How to Start a Business on the Internet: 5 Article Marketing Mistakes That Are Bogging You Down

Yes, its cliche, but content will always remain king on the Internet. The primary reason why Internet users go online and bump into your website is because they’re looking for information. What better way to give them what they want, than to write articles on a certain subject matter that would be of interest to them and then publish them.

It’s unfortunate that though many understand the importance of article marketing, they fail to implement it properly. Thus, they’re not just losing traffic, but they’re also draining their money and resources.

To avoid these, take note of the common article marketing mistakes and avoid them yourself:

1. You copy the same content across several websites. A lot of article marketers just upload the same article into their different websites. This isn’t really considered unethical since it’s your own work. However, you may get flak from Google for duplicate content. Writing copies definitely takes time, and if you don’t have the patience or the time, it’s better to hire a writer who charges per hour or per copy.

2. You only depend on article mills. You have a lot of avenues for article marketing and there’s no reason for you to use article mills all the time. Besides, poor ones have already been demoted and flagged by Google. Some great examples of article marketing strategies are e-books, reports, courses, case studies, and even blogs.

3. You don’t proofread your work. You’re not expected to have flawless writing skills, especially if you’re not selling yourself as a writer. However, it’s important that your articles are well polished. Too many grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors reduce the effectiveness of your copies as well as your credibility.

4. You don’t make the most out of your resource box. The author box or the resource box is one of the best places to promote your website as you’re free to include your link as well as add keywords. But a number don’t know how to maximize it. They forget to add their own name and their designation. They don’t properly describe what the website or the product is all about. If there’s one place you can pitch like a pro salesperson, this will be it.

5. You don’t believe in creating relevant content. Don’t feel so satisfied just because you’ve created articles. The most important thing is the content. Is the content really relevant to your niche? Is it useful to your readers? Does it add value to your business? Unless you answer yes to all of these questions, your articles will miss the mark and will be rendered ineffective.

5 Article Marketing Mistakes That Impact Your Online Business (Learn How To Avoid These Common Mistakes)

Yes, its cliche, but content will always remain king on the Internet. The primary reason why Internet users go online and bump into your website is because they’re looking for information. What better way to give them what they want, than to write articles on a certain subject matter that would be of interest to them and then publish them.

It’s unfortunate that though many understand the importance of article marketing, they fail to implement it properly. Thus, they’re not just losing traffic, but they’re also draining their money and resources.

To avoid these, take note of the common article marketing mistakes and avoid them yourself:

1. You copy the same content across several websites. A lot of article marketers just upload the same article into their different websites. This isn’t really considered unethical since it’s your own work. However, you may get flak from Google for duplicate content. Writing copies definitely takes time, and if you don’t have the patience or the time, it’s better to hire a writer who charges per hour or per copy.

2. You only depend on article mills. You have a lot of avenues for article marketing and there’s no reason for you to use article mills all the time. Besides, poor ones have already been demoted and flagged by Google. Some great examples of article marketing strategies are e-books, reports, courses, case studies, and even blogs.

3. You don’t proofread your work. You’re not expected to have flawless writing skills, especially if you’re not selling yourself as a writer. However, it’s important that your articles are well polished. Too many grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors reduce the effectiveness of your copies as well as your credibility.

4. You don’t make the most out of your resource box. The author box or the resource box is one of the best places to promote your website as you’re free to include your link as well as add keywords. But a number don’t know how to maximize it. They forget to add their own name and their designation. They don’t properly describe what the website or the product is all about. If there’s one place you can pitch like a pro salesperson, this will be it.

5. You don’t believe in creating relevant content. Don’t feel so satisfied just because you’ve created articles. The most important thing is the content. Is the content really relevant to your niche? Is it useful to your readers? Does it add value to your business? Unless you answer yes to all of these questions, your articles will miss the mark and will be rendered ineffective.

How to Start an Internet Business: What Is Google Analytics?

One of the greatest challenges in any online business is how to translate traffic and even clicks into actionable information. Unless you’re using a very costly application, you won’t have any data on what pages your Internet users are visiting, how long they spend on the page, how often they visit your website, or even how to increase your traffic, isn’t that impressive?

These, however, are things of the past. Today you already have Google Analytics. This is a code you embed on your webpage to monitor and translate kicks into useful information. It’s been used by thousands of business owners, even the big ones, for the following reasons:

It is for free. A lot of people are surprised on how powerful the software is, despite the fact it doesn’t cost a single cent. All you have to do is to set up a Google account. If you already have a Gmail account, you can use that to sign in. Then you create a code and embed it in your webpage to collect data and report to you.

It is powered by Google. One of the greatest strengths of Google is its security. So far, we haven’t heard of any news about information breach. Moreover, it’s a company that seeks to improve its products every time. You cannot expect Google Analytics to be 100 percent perfect, but you can be sure major issues are addressed and fixed.

You can properly track your revenue. If you don’t want to waste money on stock management systems, then you’re better off with Google Analytics. The software has the ability to track all types of orders, online and offline. You can also organize your revenues by channels, categories, and keywords. Best of all, you can determine your conversion rate by comparing your purchases to unique website visits. The software also generates the bounce rate, which is a percentage of people leaving the website immediately.

You can generate sales reports. Google Analytics makes sure you’re always in the loop with the status of your online business. And if you don’t have the time to take a look at your stats online, you could simply generate sales reports and print them out.

You can spot errors and change them before they cause a huge damage. If your website is not driving enough traffic, the culprit may be broken or inactive links. Google Analytics can be used to determine what these links are, so you can immediately fix them. 

How to Start an Online Business with No Money and Help

If you’re into the brick-and-mortar business world, opening even a mom-and-pop without any money and help is close to impossible. You’re going to need a physical space, some people to run your business, marketing materials to display and give away, and of course, goods to sell.

It’s a totally different thing when you’re in cyberspace. If you’ll do your research on success stories, you’ll discover that at least 30 percent of them didn’t have the above-mentioned resources when they took the big leap—yet they’ve made it. What are their secrets? Let’s uncover them today:

Firm Decision: The first thing they do wasn’t really to build a website or earn XX profits. They simply changed their mind-set and came up with a very firm decision: they’re going to do everything to succeed in the business.

Offer: What will be your goods? They can be services or products. If it’s the latter, then you can take a look at yourself and determine if you can convert your talent, skill, or passion to money. For instance, if you’re good at Adobe Photoshop, you can work as a photo editor. If you’re selling products, you can be an affiliate marketer or a drop-shipper. Either way, it doesn’t require you to maintain an inventory. Their respective manufacturers will take care of that.

Webpage: We could see you raising your eyebrows. Seriously, how can you have a webpage if you don’t have enough money? Well, you can always begin with a blog. One of the best platforms out there is Wordpress. It’s so friendly to search engines that it offers a variety of plug-ins, and it’s easy to build your pages with it. There are also wonderful widgets that can help you share your different social networking accounts, such as Twitter and Facebook.

Social Networking Sites: We’ve already mentioned two of the solid ones. Facebook, in fact, is becoming so notorious among online businesses they are overtaking Google in terms of ad placements. In Facebook, you can set up your own business fan page and allow leads to follow you. It’s the same thing in that regards with Twitter.

Videos: More and more people are sharing videos than photos because they are very dynamic. Coming up with your own videos doesn’t have to mean spending money. You can even make use of your handy camera to record. You just have to be oozing with creativity and ingenuity to garner the interest of your targeted market.

How to Use a Blog to Power- Up Your Online Business!

Even if there’s massive growth in social networking websites as well as paid advertising, the majority of online businesspeople couldn’t let go of the good-old blog. After all, there are many reasons to love it.

A blog still remains to be the best way to promote your product or service. You can use it to confirm your expertise over your niche. You can also expound on the features and benefits of your business, particularly what you’re offering. Blogs allow you to obtain not just any feedback but a thorough one. These days, blogging platforms make blogs more dynamic by permitting you to add polls; upload videos, slides, podcasts, and images; and even customize the look and feel of every page.

And if you’re just starting out, you don’t have to purchase a domain or a web host. There are plenty of trustworthy blogging platforms that don’t cost anything to register and use. Some of these include Blogger.com, Wordpress.com, and Livejournal.com.

Nevertheless, your blog can only do so much. It’s still 100 percent dependent on you—how you’re going to maximize it. You can make the most of your blog by following these:

1.      Come up with a well-thought-out article. You can’t afford to let your readers miss you so much to where they move on to other blogs. At the same time, you don’t want to bore them until they bail themselves out. When you’re creating blog posts, always ask yourself this question: If I were the reader, what do I want to read?

2.      Be participative. It’s not enough that you have turned the comments section on. You also have to join the discussion. You can use the space to clarify certain issues or questions. You can also show off how good you are by the way you answer those comments. Most of all, you’ll let them feel as if they belong. It turns out customers have a much higher chance to order again if they are not treated as commodities by online businesses.

3.      Integrate your other tools. Do you have a Face book or Twitter account? Do you currently own thousands of business-related photos in Flicker? You can incorporate these services to your blog.

4.      Be honest but fun. Don’t let your readers start spelling out boring. You can’t expect them to hang out for too long, much less go back to revisit your blog.

5.      Offer something besides texts. Heighten the visual and audio capacities of your readers by uploading videos, podcasts, and images together with the rest of the blog post. For instance, instead of simply enumerating the steps in jail-breaking an iPod, you can show those same steps in a video-tutorial.

Starting an Online Business even When You’re Already Fifty

Let’s be real: not everyone who is already at retirement age, or close to it, is actually looking forward to a very carefree life. In fact, a lot of soon-to-be retirees are apprehensive. With the way things are going, their retirement plan may not be enough to cover all their expenses once they’re already out of work. To make things worse, their choices for jobs become very limited due to their old age.

If you’re already fifty, scared, and don’t have enough savings to speak of, don’t worry. You do have an exceptional option. You can begin learning the ropes of opening an online business. You can even use your wide range of working experience to give you a good head start in your chosen niche.

Here’s how you can plan your virtual enterprise:

1. Brush up on the different online marketing techniques. The principles are basically the same: you spread the word that you’re in business and looking for buyers to sell them your products. What is different about it is how you execute it. The Internet has a wide variety of tools you can use. You can get to know them and perhaps test them for a while to see how they really work. Once you get the hang of them, marketing can become a breeze.

2. Go back to your network connection. Your online business is one of your greatest excuses to dig up those business cards and get in touch with your connections. If you’re working, don’t tell them you’re leaving your work. The message may reach your boss, and you may get fired prematurely. Just simply inform them that you’re cooking up something, and you’re offering certain products or services. Ask if they’ll be interested to take advantage of them once they’re already in place.

3. Prepare your business cards. Just because you are into an online business doesn’t mean you can ignore the traditional methods of marketing. Business cards still work, since you can include your website in the contact details.

4. Ask for help. Admit it, you’re old. There are plenty of things you cannot do properly anymore because you get tired easily. You shouldn’t be so stressed too. So look for some help. Online, you’ll find several freelancers who are willing to negotiate fees and job descriptions. Give them all the routine tasks such as designing your webpage and updating it, as well as providing content. You, on the other hand, can take on the most pressing matters, like finance and marketing. 

Five Productivity Tools You Can Use in Gmail

If you’re running an online business, an e-mail account is an important as air is to humans. It is one of the essentials and you can’t function online without it. How else can you communicate with your customers? Today you have several e-mail services to choose from. If your web host is kind enough, it may also provide you with your own. But some of these services are simply cut out to help people like you, who are looking for ways to reduce costs while being able to   effectively   manage your business. One of these is Gmail.

Ever since it was launched, Gmail has attracted millions of members all over the world. Besides being the brainchild of the all mighty Google, it also offers unlimited storage that you don’t even have to throw away any e-mail. Moreover, it’s packed with productivity tools you can use:

Signature: There are just so many things about your business you couldn’t talk about in your messages and definitely cannot include in your subject line. So you put them in your signature instead. You can use the space to promote your other contact details, such as your mobile phone and even home office address. You can also put up a website link. If you’re using Wisestamp, which allows you to customize signatures, you can integrate that into your Gmail account as well.  

Calendar: Gmail’s calendar is probably one of the most organized and efficient productivity tools available online. Besides being able to schedule all your appointments and activities, you can also share them with your team. You can also set up an alarm for each and every one so that you will surely be reminded before hand. Moreover, the calendar can also be displayed right in your inbox.

Documents: Collaboration has never been so easy with Gmail. Word processor and spreadsheet, among others, are very much like those you normally use on your desktop or laptop. You can also upload and download your Gmail documents, as well as grant permission to others to view them.

Groups: Are you constantly looking for the best ways to coordinate with all your staff? You can set up groups, where you can upload files, share images, and initiate discussions.

Domain: So your online business will look more professional, you can choose to create your own domain using Gmail. You simply need to go to Google Apps. There’s no need to set up anything in order to forward e-mails to your Gmail. You’re still using the same e-mail service, except that it appears as a company or corporate e-mail to the recipient.

How to Start an Internet Business: Produce the Most Unforgettable Tele-seminar

What are teleseminars? Unlike webinars, where you facilitate talks online, teleseminars make use of the trusted telephone.

There are different reasons why you should conduct teleseminars, and all of them are related to profits:

•  They are lucrative. You can charge your participants up to hundreds of dollars per person, depending on the information you are going to share and how rich and extensive your content is.

•  They are not too taxing. The longest teleseminar is around 6 hours, and this one is very rare and the exception to the rule. The average teleseminar is about an hour and a half

• You can give them away for free. If you need to build your mailing list or increase your membership, you can give away free informational products such as teleseminars.

• They educate. Education is a key component to selling anything, so educate your customers about why your product could solve a problem for them and add value to their lives. Your job is to educate and show your customers the different options and let them choose. Never use high pressure sales tactics. Everyone wants to buy something they understand or provides big value for them.

How to Conduct Teleseminars

Make sure your system can support a lot of attendees. This means the system does not bog down in the middle of your talk. It does not lose its power and has an incredible customer support just in case glitches take place.

Set the best time for a teleseminar.  Keep in mind the different time zones.  So, it is advisable that you stage the same teleseminar twice to accommodate as many countries as possible. Also choose a proven good time to schedule it, such as 5 or 6 P.M or even 5:30 could be better to give people enough time to get home from work. A word of caution -steer clear from scheduling on or close to holidays, Mondays, and Fridays. If possible, schedule the teleseminars and tell them about it at least a month before the actual event, so attendees would have an ample of time to fit it into their schedules ahead of time.

Be aware of the time. Unlike in webinars, where images, videos, and Flash can be used, teleseminars are just pure talk. Soon your attendees will get bored of just listening to you. To avoid this, be conscious and aware of the time throughout the teleseminar that you spend on any particular sub-subject or point of view and keep things enticing and engaging. As mentioned before, you should keep the teleseminar to an hour on average or an hour and a half if you’re going to include a Q&A session at the end of it.

Record them. There are two reasons for this: for those who were not able to keep up with everything that was discussed, they could simply listen to it again at their own pace and time. Second, you can give the teleseminar recording away as an incentive to your subscribers. Note, that you’ll need to let your teleseminar attendees know that it’s being recorded as legally required.

Allow them to interact with you. Your teleseminar attendees cannot talk with one another other while on the call, but you can deliver the message to the rest of the attendees. Encourage them to ask questions pertaining to the topic of the teleseminar, and only the topic of the teleseminar. It’s very seldom for participants to feel bored, disconnected or ignored if they are permitted to share their thoughts and also ask questions.

Here’s the ultimate resource that allows you to do all the above for FREE. Yes for Free. https://www.freeconferencecall.com/