If you are thinking about getting started with an online or home based business.  You can easily get overloaded with a ton of responses from all sorts of people in the business.  Most will say that their business is the best or most profitable.  A lot of time that is because they think its the best because it is the field they are in.  This is similar to someone saying the pizza is best from their home town just because its what they know and what they like.

What you need is the basic facts to get started, a place to learn the basics.  When you have those basics, then you can go on and start to sift out the gems from the rocks.  There are a lot of rocks out there.  We have found a site that is a video site and it teaches you how to get started in your home based business.  It gives you the basic dynamics of what to look for and explains some very important facts.

Buy a business on Ebay?

If you think a good idea is to buy a premade or existing business for sale on Ebay, then you really need to look at this site too since they really focus on it.  There is a lot of garbage out there and if you do not know what to look for, you will get separated from your hard earned cash.  The site includes a membership and you can easily get through all the material without having to sign up for another month.  The best part is the checklist that you can take with you (print) and use a valuable reference in whatever site you choose to buy (or create).

You can find all this information plus a bunch of free stuff in their guest section.

http://www.internetbusinessnavigator.com

This one I highly recommend.

By Jeff Smith

Are you wrestling with the type of business you will operate online?

You may have your goals, even have a market in mind but confused
about the online business model you can use to earn both short-term
dollars as well grow future profits?

It’s true, you have the opportunity to:

- Create Your Own Products

- License Products

- Market a service

- Earn commissions through affiliate marketing

In fact, you could combine one or more of these to reach your goals.

FIRST – GOALS BEYOND DOLLARS

In my mind, you should set some goals in your life that go beyond just
money – then figure out how much you would need to achieve to reach
those goals.

For instance, if you want to experience the freedom of giving up your
current job – that’s your goal, and to fulfill that goal, you may
want to earn 80% of current income within X months.

In my case, I wanted to replace a six-figure corporate income and
did that a couple of years ago.

If you have ever worked for a large company, you’ll appreciate it
when I say that I never wanted to be spending more time in meetings
than producing results again.

Having a reason, deep within you, gives earning your financial
goals meaning resulting in an inexplicable, often magic ability to
achieve the unimagineable.

So, you have your purpose, now is it product, service or affiliate
marketing that will get you there?

THERE’S ONLY ONE RULE THAT COUNTS

In my case, it was a mix of products, services and affiliate
marketing, but…

It all started with the product.

I know many successful online business owners who use different
combinations of products, services and affiliate marketing.

Let’s not pretend that there is any set formula for mixing each of
these EXCEPT…leading with your own products is the single best
way to ensure you get the highest return for the least effort in
all 3 business models.

Here’s the important thing…

1. Having your own products will draw far more business options TO you
instead of you having to chase service or affiliate business.

2. Having your own product increases your credibility and perceived
value to your market (assuming your product is relevant and is good),
which allows you to get more for your services and get better
conversions on your affiliate marketing.

3. Creating or licensing a product gives you leveraged income. In
other words, you create (or license) once and it generates passive
revenue for you for months (even years) to come. My own income split
started at approx 1/3 for each of product, service and affiliate
marketing – now is much more like 65% product, 25% affiliate marketing
and 10% services (I have purposefuly limited them)

Think about it, you spend a few weeks developing your own information
product, another week or two in your launch while you continue to
build sales as long as you continue to expose it to your market.

Even your marketing can be fully automated by building your own
army of affiliates and joint venture partners. With a few months
work launching and marketing your product, you can literally sit
back and collect a check for years.

With your own book, ebook, report, course, workshop, audio or video
products out on the market, you’re business will grow fast. Of
course,
you need to make sure your product tackles a real challenge in your
market and presents you as the ultimate solution.

If you get the feeling that your business is stuck in rush hour
traffic, it’s taking far too much time and effort to squeak out an
inch of progress, then it’s time to clear a certain path toward
success by leading with your own product.

Become A High Paid Information Publising Entrepreneur Using the
System That Experts Agree, Will Put You On the Fast-Track To
Releasing and Profiting From High-Demand Infoproducts. Find it here:
http://www.infoproductcreator.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Smith
http://EzineArticles.com/?Monster-Online-Business-Model-That-Really-Pays-Off&id=96641

I do a lot of reading in forums lately. My favorite (this week) is a small business forum that attracts a lot of people looking for start up information. I notice that many people want to get start up business ideas, but do not really care about what type of business that it is. As long as it makes money seems to be the general thought pattern. That may be a thought pattern that could come back to haunt you later on down the line. For example my good friend Blanche joined an well known MLM program with the lure of making big money. When I asked her how it was going, she told me that it was a lot of work. It seems like you have to work your rear end off and everyone ends up fighting over a quarter. When it is all said and done, you really do not own anything of value.

I myself run several sites, one being a very busy ecommerce site. While I am happy my hard work is paying off, it also is a lot of work. However I am building a real and sellable business in the asset. It is important to know that when you are involved in the customer service part of business, it can be somewhat draining, depending on your product. The reason why is customers. The bottom line is, some customers are painful to deal with. It would seem that there will always be a small amount of people that make the most trouble. This brings me to my mental health outlook. If you are going to start a new business, or look for business ideas, why not choose something that causes the least amount of mental havoc? If you do not have thick skin, you may not want to be involved with the general public on a sales basis. The reason is, no matter how good your product is, there will be that one idiot that you cannot make happy for all the money in the world. If you are not use to that, it can stress you out and cause you to lose sleep.

So what do you choose?

There are several online ventures that can keep your blood pressure down. Blogs are a good example since you are creating most of the content yourself and the interaction with most readers is civil. If you sell products on your site, they would be mostly affiliate products in which the manufacture would have to deal with returns and other issues.

Information sites rely on people clicking ads to generate revenue and can be very profitable and satisfying. Information products are also very good and good for your mental health. If you are good at something, writing a course or Ebook can be profitable as well. Video is all the rage on the Internet today and making them and marketing them can help you stay sane in your quest for alternative income.

So why the sanity buzz?

Chances are that most people that are starting an online business are either unsatisfied with their current job, or they have recently become unemployed. Some want to have a good alternative plan for worst case scenarios. I think that is a good idea since no one should have to rely on someone else to make sure they have enough income for retirement. If you pick something that you may be doing for a while, it might as well be something that does not stress you out. We are finding out how important stress plays a role in our lives every day. Do yourself a favor, look ahead five years when you are thinking about an online business. Knowing what your weaknesses are now will certainly save you some grief and aggravation later.

Forum

http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/index.jspa

Three Great Ways to Promote Your Handcrafted Jewelry Business

By L. Kay

Part of the amazing charm about bead jewelry is just how easy it can be for someone to sit down and learn the basic skills of jewelry making in a matter of a few hours. As any bead jeweler will tell you, creating jewelry is one of those skills that only takes a few minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master!

While it’s fun to sit around with some friends at a bead shop and all work on jewelry together there is a grim reality: if you’re all making jewelry to sell then there’s going to be a little competition between you and your friends for customers. In fact, bead jewelry has become so popular in recent years among just about everyone that I’ve heard some bead jewelry artists actually say they were quitting because there were too many people making jewelry and it was simply too difficult to sell anymore.

And while making jewelry pieces is fun and even easy at times, actually selling the pieces and building a business with clients and customers can be rather difficult, especially if you’ve never been a salesperson or run a business before.

Here are three ways you can promote your bead jewelry business without coming on too pushy or spending a lot of money on advertising.

Referral Bonus: On all your business cards you simply write the line “Receive $10 credit on any of my jewelry for every customer you refer!” How does this work? Let’s say I sold a beautiful glass bead necklace to my child’s daycare teacher. A week later the teacher’s sister contacts you and has you create a similar necklace for her. You go back to the daycare teacher and say that she now has a $10 credit to use at any time for any other piece of jewelry she wants to purchase from you. Once people get the idea this really catches on! People will be going out of their way to have their friends buy jewelry from you so that they get a credit.

Donate to a Charity Gift Auction: A lot of nonprofit groups, charities, schools and churches have gift auctions where they accept gifts from local vendors and then auction those gifts off to the higher bidder, keeping the money made at the auction. You can donate a collection of bead jewelry like a matching necklace, bracelet and earrings and prominently display your business card in front of your jewelry. For the whole evening people will be looking over gifts and seeing your jewelry and business card. If you can put a stack of business cards in front, do so. You might be surprised how many people contact you after the event and tell you that they didn’t win the auction but would love to see what else you have.

Mix Web Sales with Table Sales: Don’t try to sell all your bead jewelry at one venue or the other. The people who are really running success bead jewelry businesses are hustling and cross promoting themselves all the time. List your website on the business cards that you give out at craft shows (even if they don’t buy anything!) and mention the craft shows you’ll be attending on your website!

There you go, three low-pressure way to increase your customer base and get your bead jewelry in front of more people. These things might not generate lots of sales right away, but if you stick with it you’ll be amazed at how your bead jewelry business keeps growing and multiplying!

Visit the Handcrafted Bead Jewelry Blog to get more bead jewelry ideas, news, trends, tutorials and beading business advice.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=L._Kay
http://EzineArticles.com/?Three-Great-Ways-to-Promote-Your-Handcrafted-Jewelry-Business&id=1641598

Anyone that is in the Ecommerce game knows that from time to time you get a really difficult customer that you have to deal with. Because there is so much deceit online today, customers will often assume the worst and treat you accordingly. Good customer service is hard to come by these days, and this can be part of the reason why. It is the Golden rule to keep your cool and influence your customer into a calm resolution to whatever their problem is.

I remember in college taking a job as a waiter at a new restaurant. I have been waiting tables for a quite a while and knew the game pretty well. My very first customer, on my very first day, turned out to be “one of those” There was not a thing I could do to make this guy happy and it was quickly going bad, I thought I was going to be fired for sure. My boss was a very passionate and emotional woman about her restaurant. My only recourse was to say, “You know what, this guy is a jerk, and it was my day to serve him” She shrugged her shoulders and let it go. I got to keep my job and three years later the boss would walk through broken glass for me. It was life lesson that I use today in Ecommerce. Some people are just jerks.

I sell power tools on one my Ecommerce sites, and well, some people just should not own power tools. Most Ecommerce owners can tell you story after story about returns, and customer dissatisfaction and problems with delivery. I had a gentleman order a particular part and type in the wrong address in the shopping cart. So, guess where we delivered it? Right to that address, which was wrong but is somehow my fault. So the dance begins we go around and around about how to solve this dilemma. I get rude emails about how stupid we are and yada yada yada. I am trying to be cool calm and collect when it suddenly occurs to me. I don’t need this guy as a customer and he can take his part and stick it in his ear for all I care. So I fired him! Yes that is right, vamoose, your gone, here is your money back and your not welcome here any more. I can write off the $40 sale as a loss and preserve my mental health. Sometimes that is more important than anything, keeping your mind clear and focused. Why feed the stress machine?

So what’s my point? Well good customer service does solve a lot of problems, you can many times turn a negative into a positive by using good techniques such as follow up and discounts. But sometimes, you just have to turn the fire hose on and clean house a bit. Some customers are just not worth having. If you are new to the Ecommerce game, then don’t be eager to put this into regular practice, just keep it in the back of your mind that these situations exist. The customer may very well be like my passionate restaurant owner, mad one day, and then, your best customer for life.

By Steve Novak

Today, even the smallest companies are expected to have a presence on the Internet. Just a few years ago, only the leading companies included on-line customer ordering as a part of their sales and marketing strategy. This gave those forward-looking companies a competitive advantage in the marketplace, in that they extended their presence and image to customers who they might otherwise not reach. These companies also catered to tech-savvy, homebound, or time-pressed shoppers. Today, with the widespread utilization of interactive, web-based storefronts, that competitive advantage has diminished. In fact, the lack of such capability is increasingly becoming a competitive disadvantage. It is relatively easy to set up and implement an e-Commerce website. There are many very competent web developers, consultants, and solution providers with the experience to get you up and running quickly. However, there is more to e-Commerce than just putting up a website.

The website is the front-end, the link to the customer and the display of the brand and image of the company. This is very important, and requires a great deal of thought and planning. At least as important, if not more so, is the back-end of the system, the link to the rest of the business. With all the excitement and activity associated with the website, the back-end systems often get overlooked. This is not just a mistake, it can be devastating to the company.

Many organizations are simply not prepared for the changes that will come with the advent of e-Commerce. This is disheartening because it is not necessary. With the proper thought, planning, and education, the website can link successfully with the back-end processes that are the heart of the business. The e-Commerce site must interface flawlessly with the fulfillment, accounting, and customer service systems if the e-Commerce initiative is to succeed, and this can be done. The website must link with the fulfillment system, so the products can be delivered to the customer. But a new demand stream may place unexpected burdens on the fulfillment system. This new demand stream must be taken into account so that all customer orders can be filled. One possibility is that the website will increase total demand, which affects inventory planning and management. For a manufacturer, this affects the entire production process from planning and purchasing to production scheduling and manpower. If total demand remains unchanged, but supply point changes, this presents different challenges. If you currently deliver large quantities of your products to distributors and wholesalers, or through a brick and mortar store, the change to many, small, daily deliveries direct to customers throughout the country, or world, is a significant change that must be addressed early.

Linkages to accounting include the collection of payments, processing of returns and refunds, and the tracking of the order-fulfillment-payment cycle. Many of the requirements associated with the e-Commerce activity may be significantly different than what you are used to. You don’t want to wait until the transactions start hitting to figure out what to do with them. The customer service impacts of web based transactions are very different than the transactions related to institutional customers, face-to-face customer interactions, and even phone sales. Customers who utilize the internet to make purchases have different expectations than other customers. The needs of these customers must be met as soon as the first order is placed, which means designing the system with them in mind.

e-Commerce is more than a website, and requires significant planning, education, and training prior to being undertaken. e-Commerce can also be very successful and profitable when implemented correctly. When undertaking an e-Commerce initiative, don’t get overly excited with the website itself and the technology so that you overlook the important back-end issues that must also be addressed.

Education and training are important elements of an e-Commerce initiative. The managers responsible for the success and ongoing support of the system need to be educated about the goals of the initiative. There should be a clear justification for undertaking the initiative, and management must understand the justification. Management must also be educated in, and understand, the implications and impact on the company’s operations. Employees must be educated about the needs for the system and how it will fit into the overall operations. The employees must be trained in the use of the system, and any revised processes due to implementation of the system. Top management must understand that this education and training is an investment in the business, just as the hardware and software that is required is an investment.

Steve Novak is the founder and President of PPR Management Services. An independant consultant specializing in Business Operations and Strategic Planning, Steve helps organizations improve their performance by improving their operations. Working in a variety of industries, from manufacturing to non-profit, Steve helpls organizations define their goals, develop plans to reach those goals, and execute their plans and measure their progress. Find out more at http://www.pprmanagementservices.com

Steve is the author of the book The Small Manufacturer’s Toolkit, and is a frequent speaker and seminar leader in a variety of Business Operations and Strategic Planning related topics. Steve is the host of the Let’s Talk Business! podcast and Let’s Talk Business! blog, which can be found on his website http://www.pprmanagementservices.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Novak

http://EzineArticles.com/?E-Commerce—More-Than-a-Website&id=675805

By Colleen Ryan

Starting your own e-commerce business can be quite the adventure. There is nothing wrong with falling head over heels in love with your ideas and plans and becoming overly excited, but always remember, feet first. Creating a business from scratch is like a child learning to walk. You need to grab on to  something solid, feel around, get a sense of balance, and take baby steps.

Risky Business

Before running full speed ahead with your brilliant business brainchild, proper planning is required. Being an entrepreneur is risky business, however you can improve your chances of success with preparation and development.

First, you need to research your target market, product and services, competitors, the demographic of your potential customers, popular key words associated with your business and the probable cost involved. After compiling all this information, you need to ask yourself, ‘is it worth it? If the answer is yes, then carry on.

Step 1: It’s All In the Name

You have you business idea, you’ve conducted your market research, preparation is complete, and now you are beginning to get butterflies in your stomach from all the excitement that comes with starting your own business. So what’s next? The Name.

You should start considering names for your company in the beginning stages of your business’s development. Use a serious name for a serious company and a fun name for creative company or a company that markets towards children. But keep in mind that the name of your business must earn the attention and trust of your potential customers.

While selecting your company’s name, bear in mind the qualities you would like your company to portray. If you want to represent a very aggressive, high tech, corporate, and cutting-edge company, you should not come up with the name like ‘Sloopy’ or ‘Scroochy’.

Important Points To Consider In Name Selection:

• Shorter is better. It is easier to remember names like Nike opposed to ‘Kransferst Bayer Colombo Association of Michigan’.
• Make sure the name is easily pronounced. It’s very hard to pronounce ‘Shmakhtnik’, ‘Kchichkus’ or ‘Xsassassas’.
• It may be helpful to have the name associated with your company’s philosophy. For example, a strong solid company should use a strong, bold name such as ‘Bamm’, ‘CastleDom’, ‘Gong’. A high-tech company could use a more creative name such as ‘Ampex’, ‘Freebee’, ‘Ciriu’. Design companies can use even more creative names such as ‘Venturius’, ‘BlueFrog’, ‘BlackInc’.
• Try to relate the name to the field of business. For example, a food company – ‘Bacon House’, an office supplier – ‘BluePin’, a construction company – ‘GoldenBrick’.
• Create a recognizable image. Come up with a meaningful namelike an object name or a word that has a meaning like: ‘PenguinSolution’, ‘Flying Frog’, ‘Walking House’, or ‘Yellow Pot’.
• Do not forget your business’s target market. Home insurance companies target a more mature market. It would be absurd to use a name like ‘HipHop BangBang Solutions’.
• A good way to test out your company name is to tell it to your friends and ask them if they remember it in a week.

Step 2: Website Design

Marketing should start immediately after the company is created and a name has been chosen and officially registered. You want people to remember your company in a positive way. You need to make an outstanding first impression. So, the first thing you have to work on is your name and your face. In the e-commerce world your website is the name and face of the company.

The website is the most important marketing tool for an e-commerce business. The website needs to look legitimate and provoke a sense of trust. It needs to be appealing, simple to use, eye-catching, competitive and unique. Therefore, it is worth it to spend a good amount of time and money on your website design. If you are not savvy with website design and development, then invest in a talented website design company or independent designer.

Step 3: Website Marketing

A. Search Engine Optimization

Search engines use algorithms (mathematical formulas) to rank website listings in response to a particular keyword query. In order to protect themselves from webmasters and search engine optimizers manipulating the search engine results to their advantage, search engines do not reveal their ranking criteria.

However, there are many factors that are speculated to be important influences in determining the position of a website on search engine result pages.

For example:

• Build a content rich website:   Search engine spiders and bots like websites filled with informative and relevant text and content.
• Incoming links: Build up incoming links from relevant or complimentary sites. The more relevant and authoritative the incoming sites, the better your site will be in the eyes of the spiders and bots.
• Keywords: Try to place as many keywords in the content of your home page as possible without losing the sense and aesthetics of the page.
• Meta Tags: Meta tags are html text containing information about the website that is not seen by human viewers. Meta tagsinclude title, description, and keyword tags. Considering that a title tag is the text that appears, representing your site, on a search engine result page, it is very important to choose a title tag that emphasizes keywords on that page.
• Header tags: Header tags (H1, H2, H3, H4, H5…) are used to designate headers and titles. H1 tags should be used to represent the first and most important header, H2 as the second and so on. Search engines give importance to text that differs from the text on the rest of the page. Bold, italics, underlines, and various font sizes are useful as well.
• Make the site simple, easy to surf and navigate, and eye-catching.
• Keep your website updated with fresh content, new pages and information.

B. Free Advertising

Search Engines. As a business owner, your first priority should be to get your website listed in the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Alta Vista. This can be done simply by submitting your website to various search engines.

Directories. You can also submit your site to web directories, which are
databases of categorized listings of websites. Focus on directories that are popular and specialize on your industry.

Link Building. Considering that the World Wide Web was created with the
concept of discovering new websites and web pages by following links between documents, link building is an important factor in optimizing your website for search engines. Effective link building consists of exchanging links with authoritative and information websites that relate to and/or compliment your e-commerce business.

Specifically Google, but other search engines included, believe that when web page A links to web page B, web page A is casting a vote for web page B. The more votes web page B has, the more important that page is perceived to be by search engines. The value of the web page linking to the web page B also determines how important that vote is. Google determines the importance of a web page by associating it with a Page Rank (PR). Page Rank is another factor that plays a significant role in determining the position of a website on the search engine result page. To view the Page Rank of websites, you can download the Google toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com.

Building links is not difficult, however, the challenge is to develop links that are relevant and complimentary to your business. You can join link exchange websites which are a venue for webmasters interested in building valuable links. Don’t exchange links with just any site though, relevancy is very important. Try to exchange links with sites that can be associated with your industry or that compliment your business. And stay away from sketchy sites such as online gambling sites and pornography sites. These will only cause you trouble.

As well, you can do a web search for relevant businesses and simply contact them and suggest a link exchange (some sites may have a section with information pertaining to link exchanges).  Check out the backward links (inbound links) of your top competitors. Find out what sites are linking to them, and then contact the valuable sites to participate in link exchanges.

Articles. If you are quite knowledgeable on your business’ industry, then publishing articles online is a good start to building a reputation for your site. You can submit articles to free submit directories (where others can download your article as content for their own sites, giving you full credit), online magazines, ezines, and websites relevant to your business.

C. Paid Advertising

Pay-Per-Advertising:

a. Pay-Per-Click: Pay-per-click advertising consists of a search engine or directory that places your website in their database, and charges you a specified amount every time your website comes up in a search and is clicked on, thereby, generating traffic to your site. The amount of the fee is usually determined by bidding on keywords and ranking.

b. Pay-Per-Impression: Similar to the concept of pay-per-click advertising, advertisers pay the affiliate based on the number of consumers that view their promotion or ad.

c. Pay-Per-Sale: The advertisers pay the affiliate based on the number of consumers that make a purchase based on the direct result of the promotion.

d. Pay-Per-Lead: Advertiser pays for each sales lead generated from the direct result of a promotion. Leads include a viewer filling out a survey, form, downloading a demo, software, etc…

e. Pay-Per-E-mail: Similar to pay-per-lead advertising, pay-per-e-mail affiliates receive a commission for each consumer’s e-mail address they refer to a mailing list or newsletter.

Paid Directories:

Some directories charge a fee, increased visibility is associated with a higher cost. If you choose to place your site in a paid directory listing, consider the offer carefully. Compare the price with other effective methods of advertising. Make sure you get the biggest bang for your buck.

Banners:

A more popular marketing mechanism consists of banners (large strips) of advertisements that are specifically positioned on a web page in order to promote your website. Costs vary according to the placement of the ad on the web page and size of the banner. Try to advertise on websites that contain relevant content, receive a significant amount of traffic and have fair
banner advertisement rates.

Ezines:

Ezines (electronic magazines/newsletters published online or sent via e-mail) have been experiencing explosive growth in the past few years. There are thousands of ezines covering a vast number of topics. Considering that ezines cater to readers sincerely interested in the topic covered, you should get a higher response rate to your ads. For a new business, publishing
your own ezine right away may be too overwhelming, therefore paying for exposure of your website in online magazines and through ezine ads may be your best bet. Ezines can provide you with valuable traffic at a smaller investment than banner ads.

Ezine advertising is more likely to attract a significant response because the readers trust the editors and therefore trust the ads.

Step 4: Monitoring Your Site

Almost all server providers have counters and tools to monitor all the traffic your website attracts. You can find out where the traffic is coming from and the regions from which the visitors are originating, how many visitors have entered your site on a given day, how they entered, and how long they stayed to browse. You can learn about the demographics of your viewers and track trends and patterns. By gaining a better understanding of the popular pages on your site and your site’s overall performance, you can plan future development, and focus on specific aspects of your site. Depending on how precisely you wish to track your site’s success, you can also purchase software programs that do this as well.

The first few years of the birth of an e-commerce company are usually the make or break period. Revenues may be stagnant and expenses may seem overwhelming. It takes time, patience and determination. Sometimes you just need to take baby steps, then wait and pray.

About the Author: Colleen Ryan is the Art Director of Logobee Inc., a logo design firm that designs high quality logos and corporate identity design for businesses worldwide. Logobee Inc. was founded in 2000 and since then the company has grown at an exponential rate.  http://www.logobee.com

Source: http://www.isnare.com

By John Lynch

Anyone trying to start an Online business needs to have a number of  resources before it is possible to build and promote a successful website.  The following are essential tools that I have found very valuable.

1.  Wordtracker

Before you build a website you must target the correct keywords, otherwise you will not have the necessary traffic to run a business. You may have a good niche but if you optimize your pages for the wrong keywords, you will attract little traffic.

And without traffic on the Net, you have no business! Wordtracker is an excellent tool that evaluates keywords for their profitability. A free trial version is available. http://www.wordtracker.com

2.  Ken Evoy’s Free Internet Marketing Ebooks

Ken Evoy of SiteSell has written some Free Ebooks which are essential for anyone contemplating an Online business.  Topics covered include:

• How to be a successful Affiliate marketer.
• How to run a Net Auctions business without Ebay.
• How to develop your own Information Product.
• How to be a successful Service Seller on the Net. http://www.merchant-account-service.com/free_courses_online.html

3.  Website Building Software

Unless you know HTML you will need to use a HTML editor such as Microsoft Frontpage, Hotdog, or Dreamweaver which is a bit more advanced.  Site Build It is a complete web building tool that includes web page building, web hosting, keyword research for your web pages, and continuous website submission to the search engines. Site Build It users usually get high search engine rankings.

Site Build It http://www.merchant-account-service.com/sitebuildit.html
Hotdog http://www.sausage.com
Dreamweaver http://www.macromedia.com
Microsoft Frontpage http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage

4.  Forums

Internet Marketing forums can be very useful for the beginner. You can post questions and get swift replies from some very knowledgeable marketers including some of the big names.
Some of the most active are: http://www.ablake.com http://associateprograms.com/discus/

5.  Article Submission

Articles are a good way to get free publicity for your business. A well written article can be published in ezines or on a website, thereby giving continuous targeted traffic. Submit your article to article databanks where publishers and website owners can pick it up and publish it..
http://www.hugeaffiliates.com has a good list of article databanks where you can submit your articles.

6.  Alexa.com

When your website is up and running, you need to check its ranking in the search engines and the number of sites that link to your site. Although it is not always up to date, it gives a good idea of the amount of traffic and links a site has.

http://www.alexa.com

7.  Virus/Firewall Protection

You will need to install virus protection and keep it running in the background. If you have constant Internet connection, you’ll also need to run a firewall program to keep out hackers.
McAfee http://www.mcafee.com
Norton http://www.symantec.com
Firewall Protection http://www.tinysoftware.com

This is a personal choice of resources and may not be relevant to everyone’s needs. If you have a question about any aspect of building or marketing an online business, you can always post to one of the forums that I have listed above. In most cases, you will get an informative response quickly.

( For a review of Site Build It – the leading website building tool for small and home businesses http://www.merchant-account-service.com/sitebuildit.html )

Source: www.isnare.com

How do you pick a product, market it on the Internet and sell it to make a profit when others around you are selling the same or similar products?  Even more so, why would someone buy from me when they could go to a retail store and buy the same thing for less?  The answer is they won’t.  You can’t compete with a superstore, don’t even try.

They have tons of money, spent years establishing relationships with manufactures and distributors.  They have huge warehouses and buy the products by the trainload.  They also have large quantities of employees who specialize in buying goods.  You and I do not have any of these things.  Don’t listen to any business opportunity that claims they can help you do this.  I am not squashing you’re dreams here just being practical.  You can
start small and work bigger but the key is starting small.

So the $64 million dollar question is how do you price your stuff and compete with retail?

The answer is:

Carry items that those stores don’t carry.

Here is the beautiful part; I am not going to tell you what those items are.  You choose.  It’s your idea and you probably already have something in mind to start with.  The superstores don’t carry all the products in the universe.  There is always room for your idea.  That’s the beauty of the business model.

Online Auction Pricing

I have said before that I theorize you can get from between 75% to 80% of retail prices online.  When you have an online auction initially treat it as an experiment.  You need to have several auctions before you get a feel for what people will consistently pay for your item.  Start with a high price and work down.  Start with a low price and work up.  Try a “no reserve” auction or “buy it now”.  The trick is to understand it’s an experiment.  Also keep
in mind that the same people are not online every week.  Eventually you will find a method that works for that product.  If your product is similar to one already sold online half the work is done for you.

Look at the completed items for that particular item and adjust accordingly.  I sometimes do a free shipping experiment as well to see if that spurs people on.  You can’t have an auction for a week and expect to have an answer; you have to fiddle with it.

Web Site/Storefront Pricing

This sales scenario is a little different.  Because the items are sitting in a virtual store window, you can set a more rigid price.  People can either take it or leave it without having to wait for auctions to end.  It can work great for you on higher priced items since higher priced items are harder to match buyers to.  I can always find a buyer for one of my $75 table sets.  But my $300 and $400 sets don’t move as fast.  That is ok, since my expectations are adjusted.

Note: I try and not sell the two different class tables on the same venue (refer to the taking  aim section).

Whichever methods you choose remember that it takes some time.  Profits don’t start falling into your lap without some work and forethought.

PayPal

I have only mentioned this briefly but it’s very important.  PayPal is a way for people to pay for auctions using their credit cards.  They can stay home and plug the data into the form and pay for their auctions instantly.  I really like PayPal.  It’s free for the buyer and it only costs me a minimal amount.  I especially love the fact that I can connect my PayPal account to my checking account.  When my balance is to the point where I want to transfer some to my bank, I do so.  That convenience in itself makes it worthwhile and it’s also free.  If you do thousands of dollars monthly then you might want to consider other merchant account offers.  But for starting out, it’s hard to beat.  Especially now that eBay bought Paypal, the interface is much easier and more convenient.    Go to www.paypal.com and sign up for free.

Pictures

You must have one if you’re going to be a serious contender online.  Get a decent camera and your ads will get much more attention.  I have a Kodak dx-3900 which only set me back about $200 (I bought it online) it is an awesome tool that has paid for itself over and over.  Also make sure you either acquire or buy some software that allows you to edit those pictures.  You will want to adjust the size or quality from time to time.  Kodak bundles their software with the camera.  Ask anyone online; ads with pictures sell about 70 % more than ads without.  Presentation is everything.