Who's Watching YOUR Money? 7 Tips for Hiring the Right Bookkeeper

While Im a strong advocate of hiring virtual assistants, there are two things that no entrepreneur should ever fully delegate: marketing and bookkeeping. The marketing and the bookkeeping of your business can easily make or break you (just think new Coke and Enron). That said, if bookkeeping is not your forte, hire someone to do it you will save so much in frustration just be sure to keep your fingers in the books.

If you choose to hire a bookkeeper, keep the following in mind:

1. Get QuickBooks.

For ease of use, I highly recommend using QuickBooks and hiring a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. QuickBooks ProAdvisors have taken certification exams to insure that they know the system. I have used QuickBooks both for myself and my clients since 1996 and highly recommend it for its ease of use/understanding.

The online version is great in that you can see the latest version of your books at any time and eliminate the annoyance of emailing files back and forth and wondering who has the latest version.

2. She must see both the forest AND the trees.

You want your bookkeeper to be detail-oriented AND to see/understand the big picture. She needs to know what happens consistently every month and update your books without bothering you for items she should know about.

At the same time, she needs to be astute enough to see the larger picture and warn you of any impending problems before they happen. If you purchase a piece of equipment, she should know how to properly enter it into your bookkeeping software to avoid problems and therefore save time and money with your accountant (and the IRS) later on.

3. She must know your industry.

You dont want to have to train your bookkeeper on your industry language, standard industry income or expense categories or other basics. The more up-to-speed she is, the faster she can hit the ground running and the sooner you will have good data. If she doesnt know your industry however, be sure to give her a rundown of lingo and how you refer to your customers/clients/tenants in order for you to get the most meaningful reports out of the gate.

4. She must provide timely reporting.

In hiring your bookkeeper, insure that you put in a provision for when you want to see monthly financials. The date will depend on when your bank month ends give her a few days after that date to reconcile your accounts and produce reports. At a minimum, you want to see a profit & loss, balance sheet and cash flow statement.

Take the time to review the reports so you can spot any irregularities before they blossom into problems. Not sure how to read a cash flow statement? Get a check/electronic funds transfer (eft or auto debit) transaction detail instead. It will help you see where the cash is going.

5. She must know accounting terms and still speak English.

Your bookkeeper needs to know the difference between assets, liabilities, income, expenses and equity and be able to provide your accountant with the necessary data upon request. At the same time however, if you are not numbers oriented, she also needs to be able to explain the financial statements to you in plain English.

6. She must be trustworthy.

Hiring someone to keep track of your bookkeeping requires a level of trust between you both. You need to feel comfortable that she will keep track of your information and maintain your confidentiality. At the same time, if she pays your bills and has access to your bank accounts, you must also trust that she will not abuse that privilege. And make no mistake, it is a privilege to have someone (particularly in a virtual relationship) trust you with their finances, their checkbook and their business.

Good business sense demands that you protect yourself just in case. I highly recommend that, in addition to a confidentiality agreement, you insure that your bookkeeper is bonded and you get a copy of that bond.

7. She must have great communication skills.

If your bookkeeper will be communicating with your clients and vendors, she must represent your business as you would. Whether virtual or in-house, its critical that your bookkeeper be a positive force that further enhances relationships. The question of money can, at times, be a sensitive matter. You need someone who recognizes that and communicates appropriately.

Always remember these are your books and this is your business. While you may hire someone to manage the details of tracking your finances, and should do so if this is not one of your strengths, the ultimate responsibility for oversight is yours. Michael E. Gerber of the E-myth series said it best: Delegate, dont abdicate.

Copyright 2006 Sandra P. Martini

Sandra P. MartiniMuriel Blog40030
Nan Blog11529

Foreclosures - How To Invest Successfully

If someone is about to lose their home to foreclosure, then you can guarantee they're feeling stressed. They're probably being bombarded by calls and letters from creditors, and for many people it all becomes too much to handle. They close their eyes and hope it will all just go away.

Reality is that it won't, and as an investor interested in buying foreclosures, the hardest part can be convincing the homeowner that they really are going to lose their house unless they do something about it. It can also be difficult to convince them that you really are trying to help them, even though you are helping yourself make a profit at the same time.

When you're dealing with foreclosures, time is of the utmost importance. You need to have enough time to bail out the homeowner and take over the property before it's too late. That's why it can be a good idea to subscribe to a foreclosure listing service - you get access to listings at the earliest possible time, and don't have to use your valuable time looking for potential foreclosure properties from other sources.

Many people facing foreclosure have spoken to an attorney, and are convinced that bankruptcy is their only option. In most cases this isn't true, but attorneys tend to stick to what they're familiar with, which is bankruptcy, rather than mentioning other possibilities such as:

- Sale by assumption
- Deed in lieu
- Straight sale
- Foreclosure presale
- Compromise sale
- Short payoff
- Workouts
- Assignment
- Injunctions

There are still more options than these, which shows that bankruptcy definitely isn't the only choice for the homeowner. When you're dealing with a homeowner in foreclosure, make it clear that you're offering an alternative to bankruptcy. Find out whether they really understand what bankruptcy will do to their credit history and how it will affect their future.

If you're serious about buying foreclosure properties, then you need to become familiar with everything that's required in the process, and check everything for every property you consider. These items include:

- Loan and mortgage documents
- Loan amount, monthly payment, and interest rate
- Any outstanding taxes
- Existing insurance policies
- Any other liens or judgments

Make sure you have enough information to complete all the necessary tasks before the foreclosure occurs. If there's not enough time, don't even bother starting. Having said that, learn as much as you can about ways to delay foreclosure, and help the homeowner to implement them all. If may just give you enough time to take over the property before the foreclosure auction.

Above all, focus on creating a solution where everybody wins. It's never an easy time for the homeowner, so be prepared for plenty of anger, frustration and resentment - some of which may be directed at you. Walk away if it's obvious the person doesn't want to work with you. Find someone who is interested in finding a solution, show empathy for their situation, put together a strategy to get the best possible result for them, and before long you'll find yourself with a good portfolio of investment properties.

David JacobsenMerrile Blog2747
Melisa Blog42226

Leveraging Google

Optimize your site so that new customers will find you

Can potential new customers really find your company and products on the web?

Imagine that you are one of your own target customers, and that you haven't heard of your company yet. You decide to search the web to look for companies that provide the products or services that your company offers.

Think of one short phrase that you would type into a search engine to find your company (not your company name). Now, using this same phrase, go see if you can find your company in the major search engines. Make sure you try each of the most popular search engines, as ranked by the usage statistics:

Google 32%
Yahoo 25%
AOL (including Netscape) 19%
MSN 15%
Others 9%

Now go to each of these sites and type in "Marketing Consultant Silicon Valley" and see if you find The 280 Group.

Chances are you didn't find your company (unless you are already incredibly well known in a specific category), and that you did find the 280 Group.

I'm constantly amazed by the number of companies that do little or nothing to optimize their positioning and placement in search engines. They spend hours agonizing over content and design, and thousands of dollars implementing and building their sites, yet they never benefit because new customers don't find them.

Now consider this. By some estimates GOOGLE POWERS AN ESTIMATED 76% OF THE SEARCHES ON THE WEB (largely because they provide results to AOL and Yahoo).

Your business may not be one that needs new customers finding you on their own, but I'm betting that's not the case. If you want to remedy this situation, you'll have to embark on a search engine optimization campaign for your site.

There are many factors to consider when optimizing your site. Here are just a few:

* Website architecture and underlying technologies used to build your site

* Content used and how it is structured

* Keywords you believe prospects will use

* Popularity and ranking of your site (calculated by Google)

* Making your site friendly to website crawlers

* Ensuring you don't make any fatal mistakes that will disqualify your site from being ranked highly.

Search engine optimization takes a lot of time, effort and expertise. Whether you decide to build your own in-house group to manage it, or to bring in a company like the 280 Group, make sure you spend the time to do it right. If you do you'll get the full benefits from your website, increase your traffic and capture new customers.

Brian Lawley is the President of the 280 Group, the Product Marketing & Product Management Experts. The 280 Group provides consulting, contractors, training and templates to help companies define, launch and market breakthrough new products. For more information about the 280 Group's services and toolkits (Product Roadmap, Product Launch, Beta Program, Developer Program & others) visit http://www.280group.com.Mireille Blog66306
Maribelle Blog83451

DBA Degree Programs Are A Secure Education Choice For Solid Employment

A company's database is the heart and soul of client information. Databases store valuable information such as contacts, sales and income, financial statements and organizational plans for management, and to lose their database means a business can no longer function. Optimal care and maintenance of databases are becoming more and more important, as old accounts bog up space or the difficulty in retrieving information slows down productivity. Not only that, security in administration is a must in our high tech world, constantly under onslaught from viruses, hacker attacks and other subversive tactics meant to steal data and destroy competition. Proper care and effective management in handling databases and their administration is vital to any successful business that relies on computer technology to function, and a DBA degree program will help you acquire the necessary skills to become an integral part of an administrative team.

A DBA degree program involves learning the skills and getting solid training to be able to design, create and implement databases for important corporations and businesses. Knowing how to administer databases is also part of the practical, hands on training you'll acquire at educational facilities competent with information technology. Some institutions will include networking knowledge in the program so that you can effectively administer databases to their maximum potential. Learning the basics of networking and its application to database administration will help you become a valuable asset for multi-million dollar corporations or international businesses. Furthermore, a DBA degree will provide you with the analytical ability to troubleshoot and improve upon existing databases or design new ones that serve companies more effectively.

Security is a large part of working with databases and no company wants to discover that its database no longer functions, wiped clean thanks to an insidious virus. The popularity and ease of use of large capacity USB drives combined with curious human nature has made them a huge tool of those who would sabotage a company's functioning and databases are perfect places to strike. Learning how to protect against such threats and knowing effective backup and replication procedures to further safeguard a company's vital information is part of being a high quality database administrator. Only training will provide you with the abilities you need to meet today's standards of safety and archiving and a DBA degree program offers that know how.

Career opportunities are widespread for those who have the backup of accreditation and degrees. The investment of time and money in going after the training you need to become a valuable asset to any company is well worth the pay off, as businesses will offer strong employment packages to those who will help them protect their important information. What's more, a proper DBA degree program from a recognized educational facility will probably have employers come looking for you, rather than you having to pound the pavement with lesser skills. Colleges and universities also usually have career placement services available, with a bank of businesses looking for skilled people. The prospects of a strong, stable professional career are very good and the job market will open up to you, thanks to your newly acquired knowledge.

Finding a good, reputable educational facility to provide you with your DBA degree program is easy, as schools have developed websites with pertinent information for what you need. What's more, many schools offer different forms of financial aid or will help you locate sources to fund your education. Searching the internet turns up plenty of facilities with programs geared specifically to the information technology industry and you'll easily find a college or university that will give you the high quality education you need to be a contender in the database administration field.

Andy West is a freelance writer for Virginia College. Virginia College offers a professional dba Degree program. Please visit Virginia College at http://www.vc.edu/site/program.cfm?programID=17 to learn more about obtaining a Database Administration and Design Degree.Marni Blog61584
Mirilla Blog64287

Jessica Alba's Numerology; is there change coming for the Dark Angel?

With ten years of film and television acting under her belt, Jessica Alba has become a female action star. From her 'Dark Angel' sci-fi television series, to playing Sue Storm in the 'Fantastic Four', Alba has risen to the top of the action / sci-fi heap. With sequels to both the 'Fantastic Four', and 'Sin City' coming out next year, her short-term success seems assured. The question is will she continue to be a top ten property in Hollywood in the coming years?

As a Numerologist, if I want to see what is in someone's future there are (3) main values that I look at: their Life Cycles, their Letters of Transit and their Personal Year. These numbers give me insight into what's coming up for a person in the next few years. Jessica Alba looks to have a smooth year ahead of her, but change is coming in 2008.

===> Her Life Cycles

Jessica Alba is still in her first Life Cycle, which will run through her 30th birthday in 2011. This cycle calls for a lot of hard work from her. She has to work on the details of her lifestyle, and often feels restricted in her choices during this time. Jessica is receiving many opportunities to build a strong foundation for her career. She does need to make time to relax and play more often. Her life right now is very hectic.

The challenge of this life cycle is a reluctance to enjoy life and have fun. Too much work can make Jessica depressed and frustrated. She needs to find a balance between her career and her home life.

===> Her Transit Letters

Jessica has been under the influence of double 'E' transit letters for some time. These mark a time of flightiness in her life. She has been changing her interest and ideas too often for her own good. She needs to work at keeping after her projects longer and giving them time to develop. The influence of this transit letter group ends in April 2008.

She just came out from under the influence of an 'L' transit letter in April 2006. This has been a time of many social events, and making many new friends for Jessica. These were also great years for creative opportunities for her. Her movie career has benefited from this. The last three years have been a lot of fun for her.

In April, this transit letter changed from 'L' to 'B'; this marks a time when Jessica needs to take life easy. Both career partnerships, and love affairs are favorable for her at this time. Jessica also needs to be careful of possible health problems, which are stress related. She does need to pace herself until this period ends in April 2008.

In 2008, her transit letters all change at once. She will be under the short one-year transit letters 'A', and 'S', and will be carrying a single 'E', rather than the double 'E' she has been under the last few years. This year will be a year of surprises, new beginnings, and rebellious behavior for Jessica. We will see some kind of major life changes for her at this time.

===> Personal Year

The year 2006 is a personal year (4) for Jessica Alba; a time when patience and organization pays off.

She needs to make careful plans and build on the foundation of the work she has done before to get the most out of this year. She needs to keep a realistic attitude towards life and her career; and work through the difficulties that arise. Jessica will have a strong sense of accomplishment when she finishes out the year.

===> Summation

In summation, 2006 and 2007 look like more of the same hard work and building success for Jessica; though she needs to watch out for possible health problems related to stress and overwork. With several movies scheduled for next year, she needs to pace herself better. We will see major changes for her in April 2008, when she will start a year of sudden changes and surprises. For now though, it looks like smooth sailing for the beautiful and talented Jessica Alba.

Keith Abbott is the developer and owner of 'Numerology 4 You' where you can view Jessica Alba's complete Numerology reading, along with those of over 600 other celebrities. Order your own Numerology chart today at http://www.numerology4you.com/.Mellisa Blog89718
Merralee Blog10589

Do You Have Affiliate Marketing Plan Yet? This May Help You...

Alright, you've made the decision that you want to make money on the Internet. Great! That's fantastic that you've made the decision to take contraol of your life and your finances. I just have one question for you. Do have an affiliate marketing plan written up yet? I'm assuming that you'll be starting off as an affiliate marketer because this is how most people start out. Anyway, do you have any clue how you're going to get this thing going? Let's take a look at a few things that you'll need to consider before you begin.

Do you know what it is that you'd like to promote? If so, have you done adequate research to determine that there's enough of a market in order to build your business? If not, do you know how to properly research a market in order to determine if it's potentially profitable or not? You'll need to either know how to do this or have someone you can trust show you how before you can do anything. Don't just start throwing money and spending your time without having a structured plan.

Have you researched different affiliate programs to determine if there's more than one in your market? Competition is good my friend. It means that people are making money. If there are only one or two affiliate merchants in the niche you are considering you might want to look into something different, while monitoring your chosen niche for positive activity. If it starts picking up then you'll be ready to jump in, but if not you've saved yourself time and money.

Are you going to build your own website or have it done for you? Are you going to be writing your own web copy or outsourcing it? Are you aware of the expense involved with this, especially for professional copywriting? If so, have you allowed for it in your budget?

I'm not trying to be negative by hitting you with all of these questions. I just want you to be aware of what you're getting into and I want to make sure that you don't just jump into Internet Marketing like some crazy person (me) and start throwing money around blindly, only to find that six months and whole lot of money have gone by without getting much accomplished. Take a look at what I talked about before and start writing stuff down. Do some research and figuring exactly how much this is going to cost to get you started. You can get a blog for free and just start writing about your topic by educating others. A lot of people have made it big by doing this alone and that won't cost hardly anything to get started. Just get your affiliate marketing plan in order and start taking action!

Joe Stewart is an Affiliate Marketer that enjoys helping others.Modesta Blog50301
Melessa Blog30889

Holiday Happiness with Less

Holiday Happiness with Less, by Coach DQ

Are you crazy yet? In this frenetic space between Thanksgiving and the end of year holidays, everywhere I look I see it - those tight jaws and sunken eyes, the stressed out merry maker striving to be happy. On the flip side, I exchange heart-felt thanks and joyful greetings with many customers, business associates and friends that seem easier than at other times of the year. The difference seems to be in what attitude I take to the event.

If I am stressed out about perfection, things dont go nearly as well as when I just go with the flow. The same is true for gift giving and receiving. What if you just let yourself be you this year and enjoy what comes?

Create more happiness with less by letting go of overblown expectations. We are all perfectly imperfect. What do you need to let go of? Write it down and burn it.

Make a list of what you are tolerating about the holidays. Try for 100 or more things.

Review the list and make decisions - let it go, figure out a way to enjoy it, address it.

Imagine things simplified. What if you didnt have to buy a million gifts? How could you recognize folks without getting frustrated? Is there a charity you or they would appreciate giving to? What if you meet for coffee or give a gift certificate good for a movie in January instead of buying gifts? A friend I know gave her 96-year-old Grandmother six handwritten get out of exercise class free certificates. Her Grandmother doesnt like hanging out with all those old people lifting their arms in the air, so my friend arranges to visit at exercise time to give her a break. How simple!

Give yourself a gift, of time or pampering or whatever you need. This includes asking for what you want! If you see a drop dead something youve been wanting - just buy it and enjoy it! Or, call your mother and ask her to get it for you. She will be thrilled that you actually like what she gives you!

Get over thats the way it is. You are always at choice to continue or change things. Make the suggestion to change and see what happens.

Get over your stuff. If it truly is the way it is, change your perspective. If Aunt Susie truly loves to make that horrid dish or give outlandish gifts, join her in the joy of the experience and see where it takes you!

Find joy and breath! Choose to wake up and be positive. Find or write a quote that brings you happiness and read it each morning.

Connect. Call someone you care about and havent visited with. Create a tele-date if you cant get together and spend 10 or 60 minutes enjoying your relationship.

Relax and know. The holidays will come and go. You choose to be crazy or say no to those things that wont feed you. Know you are a magnificent, brilliant being who has the power and radiance to connect where it is most important heart to heart with those around you.

Peace and ease for the holiday season!

Dawn Quesnel, CPCC, PCC - Dawn received her coaches training from the Coaches Training Institute (CTI), and is accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF). She is a member of the ICF and she continuously trains to develop her skills as a professional coach. Merola Blog17380
Murielle Blog41168

New Business Loans UK enter business field through easy finance

Are you looking for financial assistance so that you can start a new business in the UK? You have this option for applying a new business loan that is especially designed keeping in view the requirements of a new business in the UK.

Depending on the amount you want to borrow and as per your personal circumstances, you can opt for secured or unsecured new business loans. In case of greater amount for starting a new business, secured new business loans should be opted for. You would be offering your home or any valued property to the lender as security. The lender will approve greater amount depending on value of home or any property. But the main advantage is that secured new business loans UK are approved at lower interest rate. Low rate makes the loan repaying fairly easier and it is not a burden on the loan. Another advantage is that secured new business loans can be paid back as per the business persons repaying capacity. You can repay the loan in larger duration also if you want to reduce monthly outgo for the loan installments.

Unsecured new business loans UK are given without demanding any security from the business person. Thus the loan is completely risk free for new business people. However for covering risks, lenders charge higher interest rate on unsecured new business loans. You would be approved smaller amount for shorter repaying duration.

And new business people should not worry about past bad credit history. Secured or unsecured new business loans in the UK are approved with ease for bad credit new business borrowers as well. The loan approval for such borrower will depend on prospects of the business and a convincing loan repaying plan in place.

Banks, financial companies and online lenders can be applied for in order to get new business loans in the UK. However compare lenders first and take rate quotes for a suitable deal. See if the lender provides loan for your type of business or not. And pay off the loan in time so that new loans can be easily taken at easier terms for the business.

Tim Kelly is an expert in finance having completed his LLM in Finance (Master of Laws in Finance) from Institute for Law and Finance at Frankfurt University. He is currently working with business loans as a financial advisor. To find New business loans UK, Secured business loans, Unsecured business loans, Small business loans, Business loans UK, Business loan visit http://www.businessloans.uk.comMaurita Blog66115
Maribel Blog56732

Breaking Your Russia Wife In To Americas Consumer Society

One of the first problems that your fianc will encounter will be shopping. In Russia, choice in products is usually limited. When she walks into a grocery store in America for the first time, it can be overwhelming.

How does she decide which brand of the sixteen types of toilet paper to buy?

I began by teaching my wife about sale items or discounts and coupons. I taught her how to comparison shop. Sometimes it is difficult to understand how the prices are listed for the products.

As we began our shopping excursions, I also taught her about brand names and quality. As you know, you may not buy certain items even when they are on sale because their quality is perceptibly lower.

With some products, quality may not differ much or matter much, say with salt or sugar. With other products, quality may matter such as with laundry detergent or ice cream.

You must also show your wife about your preferences. And as she buys things and tries things, she will develop her own preferences.

I taught my wife about stocking up on meat, chicken, or fish when they are on sale. She knows now which cuts she likes and has mastered this technique.

We live in an area that is an agricultural produce center. We have excellent fruits and vegetables at very good prices. Your fianc will have a much easier time with evaluating fruits and vegetables, because she is used to that from her home country.

However, she may not be familiar with some types of fruits and vegetables available here as they are not common in Russia. Avocados and artichokes for example.

My wife loves artichokes, but she is rather neutral about avocados. At any rate, get her maximum exposure to shopping and she will be a pro in about three to six months.

Most Russian women are natural shoppers. They are skilled at looking for bargains. One of the things I have had to teach my wife is that with big items you want a good price, but you want good quality first.

You first shop for quality, then try to get a good price for things you are going to have to live with for a while: televisions, cars, even clothing.

Fortunately, my wife now understands and agrees with my approach.

Russia is a cash economy. Your fianc is unfamiliar with checks and credit cards. She may or may not understand about bank accounts. Those are things you will have to teach her.

One of the difficult things about bringing your wife to America is that you must teach her all the things that it took most people thirty years to learn and accomplish. She must learn these things in a matter of months or a few years.

We learned about shopping through trial and error. It took us years to get educated, learn to drive a car, get a checking account, buy a house, learn to pay bills, become familiar with insurance, cable television, cell phones, microwaves, and computers.

We know how to find our way around the local community on familiar roads, how to take public transportation, how to register for school, how to take books out of the public library, and function in our society.

Your fianc has not had the benefit of living here for twenty or thirty years to learn these things over time. She must learn to live in America by taking an accelerated course.

Even household appliances like washers, driers, microwaves, and dishwashers are not common in Russia. Plus, in America, all the instructions are written in English! After a few months, she will be able to whiz around the house like she had been raised with these things.

You must get her a social security card. You must take her everywhere until she can learn to drive.

You must be patient with her while she learns English, while she learns her way around Americas consumer society, while she learns how to drive and finds a job.

After one to two years, you will be amazed at how well she excels at these things.

She is most likely highly educated and has a good profession in her home country. However, because of her limited English and because her credentials may not be valid in America, she may have to go back to school to find a career in America.

If you wish her to work right away, she can probably get the kind of job that most immigrants can get when they first come to America. She can clean houses, work in restaurants, day care, or any other jobs where English speaking ability is not a requirement.

One alternative if her English is limited is to try to find a place where other Russian-speaking people are employed.

You may want to enroll your wife in a local free school such as adult school or other community ESL program to improve her English when she gets here. Community colleges are the next step once her English has improved to a sufficient level.

Many Russian women are attractive and many retail establishments hire them for that reason. Its also a good way for them to practice their English. However, your fianc will need a certain minimum level of English to work with the public.

I advised my wife to pick a career path that she wanted to follow, and to go to school to educate herself in that career. It may take a few years until she is working, but she will be able to find a job where she will make a much higher income in the long run than if she continues to work at low paying jobs.

One idea is to find a niche for your wife teaching Russian at the local high school or community college. You can approach the administration of the school on her behalf and convince them to try it on an experimental basis. Of course, she will need a working knowledge of English in order to be able to communicate with the students.

Russian women are resourceful. They are usually highly educated and intelligent. They have developed tremendous survival skills that they learned in their own country.

Be patient and help her find her way. It will take a few years but she will find her niche and you will settle into a comfortable family life.

John Kunkle has been successfully married to a Belarussian wife for over five years. He has traveled extensively through Russia and other CIS countries. He will tell you why you should consider Russian women, how to meet them, how to bring your special woman home, and how to survive married life.Misti Blog69962
Merla Blog66875

Affiliate Networks Explained Webmasters Get Paid Today!

An affiliate network is exactly what it sounds like, a network of affiliate programs. Affiliate networks work by having merchants signup and submit there commission offer which can come in the form of pay per sale, pay per lead or pay per click. Therefore other webmasters pay you to display there link or banner on your website. Once choosing the affiliate program that best fits your website tracking is then accomplished by having each affiliate given its own unique affiliate link. This affiliate link tracks when visitors to your website click to the merchants website. All you have to do is place this link or banner on your website in some prime real estate so it gets some attention.

Three different types of programs exist, the first of the three being pay per sale. Pay per sale can be a flat rate fee or a percentage of the total sale. I personally prefer a flat rate per sale so I know how much to expect from each sale. The second type of program is pay per lead or action. This program pays out when a visitor clicks on your link affiliate link and then performs some type of action on the merchants website. The action ranges from signing up for a newsletter to submitting a form. The merchant chooses what action the visitor must take for you to earn commission. I highly suggest starting with a pay per lead program if you are new to affiliate programs and networks. The last type of program is a pay per click. Payouts range from $0.01 to $4.50 per click and payouts vary by website subject. I would not suggest signing up for any pay per click program paying anything less than $0.25

You may be asking yourself how affiliate networks are at all different from affiliate programs. Well the answer is simple, affiliate networks are simply a collection of affiliate programs compiled in a user friendly fashion so you have the flexibility to find programs and change which programs to promote simply by replacing a link.

Many benefits are associated with affiliate networks including the variety of programs to choose from. With the advanced search tool that many networks offer you can filter affiliate programs in the network related to your website by selecting a similar category or searching for a particular keyword. You can also narrow these searches by choosing only programs that are pay per click, within the United States, newly added, etc...

While not all affiliate networks offer multiple payment methods many do. This is another great benefit of working with an affiliate network in opposition to an affiliate program. I personally do not like waiting for a check to be mailed out every month which is the payment method of most affiliate programs. Instead affiliate networks often offer additional payment methods like Paypal or direct deposit.

Running a profitable ad campaign is another tough obstacle to overcome. I suggest if you are new to affiliate networks to signup for one that offers pay per lead programs and choose a program that fits your website. If you notice your affiliate campaign is not performing as well as expected this could be the cause of multiple reasons. The most common error would be choosing an affiliate program that has a high payout yet does not relate to your website content. Please I cannot stress this enough, when choosing an affiliate program from your network choose the one that best fits your website content. Even if the payout is less more of your visitors will convert to sales, leads, and clicks so in the long run it is the more logical choice.

On occasion you will find an affiliate program that fits the content of your website perfectly yet still does not perform. The solution is more of a trial an error than anything else. You need to try multiple affiliate programs to see which one results in the highest payout by percentage. This is why affiliate networks are so superior, they offer the flexibility to test different programs effortlessly and choose which one best fits your personal needs.

Finding an affiliate network has been made easy, our affiliate network list displays the program types available, payment methods, amount of programs in the network, and if the program is two tier or not. The link for our website is in the article signature, so start earning money with your website today!

Written by: Michael McLaughlin at http://www.webmasteralist.com/affiliate_networks - List of quality affiliate networks, http://www.webmasteralist.com Most comprehensive directory of affiliate programs on the web.Marney Blog19091
Marina Blog19173

Affiliate Marketing Basics For Dummies

You have a good website, perhaps about a niche area that you specialize in or about a passionate hobby of yours. Your readers love your articles. Your homepage is widely book marked and your newsletter has membership in thousands. Great!

Have you monetized your traffic? Have you signed up for Affiliate Programs?

"Affiliate programs? Hmm, What are those?" A good friend of mine who is passionate about cameras and has a blog with good readership exclaimed. What a waste of valuable traffic!

What is Affiliate Program? - A Definition

Affiliate program is a partnership between the merchants such as Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, Circuit City etc. and you, the publisher who places links to these merchant sites strategically on your websites and drive additional traffic to the merchant websites.

Terminology

Pay Per Click: Merchant offers money every time a visitor sent from your website visits merchant's website.

Pay Per Sale: Merchant offers money every time a visitor sent from your website actually buys the product offered by the merchant.

Pay Per Lead: Merchant offers money every time a visitor sent from your site provides some information to the merchant like his/her email id or fills a form. Essentially, Merchant is getting leads to sell his stuff.

Choosing the right affiliate programs for your site?

First and foremost, it is important to understand that the chances of your visitors clicking on your affiliate links, if the topic is relevant to them, which means your website/page and the affiliate links published should be closely related.

Of course they should offer reliable mechanisms to track: the traffic sent by you, your commissions you earned etc.

In addition to payout that is attractive, I would prefer those that offer good support, those who care for their affiliates. I should be able to get in touch with easily and get responses quickly, if situation demands.

A program that offers cookie duration so that even if your visitor visits a merchant today and purchases a month later, you would still get your commission, would be attractive to me.

Multi-tier programs and programs that offer residual income can also be attractive.

If your topic is regional, you have to make sure that the affiliate program(s) chosen cater to that region.

What's the best way to find Affiliate Programs for your site?

There are tons of Affiliate Programs out there offering from very attractive to so-so commissions. Which one to pick?

Your time is rather valuable to be checking out each of these merchant websites, making notes etc.
I find Affiliate Directories more useful, with their classification of programs, payout details and more importantly review etc., all available in one place.

You can pick the best affiliate suited for your niche much easily at a directory than on your own. Affiliate Directories help you spend more time concentrating on making your content more useful to your readers.

A few Tips for Success with Affiliate Programs

It is becoming increasingly clear these days that text links are much more successful that banners. A personal endorsement, for a targeted affiliate program with useful informative facts could help tremendously in encouraging the visitors to check out the merchants you promote.

Why do so many affiliates fail in affiliate marketing?

Fundamental and obvious reason for failure is that you are promoting stuff that is not relevant to your visitors.

Lack of conviction: Affiliate program is not just about putting a link. Get involved with a product and try it out if possible. Personal honest reviews help promote the stuff better. Only hard work pays.

If your pages designed with the sole purpose of acting as a commission-earning middleman, beware; search engines can throw your site out. Make sure that you are not a thin affiliate (a website with just affiliate links and banners, but no useful content).

Some fly by night operators take advantage of the minimum payout limits. Be sure to check the credibility of the affiliate program you are joining.

In summary, monetize your website. Let your passion bring in some revenue for yourself. Choose the Right Affiliate Program by browsing Affiliate Directories. Put some effort, get involved with the product you are promoting and increase your revenue.

Jonathan White has been doing affiliate & article marketing for over 4 years. He owns http://www.affiliateseeking.com & http://articles.simplysearch4it.comMathilde Blog66382
Morlee Blog81172

Understanding Corporations, Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) and Limited Partnerships

The best way to understand a corporation, limited liability company (or even a limited partnership) is to realize that each creates a special legal relationship or privilege between the business owner(s) and the government. These areas of government include:

1) State Government (including state taxing authorities and the state court system)

2) The Federal Government (specifically the IRS and the Bankruptcy court system)

You may be saying, alright Darius, I still dont understand what you mean by a relationship or privilege. The best way that I can put it is this:

A business entity is a legal relationship which allows for certain privileges. When teaching people about entities, I like refer to an often forgotten fact: In England during the colonial period the ability to create a corporation required an exclusive grant (i.e., permission) from the Crown (thats right the King or the Queen!). Remember a business entity is a privilege!

HERE IS ANOTHER TIDBIT: Did you know that WHEN the original 13 colonies were established, many were actually corporations or similar form. For example, the Maryland Company was used to settle and developyou guessed it, the State of Maryland. Other examples include, the Virginia company, the Massachusetts company and others. Why would someone use an entity to explore and colonize the New World? The reason is that colonization and exploration were risky investments. Ships were lost at sea, diseases ended the lives of thousands, and a host of other risks were present with each expedition.

By setting up these expeditions as corporations investors could contribute money but were only be liable for the amount invested. In other words, these early arrangements promoted exploration, development, and commerce by limiting liability for investors. The same reasoning is true today. When liability is limited to what you contribute to a business, people are more likely to start businesses. THE REASON: Less risk if everything goes wrong BUT more to GAIN when things go RIGHT!

The point of these historical facts is to make it clear that the purpose of a business entity is to limit the liability of owners/investors to the amount contributed to the business. These facts should also make you realize that liability protection is a privilege.

WHY SHOULD YOU BE CONCERNED ABOUT LIABILITY PROTECTION?

I am not here to scare youbut use common sense. Real estate businesses require you to deal with numerous parties, including: TENANTS, SELLERS, PARTNERS, INVESTORS, LENDERS, MANAGEMENT COMPANIES, INDEPENDENT CONTRACTS, EMPLOYEES, and others. The more parties you deal with the more likely it is that something may not go as planned.

The first step is to learn how to run your business in fair and careful mannerso that you reduce the chances of getting sued. Always remember this: A business entity (LLC, corporation or limited partnership) is not an excuse to act in a careless or negligent manner. You need to be fair when dealing with all parties and you need to outline agreements with partners, vendors, contractors, etc. You need to respond to tenants complaints regarding rental property. In short you need to become a MASTER good business practices. I spend a considerable about of time in my courses covering a topic I call LAWSUIT AVOIDANCE 101. This means that we teach you good business practices to help you reduce the risk of getting sued. ITS SIMPLY SO IMPORTANT!

Another issue to keep in mind is that since you will be dealing with TENANTS, SELLERS, PARTNERS, INVESTORS, LENDERS, MANAGEMENT COMPANIES, INDEPENDENT CONTRACTS, EMPLOYEES, COUNTY AGENTS, you may get into the position where you will need to assert your rights. In other words, you may need to take another person to court, because your rights have been violated, a contract has been broken, or money has not been paid to you. Many times when you assert your rights, you may then be sued by the party you are taking to court. I know this sounds harshbut it happens! This is called a cross claim and it means that the party who is being sued is now also suing. Usually this happens because the other partys attorney believes that they have a claim and/or they will be in a better position using a cross claim. Basically this means that for you TO ASSERT YOUR OWN RIGHTS, YOU MAY RISK GETTING SUED.

ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS: There are also steps you can take to allow more chances for a pre-lawsuit settlement. This makes the lawsuit truly a last resort. Ask this question: Do you have alternative dispute resolution clauses in your agreements? Obviously, if you can settle matters outside of court via an alternative dispute resolution method, then may be a big advantage and a savings of time and money. An alternative dispute resolution clause will require parties to work at settling a claim through mediation or another non-litigious (and less expensive) manner. Again, a lawsuit should be the absolute last resort. We cover all of these areas in more detail for investors because it something that most people and even some attorneys leave out!

There are also tax advantages and disadvantages to recognize when selecting an entity for your business. We will discuss these in later articles.

To learn more about which entity may be best for you and how to create, run, and maintain an iron clad LLC or corporation, you dont need a grant from the King or Queenbut you should see Mr. Barazandehs, Incorporate for Wealth and Wealth Building LLC courses at www.theinformedinvestor.com and www.attorneysecrets.com.

I want to wish you all the best in your business and email me if you ever need help: taxenterprises@yahoo.com

By: Darius M. Barazandeh, Attorney at Law / M.B.A. Morganne Blog83836
Melisent Blog74387

A Day In The Life Of An Affiliate Marketer

It is not hard nowadays to be an affiliate marketer. In the old days it was all handled by cold calling and telephones but since the age of technology we now find the best affiliate marketers are online and their earning potential has soared due to the number of users and the reach they now have now thanks to the internet.

A day in the life of an affiliate marketer is somewhat different to what it used to be. Now you have a lot of competitors and search engine optimization to deal with to get the right traffic to your website or affiliate pages in order to make that sale. When an affiliate marketer gets up in the morning he usually starts off his day checking his emails as it is very important to not miss anything that is important whether it be a question from a perspective buyer or an affiliate you have sponsored wanting some help. In order to maintain a good reputation you need to be able to communicate with people and assist them when needed. People like to know they are dealing with a real person and not just a computer.

With affiliate marketing he can either work with just affiliate link pages or he may have his own website. Once he has gone through his emails he would then check on his sites statistics to see that he is getting the traffic he needs. If he is not getting the traffic he will increase his backlinks to his site by adding useful replies in a multitude of forums. Each one of these replies is a link directly back to the affilate marketing site. In order to rank high for your chosen keyword you need to link that keyword in your signature back to your site. The more links you have the better placed you are on the search engine and the more targeted traffic you will get.

In order to make a lot of sales the Affiliate Marketer will write keyword rich articles for each of his products and submit them to as many sites as possible. Or he will pay a submission company to submit his articles as they will do it much faster and to many more article directories. Remember each one of these articles is also another backlink back to the affiliate website hence increasing his position on the search engines for his chosen keyword.

The Affiliate Marketer will also generally run some pay per click ads in google, yahoo, big daddy to name a few. He will also check his stats and tweak his ad accordingly to increase clicks through to his site at the cheapest price possible. He doesnt want to pay anything over 5 cents per click generally.

The Affiliate Marketer will end up checking his email all through the day to be on top of it, it is not unusual for a successful internet marketer to have to wade through hundreds of emails, but he will do it because he knows it is important.

To check his links are increasing the affiliate marketer will use backlink checkers to ensure his links are increasing accordingly. You can check your links for free at linkpopularity.com, it is also recommended to submit your website to the search engines once a month to get them listed. An affiliate marketer is more interested in ranking well in the major search engines as this is the place he will get the majority of his traffic from.

Once all this is under control the Affiliate Marketer will check out his competition and see what they are up to and he will check his sites he is affiliated with for any new products he might like to promote or write an article about as he is already preparing his next days work.

(c)Lyn Leckie 2006Mariellen Blog29007
Marje Blog14095

A Closer Look at the Free Google Pages Service

It is now about several months ago that Google announced its new Service (currently in Beta) with the name "Google Pages" or "Google Page Creator" (Url: http://pages.google.com).

It is intended to give average people and internet newbie's the ability to create a website via a free and easy to use tool. Blogs became main stream over a year ago and proved to be so easy to use, that virtually anybody was able to start one and publish content without the need to take some internet 101 or Web Development classes.

Google Pages is geared toward the same audience. The difference between Blogs and Google Pages is, that Blogs are meant to be a "Journal" to publish recent News and Events and not permanent content such as a Family History or "About Me" pages. Google Pages tries to fulfill this need.

The high demand for the new Service forced Google to disable the creation of new Google Pages accounts only a short time after they announced it. New Accounts are only available by invitation only. Only recently did Google add the Google Pages Service to their service "Google for your Domain" making it a low budget (actually no-budget, because it is free) solutions for people that own a domain and want only get a few pages up on the internet.

I was playing around with the Service to find out how far it developed, what you can do with it and what not. This article is a brief review of the current features and shortcomings of the service. You can visit my Google Pages Test Pages at the web adress "carsten.cumbrowski.googlepages.com " to get an Idea how Pages created by this new Service can look like.

The Basic Layout The first choice the user has to make is which of the 4 pre-defined Layouts and 41 pre-defined Designs he wants to use for his pages. There is no option to change a design or layout to custom needs which really limit the possibilities to create unique looking pages severely.

The Google Pages Team did obviously not study how Blogger is solving this problem in an elegant way by providing the selection of templates with the ability to tweak it afterwards by more experienced users. Blogger is also owned by Google. I recommend that the Google Pages Team meets with the Blogger Team to discuss synergies and learn from the years of experiences the Blogger Team already has with this problem.

The WYSIWYG Editor The intuitive WYSIWYG Editor is overall very easy to use, but rather limited in options. Only 6 Fonts are available: Arial, Verdana,Times New Roman, Courier New, Georgia and Trebuchet; 4 Font Sizes: small, normal, large and huge; 70 fix Colors; H1, H2 and H3 Head Lines; Unsorted List (ul); Bold or Italic font formatting (no underline, superscript or strike through); Link to other Page, File, Email or External Link; Alignment of Content: left, right and center; Image (must be uploaded) with 4 fix size options: small, medium, large and original size.

There is the option to edit the HTML Code which you need to fall back to when it comes to creating "Tables" or using additional HTML Syntax not provided by the Editor like "hr", sorted list, the mentioned font formatting or specific colors not available in the list of the 70 predefined ones.

What I also miss is a simple build-in spell checker. The Google Toolbar has one build-in and there are various free solutions out there as well, such as the Lingucomponent Project from Open Office (http://lingucomponent.openoffice.org).

The Page and Image Management The Management of the individual Pages is easy. Google Pages refers to Pages by what you use in the predefined "Title" area of a page. So far so good, but there is an issue when it comes to the Page Name used for the URL. The Initial Title specified for a new Page is used for the Page "File name" and can not be changed afterwards.

The Google Pages URL Syntax is "username.googlepages.com/pagename" (starting with http). Make sure that you give a new Page a title that reflects the wanted "File Name" and change the Title of the Page to its real Title afterwards. The Inability to rename a Page renders the "copy page" feature more or less obsolete. The copy of the original page is simply named "originalpagefilenameX" with X being a number starting with 2 for the first copy.

Accessing the uploaded Images and deleting them is simple. The user must be careful though, because there is no indicator if an Image is used in a "published" = live page or not. Deleting a used image creates a broken Image on the public site.

"Static" Content is not an option If you would like to have the same content for certain areas on all your pages, such as a Footer or Main Navigation you have a problem which can only be solved by cumbersome manual labor.

You can not incorporate anything to your Site Template. This means that you have to recreate the static content for every page manually. If something changes, you have no choice but must update every single page of your site manually one by one.

This is a major shortcoming that practically causes users to be inconsistent with the overall look and usability of their site.

No JavaScript or iFrames JavaScript and iFrames are forbidden to be used in your Pages. If you add the Code manually, it's getting removed by the Page Creator automatically. This includes inline and external JavaScript

This means, that you can not add most of the common types of Advertisement to your pages to monetize the site including Google AdSense Ads, Amazon Product Ads, Linkshare DRMs or Chitika Ads.

You can also not use any JavaScript to improve site usability.

General Tools are simply absent Google Pages does not offer any type of tools to extend the features of the site beyond a small collection of static HTML Pages with a little bit of content.

The ability to place AdSense Ads on those Pages should be of high interest by Google since it allows them to increase their Advertising Revenue. Any build in function to place AdSense Ads somewhere into Google Pages is not in sight anywhere. I assume that this will be coming at one point because Google Pages is simply perfect for Google AdSense.

The ability to create any type of Forms or in general ANY interactive content does not exist, which severely limits the use of Google Pages. This is something the Google Pages team should work on.

Providing features like a contact form that integrates with Google GMail, the publishing of Feeds from Google Reader or the Integration of Google Maps and Google News would be perfect for Google Pages. Google Analytics can't be added to the Pages as well.

Indexing of Google Pages by Google Search Google automatically adds Google Pages to the content to be crawled by its Web Crawler and seem to be indexed well what does not surprise me since they know exactly how those pages are layed out and structured. This is a free bonus and might be reason enough for some to use the Tool.

Conclusion Google Pages is surely for a good reason still in Beta Status and will probably remain in that Status for quite a while. The existing features have a lot of flaws and also a lot of very important features are missing all together.

Google Pages does also not interface with any other existing Google Service although Google Pages is a perfect candidate to exploit and showcase a wide variety of existing Google Services (live and beta ones). Google has still a long way to go with this service to provide a useful tool for the general public.

I see its use today as a place where you can create some static pages with content to link to from your blog at Blogger or other Blogging Services. It is certainly not enough for most people to create their complete Homepage/Presence on the Internet via Google Pages.

It might also be an alternative for some Geocities Users since Google Pages does not show any 3rd Part advertisement anywhere on the pages.

Carsten Cumbrowski is an Internet Marketer and Web Developer with over 7 years experience in Web Development and over 20 years experience in Development in General. He operates an Internet Marketing and Web Development Resources Site at http://www.cumbrowski.com.Merrielle Blog92306
Nada Blog93250

Network+ Certification Exam Tutorial: DHCP And RARP

Part of passing the Network+ exam is mastering the many different protocols and services you're introduced to in your studies, and that's especially hard when two protocols do much the same thing! That's the case with RARP and DHCP, so let's take a close look at these two protocols and why we use them in the first place.

Whether you've been around networks for a while or are just getting started with your IT career, you'll quickly notice that many basic tasks in networking can be handled either statically or dynamically. By "statically", I mean configuring each device in question manually; by "dynamically", I mean having it done (almost) automatically. Generally, you're going to choose the dynamic method, and not because it's easier or quicker - it's because dynamic methods are much more adaptable to change, and today's networks are always changing.

For example, let's take the task of assigning IP addresses. Let's say you've got 100 PCs that need an IP address. You could go to each workstation and assign the address, subnet mask, and default gateway personally, or you could go to each workstation and enable each workstation to use DHCP to get its IP address from a DHCP server.

You may wonder why you'd choose DHCP instead of static addressing - after all, each choice involves going to the workstation personally, right? At first, yes. But what if the addressing scheme changes? What if six months from now you need these same PCs to be assigned addresses using a totally different addressing scheme? If you configured the PCs manually, you've got to go around to the PCs again and change them manually, but if you are using DHCP, you only need to change the information on the DHCP server itself to be just about done!

Now that we've discussed why you'd use DHCP, let's talk about what it is. DHCP is the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and this protocol allows us to configure a DHCP Server that will contain the range of addresses to be assigned, as well as the subnet mask, default gateway, DNS servers, and other information that we want our PCs to learn when they are booted up.

When a PC configured to get its IP address dynamically comes onto the network, it will send a DHCP broadcast packet. This packet will be answered by every DHCP server that receives it, and the PC will use the IP address assigned to it by the first DHCP server that responds to the original request. The PC acknowledges the receipt of this address to all DHCP servers via another broadcast, so addresses sent to the PC by other DHCP servers are returned to the pool of available addresses.

This IP address does not belong to the PC forever. When the DHCP server is configured, the length of the DHCP Lease is set. This value is the amount of time the host devices will retain a DHCP address assigned to them by this DHCP server. When the lease expires, a renegotiation must take place between the DHCP client (the host device) and the server.

Earlier in this Network+ exam tutorial, I mentioned that there may come a time when you need to change IP assignments on your DHCP Server. But what about the IP addresses that the hosts already have? You can force the host to release its current DHCP-assigned IP address by going to the command prompt and entering "ipconfig /release" (without the quotation marks). To then have the PC request a new IP address, enter "ipconfig /renew".

Notice that we've talked a great deal about DHCP and not much about RARP (Reverse Address Resolution Protocol)? DHCP is much more popular today than RARP, and certification exams tend to reflect that fact. Know both of these methods of dynamic IP address assignment, and you're on your way to passing the Network+ exam!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (http://www.thebryantadvantage.com).Mireille Blog66306
Mei Blog98267

Birthday Parties Arent Just Kids Business

You don't need an excuse to celebrate, but if you or your friends birthday is around the corner, then take the time to create a party that is memorable and lasting with your close circle of friends. With a pinch of creativity, you can make some magical moments!

We all have them. Some of us anticipate them and others dread them terribly. Some make a big fuss over them and others try to avoid theirs like the plague. I'm talking about that event that commemorates our entry into the world - our birthdays.

Do you remember the days when you used to mark them by the quarter and half marks? Sure, back then time had a way of stretching almost endlessly.

Now time is calibrated by the beeps of our cell phones and alarm clocks and organized by palm pilots and Blackberries. Who ever named those devices knew that time flies, but did they forget it doesnt just grow on trees? As we get older, time moves faster than a cheetah at a race-track. So celebrating life, and our lives, in particular becomes that much more important.

Over five years ago, a dear friend of mine was quite depressed. Both personal and world events were triggering her despair. She had just had a birthday, but it did nothing to lift her spirits. Family members didnt do anything special, and most friends didnt remember the day. She felt pretty miserable. More than anything she just wanted to get together with some good women friends and celebrate something, anything that would take her mind off of her dark thoughts. She suddenly remembered that I had a birthday coming up and that the antidote to her depression would be to throw me a party.

I gave her a list of some friends and she took care of the rest. The directions were pretty simple. No talking about work or family, and bring a creative activity to do with the group and a round food to share. "We're celebrating wholeness," my friend said. So we ate cherry tomatoes, chocolate truffles, tuna mousse in a round bowl, and grapes and melon balls. "We're celebrating Tzippi," my friend said.

So they wrote poems, sculpted with modeling clay, sang, and told stories that celebrated and poked fun at me. Mostly we laughed, and laughed a lot. And what we celebrated that night was not just my birthday but our ability to play the way we did when we were kids. In fact, it was even better than when we played as kids because as middle aged women we took less for granted, and that included the most precious commodity of all. "Were celebrating life," my friend said, summing it all up.

We've been celebrating each others' ever since. Get together with some good friends and celebrate yours. Time doesn't grow on trees.

Tzippi Moss is an expert in the areas of imagery, expanding creativity, dream work, stress reduction, and goal setting. She is the author of "A Dash of Soul" and "Real Women Sizzle". Read more about them at: http://www.WomensBirthdayClub.com.Nadeen Blog29116
Mora Blog939

How To Make Your Web Site And Affiliate Marketing Compatible

People who look for income opportunities, do often come across the idea of affiliate marketing. At first sight, it looks like it's just to have a banner posted on their web site to generate income.

The truth is that you need to do a little more than that. You have to test and evaluate every necessary ingredient in your particular affiliate marketing niche. By testing and optimize you will learn how to get the most out of your efforts.

To be able to make money from your web site as an affiliate marketer. You need to get your site and your affiliate program to work together. It's a team sport with two players, and to win the matches, booth players have to perform well.

Let's have a look why this compability is so important. Your visitors come to your site because they want information on a specific topic. To be able to recommend a service or a product your visitors may be interested in, you must promote something that are related to your sites theme.

If you try to recommend a product unrelated to your theme, it will only result in a click at the back button. Once your visitor spot a banner or a text link that is not related to your page content. He will think you're unprofessional. Or worse, he might think you try to scam him.

To make the affiliate marketing process work, you must keep your content and recommended products or services related. Your customer visit your site to find information and a solution of his problem. First you provide the information, then you recommend a solution for his problem.

Banner or text link placement is also an important ingredient. It will work best if you can weave it in to your content. Try to make it as a well flowing unit. However, Don't hide the fact that your visitor will land on another web site when he click at your link. Build trust and confidence by being honest. To find the most efficient placement, you have to test and evaluate over time.

Once you've learned to master the art of affiliate marketing, it will give you a repeatable income. When your first program is up and running smoothly, It's time to implement the next one.

All products or services have their ups and downs. Therefore it is wise to divide your sources of income. Your site must have one main theme, but there is no reason why you can't have several sub themes. With that, comes the possibility to promote other products or services, that are related to these sub themes.

When you add more than one source of income, it will balance your income. It will help you to gain a stable financial situation.

Ove Nordkvist is the founder of the web site http://www.small-biz-ideas.net At site you'll find small business ideas, free tools, e-books and lots of informative articles. Visit http://www.small-biz-ideas.net/affiliate-marketing-ideas.html To learn more about affiliate marketing ideas. Use the tutorial, download your free copy of an affiliate masters course.Malia Blog44208
Merlina Blog4371

7 Tips BITS For Beginners In Affiliate Programmes

Numerous affiliate programmes have risen lately and if you are now partaking in it you need to note these important tips to succeed in your business.

1. Read Around: Read a lot about your new programme from recommended books, magazines, website etc as this will help you to understand whatever your personal trainer will be taking you through. If you understand, you can guide others who join the programme through you to establish and progress.

2. Dont subscribe to too many programmes: It is not advisable to subscribe to too many programmes initially because you will get scared by the numerous e-mails and may give up. So learn to crawl before you walk. Take one step at a time to get to your final destination.

3. Set working hours: It is so vital to set the number of hours you can spend each day on your affiliate programme and keep to it as religiously as you can. Try to stick to the set number of hours and sooner than you expect it will become part and parcel of your daily routine.

4. Rules /Obligations: Understand the rules and specification of the site you are affiliated to. This is because each site has its specific demands and rules and a beach or non conformity to any of these out of ignorance will cost you. It can result in being taken off the programme or loosing you commission or something else as spelt out by the mother site.

5. Settle with a mode of payment: It is very important that you settle with an acceptable mode of payment as soon as you think of doing an affiliate programme .This is because you will necessarily buy services from numerous businesses. You would also receive some commission which needs to be directed to a named account. Infact you need to find out exactly what is acceptable at both national and international basis.

6. Tracking: There is the need to put in place a tracking system to be able to monitor all the businesses you deal with in terms of how effective their services you are using is promoting your business or other wise. It will also help you to check on your commissions to find out if you are receiving all that is required of you.

7. You are responsible for your actions: I mean you cannot blame any second or third party if you take steps that land you into disaster. You will be guided and advised but try to decide whether you really want to do as you have learnt about.

A.M.Y AntwiMoria Blog22409
Missie Blog49103

Affiliate Marketing - It is simple but it is sure not easy

Introduction

Affiliate marketing has transformed into one of the most popular source of earning online. It appears so simple that everyone feels that anyone can rule such a field. However, it is a misconception. Such misconceptions are generated by sales pitch of an affiliate program. It is an area where most people enter easy but they give up briefly without even receiving the first commission. "Affiliate marketing is simple but it is sure not easy".

Why marketers feel affiliate programs are easy?

The basic logic behind affiliate marketing is very clear. The formulation related to its working, process and earning are very simple. Such simplicity has caused most people think of affiliate marketing as a piece of cake. The marketer fails to understand that this simplicity is not linked to its easiness.

Keys to success in affiliate marketing

To be successful at affiliate marketing, only understanding the concept is not enough. Overflow in case of commissions received is not easy. Association with many affiliates cannot do the job. It demands knowing the proficiencies behind the affiliate and the desire to execute them. To earn serious cash, the marketers are required to combine these proficiencies and desire with the simplicity and efficiency of affiliate programs. It is always better to recognize the proficiencies of the affiliate program. This helps in promotion of the product. Simultaneously, it allows knowing the target consumer of the product. The strategy to promote the product to such consumer can then be formulated. The desire in the marketer to promote his affiliate never allows him to get tired of working hard. Hard work always pays off whatever the field may be. In case of affiliate marketing, it is seen in the daily rise in commission earned.

Affiliate marketing is not easy. However, it is not too hard. Affiliate marketing demand proficiencies combined with smart strategies. Such smart action can turn a simple affiliate program into strong earner. Nevertheless, you must always remember that smart work is always better than hard work.

Himanshu Joshi is a successful affiliate marketer and publisher of the popular Free Course "7 Days To Affiliate Marketing Success" , an e-course designed to teach Step By Step, highly-effective Affiliate Marketing techniques. To receive a Free 7-day e-course on affiliate-marketing, simply click here: http://hiddenmarketingsecrets.comMimi Blog29162
Misti Blog69962

How to Create a Book Marketing Plan

A book marketing plan is an outline that will help you determine where and how you will promote your book. It can also serve as an indicator of how well your book may do in the market, once you publish it.

Ideally, you should draw up this plan well before you send your manuscript to a traditional or POD publisher. Today, many publishers require writers to submit a marketing plan along with their queries.

The problem is, many writers have no clue as to how theyre going to market their books. Often, they publish and hope for the best. The information below is a template that will guide you through the process of creating your first book marketing plan.

1. Your Target Audience: Who is going to read your book? Find out what kinds of books are the most popular in your genre and why. What makes your book stand out from the throng of books currently on the market? Have you tested your books idea with prospective readers to determine their interest?

2. The Product: What kind of book have you (or are about to) published? Is it a romance novel or a how-to book on underwater basket-weaving? Will it be available in other formats such as an ebook, podcast, CD-Rom, etc.?

At this stage in your marketing plan, you will need to research your competition to find out what the latest marketing trends are and how to use them to your advantage. Youll also find out how well your competition is doing. Are their books (and derivative versions) selling like hotcakes or are they struggling to make a single sale?

3. The Price: Research your market to find out what readers are willing to pay for your books genre. Where are you going to sell it?

4. The Packaging: Decide how youre going to design your book cover and marketing materials. Consistency and good design are critical. Again, research your competition to see what their materials like.

How does the design and copy measure up? Both play an equally important job in attracting the reader. How are you going to improve on what they did?

5. Promotion and Publicity: How are you going to promote your book? Where are you going to promote it? Take this time to research every available resource both online and off. Write them down or enter them into a database. Creating and keeping a database is the better option because you can set up columns to track your progress.

Once you have gathered all of this information, you are ready to create your book marketing plan. If you are going to submit this plan to a prospective publisher, make sure to follow their guidelines, if necessary. Otherwise, you can type everything into a report and print it out for future reference.

Deborah Woehr is the founder of The Writers Buzz, which helps promote the books of new and established writers. She recently edited and published the 2006 Writers Blog Anthology, a collection of works by writers who blog. The book is available at http://www.lulu.com/content/415394.Mona Blog20200
Monika Blog56436

Double Your Income: Take A Chance With Internet Affiliate Programs

If you want to produce a profitable web site, then affiliate programs are the most ideal approach.

Certain affiliates of companies or corporations out there are looking for help regarding their marketing. The affiliates money is weighed greatly on the commissions taken from the players registrations, and most often these affiliates do not know how to carry this alone. Thus, they needed an instructor to get the proper methods in affiliate programs.

This instructor is the internet itself. The affiliates when studying the procedure simply visit the web sites and search on the programs concerning affiliate marketing. These web sites along with the programs are presenting the various schemes of marketing that the affiliates can apply to boost their possible lower commissions.

These affiliates are expected to widen more their knowledge regarding marketing if they will search further to the web sites and to the affiliate marketing programs.

For instance, the use of banner is the largest element of affiliate marketing programs. And then, the web sites and the affiliate marketing programs will detail everything to the affiliates.

The affiliates can utilize a banner on the other web sites to employ traffic to the site of their mother company where they are employed as an affiliate. This is the main thing that is being covered by the affiliate marketing programs and sites.

These web sites and programs are stressing the use of banners because it performs a vital function in employing traffic on the sites endorsed by the affiliates.

The assistance of banners in employing traffic is very effective, though this is not the sole scheme to augment the affiliates commissions, the web sites and programs cannot deny the fact of the success it brings compared to the others.

These affiliates are always searching for the possible ways to boost up their earnings and turn it into bulk profit, so as to increase their commissions as affiliates. Likewise, they are also finding for ways to learn the strategies in marketing their works as affiliates.

Hence, when these needs occur, they immediately search for the offers in the internet that could help them. This occurrence directly means a profit for the websites and affiliate marketing programs owners.

These affiliate marketing program web sites are utilized by the affiliates on their own advantages as they look for guidance in boosting up their incomes.

Since there are numerous ways to boost the affiliates profits, ways that are not entirely familiar for the affiliates, these web sites have been designed to increase their knowledge on it and help them to understand it deeply, and through these knowledge they were able to generate more money.

Basically, these programs and web sites instruct the affiliates on various things that are concerned in increasing of their profits. And through this, it isnt impossible for them to accumulate commissions as gambling affiliates.

These web sites and programs have been a great help in boosting up the affiliates status in marketing. Even today, these programs and web sites earn more income as they assist these affiliates into profitable commissions.

It is like a give and take process, as the web sites and programs feed the minds of the affiliates about the competent marketing strategies and skills, which later is turned into revenues or their commissions. These web sites and programs likewise earn their turnovers.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information checkout http://www.turnkeyaffiliateprogram.com and http://www.killeraffiliateprogram.com.Nadeen Blog46339
Moria Blog75329

Your Greatest Asset

Your greatest asset is your own customer list. These people have already purchased something from you in the past. If you've delivered as satisfactory product, they are very likely to buy from you again.

The easiest sale you'll ever make is to an already established customer of yours. They already trust you. They feel comfortable in dealing with you. You've delivered what you said you would so a certain degree of trust has already been established. Your customers are probably quite confident that you wouldn't sell them something that wasn't in their best interest.

The high road to increased profits always takes the route of established customers. There's always an expense associated with finding a new customer. Regardless of the marketing method used there's always an investment required in establishing a customer whether in terms of real dollars or human capital. Once you have a customer, any subsequent sale is made without the cost of locating that customer. The cost or finding a new customer is proportionally much higher than the cost of retaining an existing customer.

Keys To Success

The secret of capitalizing on your customer base is to continually feed them with new products and services you know they'll want. This is no time to diversify into completely new areas. Everything that you make available to your customer list must be compatible with what made those people customers to begin with.

Whatever subsequent products and services you offer must be related in some way. Think of your customers as belonging to a specific group. They're gardeners or small business owners or health enthusiasts. Whatever you offer must fit that product niche.

Always be on the lookout for new things you think your customers would gladly pay for. And give customers first crack at any of these new products and services. If you can offer a discount, that's even better. By letting them in on new products and services, you're giving them priority customer status, an added value of doing business with your firm.

Be careful not to overdo it. You don't want to annoy anyone, least of all your customers. Allow enough time and space between customer contacts. How much time you allow between mailings or calls depends on the nature of your business.

Examples

When a clothing store receives a shipment of new designs, they should first notify all previous customers who've purchased in the same price range. All the store has to do is contact these customers by phone or by mailing invitations to a special event where this new line is unveiled. Suggest to customers how additional new outfits can be created by mixing and matching and you've provided an extra service that will help retain customers.

This approach would seem natural for a wholesaler who relies on distributors or retailers to act as re-sellers. By showing your new merchandise and suggesting ways to move more of it, you're providing a valuable service while keeping in touch with your customers.

A self-published author of book on camping tips, should come up with natural additions to his product line to sell to buyers of his book. Things like maps of parks, local facilities, lists of "must-see sites" or specialty camping equipment, could all be add-ons made available to the author's buyers.

One final note; in order to start making more sales and build your business empire you must become an avid student of lead generation and marketing strategy the high-payoff items necessary for you to magnetically attact new clients to skyrocket your profits.

Copyright (c) 2007 Joe Heller

Joe Heller, PresidentNadeen Blog86416
Masha Blog13011

Easy Ways to Save Money

To get on the road to financial freedom, youve got to have a budget to help you focus on achieving your financial goals. If youd like to own your own home someday or pay off all your credit card debt, you need to plan ahead and set aside money to make your dreams a reality. But saving money can seem impossible when youre already reaching to pay all your bills. Fear not it can be done! Check out some of these easy tips to help you start saving money.

Spare Change Matters

Dont underestimate the power of the penny! If dont think you can afford to put any extra money into a savings account, commit to saving your loose change for that purpose. At the end of each day, put all your loose coins in a jar or a cheap piggy bank. As your jar fills up, stop by a Coinstar machine and deposit the cash into your savings account.

Let Online Banking Help You

Online banking makes it easy to transfer money to your savings account. If have direct deposit for your paycheck, you should be able to set up an automatic transfer so that a portion of your money automatically goes to your savings account. If you never see the money, in your checking account, you wont be as tempted to spend it. Most experts recommend that you automatically deposit 10% of your take-home pay, but if this is too much for you to start with, try to work up to it.

Learn the Trading Game

If youre great with kids, why not volunteer to watch a colleagues children in exchange for a free ride to work? Or offer to trade some of your world-famous pies for some auto repair work from a car-loving friend. Everyone have some skills use the things youre good at to trade for the goods and services youd otherwise pay for.

Cut Your Utility Bills

With the explosive growth of modern technology, it seems that theres some new gadget for every task. Using all these tools can make your life easier, but it also increases your energy bill. One night a week, wash your dishes by hand, or hang your clothes to dry on a clothesline in your laundry room. Buy a carpet sweeper or a manual lawnmower to replace their energy-guzzling alternatives. Youll cut your energy bill and develop a new-found respect for your pioneer ancestors.

Live the High Life on a Budget

Buying a $5 coffee everyday or catching dinner and a movie every Friday night with your partner can quickly chip away at your savings. If you cant give up your Starbucks, consider switching to plain black coffee with a bit of flavored creamer. Youll save money as well as all those calories in your grande caramel macchiato! Learn to cook a nice dinner to serve by candlelight in your home and follow it up with your favorite old movie on the couch.

If some of these tradeoffs dont sound like much fun, try to keep your financial goals in mind. Picture yourself moving into your new home or driving down the road in your Ferrari convertible. If you stay focused on your goals, youll find it much easier to stick with your budget and save more money. For more easy ways to save money, visit The Sexy Secretary - a great website with lots of tips on living the good life on a budget.

This article was published by Sarah Russell on Smart Young Money a collection of money management resources for teens and young adults. For great information on using credit, managing debt and more for young people, visit http://www.smartyoungmoney.com.Mona Blog48203
Marlane Blog50579

Why Becoming A Myspace Whore Can Make You Money

Ok, its not exactly flattering to be called a whore, but who cares when youre making money, right?

Before you send me hate mail or report me to the local authorities, let me explain myself a bit further.

The term that Im referring to is myspace whore. If you havent heard it than I really do apologize for exposing you to such an inappropriate phrase, but if you know anything about Myspace.com, then you know that that quote is thrown around like tator tots in a food fight. However, the definition of myspace whore isnt as bad as it sounds. Basically, it refers to a member who has an enormous list of friends most of whom he or she has no personal relation with. In other words it means someone who likes to network with as many people as they can. Whether it be for their own reasons or what were going to be talking about...to make money.

You see, unless youve been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you probably know that Myspace has become the supernova of online social networking sites. Boasting an 80 million registered user database, Myspace has surpassed Google, MSN and AOL with its 38.4 million U.S. visitors this past year.

So what does that all mean to the internet marketer...everything!

Imagine advertising your product or an affiliates product to 80 million potential customers. Imagine breaking that 80 million down by demographic region, age, sex, ethnic background, relationship status, hair color...get the picture. I dont know of many other places that can produce such a huge number of targeted traffic for absolutely zero dollars, and there are plenty of channels by which to advertise.

Blogs
Forums
Bulletins
Newsletters
Classifieds
Friends
Groups

Like I said before, not bad for a website that can generate all that traffic for free!

I think the toughest part of your endeavor is going to be

Ej Abram is an expert in online marketing and advertising with three years of experience. If you would like to learn more about making money with your myspace account then visit http://www.myspaceincomestream.comMona Blog20200
Mellisent Blog73159

How to make an Outdoor Artificial Palm Tree

Here is a step by step guide to make a artificial palm tree for your home or terrace.

1) First we have to make a life like mold of what ever particular palm tree we are using would have to be created. This mold could consist of either an entire tree, or sections that could later be assembled. This would take some artistic skills to carve out the curves and lines of the particular type of palm tree used.

2) Once the mold has been created, then the composite material used would have to be examined to determine what would be most realistic. This composite would have to be made of some sort of synthetic material to withstand the elements.

3) The sections would be taken out of the molds, cleaned of any excess, and then if not molded with a colored finish, painted and left to dry prior to assembly. It would be important to have the texture and color of the trees be as consistent and realistic as possible, a channel would have to be incorporated into the mold as to allow passage of the fiber optic cables that could be run through to light the tree.

4) Assembly of the tree would be via dowels with some sort of an epoxy and potentially a wire frame as to lend support and strength. Drying time of the epoxy would be determined by several factors.

A) The types of composite material used.
B) The epoxy used.
C) Humidity and working environment.

5) Once the trunk is assembled and the epoxy hardened, then it would be time to Manufacture and attach the palm fronds. These also need to be as realistic as Possible and would be made of some sort of synthetic composite material.

6) Once the fronds are manufactured and painted they would be attached to the trunk Via wires and epoxy for added textile strength. A wire frame would be incorporated within the fronds as to allow for life like sculpting. These trees could be manufactured to varied lengths and types according to the planned landscaping and desired effects of the environment to create a restful serene ambiance for future clients

Justin Foss is the webmaster of his personal site http://artificial-palm-tree.info where he likes to write on Artificial Palm Trees. His other hobbies are playing video games.Mead Blog85884
Merla Blog66875

Can Anyone Make $150-$200 A Day From Using Articles?

Why is article marketing so great and why do the greatest marketers on the planet employ this method of marketing?

The greatest will always remain in the front seat because they know what works. The fact that they continue to use article marketing as one of their main methods of marketing shows, well you guessed it, article marketing works for them.

The possibilities for your articles are endless and its an investment of time and not money which makes it cost effective as well. All you need is patience and commitment and you will succeed with this marketing method.

The greatest marketers use this method because:

Its cost effective. Actually let me tell you plan and simple, there is no cost to do this, it is absolutely free.

It builds credibility and expert status on the internet on any subject there is under the sun.

It drives floods of traffic to you promotions.

You reach a laser targeted audience with you articles.

This method has been proven to give you quality back links to your website and subsequently raise your website rankings, which equals more traffic.

These are just previews of the wealth that article writing can bring to you. Although these arent all the reasons, these should be enough reason for you to use this method of marketing.

The most successful people have one thing in common they copy the best, as we can see, the best marketers all said yes to article marketing as one of their most frequently used internet marketing methods.

What is the magical blue print for writing articles like the big guns?

Here is the step by step blue print that the greatest use to build their articles at lightening speed:

Step 1. Plan your article

This may sound elementary but very few people can write articles and skip this step completely.

When you plan your article it makes it easier to write on the topic that you choose. You need to dedicate time for this step because its the doorway for the other steps to follow.

Step 2. Brainstorm your article topic

What are you going to write about and why? Do people want this information? Can you solve a problem that others have? Asking yourself these questions coupled with a little research can get you a long way.

Step 3. Brainstorming your article points and organizing them.

So you have a good topic, now what are the points that you want to discuss on that topic? Organize these topics into the order in which you want to hit on them first then expand on it.

Step 4. Write selflessly about the topic to give quality information to your readers.

This often separates the good from the great. People want information that helps them solve a problem. We usually get the wrong idea with this form of marketing and dive into a sales letter for a product we promote.

Youre not promoting a product right now, youre trying to build your credibility in the minds of readers.

This will make them trust you more and be more open minded to your recommendations for your promotions. Not only will it turn off readers, it also turns off publishers to post your articles on their sites because it isnt of value to their website traffic.

Step 5. Double check and triple check your article for mistakes.

You dont want your articles to be filled with spelling errors and other minor or major mistakes because this will make people not like your writing.

Publishers will review your pieces and if multiple errors are found, then it will not be submitted to their audience.

Print out the article, read it aloud and pass it to a close friend to read it for you and give and objective opinion on what they think about your article. Two sets of eyes are better to find mistakes so use the feedback you get to write better.

Now that you have a simple blue print to follow consider using it to write articles. Article marketing is the life blood for many great marketers out there and you should make it part of your marketing plans. It continuously adds $150-$200 a day to the pockets of those who use it maybe that alone could be your motivation to try.

Shane Hunte is an experienced internet marketer who makes a full time income online. If you to would like to learn the simplest way to make money online then learn article marketing. Go to http://www.internetrevinue.com/Jim_Edwards.html to find out everything you need to know today about profiting fast using your own articles. Margit Blog64238
Marlyn Blog18581