a one-time effort, as opposed to a salary, which you only receive as long as you keep working. Residual income allows you to profit from something that you have already accomplished in the past, such as when an author receives royalties on a book that he has written, even if that book was written twenty-five years ago.If your concern is earning a salary, you will have no dearth of opportunities online. As long as you have a specialized skill, you should be able to find work. Telecommuting is now an accepted practice for most companies, so take advantage of it. You can sell your personal services on both a salaried basis and a freelance basis, whichever you prefer. Both have their specific advantages and disadvantages, so choose carefully. If you become a salaried employee, for example, you will necessarily have less control of your time, but a more regular income. A freelancer, on the other hand, only gets paid for the work he actually finishes,If your goal, however, is to earn residual income, then affiliate programs should be an important part of your strategy. Affiliate programs, as you know, are programs that allow you to advertise and sell someone else’s goods and services for a commission. Unlike what most people think, however, succeeding in affiliate marketing actually does require work – lots of it, at least in the beginning. Finding a good partner merchant and selecting a reasonable compensation package takes quite a bit of research, something that most people are unwilling to do. However, it is very important that you lay the right foundation, so spend some time here and look up what if currently available.As with every business matter, being able to trust you partner is important, so look up on your partner merchant’s record. If you know anyone who has done business with them before, be sure to ask them about the experience. You might even sacrifice higher returns with a relatively unreliable company to work with a more established one.Once you have established a relationship with a suitable partner, all that’s left is developing your site. There are many resources on this on the internet, be sure to look them up. Site building software is also available, so check that out if you feel that you need more assistance. As long as you put a good effort into the creation of your site, your internet home based business will flourish, and you’ll stand a good chance of earning through it for years to come