How To Create Residual Income With E-books

Electronic books, or e-books, have been used as an internet marketing tool for several years. Electronic books can be purely informational or they can have a sales message that promotes your product or service. The many benefits of using electronic books for internet marketing include becoming known as an expert in your field, having a product that attracts visitors to your site, and having something you can give away to new subscribers or customers. In addition to providing your customers with solid information, e-books can also be used to create residual income and boost your income over time.

What is residual income?

Residual income is income that continues to flow even after you have already provided a product or service. The simplest way to think of residual income is do the work once, get paid forever. Residual income used to be limited to just a few professions such as voiceover artists and musicians. Each time their songs or voice tracks were used in commercials or at events, these professionals were paid a royalty. Now that Internet and in particular marketing on the internet is so popular, you can earn residual income by selling products that can have automated sales.

What is an electronic book?

An electronic book is a short book containing information or a sales message that can be used in a number of ways. You can use these e-books to create awareness of your brand, provide an added incentive for visitors to stay at your site, as a giveaway to provide added value for customer purchases, sell valuable information on a particular topic, and to distribute as a free gift with sign up to your newsletter or members only area. These books are usually done in PDF format, but there are software programs that can create books that have turning pages like a real book.

How can I use electronic books to create residual income?

Writing an electronic book may be time consuming, but once the book is written, you can set it up so that the sales and marketing are automated. This means that the time you spent writing the book and setting up your sales systems will continue to pay off again and again. In order to make the sales process automated, you can hire someone to market your e-book and take care of sales. Or, you can save yourself some money and purchase a software program that will allow you to sell your book even when youre fast asleep.

These software programs make it possible to accept credit card payments and have each customer download your e-book as soon as the payment transaction is complete. Not only does this allow you to make money while youre sleeping, it also increases customer satisfaction. People love instant gratification, so being able to pay and immediately receive the book download is an added bonus and a great customer retention tool.

These are known as shopping carts and many of the great ones have additional features like, auto-responders and an affiliate management platform. Yet another way to create residual income with an e-book is to embed your e-book with affiliate links. If you dont have any additional products to sell you can make even more monthly income by adding links to affiliate programs that you belong to in order to sell other products.

Sonot only did you just sell your own e-book but you now have other income opportunities embedded in your ebook.

How can I get started with using e-books to make residual income?

If youre not a writer, you can find a freelance writer to develop an e-book for you before you market it as one of your products. Marketing can be accomplished with your web site, affiliate marketing, and special promotions. Once you have your book and marketing plan ready to go, you can set up an automated sales program so that you can start building residual income that will continue to grow as your sales increase.

Copyright 2006 Rasheed Ali

*** Rasheed Ali is CEO and founder of the Internet Coaching Academy http://www.InternetCoachingAcademy.com where he and his team of internet business experts are helping people from all over the world start, build and profit from their own internet business. He also offers a FREE newsletter and FREE video course on building a home based business on the internet. ***Murielle Blog41168
Marianne Blog87662

The Truth About Jimmy Hills Chin: Hand To Face Body Language

I refer often to a particular group of people that have influenced me more than any other. I have a close group of friends that I went to school with and we played football together and keep as best friends despite all leading very different lives today. At school we called ourselves the A-Team and we tend to still refer to ourselves as that when we have get-togethers.

I spoke to one of them just this week gone and we were laughing like crazy at something that we used to do as kids at school. It was not an exclusive A-Team trait, all the kids did it. What was this thing? Whenever we did not believe anything that someone had said to us, we would stroke our chin and say "Oooh yeaah... Jimmy Hill"

This sounds crazy doesn't it? The man that used to introduce Match of the day on Saturday nights with the football highlights of the day was called Jimmy Hill. An ex-England and Fulham football player and had become the country's most famous pundit. Unmistakably characterised by his pointed, wispy beard that he had on his chin. We would rub our chins and mimic Jimmy Hill to demonstrate that we did not believe something that they had told us.

Especially as one of our friends used to tell us his Dad played for Manchester United, was also a formula one racing driver and his older brother had won the worlds strongest man competition! "Oh yeah... Jimmy Hill...."

The Jimmy Hill gesture was not far off the mark as far as hand to face gestures go to indicate deceit or that you suspect deceit. Hand to face gestures tell us so much.

When I mention certain hand-to-cheek gestures and hand-to-chin gestures, these can also be noticed and assessed to gauge the temperature of the persons attitude to you and your presentation or communication. It can often tell you how well you are doing with that communication.

Boredom can be noticed with body language quite obviously. If the person is snoring loudly and yawning, then they either had a late night or you may not be stimulating their brain as much as would be beneficial or desirable.

When any listener begins to use their hands to support their head, it is a signal that boredom may well have set in and they are holding their head up to stop them falling asleep. Often, the degree of the listener's boredom is related to the extent to which the arm and hand are supporting the head.

It usually begins with the chin being supported by the thumb and then by the fist as interest dissipates further. If the head is fully supported by the hands, this is usually the ultimate boredom signal.

Many people think that if a person is tapping continually with their fingers or the feet upon the floor, that these are boredom signals too. They are actually more likely to be displaying impatience. If you are speaking to an individual or a group and their are boredom gestures accompanied by a continual impatient tapping, then it may be time to change tack or leave!

Evaluation is shown by a closed hand resting on the chin or cheek, often with the index finger pointing upwards. When the person begins to lose interest but still wants to appear interested for courtesy's sake, the position will alter so that the heel of the palm supports the head as boredom sets in.

When I have worked with companys department heads or section leaders often use this gesture to make out that they are interested in what a director is saying, even if they are being boring or dull. Unfortunately though, as soon as the hand begins to support the head in any way, it gives the game away and the director is likely to sense the insincerity in this gesture.

Genuine interest is shown when the hand lightly rests on the cheek and is not used as a head support. When the index finger points vertically up the cheek and the thumb supports the chin, the listener is having negative or critical thoughts about the speaker or the subject they are communicating.

This gesture is often mistaken as a signal of interest, but the supporting thumb under the chin often tells the truth about the critical attitude.

Maybe you have seen Rodin's "The Thinker" that showed a thoughtful, evaluative attitude. If not, you can google pictures online.

On any future occasion when you have the opportunity to present an idea to a group of people, watch them carefully as you give your idea and you may notice that most will bring one hand up to their face and use an evaluation gesture. When you come to the end of your presentation and ask the group to give opinions, feedback or suggestions about your ideas, the evaluation gestures usually stop and a chin stroking gesture begins. This chin stroke is the signal that the listener is going through the decision making process.

When you've asked the listeners for their decision and they start chin stroking, their next gestures will signal whether their decision is negative or positive. Your best strategy is to stay quiet and watch their next gestures, which will indicate the decision reached. For example, if the chin stroke is followed by crossed arms and legs and the person sits back in their chair, it's a fair bet the answer is going to be "no." This gives an early opportunity to resell the benefits before the other person verbalises "no" and makes it harder to reach an agreement.

If the chin stroke is followed by leaning forward with arms open or picking up your proposal or sample, chances are you have a "yes" and can proceed as if you have an agreement.

Someone who wears glasses sometimes follows an evaluation gesture by taking off their glasses and putting one arm of the frame in their mouth instead of using the chin stroke when making their decision. Sometimes, when a person puts their pen or a finger in their mouth after you've asked for a decision, it is a signal that they are unsure and reassurance is needed. The object in the mouth allows that person to stall and not feel any urgency in giving an immediate response.

Sometimes boredom, evaluation and decision-making gestures come in combinations, each showing different elements of the person's attitude.

Head slapping Like Homer Simpson: Doh!

When you say that a person is a "pain in the neck", you are referring to the ancient reaction of the tiny erector pillae muscles on the neck - often called goosebumps - attempting to make your non-existent fur pelt stand on end to make yourself appear more intimidating because you are feeling threatened or angry.

It is the same hair-raising reaction an angry dog has when confronted by another potentially hostile dog. This reaction causes the tingling feeling you experience on the back of your neck when you feel frustrated or fearful. You'll usually rub your hand over the area to satisfy the sensation.

Let us assume, for example, that you asked someone to do a small favour for you and that they had forgotten to do it. When you ask them for the result, they slap either their forehead (like Homer does) or back of the neck, as if they were symbolically beating themselves.

Although slapping of the head is used to communicate forgetfulness, it's important to watch whether they slap the forehead or neck. If they slap their forehead, they signal that they are not intimidated by you mentioning their forgetfulness. When they slap the back of their neck to satisfy the raised erector pillae muscles, however, it tells you that you are literally a "pain in the neck" for mentioning it. If the person slaps their own backside, then...... ;-)

Acquiring the ability to interpret hand to face gestures accurately as discussed last week and this week, does take time and observation. Of course, there are no real hard and fast rules and each must be taken in context to get a good feel for.

When a person uses any of the hand to face gestures I mentioned last week and this, it is reasonable to assume a negative thought has entered the mind. The question is however, what is the negative thought? It could be doubt, deceit, uncertainty, exaggeration, apprehension or blatant lying. The real skill is the ability to interpret which negative is the correct one.

Adam Easonis a best selling author, consultant and speaker please visit his website for a vast range of personal development resources and to receive your free, instantly downloadable hypnosis session and amazing ebook: http://www.adam-eason.com Thanks.Morissa Blog91631
Malinde Blog35214

Create your own "HOT" selling Internet product in one day.

In this article I'm going to show you how to create a "HOT" selling info product in one day, by only writing five paragraphs.

Anyone on the planet can do that. So without further ado let's get started.

What we're going to do is utilise other people's hard work to create our very own unique products. Sounds too good to be true doesn't it? However this is a very real strategy that the top-gun e-book publishers use time and time again to create "HOT" selling products in lightning quick time.

Go to goarticles. com.

You see most web site owners write articles and submit them to article directories so that they get free publicity for their sites. At the end of each article is a link back to their own web site with a bit of information about their site for example. These site owners want people to take that article and market it to other people so they get visitors to their site without spending a cent on their marketing. This is perfect for savvy entrepreneurs who are willing to spend a few hours of their time in order to profit for many years to come.

What we can do at go articles. com is type in a niche in the search bar at the top right (make sure it's on "article content" rather than search by author). Type in your niche market. So for example type in "dogs", of "fishing" or whatever subject you are interested in You'll get thousands of result related to what you have searched for. Now what I want you to do is simply trawl through the results finding at least seventy quality articles related to the dog or fishing or whichever market now copy and paste them into word or some kind of word processing application.

As I've said make sure these really are good quality articles. If you create an e-book using any old rubbish you'll get a sky-high refund rate and it will all have been a pointless exercise. Do it right from the off and you'll set yourself up for success.

If you can, try and tie all the articles together in one sub niche. For example a sub niche of dogs might be training your dog. So you could find articles on stopping your dog from barking at night, toilet training that kind of thing. The same for fishing, it could be ice fishing of fly tying Use a bit of imagination when using this method.

Email Article Authors

You mustn't use any articles without the authors' permission, that's plagiarism and could land you in very hot water. Remember the majority of articles will have been submitted so the author can get visitors to their site without spending a dime. However you don't want to breach any copyright laws. To avoid this email the authors of each article. Explain to them that you are creating an e-book aimed at their niche market, and that you would love to include their article in your e-book and that you'll include a link back to their site and information about them. Also ask them if they have any other articles you could include.

You can expert around seventy percent of authors you contact to be delighted you're going to include their article in your book. All you need to do then is discard the articles from authors who you haven't heard from or who won't let you use their article.

Put the articles in an order that makes sense and create a contents page. Use the titles of the articles as contents topics. You could even create chapters aimed at solving certain problems people in your niche have. So for example if you were creating an e-book on golf you could create a section on improving your golf swing, a section on the mind game of golf and so on. All the articles would make up separate chapters.

Finally write a short introduction and conclusion. This only needs to be a few paragraphs. Explain what they can expect to learn from your e-book and make sure you sign off using your name. You will instantly establish yourself as an expert in that particular niche. You can also link to your back end products at the end of the book to increase your sales.

Finally you need to turn it into an ebook to sell. Go toprimopdf . com and download the software. Don't worry it won't cost you a cent. Once it's downloaded all you need to do is in your word software hit "file" and then "print" and then select "primo PDF" as your printer. Voila. You've just created an e-book using other peoples' hard work. This whole process can be done in just a few hours. Obviously you may need to wait a day or two for the article authors to get back to you but apart from that you're all set! Anyone can use this method to create more e-books than you'd ever be able to sell.

That's a great method right? I mean it won't cost you anything to create a product, yet you could sell hundreds if not thousands of copies and keep all the profits using other people's hard work!

Paul Jackson is an information publisher specialising in helping people start their own home based business. You can read up on how to create your own info products in one day without writing a single word by going to: - http://www.lightningnichecashtactics.comMerl Blog41721
Marla Blog69452

What Are The Best Google AdSense Alternatives?

Google AdSense has been revolutionary in terms of providing a way for webmasters to earn revenue from their web sites, particularly for smaller businesses. But are there any good alternatives to Google AdSense?

It is not usually a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket, so you should identify several alternatives. By doing this you may even discover an alternative that is more lucrative for your site, and at the very least you will be prepared in case something happens to AdSense.

Lets look at some of the best alternatives to Google AdSense advertisements on your web site.

Chitika

Instead of displaying the same old advertising units with text and image ads, Chitika provide active boxes that show targeted products from various manufacturers. Chitika boxes can even show an ad box containing a product alongside several competitors products.

Yahoo! Publisher Network

At the time of writing this Yahoo! Publisher Network is still in Beta mode but once it is fully released it should be a viable alternative to Google AdSense. As with AdSense you can provide your web visitors with contextual ads. Yahoo conveniently offers four ways to receive payment including PayPal. That will be welcomed by many international webmasters who grow old while waiting for US checks to arrive and then get cleared through their banks.

Sell Advertising Spots

This is a traditional alternative, but it is still a good one. If you have a strong customer base you should be able to find advertisers to purchase advertising spots on your web site. You can sell spots by the month and offer a discounted option for six and twelve months.

Write Affiliate Advertisements

If you dont want to spend time trying to attract traditional advertisers you can make your own ads for affiliate products. Check out the thousands of products at ClickBank or Commission Junction. Select several products that closely match your visitors interests. Now write affiliate ads, or use image ads with your own affiliate link.

CBprosense

If you dont want to manually write your own affiliate ads for ClickBank products then you could consider automating the process with CBprosense. It is a tool that will spider your site, analyze its content and then deliver a list of relevant links to the best performing products in the ClickBank marketplace.

These are five of the best alternatives to Google AdSense advertising. There are many more and several that promise to deliver contextual ads. However I suggest that whenever you are considering an alternative that promises contextual ads, do a quick check through your favorite search engine or webmaster forum to see if anyone is actually making any revenue by using their service. It is one thing to promise the technology, and another altogether to have sufficient advertisers to constantly deliver appropriate ads to your site.

Daniel Moro has been successfully building online businesses for ten years. Get more information on these Google AdSense alternatives and download a free report on '10 Remarkably Effective Traffic Building Techniques' at http://www.DanielMoro.com/AdsenseAlternatives.htmMarguerite Blog32004
Melinde Blog98821

Columbus Schools Innovative Partnership Programs Continue To Succeed

The Columbus Schools partnership programs will continue into the 2006-2007 school year. These programs are conducted jointly with Columbus Schools and local and state universities, colleges, academic organizations, community organizations and area volunteers. The programs are wide ranging and cover lots of different subjects and grade levels.

The Early Childhood Development Center at Columbus Schools Weinland Park Elementary School is a partnership conducted with the Ohio State College of Human Ecology. This center is planned to open in the 2006-2007 school year. The facility will be able to offer aid to around 90students and their families. The students accepted will be cared for by the Ohio State students, who will benefit from an opportunity to practice what they have learned in the classroom. Columbus Schools Early Childhood Development Center at Weinland Park Elementary School will offer the use of students observation gallery, a creative arts studio, family advocacy offices, and an educational kitchen. While providing a valuable service, the center will also be used to conduct research and model practices developed at Ohio State.

The Time Dollar Store was created in May of 2005. This partnership program involves Columbus Schools Medary Elementary School, the PK-12 Project After School and Summer Youth Development Committee and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Columbus. The Time Dollar Store focuses on parent and guardian interaction and involvement in the Columbus Schools. Parents can volunteer their time and skills and receive payment in Time Dollars, which can then be traded for household item and school supplies. The activities that parents can volunteer for include running a PTO meeting, helping create bulletin boards, distributing flyers or operating the Time Dollar Store. The Time Dollar Store was run at first by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Columbus but is now run by parent volunteers. The program has created a chance for students and parents to share their experiences at the school.

All of the Columbus Schools are participating in a teacher development partnership program with the Ohio State Department of History and the Ohio Historical Society. The program is divided into two sections, History WORKS for middle and high school teachers and History WORKS II for elementary teachers. The original History WORKS program is an ongoing project funded by the federal Teaching American History grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Part of this project created a website that will benefit teachers and their students. The program has three parts: monthly seminars, summer workshops and the creation of the web based resource center. All the seminars were conducted by and held at Ohio States Department of History. The summer workshops were more intensive and held at area Columbus Schools. The History WORKS program focused on six themes: Faces and Places: American History through Ohio Biography; Turning Points: The Constitution and American Democratic Institutions; The United States in the World: American Foreign Relations; Migration and Immigration: The Peopling of America; Common and Uncommon Cents: American Economic History; and Differing Perspectives: Social Movements and Social Change.

The elementary teacher project History WORKS II is a newer project that has the same goals of teacher development. Over 100 teachers from the Columbus Schools are participating in this project. The project hopes to increase elementary school teachers knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of American history through an intensive, ongoing professional development program. This program is a little different in its design than the History WORKS program. It is conducted with Ohio State graduate students who hold training, which included school-year seminars and a two-week summer institute. Their was also an ongoing lecture series featuring distinguished speakers and panel discussions brought middle and high school teacher participants from History WORKS together with their elementary colleagues three times over the year to make American history a central focus of the Columbus Schools.

Stacy Andell is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. For more information on Columbus schools visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/ohio/Columbus/index.htmlMelania Blog51825
Malorie Blog93981

Managing It Projects: Theory Or Practice?

Information Technology, and the development of business computer systems, is relatively new, by which I mean less than 50 years old. I started in this business in the early 1960s and was involved in the replacement of punched card tabulator systems with punched card computer systems (such as IBM 1400s).

As the technologies grew more sophisticated (eg disks, bigger memories and compilers) so the systems we developed became much more complex. As the IT industry grew, so did the numbers of programmers, analysts and operators working within it.

These were mostly very bright people, skilled and inventive but with often little appreciation of the needs of business. The wheel would be reinvented countless times in many different ways and there were as many different ways of structuring computer programmes as there were programmers doing it!

It was out of this that system development methodologies arose. These early methodologies were often developed by the major hardware manufacturers and management consultancies and were intended to be templates for development. Some were good, some were truly awful. Some were concise and some, like SSADM, were massively overblown and became the tail wagging the dog. Inevitably, the overblown ones became adopted by governments all over the world, adding massively to the cost and timescales of IT development in the 1980s without significantly improving overall quality.

The advent of databases (relational, hierarchical, etc) added to the complexity and made ever larger development projects the order of the day. This was partly the trigger for the emergence of project management methodologies because IT project management was frequently assigned to systems analysts and programmers with massive technological skills but little in the way of organisational skills.

The management consultancies quickly saw commercial opportunities and we saw a plethora of proprietary project management methodologies but it was the UK governments CCTA which broke the mould and launched PROMPT an almost workable methodology for IT project management. This was developed, firstly, into PRINCE and then into PRINCE2, which is good and has become widely adopted.

It is not unreasonable to regard PRINCE2 as the benchmark for project management methodologies and it does, indeed, provide a route map. I use it routinely in most of my projects, but it begs the question:

Does using a good methodology make me a good project manager?

It certainly helps but project management is more than just the mechanics of the process. It is about interpersonal skills, stakeholder awareness, presentation to management and understanding your rules for winning. In other words, it is a blend of theory and skills.

My eBook Project Skills looks at many of the issues involved and tries to meld theory with practical advice. You dont have to work in the industry for 30 years, but it sometimes helps if you listen to someone who has. Experience, awareness and common sense will always help, regardless of the methodology you choose for your project.

Barry De Boer is a leading project management consultant with extensive experience of successfully managing large scale complex projects for industry and government in the UK, Europe and worldwide. Barry is the author of the Project Skills eBook available from http://www.my-skills.co.uk.Morganica Blog32918
Marylinda Blog58212

A Marketing Plan to copy

What does a marketing plan cost these days?

Hundreds, thousands? Not that much if you know what to do your self!

Have you asked a Marketing Agency for a quote todraw up a Marketing Plan recently? If you own a small business, then it is hard to justify spending the 600 a day one asked for. We all have to watch our bottom lines like hawks, especially in the difficult-trading-conditions we seem to be in. But here is a dilemma! A Marketing Plan is a really essential tool that will show a small business owner where their business is and map out where it needs to go. It is vital in today's competitive environment that even small business should have one.

When you overdraft comes up for renewal and your bank manager has to justify lending the bank's money to your business, think how much easier it would be to convince them with a plan laid out in neat systematic form.

It is the case that far too many small companies don't have a Marketing Plan, or the owner has it locked up in his head. A place of storage that is really difficult to access when you need to show it to the potential investor or the bank manager. Inevitably this event usually occurs when you are really busy and committing your plan to paper, or computer file, is added pressure that you really could do with out. I run a small retail business and recently I studied for, and obtained, the UK's Chartered Institute of Marketing's "Professional Diploma in Marketing". It was a convergent learning course on the net and in four intensive workshop days in my local town. It brought home to me that what we did in our own business was fine up to a point. As the course was very practical, with the chance to use any organisation of the student's choice in the assignments that we had to submit, I ended up formally setting down the Marketing Plan on paper, that had been up there in my head for no one to see!

So what is a Marketing Plan for?

Well, its purpose is to lay down, direct and co-ordinate all your marketing activities and events. It is like a map. With a map it is easier to get some place. With a marketing plan it is easier to get the business to where you want it to head. This is, hopefully, to huge profits!

Perhaps you are the owner or director of a company seeking backing or further investment? Well a good marketing plan can be really important in attracting new investment or better bank facilities.

Perhaps you need help in making choices regarding which parts of the market to focus on and how to compete in that target market (Marketing Strategy)?

Often the mere process of preparing a marketing plan will help you to develop a successful marketing strategy through the discipline and process that you go through.

A good marketing plan will describe all the marketing actions to be carried out within a specific time period. It will contain details of your company, its products or services, its marketing objectives and strategies and information on how to measure the results of the marketing activities.

It might help if I give you a framework of basic elements that a Marketing Plan should include.

Basic Elements of a Marketing Plan

So what do you need?

1.Executive Summary - introduces and explains the major features and recommendations to executives (or your bank manager).

1.1 Introduction - a brief description of your organisation, its products and or services.

The context and objectives of the plan should be described and a description of what your business activities are. You should include current revenues, customers and your market position. You can also blow your own trumpet here! Note your accomplishments and successes to date.

If it is a new market entry or entirely new markets you are going for, then here is the place to describe any experience, training or competencies that your company has.

1.2 Vision, Mission Statement and Objectives

Mission statements focus on the long-range purpose of your marketing plan.

"To educate entertain and enlighten our clients so that they become more successful Marketers."

Company objectives should be more specific and oriented towards action.

"We will deliver a balanced range of Marketing Solution Publications to the U.K. and Europe through mail order and Internet."

1.3 Team description

Who will deliver the plan? What are the resources and structure of the team who will do so?

Management skills and capabilities. List any Marketing knowledge, sales skills, copy-writing ability, etc.

Agencies - Include any Marketing consultants, PR agencies you are using.

If there are any gaps honestly point them out and do a Training Needs Analysis.

1.4 Main marketing objectives

You need only give a brief statement of these here to close the Executive summary.

2.1 Current market conditions

What are the trends in your market?

What are the dynamics facing businesses such as yours?

Who are your target customers?

What competition do you face?

2.2 Market trends:

You should describe the macroeconomic trends that directly affect the target market that your marketing plan is aimed at.

This is where the PEST Framework is useful to include. (Sometimes referred to as PESTEL, SLEPT or PESTE) the components are:

Political

Economic

Social

Technological

Environment

Legal

2.3 Target market

It goes without saying that you should be aiming all your marketing efforts precisely at a target market or you are heading for a disaster.

All good marketing planning should follow from a very detailed segmentation of the market.

Size? Is it growing, staying the same, or shrinking?

Customer characteristics e.g. age, sex, income level, location, marital status, number of children etc.

Habits, patterns and values of target customer.

What are their wants, needs and desires?

What are their buying habits? - How do they spend their disposable income and when do they buy and how do they buy? How many times and when?

2.4 Competition analysis

In the micro environment analysis of a Marketing Audit you will hopefully have identified your present and potential competitors. What are their key products / services? How do they differentiate them selves? You should briefly explain the actions that you will take to oppose or overcome your competitor's offerings.

I highly recommend you use Professor Michael Porter's Five Forces Model for this and the four other threats he identifies. Space does not allow me to go into detail here although I have written a more comprehensive report in which I include a diagram of the Five Forces Model available from my own website: http://www.promarketer.co.uk

2.5 Issues analysis

You should briefly list such key external issues as government legislation affecting your business, or new technological development that impinges on your product.

3.1 SWOT analysis

Strengths

Weakness

Opportunities

Threats

A major component of any marketing plan is the SWOT analysis. Strengths and weaknesses are born of internal elements while opportunities and threats come from outside.

When opportunities and threats are recognised they can then be examined from the point of view of your product strengths and weaknesses.

What could we change or improve about our product to make it easier for the customer?

What are our customers' wants and desires? - We may possibly find new opportunities by thinking about such questions.

It is worth remembering that a threat can also be an opportunity to you, while a strength may also be a weakness depending on your point of view!

A business offering a vast selection of products may see this as one of their strengths. But for the customer, confused by the bewildering array of options as they try to find what they need, sees it as a weakness.

4. Positioning Strategy

Decide how you want your clients to perceive you in your marketplace.

Lowest price?

Best service?

Highest quality?

This is all part of the differentiation process.

5. Differentiation

You want to 'stand out from the crowd' so you need to make some decisions on segmentation and the positioning of your business. Combine this with your competitive analysis and you should be able to differentiate yourself from the competition.

6. Key messages

Thinking about differentiation should also help you to decide on your 'Key messages'. Be warned that it usually takes time for these to make an impact, to 'sink in', as it were. This means it is important to keep repeating your consistent messages throughout any marketing campaigns.

7. The Marketing Mix

The 4 P's.P is for:

Product - List your companies products and services. Include their key features. Is there something unique about them? If you are launching a new product or service include it here.

Price - There are many ways to set a price, some more scientific than others are! Remember that pricing is an integral part of the marketing strategy. Ask yourself is the customer willing to pay the price proposed and will it give you any profit? Some prices may be set on a cost-plus basis - adding a profit on to the costs of producing the goods or services. A better way is the 'market-based' price because it takes into account what your competitors are charging.

Place - where do you sell? Direct, through an intermediary? Bricks and mortar or virtual outlet?

Promotion - what activities are you going to use to create awareness of your product or service to generate sales? This is also referred to as Marketing Communications and includes direct selling, corporate events, brochures, web-sites, advertising. You should be warned that many inexperienced marketers think that the promotional plan is the entire marketing plan. It is, as you can see, but one component of the marketing plan.

7a. Integration of Promotional activity

Have you got a consistent look and feel to all your marketing mix? It is wise to make sure all your communications, brand positioning, propositions, messages, etc are derived from a single brand position so it is not confusing to the consumer by being fragmented. Also are there cross selling opportunities for you to exploit?

Only 4 Ps? - Funny, I thought I heard there were 7!

Before leaving the marketing mix I need to tell you about the Extended mix, which adds People, Process and Physical evidence to Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

If you are a service, or a not-for-profit organisation, then the extra three Ps are most important for you. But don't just assume that because you are not, that they don't apply!

People oriented organisations have to consider how their personnel make the marketing activities more, or less, effective when dealing face to face (or on the phone) with their public.

Process makes it easy for you to deal with the organisation. If it is a charity, for example, today people expect to be able to go on-line, set up direct-debits, pay by card and not just put money in the street collectors tin.

Physical evidence is expected to result from paying for a service or donating to a charity. You expect to see some physical evidence of the use your money has been put to.

8. Marketing Budget

You need a detailed budget for the next year showing the budgeted costs for each of your promotional items.

9. Measurement

Results and feed back must be gathered each month and compared with the marketing plan. When they are going astray you need to take corrective action.

Another tip is to ask your customers how they found you so that you can monitor what parts of your communications plan are working. Note this and include this in your measurements.

10. Milestones

It is a good idea to announce in the plan some marketing milestones you will strive to achieve. When you pass them celebrate!

So there it is a step by step process to create yourself a professional Marketing plan.

The author is Nicholas Thorne who runs an independent bookshop and a gift business on the Internet.Morgen Blog61945
Maritsa Blog73929

How To Get Business Success Part 3

Business Principle Number 3: Check Out The Company

What do you think is important when looking for a business?

Sure, the first things you think about are the products and how much money or sales you can make. Then maybe you think about how you are going to actually operate the business and make money.

In fact, it is easy to get caught up in all the hype there is today in the Internet, especially in the area of home based business and making money at home. It seems that every day there are new get in at the ground floor opportunities, as well as so many offers and claims that it makes your head spin. To add to the confusion, there are heaps of Internet marketing product launches, specials, limited offers, bargains and not to be missed deals that you end up spending money on other peoples businesses instead of making profits yourself.

I know, because I have done this myself I have spent thousands of dollars on numerous home business opportunities and on internet marketing products that I thought were the key to business success. Some were good, some were a waste of money.

The thing that I have learned is to check out home business companies to make sure that they meet a number of standards. It makes sense when you think about it. Because if a company is not managed properly it will fall over. Now if I have put a lot of effort into growing a home business, the last thing I want is for that company to fail because of poor management. As well as the financial implications (youre in this to make money after all), you do not want to damage your personal reputation and credibility, which is a valuable asset that you have worked hard to develop.

When a company fails, people think it is because of a poor product, or not enough sales. In fact, it can be quite the opposite. This happens to small business owners too, because as the business grows, the company cannot handle the details. This includes managing the sales, salaries and commissions, and paying their own bills. And because they cannot keep everything going, they actually sell themselves out of business.
Of course, there are companies that fail because of other reasons, like fraud, not keeping up with the needs of the customers and so on.

So what do you look for in a company? Well personally, I always start off with a bit of due diligence, which is as easy as doing a Google search. Just to get a feel for the company (remember that there are always a few complaints, so you want a general overview). I want to make sure that the company is legitimate, so it really helps if the company has a proper office and street address, phone numbers that are answered, and a help or support desk for e-mail enquiries too. I prefer it when there is a real person, with a name, in charge of the company, so you can check them out too.

To be a successful company in a growth phase (because you want the business to be growing and not shrinking), the management team must look after

* Everything to do with commissions and salary, including taxes
* All legal issues, advertising laws
* Customer service and support
* Training of staff and business partners
* Future planning and business planning
* All computer hardware and software issues, including security and websites
* Quality control
* Human Resources
* Product development
* Communication
* Sales and marketing
* Delivery of products or materials (some are digital but many companies still provide product and/or training materials physically).
* International business
* Admin
And so on and so on.

This is just a fraction of all the things that companies have to do to keep ahead of the game and provide a solid foundation for future growth.

I believe it is very helpful to look at a home business companys track record. If it has been around for a few years, is operating successfully and is handling the growth well..these are good indicators that things are fine.

Janet Ellershaw is a successful Internet marketing professional who really loves working at home. Margaux Blog27509
Marje Blog14859

3 Important Things Affiliate Marketers Must Do To Succeed

Affiliate programs are methods to promote web businesses, in which a publisher (affiliate) is rewarded for every subscriber, visitor, customer or sale that is provided through his or her efforts. There are three important things every affiliate marketer needs to survive. The best course of action cannot be clear, unless they have listed and considered the alternatives.

The three tactics are as follows:

1. Use a unique web page for each product or service: This is the first strategy that every affiliate marketer should follow. You can use the unique web pages for promoting each separate product that you are going to market. Do not keep all of the web pages together in order to save money on web hosting. It is better to have a website that places focus on the product and nothing else.

Always remember to include the reviews of products on the website, so that it becomes easy for the visitors to get an initial understanding regarding the benefits of the products on the people who chose to buy it.

Articles that highlight the use of products can also be posted. Articles on every topic imaginable can be copied from the major article databases, with the full permission of the article authors. Make your web pages compelling and attractive and also include calls for acting on the information. The headline should be written in such a manner that it makes the readers want to read more. Highlight all the possible special points about your recommended products.

2. Offer free reports to your readers: This is the second tactic that you should follow to become successful as an affiliate marketer. If it is possible, include the free reports at the top right of your web page, so that there is little chance of your visitors missing it.

Create an auto-responder campaign that will be mailed(at set intervals) to the people who add their personal information in your sign up box. Based on research, a sale is usually closed around the seventh contact with a particular prospect. There are possibilities of just two things happening with the web page alone, closing of sale or the prospect leaving the web page and never returning. If you send your new subscriber useful and targeted information over a lengthy period, you will frequently remind them of the product or service that they were interested in and send them back to your site time and time again with a chance of closing the sale each time.

3. Drive traffic targeted to your product: One way to do this is to setup a Google adwords campaign targeting certain targeted keyword phrases. Adwords can be quite expensive though especially when starting out. I find that the more unqie relevant content I add to my site the more free search engine visitors I attract to my pages.

These are just three basic tips for making the most of your affiliate products. There is a lot more to learn and impliment if you are ever going to make it as a 'Super Affiliate'.

Download Mal Keenans' Free & Exclusive Top Rated Affiliate Marketing Secrets Guide: http://www.affiliatenetworkmoney.com/Marlane Blog50579
Myrta Blog32866

The Man With One Red Shoe (DVD) Review

Only the third movie of Tom Hanks' illustrious career, The Man With One Red Shoe is a hilarious comedy about a case of mistaken identity. With a star studded cast that includes not only Hanks, but also Dabney Coleman, James Belushi, and Carrie Fisher, The Man With One Red Shoe is a decent slapstick comedy that appears on cable television from time to time. Not exactly the greatest film in history, it is a fun and entertaining movie well worth the time involved

When top level CIA operatives Cooper (Dabney Coleman) and Ross (Charles Durning) fight out a personal turf battle, Ross sends Cooper on a wild goose chase to find a fictional witness who can clear his name of some impending charges. Using planted information from a wire tap, Cooper stakes out the local airport in an effort to find the mysterious man

Meanwhile, Richard (Tom Hanks) is wearing mismatched shoes (one of them red, thus The Man With One Red Shoe) because his friend Morris (James Belushi) played a practical joke on him. But the joke takes an odd twist when a CIA agent spies Richard's odd shoe pairing and fingers him as the target of their stakeout. In an effort to find out what the man with one red shoe knows, Cooper puts a tail on Richard, sparking a strange sequence of events which leaves the bike-riding violin player questioning his sanity.

But the snafu really turns serious when Cooper assigns top agent Maddy (Lori Singer) to the case. Maddy gets close to Richard (who easily falls in love with her). Cooper thinks he's getting closer to the information he needs when the unthinkable occurs - his top agent falls for Richard

Tom Hanks plays the lead role to the best of his ability, playing the part of a character type he has totally mastered - the clueless, out-of-the-loop guy. He played similar roles in Big and Forrest Gump, but irrespective of those roles, Hanks is generally outstanding in any role which he's assigned. The Man With One Red Shoe is no exception. Hanks comes across as a genuine and likeable character, totally oblivious to the events which transpire around him.

Based solely on a case of mistaken identity, The Man With One Red Shoe is an interesting concept for a film. Despite stretching the limits of reality, the film nevertheless manages to remains within the boundaries of the sane and normal. The movie isn't over the top or utterly ridiculous like so many comedies of today. Instead, the lead characters remain serious while the circumstances of their situation provide the humor. A light-hearted and fun film, providing an early glimpse of Tom Hanks' much heralded career, makes The Man With One Red Shoe a definite must-see movie.

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one. Source: http://thedvdreport.blogspot.com/2006/02/man-with-one-red-shoe-dvd.htmlMuriel Blog40030
Marijo Blog22072

Everyone Deserves to be a Millionaire

Stop, take a deep breath, and examine your life. Are you excited about your current career? Are you earning the salary you want or even deserve? Many people feel stuck in a rut because they are not making the kind of money that they once thought they would. The good news is that you can take control of your situation and pick yourself up out of that rut. Everyone deserves to be a millionaire, even you!

What are the benefits to creating your own wealth? First of all you will have freedom to do anything you want, whenever you want. You can pack up your family and take a trip to Europe on a moments notice if you want to. You can determine when you will work and when you will take breaks. You have eliminated the obligations to anyone else including a manager that may be a nuisance.

Building your own wealth enables you to leave the corporate world behind. The corporate world can be very rigid in that you have minimal control over your promotion schedule. Most companies have a set promotion schedule and cap off the amount of your salary increases and bonuses. This stifling condition can be a thing of the past.

Along with newfound freedom come increased family time and a life style that is comfortable and relaxed. You will have the security of plenty of money to spend and retire on. You will feel in control of your life and finances. This personal empowerment is amazing and can add new vigor to your mind and body.

Enjoying your wealth sounds amazing, right? Why isnt everyone a millionaire? Why doesnt everyone seek out personal empowerment and the security of money? There are several reasons as to why the majority of people are not millionaires. A major reason is that most people dont have a system to make it happen. They simply do not understand how to go about building their own wealth.

Many people also believe that they dont have the ability to create wealth. They feel the notion of being a millionaire is impossible and only available for the chosen ones. Some people feel that being wealthy is wrong and greedy. This mindset needs to be adjusted because being wealthy is a positive venture that is possible for everyone to achieve.

To conquer these misgivings people should seek out a structured system that will help them create wealth. Look for a mentor or coach that is successful so they can help guide you along the process. For example, a mentor can teach you how to structure your business so you can take advantage of tax breaks that will decrease your taxes by 60-70%. A mentor can advise you on how to set up your business properly to avoid being sued.

Another stumbling block to wealth is if you are stubborn. Stubborn people may think they know everything. If you want to create wealth then you need to leave your ego at the door. Having an ego can hinder your chances of being successful.

Additional tips to creating your own wealth include:

Follow the piles of cash. Find people who have successfully created wealth and learn from them. Remember, its not only what you know, but who you learn it from. Learn from someone who is more successful then you.

Learn the tricks of the trade from someone that has actually built wealth and not just written a book about it.

Forget the past. It does not matter who you are or where you came from. Everyone deserves to be a millionaire.

Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter and Entrepreneur Magazine e-Biz radio show host, and now a "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours, has helped thousands of clients target his specialty, opt-in mail direct marketing systems. The Powerful Promoter is not only a sought-after internet marketer but has also marketed for some of the world's top experts whose reputations would shrivel if their followers ever found out someone else coached them on their online marketing strategies. For more information, visit Bacak's site at http://www.powerfulpromoter.com or sign up for his Powerful Promoting Tips at http://www.promotingtips.comMayda Blog59347
Meggi Blog5726

Personal Loans UK: A Loan In An Easy Way For All

The stable income and inflation has created challenges for people to execute their personal loans. With all such points and challenges it seems quite hard but not impossible to fulfil the demands as loans are introduced to provide financial assistance. Thus, the financial lending institutions of UK are well aware of this fact and formatted personal loans UK, so that, persons seeking for external finance can easily obtain the money and carry out their need.

Personal loans UK can be easily obtained in any form secured and unsecured, and are meant for persons who can or cannot pledge property as collateral. But placing of collateral facilitates borrowers to derive more benefits as for example, large amount of loan, low rate of interest, easy repayments and less monthly installments. But it does not imply that persons who do not pledge collateral are derived from all the benefits. They are provided the same proposals and advantages of personal loans UK but against a slightly high rate of interest. In the market, a person will come across numerous lenders who are ready to advance personal loans UK at marginal rates of interest and having a reliable credit might favor him to get the loan at low rate of interest.

In the society of UK both good and bad creditors exist and the personal loans UK envelop both category persons to provide financial assistance. If you are one among the many bad credit holding persons, then you can easily rebuild your hampered credit profile and also execute demands. In a single amount of loan many ends can be summarized like, buying a car, renovation of house, going for holidays, weddings, higher education and so on.

Personal loans UK can be approached in both ways conventional and online, but the later is over lapping the former rapidly with its unfailing services. You can derive instant results from the lenders and collect information regarding loan with online provisions. You can even approve personal loans UK from your house or office with the help of online application form with personal and credit details.

Rusty Ryan is an author who can certainly identify your kind of loan. He is proficient in the credit market because of a degree in finance from the esteemed University of Oxford. To find Personal loans, bad credit pesonal signature loans, personal loans, personal loan usa, bad credit personal loans usa, bad credit personal loan visit http://www.findpersonalloansuk.co.uk Morgen Blog61945
Melesa Blog35880

Niche Marketing

If you have access to a computer connected to the internet, you already have the means to earn a good living with very little cash outlay.

Your main outlay will be in time. Time spent learning all that you can about marketing a product on the internet. Time spent on finding a product that has appeal. If it has appeal to the masses, you can bet your bottom dollar that there are thousands of other marketers promoting it.

There is nothing we can do about that. What we need is a product that has appeal to a select group of people with a specific need. This is known as Niche marketing.

What sort of niche do you aim at? Only you can decide that. What are you interested in yourself? There must be thousands of other people interested in the same thing, or something similar.

The various sporting activities all have their following. The major league sports are well covered but there are thousands of sports and pastimes that tend to remain in the background. They all have their adherents.

Who do you know who does something different from the crowd on the weekend? Think about it. Do they go to art classes? What about hill walking? Bookbinding classes.? Whatever they do, you can bet your boots that there are thousands of other people doing the same and they all have their own special needs. Even if its only a book on how to do it.

You may be surprised that the majority of spare time activities are carried out in other countries as well, all over the world. On the internet you have a global marketplace. In the high street you have your local catchment area with perhaps only a few hundred interested people.

In a high street shop you are open to the public about eight hours a day. With the internet your shop never closes. The net never sleeps. Twenty-four hours a day. Seven days a week. All year round. Open to the whole world.

Now! Dont go jumping in with two big feet. Stop, Think, Do your research now. Before you get too excited.

Find that niche, Study it until you know all the answers. Find a niche that really interests you. If it does not excite you, how do you expect to excite your intended clients?

Join forums and discussion groups. Ask questions. Better still, answer questions. Every time someone in the group asks a question, do some research on the internet and find the answer.

The more answers that you can provide, the more your name will become respected by others in the group. The more research that you do the easier it will become for you to find the answers.

Soon you will become one of a select number of experts in your subject that everyone else looks up to.

You are not allowed to advertise within these discussion groups but as a rule you may have a small By-line that describes who you are and what you do. Plus a link to your website. That is enough to get your name known and trusted by those within your sphere of interested.

Discovering products of interest to your new-found niche will be no problem. The major search engines such as Google and Wanadoo will turn up every-thing that you need.

Remember: The more research you do and the more you study the market, the more you will gain in the long run. On the other hand , dont take research so seriously that you never get started.

If fifty million others can do it, I am sure you can as well. The market for niche products can never become saturated. There will always be another niche.

Copyright 2006 Homer Farey

Homer Farey sells and gives away software and e-books on line. He is also a member of a number of affiliate programs that he joined when he first came onto the net. He finds them too lucrative to even think of giving them up. If you would like to know where he gets the freebies to give away, Take a look by clicking here.: http://www.runurl.com/xx.php?2ldMinerva Blog62004
Marni Blog61584

Building a Web Presence for Affiliate Program Marketers

No shame in being an affiliate marketer, but when you see a link to a website selling a product and the url to the website looks like mywhatever.whatever/1234/?myname/blah - do you trust that website enough to give away your money? Surprisingly, you will find that you lose a sale before someone even reads your ad, because of this link.

You will be tempted to use the free sales page that affiliate programs will give you. Unfortunately that will give you the funny URL. If you buy a domain name you can point it at the affiliate marketing URL, then you can advertise your own domain name and still have your visitor arrive at the affiliate marketing sales page when they click your domain.

Without your own domain name you reveal that you are not serious and that you may not be here for long. Without a domain name it is also harder to track who the website belongs to, and that can create a sense of uncertainty about whether your site will be here in the long run. It's a a small but important investment which will establish trust and a sense of professionalism. And as we all know; Trust = Sales

When setting up your online business, you might be tempted to utilize the free web page hosting services offered by Yahoo, AOL, Bravehost or etc. If you want to build a successful online presence you should be aware of the possible negative aspects that comes with these plans.

The perception may be that you are not a serious business when you have a company website on a free host, and it should be avoided. Even if you have to buy a $5 a month web host to get one it will be worth it! It simply looks so much more professional with a real domain name on a paid host

For the mere price of a cheap web hosting service you can have your own domain name and website up and running for less than $10 a month. Visitors arriving at your site want to know that your company is legitimate and that it is there to stay (not 'fly by night')! Internet Marketing is not a widely known concept and you may be first to let them know it is a serious business.

With your own domain name and paid web space, you are free to design your website the way you prefer, without limitations applied by the free host. You can find low cost web hositing services that offer both php and mysql formats so that you dont have to choose the most expensive ones.

Another little known clue: If you can afford to register your doman name for a longer term than one year, even Google will see you as more of a serious business! Fuirther, free hosted websites are often frowned upon by the major search engines and directories, causing your website not be indexed at all which of course is not something you want.

You will actually save money in the long run with your own domain hosting. It will help your site rank better, bringing you more visitors and eventually bringing you more sales that may have not been the case with a free host. If you are serious about building an online business, getting a paid web host is the only way to go.

Patricia BrucoliMilicent Blog16068
Melloney Blog57298

Affiliate Programs How to Use Commission Junction

The affiliate program is probably the best return for your effort with the least demand on your time. This has an appeal to the Boomer Entrepreneur since we want to run the business and not have it run us. We want to have time to kick back and smell the roses.

The attraction to this model is that it is virtually risk free except for your time. It costs you nothing to sign up as an affiliate. You recommend the product and send your visitors to the website where the product is sold and if the customer purchases the product, you are paid a commission. Amazon.com is credited with being the first businesses on the Net to fully develop the affiliate concept and now all the major companies have affiliate programs.

When you sign up as an affiliate, you will be given an affiliate number, and a special link to use for linking to the affiliate website. This link will send your visitor to the business site and at the same time tell the business that you sent the visitor so you will receive the commission in the case of a sale.

There are companies that do the accounting and act as the coordinator between affiliates and the companies they represent. These are called affiliate program providers (APPs). One of the major sites for handling affiliate accounting is called Commission Junction. It handles eBay and others. The major site for electronic products is ClickBank. Other sites are BeFree, Linkshare, and Performics. A German APP is Affili.net.

Commission Junction is the largest APP and handles many great companies. To fully explore what is available, you need to sign up at CJ and look for affiliates there. You will be able to see who the companies are and the commission structure of each. You can then join the program right in CJ without having to go to each company and apply.

I suggest that you join CJ and study the many companies that are represented. Take note of a few that you feel might be ones that you would like to represent. Dont join the affiliate program yet, but go to Google and research the company website. See if they sell themselves well and will support the sales effort that you are going to expend to sell their products or services. Also, from CJ, you can link to the landing page in the company website. Go there and check it out to see if it sells well.

Step by Step Start

The following will lead you through the sign up process as a Commission Junction publisher. This process is longer than most that you have previously completed. Be prepared to complete two pages of information. The second page is long and detailed.

First page: Select your language, country, and currency. Click NEXT.

Second page: After swearing to abide by the rules and regs, you will be asked for information about your newsletter or website (URL). If you have a website, you can enter it. If not, make up a name for the eZine that you may plan to publish. For this application, you must make up a newsletter name if you do not have a website (URL). Be creative!

You will then be asked about your promotional methods. Click the Website/Content and Search Engine Marketing buttons. Next click NO on the radio button that asks if you donate any proceeds to charity (unless you want to do so).

Next you will be asked to enter all the information needed for setting up your account. You might have to attempt this page a couple of times since you might not have all the info you might need the first time. A key item you will need is social security number or tax ID if you are registering as a business. If you want to have your payments direct deposited, get a blank check so you will have the info to set up the banking information.

When you finish giving CJ your entire pedigree, click Accept Terms and you are on your way. Check your Inbox for an email from CJ with your acceptance message and password.

Sign up for Commission Junction at

https://signup.cj.com/member/publisherSignUp.do

Once you have received your acceptance email from Commission Junction, log in to www.cj.com and use your password to enter. When you are logged in, you will be on your Commission Junction Home Page. It shows your account status and basic accounting info. It also shows the new advertisers on CJ. You might see if any of these look appealing since you can jump right on them and get a head start.

Near the top of the page click on Account. This is where you can update the information that you entered on your application.

Now down to business. Click on the Get Links tab near the top and you will be presented the page where you can find advertisers. There are several ways to view it: By category, by advertiser name, by Smart Zone, and by relationship which will list all the accounts with which you have an established relationship.

As an example, to find a company with which you are familiar (eBay), select the Category view and in the left column under Commerce, click Auctions. The page that is presented will contain various auction sites, but you will recognize most of them as the various eBay sites for the USA and other countries.

To join an affiliate, click on the View Links in the box with the affiliate name. You will be presented with the various banner ads and links for the affiliate. Pick one and click on it. If you are not a member of the affiliate program, you will be presented a page describing the program and at the bottom of the page is a button Join Program. Click this and see the response. Sometimes you will be accepted immediately and sometimes you will get a message that you will be notified after your application has been reviewed. Go ahead and join eBay USA since you should be accepted immediately by it.

The sequence of Get Links and Join Program is how you sign up for the affiliate programs that you want to represent. It is all in Commission Junction and it makes it very easy for you to grow an affiliate program as your online job.

Note: Some affiliates require that you have a website when you sign up with them. You can build a website later and reapply if this affiliate program is one you want to pursue as an online job.

A word of caution: Becoming an affiliate does not automatically make you rich. Becoming an affiliate establishes the relationship to let you promote a product and get paid for successful promotion. It is up to you to do the work of driving traffic to the affiliate site. If you do your job well, a percentage of the traffic will purchase from the site and you will be paid a commission for those purchases.

This concludes your education about Commission Junction. It is a powerful website and is a must join if you are going to create an affiliate program.

Good luck with your future affiliate programs.

Copyright 2006 John Howe, Inc.

John V. W. Howe is an entrepreneur, author, inventor, patent holder, husband, father, and grandfather. He has been involved in entrepreneurial activities for over 40 years and has recently started several web sites to assist Boomers (baby boomers) to become entrepreneurs when they retire. During his career, John has founded and managed several successful companies including computer services, plastic injection molding, and assembly operations. He is currently Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Kodiak Thermal Technologies, Inc. Johns websites are http://www.boomer-ezine.com and http://www.retirement-jobs-online.com. His hobbies include raising and training English pointers, quail hunting, and fly fishing.Mina Blog38926
Millie Blog26490

Online Nursing Degree - Get Ahead With Your Nursing Career Without Losing Your Paycheck!

Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? This is a concern that rides the minds of many high school and college graduates alike. It can be difficult deciding on a future career. After all, we figure we're going to have this position for years to come. This is why it's very important to choose the right one that makes us happy and pays the bills.

One of the more famous and desirable fields to pursue these days is nursing. Have you considered a career in the medical field? While nursing degrees have always been well known for their dependability and benefits, more recently they've become even simpler to reach. Yes indeed, now days you can acquire an online nursing degree from the comfort of your own home.

Ever since I can remember, my mother has been a registered nurse. I recall her telling me about the time she earned her nursing degree. Of course it wasn't an online nursing degree back then, but who had Internet access in the 60s? She enjoys the working in the medical field and helping those in need of regular care. There is always a certain enjoyment involved when you strive to make others feel better and live longer.

By the time I reached high school, it was clear to me that my mother made a decent income as a registered nurse. She was taking care of three boys on her own, but we always lived well. Not to mention the insurance benefits were perfect. That is something to consider if you're looking into a medical degree. When you work for the state, there are many perks. After twenty years at the same hospital, my mother was able to retire with great benefits.

Are you looking into an online nursing degree? You have to admit, it's great to have access to so much from home. Never before could we achieve so much learning and education from our homes. With a nursing career, you will soon learn that there are many benefits and transfer available.

I watched my mother only work on weekends the entire time I was growing up. How can you beat that schedule? If you are interested in acquiring an online nursing degree, get online today and sort through your options. This very well may be the career choice for you. Cyberspace can give you the rundown on everything the online nursing degree has to offer.

Luke T. Axton provides readers with up-to-date commentaries, articles, and reviews for http://www.education-magazine-portal.com, http://www.resources-on-education.com, and other related issues.Marieann Blog77870
Melosa Blog13310

San Antonio Schools Celebrate Successes and Create New Programs to Further Achievement

San Antonio Schools Creates Program to Prepare Freshman for Future Success

Beginning this school year, Ninth grade students in San Antonio Schools will have more resources in helping them gain success in academic studies, college, and future careers. In addition to their regular classes ninth grade students will be required to take Freshman Prep class. San Antonio Schools Freshman Prep class helps students create a plan for the next four years and their future. The Freshman Prep class is intended to have students be prepared for college upon graduating from high school. The Freshman Prep class follows guidelines set by San Antonio Schools and the Texas High School Project District Initiative. Students will be expected to create and follow a standardized plan that features four core subjects each year and construct supplementary areas of interest or conduits from which students can select. The San Antonio Schools Freshman Prep class includes instruction on note-taking, time management and teaches how to develop good study habits that students can use throughout their high school and college studies. The main goals that San Antonio Schools have for the program are: to increase the number of students who complete 9th grade, provide a more rigorous and balanced four year high school graduation, ensure that all graduates are college ready, offer students opportunities for individualized guidance from their counselors, encourage increased parental involvement, and aid 12th-graders obtain career-related scholarships. After the ninth grade the Freshman Prep class becomes the Career Pathways program that gives students guidance to graduation, college and careers.

San Antonio Schools Celebrate a Decade of Science and Mathematics Reform

San Antonio Schools San Antonio Urban Systemic Program is the main organization the has engaged in systemic reform within San Antonio Schools that has helped thousands of students achieve higher science and math scores. San Antonio Schools will recognize teachers that have worked in the San Antonio Urban Systemic Program. The San Antonio School districts included in the program are Alamo Heights, East Central, Edgewood, Harlandale, Judson, North East, Northside, San Antonio, and South San Antonio. Other participants in the San Antonio Urban Systemic Program are the University of Texas at San Antonio and the City of San Antonio.

San Antonio Urban Systemic Program has worked with the National Science Foundation to create more engaging and better quality student instruction over the last ten years. The San Antonio Urban Systemic Program has increased the use of math and science across the curriculum by improving students access to math and science resources, having better integration of technology, and professional development that gives the teachers the skills they need in order to bring science and mathematics into all classroom environments.

San Antonio Urban Systemic Programs goal for the San Antonio Schools to improve student achievement in mathematics, science, and the integration of instructional technology has succeeded. When San Antonio Schools students are compared to students in Texas, they score higher. The National Science Foundation has assisted the San Antonio Urban Systemic Program, not only, with financial funding but with and mathematics materials, teacher training, and technical assistance from mentor teachers and campus coaches. The San Antonio Urban Systemic Program has created a demanding curriculum using real-world applications of math and science that involves hands-on explorations.
Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools K-12, Which provides free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. Patricia has a nose for research and writes stimulating news and views on school issues.Marlene Blog75786
Margit Blog44596

Avoiding PMI On Your Mortgage Loan

Save Money on your Loan, Avoid PMI

With gas prices soaring and bills piling up it is important to save money any way possible. The same is true when financing a home. All loans are not created equal. Some loans have costs that you should avoid. One of those costs is PMI. In my opinion you should avoid this cost whenever possible!

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) is insurance that the lender requires on loans that have less than 20% down payment. This can cost you somewhere between 80-200 dollars per month! This could put the house of your dreams out of your budget. Luckily, in most cases, there are ways around these extra costs.

The best way to avoid PMI is to find a lender with programs that finance above 80% with out charging PMI. At Fifth Third Bank I have the ability to finance loans up to 100% without charging PMI. These loans do have guidelines that you must qualify for but if you do meet the criteria then take it! You could end up in your home with no down payment and no PMI. If you don't qualify for these programs don't worry, there is another way!

You can also avoid paying PMI by doing an 80/20 loan. This type of loan splits the financing up into two different loans. You can think of this as borrowing money from the bank as a down payment. You will be carrying two loans at two different interest rates.

The first mortgage, which would make up 80% of the purchase price, will be on a lower rate. The second mortgage will be on a slightly higher rate, but your payment will be lower than choosing a loan with PMI. The second mortgage is also tax deductible. PMI is NOT tax deductible!

The name of the game is saving money! When you are shopping around for a mortgage make sure you ask your loan officer about special programs that avoid PMI. If you cannot qualify for these then ask about their 80/20 programs. Mortgage shopping can be confusing and frustrating, but it doesn't have to be. Find a lender who wants to save you money. Good luck and happy shopping!

Copyright 2006 Cecilia Sherrard. Morgen Blog61945
Marlena Blog89438

Adverse Credit No Hurdle in Availing Bad Credit Secured Home Loan

You get a secured home loan approved easily on the strength of your home being offered as security of the loan to the loan provider, but in cases where borrowers suffering from bad credit label, required finance is harder to avail. Bad credit secured home loan however gives loan very easily as it is mainly aimed at these borrowers labeled as bad credit in the loan market.

Bad credit secured home loan providers are ever willing to offer any amount of loan needed for different purposes. You can make good use of the loan in renovating home; clearing medical or educational bills, going to a holiday tour or you can even pay off some of your debts.

People who often default on repayments of loans are called as having bad credit. They face County Court Judgments and even file for bankruptcy. This is recorded in their credit report which in turn influences negatively the credit score. On FICO scale, credit score ranges from 300 to 850 and score below 600 is labeled bad credit considered full of risks for loan offering.

While considering bad credit secured home loan offer, lenders have this luxury of ignoring bad credit. This is made possible because the loan is fully secured. The borrower is required to offer his home as collateral to the lender for giving security of the loan. Collateral works wonders for bad credit people.

One can borrow an amount anywhere in the range of 3000 to 75000 as a bad credit secured home loan for a period of 5 to 30 years. Being secured one the loan comes at lower interest rate as no risk is involved. Here collateral plays deciding role in sealing the deal. In case of greater loan, lenders will go for evaluating equity in collateral. Higher equity in collateral like home enables not only in getting greater loan but at lowered than average interest rate as well. It is advisable that you better borrow an amount that is below the equity.

There are numerous online lenders providing bad credit secured home loan. Apply to them and you get various loan offers of different interest rates to choose from. Online lenders do not charge any loan application or processing fee enabling in lowering cost of the loan.

Bad credit secured home loan, besides meeting financial needs, also goes a long way in improving credit score. So, pay off monthly installments in time to record the positive development in your credit report.

Peter Taylor is a senior financial analyst at BadCreditSecuredLoan with an acumen for finance and insurance. In recent years he has taken up to provide independant financial advice through his informative articles. His articles are widely read because of the lucid manner of wriiting and thoroughly researched datas. To find secured loan, bad credit secured home loan, bad credit secured loan UK, bad credit homeowner loan, bad credit loan visit http://www.badcreditsecuredloan.net.Misty Blog57681
Morgan Blog98505

Earn Money With A Few Clicks ~ Home Opportunities Business

Many people wonder if there is an effective way to make money from home. Many websites that proclaim instant earnings or high salaries from home are costly or fraudulent. However, one legitimate method of making extra income from your home is affiliate marketing, and all you really need is some time and a computer.

Affiliate marketing pays either by issuing a commission, or through a recurring fee, agreed upon in the beginning of the undertaking. The payment scale and method of pay vary depending on the agreement. A relationship is formed between a merchant and an affiliate, where the affiliate is paid based on how much traffic they can bring to the merchant's website. If an affiliate produces a lead or new sales for the company, they are compensated by the merchant for their efforts.

The majority of merchants offer a one-time commission for all future leads or sales that the affiliate brings to the company. This commission can be as high as 75% or as low as 5%. Some affiliate programs grant a small, fixed fee for each click that the affiliate brings to the merchant's website. The later program is beneficial because it does not require a purchase to be made on the site in order for payment to be received.

An alternate payment system that some affiliate programs choose to use is a residual income program. This program will provide the affiliate with reoccurring income ranging from between 5-50% of the sales made through the affiliate. This allows a person to be paid based on the amount of work they do, which occasionally leads to a higher income. It also promises the opportunity for multiple payments, an attractive option for many. The drawback is that this income is not guaranteed in the way that a commission is. Often, a high paying one-time commission far exceeds the initial payment from a recurring income program.

For example, let's suppose that two merchants are beginning an affiliate program. One offers a $100 commission, and the other is offering $20 per sale. It is tempting to sign up for the single, higher commission, but the second option has long-term viability. Even if the affiliate only makes $20 a month, in six months they will have exceeded that original, one-time commission of $100. The marketing efforts are not in any way lessened by choosing the first option, either. The amount of work involved in either endeavor is equal. However, with the second option, a person can secure a future income by building a loyal clientele, which can provide years of future income.

Personal choice is a big part of choosing the affiliate program that is right for you, but keep in mind that there is usually more money to be made in a residual income affiliate program. Don't take these opportunities of making money from home for granted!

Irene Rexlee is an Online Business Marketers. The co-founder of DTM CDT International & GBBCorp who have built a huge network in a few short months. For recommended resources, visit http://rexleecorner.successuniversity.com/specialoffer and receive your FREE ebook on way to build large network marketing downline, Click http://rexleecorner.bizMarna Blog56353
Mavis Blog36788

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.Melantha Blog61227
Marlena Blog29848

Easy Ways to Make Money on eBay

If you do not have a website, one of the easiest and most profitable ways to make money online is with eBay. It is the largest online auction site, drawing millions of people every day. It is the first place most people check out when they are looking for items, both new and used.

You can sell almost anything on eBay from small inexpensive 99-cent items to cars, boats, real estate, and everything in between. By placing your item on eBay, you are placing it in front of millions of prospective buyers.

There are many ways to make money on eBay. I started out as a seller by trying to get rid of leftover items from a garage sale. I listed some books, clothes, and toys. I made a very small profit on the toys, a reasonable profit on the clothes, and a very nice profit on the books. Thats all it took for me to get hooked on eBay.

From that day forward, my goal was to make money by finding as many bargains as possible and selling them for a profit on eBay. I had always loved garage sales but now I had an additional reason for seeking out bargains.

I armed myself with as much knowledge as I could find by using eBay tools to search out certain items and learn what they sold for. I also learned how to determine the value of those items by a lot of trial and error. I only worked with items that I was reasonably familiar with and felt comfortable trying to sell.

Once I felt confident enough to start my eBay selling, I started scouring garage and yard sales, estate sales, and local auctions. I also used my local newspaper classifieds. Bargain hunting became my business and it was a business that was always challenging and exciting.

The more knowledgeable I became, the easier it was for me to find great bargains. I learned how to know if an item had profit potential by looking at it. I was amazed at what some people considered junk and the prices they sold for. (Remember, most people can be haggled with to get the price even lower!)

My most successful items (remember, I just chose a few that I was comfortable with) were items I bought at estate sales like textiles (bedspreads, doilies, etc.) and old tools. Old stuff sells quite well on eBay if the items condition is good. If the condition is not good, make sure you are honest about that in your ad. You will still get bids.

I would not recommend attempting to sell items you know nothing about. If there are certain items you would like to sell, make sure you acquire as much information about them as possible. You should know what the item usually sells for and how much it is really worth. You do not want to lose money; you want to make money!

Once you are ready to start selling, learn about eBays rules and guidelines for selling. When you click on the word sell on the main eBay site, a page comes up that contains many resources and tools for sellers. Make sure you read over all of the information because it will increase your chances of being successful at selling on eBay.

Now you are ready to sell. Your ad is the most important piece of the selling game on eBay. The text and graphics in your ad will have a huge effect on the price you can get for your items. The better your pictures and description are, the better your price will be.

You will need to decide how long you want your auction to run. There are 3-day auctions and 7-day auctions. As a rule, the 7-day auctions are good because it gives people a longer time to bid up your items. Of course, the items you are selling sometimes dictate which type of auctions you should use. Make sure you check to see which type of auctions similar items sell for.

You can also choose to include a Buy it now button. This button allows buyers to purchase your item instantly at whatever price you set. Before you use this option, make sure you are comfortable with the price you are setting and make sure the price is not too low.

How do you make money on eBay? Do your homework, find your items, list your items, and wait for the bidding to begin! It IS possible to make money on eBay!

Chris Chenoweth, author of the DO-IT-YOURSELF HOME HEALTH & MONEY GUIDE, writes articles pertaining to health and nutrition, budgeting, and online business: http://mysiteinc.com/djtrevayne/guide.htmlMela Blog9092
Melamie Blog35430