10 Free, Little-known Web Marketing Tools

Fine-tuning your web marketing efforts will likely increase their effectiveness. Here’s a collection of 10 free tools that can help.

Email Subject Line Suggester

MailChimp, the email service provider, provides a tool for suggesting subject lines for your campaigns. While it does require a free account to utilize the tool, the invaluable information you can glean from it makes it worth the effort.


Google Trends

Google Trends not only shows current hot searches, but it allows you to compare products, keywords, or ideas — displaying their popularity in comparison to overall search volume.




Browsershots

Whether you are completely redesigning a website, or simply making tweaks to the checkout process or lead generation forms, knowing how a web page will behave in different browsers is critical. Browsershots will show you screenshots of your web page in different browsers and versions.




AdWords Performance Grader

AdWords Performance Grader by WordStream, a pay-per-click management software creator, analyzes your Google AdWords account from top to bottom, attempting to show you how you stack up against competition in your industry. For the tool to work, you must provide Google account credentials.



Five Second Test

Studies show that people make decisions about a web site in less than 8 seconds. Your first interaction with visitors is critical to converting them to customers. Five Second Test lets you upload a sample of your site, have people view it, and then complete a series of questions about what they saw. To use the free version, you’ll have to return the favor, and answer questions about other websites as well.




Twellow

Twellow aggregates Twitter users and categorizes them by areas of interest. Dig in to their database to find tweeters that are relevant to your business, and follow them.




YouTube Keyword Tool

If you are implementing video into your web marketing, YouTube Keyword Tool can show you what kinds of videos are searched for on that website based on criteria you enter, such as themes and locales. It’s an excellent way to determine what is interesting to people at the moment.




Pingdom Page Load Speed Tool

The page load speed on your website has two primary effects: It can help or hurt your search engine optimization efforts, and, most importantly, it affects the experience your website visitors have. Faster is better. The Pingdom tool gives you a scorecard for your web page performance, and offers some analysis as to why your load speed is what it is.






On Page Search Engine Optimization Analysis

This free tool from SEO Workers, a search engine optimization consultancy, allows you to analyze key pages of your website for elements that are important to ranking well in Google and other search engines. On the report page, embedded YouTube videos explain what you’re looking at, and why it’s important.




Soovle Popular Searches

If you’re looking to understand what people are searching for across multiple search engines, Soovle will take a keyword you enter, and show suggestions for popular, similar searches on the engines of your choosing. You can even download the keyword ideas displayed into a CSV file for later use and analysis.

21 Businesses You Can Run From a Laptop

Maybe you’re a young kid who wants to start a business. Maybe you’re a college grad who wants to create a job (rather than finding one). Or maybe you’re a corporate mouse who’s fed up with the rat race.

In any case, the internet has opened up a world of opportunities for the entrepreneur-at-heart. Here are 21 businesses that you can start today and run entirely from a laptop and an internet connection.

Development

#1 Web Developer

According to SBA.gov, there were 29.6 million small businesses in the US and Ad-ology found that 46% of small businesses don’t have a website.

#2 Mobile App Developer

In 2010, the International Telecommunication Union reported that there are over 5 billion cell phones in the world and 1 billion of them have mobile broadband subscriptions.

#3 Blog Maintenance Provider

As tracked by BlogPulse, there were 126 million blogs on the internet in 2010 and most of them suck. Most bloggers think they just have to write, post, and auto-tweet. So if you know how to properly post a WordPress blog post, you can offer this as a service to serious bloggers.

Graphic Design

#4 Logo Designer

Since there are 29.6 million small businesses in the US alone, that’s 29.6 million potential logo customers. But most of them already have logos… Yeah, but very few of them have good logos.

#5 Web Designer

According to Pingdom, there are 234 million websites on the net. Like small business logos, most of these websites look terrible. And even the good ones, as you’ll soon see on Retire@21, know the value of continually improving the design.

#6 Book Cover Designer

Right now, there are over 32 million books on Amazon and every one of them has a book cover. According to UNESCO, over 1 million books are published per year. This doesn’t include eBooks.

#7 Mobile App Designer

Much like mobile app developers, there’s plenty of need for mobile app designers. Companies usually contract out to both developers and designers separately to create the app.

#8 Computer-Aided Designer

CAD drawings are typically 3D mockups and virtual prototypes that companies create prior to manufacturing a product. Pretty much every product design starts as a CAD drawing.

#9 Web Theme Designer

According to WordPress.com, there are over 53 million WordPress sites and about half of them are self-hosted. This means, WordPress alone has about 26 million sites that need themes.

#10 Videographer

In 2009, Zappos reported a 6% to 30% increase in sales for products with video. Website owners realize that video converts higher than any other form of content, so they’re starting to contract out for that work.

Writing

#11 Author

According to Authors Guild, a successful fiction book sells 5,000 copies and a successful nonfiction book sells 7,500 copies. Also, Jenkins Group (a premier publishing firm) reports that 70% of books published don’t make a profit. Don’t let these stats discourage you, but it’s hard to make a living as an author.

#12 Editor

Part of the reason books usually don’t earn back their investment is because they have to pay for an editor. You’ll likely earn more as an editor than an author.

#13 Copywriter

With 126 million blogs, there are 126 million websites that need content. If you’re a good writer and knowledgeable about a niche topic, reach out to the top bloggers in that niche and ask if they’ll pay you to write for them.

#14 Transcription

According to Worldwide Freelance, some industry estimates suggest that up to 50% of all non-fiction books are ghostwritten. Often, these books start as audio recordings and the ghostwriter transcribes and spruces up the content. This is just one way to make money as a transcriber.

#15 Translation

English is the universal language of business, but there are roughly 6,500 other languages in the world. Books, websites, manuals, etc. all need to be translated to other languages.

#16 Blogger

Much like authors, few bloggers make a living strictly from blogging. To attract advertisers, you typically need a couple thousand unique visitors per day. Think of a blog as a platform to attract other business opportunities.

Internet Marketing

#17 Search Engine Optimization

234 million websites compete to rise to the top of search engines. If you know how to optimize websites, you can help website owners save a lot of money on internet advertising.

#18 Search Engine Marketer

The other side of search engines is paid search. It’s not unusual for internet marketers to have $500,000 per month budgets for PPC (pay-per-click) and CPM (cost-per-thousand-impressions) advertising.

#19 Social Media Manager

Don’t let companies outsource their social media campaigns. But a service that helps people set up their Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus profiles is completely legitimate.

#20 Email Marketing Manager

Michael always tells you that the money is in the list, but it takes a lot or work to maintain that list. If you offer to create and automate the email newsletters, it’ll take a lot of pressure off their backs.

#21 Affiliate Marketer

To date, ClickBank has paid out almost $1.9 billion to affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketing is another way to make a living as a blogger and it’s the primary way that Michael makes money.

So what…

I know I gave you lots of big stats and that can be overwhelming.

To put it into perspective, Michael has partaken in or hired out at least 14 of these 21 services; this includes over $30,000 on web design updates to IncomeDiary.

There’s a lot of money to be made on the internet. If you have a laptop, an internet connection, and a working brain, the only thing holding you back is you.

You'll love all these free Internet Marketing gifts at the List Building LaunchPad Giveaway

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Can You Still Make Money Online in 2012?

For more than ten years of internet history, people have been researching and perfecting ways to make money online. Many of the people who found success early on then tried to sell their methods to other people. With the knowledge that thousands of people want to be able to work from home and that this process has been going on for years, the natural assumption would be that all existing methods are too crowded or overused to still make money online in 2012. Fortunately, this assumption isn't entirely correct. While there are many methods that are just too outdated or overcrowded to achieve a full-time income in 2012, the world of online business is constantly evolving. For every method that the internet has outgrown, there is a new, more automated, and more effective method that replaces it. For this reason, you certainly can still make money online in 2012. Because there is such a large demand for new money making methods that are easy to use, especially given the recent economy, savvy software developers and internet marketers are always trying to come up with new techniques to fill that demand.Although most people won't be able to immediately reach the success gained by those who got into the industry five or ten years ago, it's good to know that most of those "gurus" actually have an interest in seeing everyday people succeed. The more money you make with their methods, the more likely you are to come back to them in the future.Of course, that doesn't mean that every method out there will still make money online in 2012. There will always be people out there who aren't honest in their business practices who might try to take advantage of those who are just getting started with their online businesses. Make sure to take care in who you trust with your personal information and money to avoid getting scammed, and do a little basic research before trying a particular make money online method or program if you are unsure.Also remember that the number one factor in whether you will make money online in 2012 is how much effort you put in. As with most "real" jobs, you will have to put in some extra work if you want to take your income to the next level. So-called "push button" software might be able to make you some extra spending money, but it will take much more work to achieve a full-time income.The number one determining factor in whether or not you will make money online this year is if you are willing to try.

4 Ways Your Small Business Can Reach Out On Pinterest

As I am sure you are aware, Pinterest is being talked about in every coffee shop, hair salon and boutique from here to the Tatooie. But for those uninitiated, think of Pinterest as like twitter for photos and videos, but with a fun layout. Not only does your Pinterest wall show pictures and video from all your friends and followers in a scrolling box, Pinterest creates a captivating interface that posts pictures and video everywhere; up, down, left, right, all over your screen. Upon creation of your account, Pinterest will ask you your hobbies and interests and automatically connect you with relevant and frequent posters of content that fits your tastes. You can filter these posts (or pins) by topics or fans, thus allowing you to find things you are looking for instantaneously or just browse around and see who's looking at what. Pinterest welcomes new content and is a viral hotbed for interesting and fresh content.

The current profile of the average Pinterest user tends to skew toward women of all ages, but primarily those in the oh-so-precious 17-27 range, making it a hot new proving ground when marketing to those Millennials we've been hearing so much about. However don't forget about those guys out there. Men, who are typically later adopters of social media, are sure to jump in the game however as soon Pinterest picks up more steam and goes into the forefront of the social media world.

Unlike Twitter, Pinterest isn't about noise. However, it is about viral content. No need to post every photo from your last party here, save that for a Facebook album. Pinterest wants content that is fun to share, consider it visual bubble gum. Something that consumers can take in quickly, sweetly and be done with soon after. Using Pinterest in your everyday browsing is easy as all getout too. After registering your account, Pinterest will prompt you on how to install a "Pin It" button to your task bar which makes sharing the things you find across the web a simple and painless process.

Let's explore some ways you can harness Pinterest now to expose yourself to whoever your target market is:

Creative Use of Your Brand In Action

What are some fun or avant-garde ways to use your product? Show off the secondary and tertiary modes of use for your product or that special feature that your brand has that others don't. Consumers of your brand/product will either find it clever or relate to it a way they have or thought to use it; either way, people are likely to share this content.

Users Showing off Your Product

Brand advocacy and personal sponsorhip is all the rage in social media these days. After all, it is free advertisement. When you show off a brand ambassadors allegiance to your product, you make them feel closer to your brand. Support those people taking cool pictures of themselves with your project by posting them across Pinterest, be sure to give their page a link too!

Fun Modifications/Prototypes of Your Product

Has anyone added their own custom paint job to your product or modded it in their own special way? That is definitely viral, Pin it! What about a fun prototype version of whatever you sell that you've been tinkering with for fun? Like the idea I mentioned above in showing off creative uses of your product, show off these fun tweaks to your brand is sure may create a viral buzz.

Striking and Creative Advertisement

Has your ad team come up with a crafty or clever marketing campaign or print ad? If they have, Pinterest is a great place to show it off. A striking image with compelling copy can send your brand spinning across the site. Shoot to inspire, motivate, lead, or simply stand out from the rest.

There are many other ways to use Pinterest to your advantage. Frequent and compelling posting will prompt Pinterest to automatically make new users follow your account (just like it did for you when you first registered). By organizing your photos and pins on different boards and categorizing them by what your target audience wants to view, you will increase the virality of your content and make it easier for Pinterest to sort through and match you with random users. Make sure however that what you share is fun enough for anyone in your target market would want to share. And of course, like any social media campaign, don't forget to reciprocate.

What Exactly is Social Media Marketing?

"SMM combines the goals of internet marketing with social media sites such as Digg, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube and many others. The SMM goals will be different for every business or organization, however most will involve some form of viral marketing to build idea or brand awareness, increase visibility, and possibly sell a product or service. SMM may also include online reputation management. Most online communities don't welcome traditional direct or hard sell techniques so an effective SMM campaign will require more finesse to execute properly. SMM campaigns must be targeted to the community you want to reach with a message that appeals to them. Some common ways of achieving this are with authoritative information, entertainment, humor or controversy."

- Wikipedia 2007

Social media marketing can be thought of an indirect method of marketing your business. It is a powerful process which utilizes the principles of traditional marketing to programs with social ends that ultimately promotes your business through social media channels. Social media marketing is the new wave of online marketing and might be considered an indirect method of marketing. Traditional marketing focuses on immediate sales and gets right to the point. This is who we are, this is what we do, this is why you should buy our product or service, now buy it. The length of traditional sales cycles vary within industries but the goal is always the same - close that sale.

Social media marketing has the same goal but the means to the end are very different. It is generally frowned upon to try to do sell your product or service on industry forum sites, for example. Those forums are in place for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and networking. Most forums have a separate advertising section where businesses can pay for advertising. The idea behind participating in forums is to establish yourself as your industry expert. Sharing your knowledge and learning from those in the same industry or your target market results in exposure for you and your business.

If you provide helpful information, make constructive comments and ask appropriate questions, you will be offering value to potential customers and they will, eventually, come to look for more value from you. Naturally, your ultimate value is in the product or service you are trying to sell. The inherent problem with social media marketing is that it takes a lot of time and effort to achieve the eventual desired result - that being the sale. Many business owners either don't have the time to devote to something that does not provide immediate desired results (the delayed gratification theory) or they are resisting utilizing the powerful social media marketing available options specifically because of its indirect approach to sales and the time it takes to see results.

Social media marketing is really no different than social networking off the internet. When you attend a trade show or a company event, you are networking in a social environment with the desired result being to increase your customer base. Companies that sponsor golf outings, company picnics and other social events, often invite employees, customers and potential customers. What do these three groups of people do at these events? They socialize and network. Although some may develop friendships at such events, the main reason for and ultimate goal of such events is to increase the bottom line - meaning the company's profits.

The Internet offers massive sources for networking through blogs, forums, communities and of course the immense number of social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo, Dzone, Gather, Ryze, Squidoo, Tagged, Xing and many, many more. The networking concept is the same; the platforms are exponentially greater and different. The vast number of sites can be overwhelming (http://traffikd.com/social-media-websites/), so it is a good idea to focus your social networking on sites that are specific to your industry as well as some of the larger, widely used generic sites like Facebook, Plaxo, Linkedin, etc. I prefer to use the sites that are more business-oriented like Linkedin and Plaxo - but that is a personal preference. To me, my Facebook profile has information and photos that are more appropriate for friends and family than business associates, but there are those who don't agree. Again, that is a matter of personal preference.

For discussion purposes, let's consider traditional (or direct) marketing to be a one way communication channel and social media marketing to be a two-way communication channel. In traditional marketing, a business might send you a direct mailer, an email, or you might see an advertisement in a magazine. These types of marketing campaigns cost the business a whole lot of money and don't always result in large volumes of sales. Now consider participating in two-way conversations on forums, blogs and other social networking sites. You, as a representative of your business, are engaging in "conversations" with your prospective clients and hopefully providing valuable content (content is King in social media marketing). Over time, you and your business will become more visible (as you increase your online presence), your reputation and value will increase and in time, your prospective clients will know who you are, the value in what you are selling and where to find you.

I always like to put myself in the other person's shoes to understand where they are coming from. I don't purchase anything before going on the Internet to find everything I can about the product or service I am considering buying. I read the reviews as well as what is being said about the competitive product or service. This being said, why would I expect anyone else to not do the same? If you think about social media marketing in these terms, its value, albeit a time-consuming process, may become more apparent to you.

It is important to keep in mind that social networks consist of loyal and engaging large audiences. Social media marketing can greatly benefit any business as it compliments your brand (an incredibly important topic in its own right), business and online profile. However, social media marketing takes time and serious dedication but the ultimate return you will receive will be well worth the time spent.

Whether or not a business owner embraces the value of social media marketing, there is no escaping the fact that the Internet is the new frontier for marketing. Social media has taken on a life of its own and if you have not jumped on the bandwagon, you are missing the boat. Social media marketing can greatly benefit any business as it compliments your brand, business and online profile.


Julie Weishaar is a creative and highly qualified Marketing professional with a broad-based background encompassing exceptional work ethic, proven creative marketing techniques and commitment to corporate objectives. Proactive manager, team builder and tactical planner with the ability to attract and secure key players in building strong and lasting business relationships.

The Blueprint to Creating a Successful Online Home Business

Creating your online home business can be one of the most fulfilling things you will ever do. Making it successful would not only boost your self esteem, but would also put you in a strong position to take care of your family and help many other people. Successful online home business entails the following:

Develop a business plan

A business plan helps you have clear cut goals and strategies. It also helps you identify your strengths or weaknesses as well as provide you with an opportunity to analyze your competition.

Choose a niche

You need to specialize in your chosen field to be successful. Many people fail because they try handling too many products at once in the beginning. By concentrating on one particular product or a few products in one niche, your success rate is heightened immensely. Make sure that the niche you choose is profitable by doing a thorough research before you invest your time and money

Register your own domain name

A domain name costs less than $10 a year, but goes a long way in establishing your presence on the internet. Having your own domain name shows that you are serious and professional about your online home business. Don't be tempted to go for the free sub-domains that are always being peddled on the internet. The domain name that you choose should ideally have your keywords included. This will make it simpler to get a good ranking with the search engines once you start your SEO campaigns. A good starting point is the Google keyword selector tool. This will give you an indication of the popularity of your intended domain.

Set up a Hosting account

A good domain goes together with a good hosting account. Research on the available hosting companies and chose one that offers a guarantee on uptime. You might not need very complicated features in your hosting account to start with. Therefore you should be able to get a good hosting account in the $2 to $5 price range. A good example is HostGator which gives you an option to try out a month's hosting at $0.1

Marketing

There are plenty of marketing methods available on the internet. Try as many as possible initially and stick with the ones that work for you. Check out your competition to get more marketing ideas. If you have a small budget like many small business start-ups, you will need to consider the many free advertising resources like search engine optimization as well as good use of social media.

Internet Marketing Strategies - Where Do I Start?

Trying to decide how to strategically market your product or service (or yourself) on the internet can be overwhelming. There are a myriad of marketing possibilities to choose from, and more great strategies are being offered almost daily. How can an internet marketer decide on the best strategic marketing plan that works for their business?

There seems to be as many answers for which strategies to use in what situation than there are internet marketing strategies themselves! There are definitely too many strategies for any one marketer to utilize them all. If you have a very large team with access to multiple internet marketing specialists, your marketing strategies can incorporate most available methods. However, most of us do not have access to that kind of resource.

How Do You Choose Your Internet Marketing Strategies?

There are too many internet marketing options to discuss them all in a short article, but there are three general principles that can make a huge difference to your marketing efforts. Following these principles will not just improve the success of your current internet marketing plan, but can help you figure out where to start focusing your efforts in the first place.

Three Principles for Making Appropriate Strategic Marketing Choices

1) Be Capable in your Strategic Marketing

Not all marketers are created equal. We all have a variety of strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately we tend to focus more on how to fix our weaknesses rather than how to harness our strengths. It is true we should all strive to improve ourselves, but sometimes the time and effort placed on learning the internet marketing strategies we are struggling with would be better placed finding and perfecting strategies that we already have an aptitude for.

When a strategy works well for the majority of marketers it does not necessarily mean it will work well for you. If a particular strategy does not come easily to you, it will take more time and will likely not generate the top quality you need to stand out against your competitors. If you are not adept at something, use a different strategy that you can implement effectively with the unique capabilities you do have, or make the investment to outsource if you have the means to do so.

This does not mean we should not learn new strategies! If you are not constantly learning, you will also not succeed. Make sure you are not perpetually spending more time learning something that is difficult for you than you are taking to actually market your product or service. Some great internet marketing strategies are better left for others who have a better aptitude for them. Their expertise will allow them to do it better than you anyway.

2) Care About your Strategic Marketing

Let's face it; everything we do in marketing is not fun. It is work, and most definitions of work do not include the word 'fun'. However...take a second and think about sitting in front of your computer to work on your latest marketing project. If you would rather be sitting in the dentist's chair getting a couple of teeth pulled, you are spending your time with the wrong strategies. Work can actually be enjoyable. At the very least, you should be able to find a few good strategies that beat getting teeth pulled. There are many strategic marketing choices on the internet. Pick the ones you enjoy and care about.

"But my current marketing strategies are supposed to be the best for my product!" "My upline says this strategy has been working for everyone on the team!" If you hate what you are doing, it will show in your work, just as your passion will shine through when you are doing something you love. It will be difficult to put in extra hours when necessary, you will be more apt to give up prematurely, and you will be unable to do exceptional stand-out work if you hate every minute of it.

Start by learning the marketing strategies you are most interested in, see which ones you like, and master those first. Eventually learn them all so you can find which methodologies you most enjoy and are best at. These will be the marketing strategies that perform the best for you and are more sustainable in the long run.

3) Be Consistent with your Strategic Marketing

For many marketers, the strategy seems to be: 'Chase the latest and greatest marketing options as soon as they appear.' They work on something, get mediocre results, then three weeks later when a great new idea comes along, abandon their current efforts and 'try' something else. This is not a recipe for sustainable success.

Sometimes the latest hot new marketing trend can work wonders and inject a lot of cash into your business. New ideas should be taken advantage of when appropriate. However, if it's new it is unproven and may fail. Has it been tested in your niche market? Will it still be working a week from now? If you change your marketing plan more often than you change your socks, you will never get really good at anything. You will be spending as much time learning new things as you do actually marketing your product or service.

Consistency is the key. If your strategic marketing plan is based on solid and proven strategies and you do not give up and start something new every couple weeks, you will become an expert in those strategies. They will get easier, less time consuming, and start running like clockwork to bring you a consistent stream of clients. It is easier and less risky to learn and test new methods when you have a proven and profitable system already in place to fall back on.

Points for Choosing the Right Internet Marketing Strategy

- Develop a good strategic base of internet marketing methods that you enjoy and are capable of implementing effectively.

- Be consistent with these marketing strategies so you become an expert and are profiting from them with minimal effort.

- Try almost everything, including the 'hot' new methods that look like they have potential, but don't abandon the tried and true methods that have already been proven to work.

- If you find new marketing methods that you enjoy and can utilize effectively, add them to your long tern internet marketing strategy and use them consistently until you master them.

Follow these steps, be patient and consistent, and you will succeed in finding your own strategic path through the internet marketing jungle. Happy Marketing!

7 Vital Techniques of Using Facebook for Marketing Your Business

Using Facebook for marketing is a new concept compared to the other outdated modes of reaching out to the public. The question that bothers many new entrepreneurs is that whether using Facebook for marketing is actually a good idea and if it is; what is the way to start. The answer to the first part of the query is actually very simple. Getting a wide showcase for your business is your first priority. With over a billion users and an audience that ranges from ages 18- 70, there could not be a better platform than Facebook to market your business. Using Facebook for marketing is an excellent way to reach out to a huge audience but you need to know these 7 vital techniques to start on the right foot:

Create a Profile Page

Creating a profile is the first and the most important part of using Facebook for marketing, so put some thought effort and creativity in to it. Ensure that your profile photo speaks volumes about your business. Add as many friends that you can because you need people to spread your network and you may soon start receiving friend requests too (don't forget to accept them). Photos are another great way to improve the experience of using Facebook for marketing, but make sure that they are relevant to the product or business that you are promoting.

Create a Fan Page

Fan page is an excellent tool to add credibility and professionalism to your business. You may need to encourage users to become fans and by doing so you are adding to your future customer base.

Create a Facebook Group

There are many benefits of creating a Facebook group. You can post multiple messages to all members of the group with a single click. Another advantage is that you can engage your group members in any discussions that involve your business and is an easy way to connect with all of them at the same time.

Create Updates

No one wants to visit a Facebook page that is boring and does not have anything new to say. Keep posting updates and do it on a regular basis. Let your friends, fans and group members know something new or interesting about your business with each update that you post on the wall.

Create a Different Landing Page

Don't make the mistake of treating both your new and old members in the same manner, especially while using Facebook for Marketing. Design different landing pages for them. New users should be taken to a page that requests them to 'like' you and let the old members be taken to another landing page; maybe your wall or any other page that holds their maximum attention and interest.

Create an Active Interaction

Don't limit yourself to your page, your wall, your members and your friends. Search for businesses or products that are similar to yours and indulge in some active posting or commenting. This will not only attract attention by other members but also adds a touch of professionalism.

Create an Social Plug-in

You certainly have a blog or website if you are engaged in an online business. Make sure that you link all of your blogs, sites etc with your Facebook page. Add a Facebook button that enables readers of your blog to leave their comments, and this will be displayed on their Facebook update. These updates are visible to their friends too and it is a great way to attract new members or fans.

Using Facebook for Marketing is no doubt still in the beginner stages, but it is up to you to use this fact to your advantage. Start right away and you could build a huge fan base in another 2 / 3 years from now.

The Secrets To Making Money Working From Home

To start making money working from home you need to have clear cut goals of what you intend to achieve and then build a marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy should revolve around tried and tested marketing methods. Since online business is constantly evolving, you need to keep abreast of new ideas and developments by research and an ever ending desire to improve by reading.

Undoubtedly, you will get a lot of advice from "marketing gurus" and other so called experts. Their opinion will be as varied as their intentions are suspect. Many will try to get into your wallet by telling you how their proven techniques have made them millions of dollars.

Successful internet marketers have the following traits in common: Focus, self discipline and a desire to succeed against all odds. With these traits, you will not be sidetracked from your venture. You will find that your drive to succeed will be increasing and infectious pulling other successful activities towards you.

Once you have done research on the niche you want to excel on, your determination will be your greatest key to success. Spending many hours in front of your computer may not augur well initially, but with a clear objective to succeed, you will be propelled to work even harder

There is always the fear associated with starting a new venture and if your self discipline is wanting, you will find yourself unable to make the first critical move.

Putting down your goals both short term and long term will ensure that you stay focused as you are trying to navigate the vast ocean of internet based business opportunities.

Many people jump from one venture to another and a few months later join the thousands of unsuccessful internet entrepreneurs. Success rewards those who figure out their path to making money online and single-mindedly follow it.

If you are able to make your first hundred dollars in say a month, use this as the launch pad to your home business. Look at it this way, a hundred dollars today could mean two hundred dollars the next day and three hundred dollars the day after that. After that, you will have realized what is working and you can multiply the hundred dollars to three hundred dollars a day and so forth until you have made a consistent income to make it worthwhile quitting any other job and concentrate with your home business

With time you will manage to free a lot of your time by outsourcing most of your activities and concentrate on what you are good at. This will lead to a more fulfilling and rewarding home business venture

Marketing On A Budget

Having traffic to your home business site is crucial to generating the much needed sales. You could have a great product, but if nobody knows about it, then it's all useless. You need to have a good strategy in place to bring the traffic and visitors required, and ultimately sales to your site. You can then reinvest the proceeds back to your home online business to move it to the next level. Remember that the main objective of your home online business is to add value to the consumer. Profit should be a byproduct of that objective. So if you have a great product or service, marketing it properly will lead to traffic that keeps coming back for more.

Marketing involves creating awareness to your website through such things as Search engine optimization, blogging, article writing and advertising

Advertising as a free mode of marketing is generally ignored as many people associate advertising to spending lots of money. However, you can effectively use social media like Twitter and Facebook to reach out to thousands of people without having to spend your money. A well written tweet that goes to thousands of people can lead to a massive inflow of traffic. Forums are a great place to advertise because most of their visitors have similar interests and want to make great posts so that they get noticed or they simply visit to get a solution to their problems. You can also use email marketing to reach out to potential clients.

Traffic from search engines is one of the best longterm sources of visitors as its able to sustain itself without having to spend loads of money. There are two major techniques when it comes to Search engine optimization. This can be divided into: "on-page" SEO and "off-page" SEO.

"On-page" SEO involves getting a target keyword and placing it intelligently on your webpage. It can be placed from your URL, title, description and a number of times in the body of your webpage.

"off-page" SEO on the other hand involves the "reputation" associated with your website. The more links coming from other sites (especially high authority ones), the better. It is more of a longterm strategy rather than a short term one. As such don't be in a hurry to get first page ranking for your keyword. The results over a longterm campaign in proper "off-page" SEO will have tremendous positive results in ranking your site well and bringing a constant flow of the much needed traffic from search engines. Many people give up after a few months of trying and never see the results of their efforts. Don't fall into this trap

The main attributes of "off-page" SEO involve backlinking and anchor text. This is where you have links emanating from other sites with your anchor text. Anchor text can be defined to be the visible text that appears in a hyperlink. The objective is to have as many links as possible to give your keywords the much needed push in search engine ranking.

Sarah Staar Interviews Simon Coulson