Hodgkinson Publishing - Internet Marketing & Online Business Training

Get More Traffic – Simple Tactics

Every web publisher needs traffic to their web site, but how do you get a regular increase of traffic every month?

How do you even get traffic started coming to your site?

Blogs automatically get traffic coming as soon as you make your first post. With a good ping list, each time you make a post to your blog dozens of sites are advised and traffic starts coming in. Therefore the first step in getting traffic to your blog is to post regularly. Posting once or twice a day is fantastic.

Article Syndication: Writing articles and syndicating them to article directories is a effective method to grow your traffic. Try to write at least one article a week (or have a unique article written for you), post it to your site, wait a week for the search engines to index it, and then submit it to article directories. For a nominal fee SubmitYourArticle.com will submit it to 100s of article directories, saving you a lot of time and effort.

Social Bookmarking: Social bookmarking is another very potent tool. It takes less than a minute to submit your article to OnlyWire.com. Once submitted they take it and submit it to about fifteen other social bookmarking sites.

Imagine if you bookmarked one article a day and submitted each to fifteen social bookmarking sites for one year. That would add up to over 15,000 backlinks for your one site! Incredible! But there’s even more you can do.

Pay Pay Click and More: Pay per click, email marketing, viral marketing, and commenting in forums are all great ways to get more traffic. For instance, Answers.Yahoo.com is a site where people post questions and wait for an answer.

For instance, if you have a site about tropical fish and someone asks about what to feed theirs, you can post an answer and include your URL in the signature. As people read the question and your answer, some will click on your URL to see what else you might say about taking care of fish.

Tracking and Statistics: Track the visitors to your site by using tools such as MyBlogLong.com, Google Analytics, and the tracking tools found in your site’s cpanel under Stats. Google Analytics takes a minute to set up and gives you vital information to help you focus on what your visitors want.

By looking at your stats a couple of minutes a week you can see what articles are hot, what topics are most popular, how long visitors are staying at your site, and what links they click on to leave it. You can use this data to make changes to your site, step-up the number of posts you make on popular topics, and anything else that will encourage people to stay longer and to return.

It’s not difficult to get traffic to a site if you take action and create a promotion schedule. Allow some time each day to write an article or to post to your blog, submit it to the social bookmarking sites, and submit your articles to article directories. Follow these basic tips and traffic to your site should increase significantly every month.

If you want more traffic without the hard work or time I do recommend you read ‘Better Than Free Traffic’ – Click Here

Tunnel Vision…

It separates the mediocre from the empire builder

Special Guest Post by: J.F. (Jim) Straw

Have you ever wondered …

“What is the major difference between people making an extra $1,000 per month and those who are making the really big money?” The answer is simple. — Well, maybe not so simple – but – over the years, I have observed that one of the greatest differences between those who achieve mediocre results … or no results … and those who start a small business and build an empire is that they have developed a …

Tunnel Vision Approach! Although “tunnel vision” … represented by a closed-in and very narrow view of the objectives of the company; like looking through a tunnel …i s one of the curses of big, bureaucratic businesses, it is an absolute necessity for the beginning entrepreneur.

Too many people who want to become rich and successful never reach their goals simply because they do not develop a tunnel vision approach to their goal. Instead, they are constantly searching for that one perfect business; that one BIG deal, that will put them on Easy Street … overnight … for the rest of their life.

One week they are trying to get into the export business. The week after they want to own a franchise, or buy an apartment building, or start a mailorder business. Each new book they read creates a greener pasture for them to explore. They don’t miss out on trying any, and every, new opportunity. They manage to eke out an existence, or even achieve a modicum of success – but – they never make any real money.

Most of them keep their “day-job” while they explore opportunity after opportunity…never making a true commitment to any business…just dabbling in the business world; looking for that one big deal to give them “overnight success.” — If it wasn’t for their “day-job,” they…and their family…would starve to death.

The beginning entrepreneur who, on the other hand, develops a tunnel vision approach to making money usually makes it.

As an illustration, let me tell you a true story about my first successful full-time business…the business upon which I began building my empire.

Since the age of nine, I have been an avid reader of “how to make money” books. — Each time I read a new book, I discovered a new opportunity and chased around trying for a time to make my fortune in that field. The grass was always greener in this new pasture. After all, I had been trying my current business for a couple months and hadn’t yet made my fortune.

Back in the mid-1960s, as a result of some of my reading, and with my wife’s urging, I had opened a small retail Women’s Wig Shop. — There was supposed to be a real fortune to be made in that field.

In a few months, I had read another book and was ready to get started on yet another quick fortune. After all, I had opened the Wig Shop, like the “book writer” told me, and the world had not beaten a path to my door.

While I was explaining my proposed plans to my wife, she nearly floored me when she said, “Why don’t you just give up and let’s try to at least make a living from this Wig Shop.” (By the way, nobody ever becomes rich and successful until they “give up” and quit chasing non-existent rainbows.)

Her comment cut deep into my male ego. It intimated that I was less than a good provider and hadn’t really earned a living for us. It made me mad … mad enough that I told her, “All right, if that’s what you want, I’ll do nothing but run the Wig Shop. If it fails, we can starve together.”

In other words, I was going to show her that we couldn’t make it in the wig business. I would be right, and she would have to agree that we should have gone ahead with my latest plans.

Since I was no longer spending my time developing or investigating new plans, I had plenty of time to get involved directly in the sale of wigs in the shop.

In no time at all, I learned that I couldn’t answer the questions the customer were asking about the wigs. This led me to start reading everything I could about wigs. How they were made. Where they came from. The differences in construction. The tests of quality…what made one wig worth more than another. — All so I could answer the customers’ questions.

While I was learning these things, I also discovered that I was buying from third and fourth party dealers, and was paying entirely too much for my inventory…only allowing me a gross profit of from 25% to 40%. I found purchasing directly from the importers and manufacturers reduced my costs, and increased my profits.

Every time I got side-tracked and started working on a “new” project (outside the wig business), my wife would put it down by saying, “Look, we’re making money in the wig business. Let’s stay with it.” — Slowly but surely, with my wife’s urging, I developed that all-important tunnel vision.

To make a long story short, in less than three years I was one of the largest wig dealers in the southeastern U.S. My fortune was made. — I had bought a new Cadillac, a 14-room mansion with five bathrooms and a 20′x60′ swimming pool.

If you are now, like I was then, I can just about hear the comments running through your mind. — Hey, I’ve been there. I know what I was thinking at the time. — If your reasoning follows what mine was back then, your thoughts are probably something like this…

“If I put all my eggs in one basket, I could lose everything.”

Or…

“What if I get so involved in only one business that I miss that really big, one-time break that might come along?”

Or…

“What if the business only pays me a living wage? I’ll be trapped. I want to make a fortune, not just a living.”

Set your fears aside. If you develop and use a tunnel vision approach in any business, you will eventually make your fortune through a logical progression of accumulation, leverage and natural diversification.

I didn’t make my first fortune by only operating one wig shop. In less than six months, after I started really concentrating on, and dedicating my time to, the wig business, I had two shops, then three, then four. Each one producing more revenue, income and profit.

Then I discovered that I could buy-out whole wig shops that had bankrupted for pennies on the dollar and resell the inventory through my wig shops…at full retail prices. — I even exported some of the wigs…made in the orient…to wig dealers in other countries (at prices lower than what they would have paid if they had bought the wigs directly from the manufacturer).

Later, I began selling the bankrupted inventories to other wig dealers before I ever owned then. I didn’t even have the wigs shipped to me. I bought them on the West Coast, sold them on the East Coast, had them shipped direct, and pocketed the difference in prices. — In some cases, I just introduced the buyer to the seller and pocketed a fat finder’s fee…without ever buying or selling anything.

What I did was to take the techniques and ideas I had learned about in other businesses in which I had been involved and applied them, while staying within the scope of my tunnel vision…the wig business.

If you’ve been reading “how to make money” materials for any time at all…whether you realize it or not…you have soaked-up literally hundreds, upon hundreds, of business ideas, techniques and applications you can use in your business (no matter what that business may be).

As an example: At one time, I had thought about getting started in a “Party Plan” business. It didn’t pan out, but I applied the party plan idea to the wig business by going back to the party plan book and adjusting everything to fit my wig business.

It wasn’t unusual for one of my “wig parties” to produce from $300 to $500 in one evening. — More that a month’s salary back then.

Another book I had read told how a restaurant had increased its business by painting its building bright colors, adding banners and hand-painted signs.

So, I had the outside of one of my wig shops painted yellow, orange and red…using “day-glo” paint. The windows were painted red, green, blue and yellow in a carousel pattern. Hand-painted, brightly colored signs were everywhere…inside and out. — The business doubled overnight.

Reading about a novelty shop franchise, I had learned that they used a “loss leader”…an item they offered at cost; or less…to bring customers into the store.

Beauty salons in our area, at that time, were charging from $7.50 to $15 to style women’s wigs. So, wig styling became my “loss leader.” We did wig styling for $2…if the woman bought at least one wig from our shop.

When a woman left a wig for styling, or picked one up, we could show them new styles. They just kept buying. One lady bought over 50 wigs from us in less than 2 years. — We did all of her wig styling at $2 each…saving her a fortune in stying charges alone – plus – she was a walking advertisement for our wig shop and referred countless new customers to us.

Once I learned, developed and used a tunnel vision approach in my wig business, I made my fortune through a logical progression of accumulation, leverage and natural diversification.

“Natural diversification” catapulted me from a successful business as a wig merchant to world-renown as a writer, publisher, mailorder marketer, when I began writing articles about making money in a Wig Shop…for publication in trade magazines…then, getting paid to write similar articles for other wig merchants to help them market their wigs.

Throughout the years, I have observed that all successful business people have developed that all-important tunnel vision approach in their businesses.

So, the major difference between people making an extra $1,000 per month and the ones that make big money … the difference between beginning entrepreneurs who just eke out a living in business and those who build empires …i s that, those who succeed are those who develop and use a tunnel vision approach. The others keep thinking there has to be something else … better, more profitable … that they could be doing, so they keep looking-for it, instead of using what they have to achieve the success they want.

Give up on finding a better, more profitable opportunity. Apply yourself to the opportunity at hand…whatever it may be (selling my products, or somebody else’s). — Give-up spending your time developing or investigating new plans. — Make what you have work for you. Accumulate, leverage and diversify logically. — You won’t succeed in anything until you develop and use a tunnel vision approach in your business endeavors…as all successful business people have.

J.F. (Jim) Straw made over One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) in less than 60 days … over $50,000 in 15 minutes … on one single deal. When he told a friend what he had done, his friend made $20,000 in 3 weeks … without any money … doing the same thing. — Find out how they did it. Visit: http://marketingyell.com/JimStraw

Knowledge Is Power! Or is it?

Special Guest Post by: J.F. (Jim) Straw

When you have learned that 2 + 2 = 4, you have gained a useful piece of “information.” – When you have learned that 2 apples + 2 apples = 4 apples, but, that 2 apples + 2 oranges = 2 apples & 2 oranges, or 2 pairs of fruit, or 4 fruits, you have gained all-important “knowledge.”

Information is nice to know. It lets you answer the questions on tests (or when watching TV game shows). But, until you learn to use that information in a practical application, it isn’t knowledge.

Any child of 2 or 3 years of age can tell you that 2 + 2 = 4. They have heard it repeated, over & over, until they can repeat it themselves. But, when confronted with 4 apples, they are at a loss to apply that information.

The same holds true for older students (and even adults) who can readily tell you that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity can be expressed by the formula, E = M times C squared. – Until they know what the E, M & C stand for and can use the formula in a practical application, it is only information, not knowledge.

A fine line exists between information and knowledge. That fine line is nothing more than “use.” — You can memorize bits and pieces of information all day, every day, but, until you actually use that information, it is not knowledge. Once used, information becomes knowledge and, thereby, power.

SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE; whether they be self-employed or wage-earners, executive or common laborer, are seekers after knowledge. They absorb information from every direction. The information they can use becomes knowledge, while the information they have no apparent use for is simply stored on the chance that someday it may become useful.

UN-SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, on the other hand, claim to be seekers of knowledge, but, they believe that knowledge itself can be imparted. Because the books they read, the courses they take, and the plans they buy contain only “information.,” they are forever disappointed. Because it is ONLY INFORMATION (not the “knowledge” they thought they were going to get), they never use the information and, thereby, the knowledge they sought is lost to them forever.

Since I am the author of a great many books, booklets, reports, articles and editorials about success and making & using money (somewhere over 300 so far), those people stick-out like sore-thumbs on my customer lists. They write me long letters detailing their trials and tribulations and explain to me just why the information won’t work for them. But, not one ever writes to say “I used the information and it didn’t work.” – Had they ever used the information, that information would have turned into knowledge and they could have reaped the rewards they have coveted for so long.

If there was a way I could “force” those people to use the information they have, I could literally GUARANTEE their success. And, in those few cases over the years where I have been able to shame or intimidate people into actually using the information I have provided, those people have achieved successes they had only dreamed were possible.

The RULES OF SUCCESS used by successful people & businesses since the beginning of time have never really changed. Those rules have been written-down for all to read, learn and use, but they appear as “information” only and can only be changed to “knowledge” by use. If there were a way to “force” every person and every business to “use” those known and proven rules of success, there would be NO UN-successful people or businesses in the world.

Statistically, 90% of small businesses fail, and 90% of people live a life of sustained mediocrity, simply because they will not “use” the information available to them.

In your quest for financial independence you MUST learn to force yourself to use the information you have at your disposal. — No one (but YOU) is going to force you to assume that responsibility.

Of course, some smart aleck reading this is going to say, “Yeah! But, I’m not going to use any bad information.”

Granted, there is bad (counter-productive) information out there. BUT – there is NO WAY of telling good information from bad information, UNTIL YOU TRY IT. Judging the value of information without using it is like trying to judge the flavor of a pie without ever tasting it.

If you learn nothing else from life, learn that information only becomes knowledge when you use it – and – the information you have used or failed to use in the past is the reason you are where you are today.

YOU can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. No one forces you to be what you are, or do what you do (or don’t do). – What you have today is a direct result of what you did yesterday. What you will have tomorrow will be a direct result of what you do (or don’t do) today.

It’s up to you!

Visit: http://marketingyell.com/JimStraw

How can you make money with Adsense?

Adsense is operated by Google. This is a method of advertising that has become quite common on the internet. You will allow Google to place advertisements on your website for them and for other businesses.

There is no cost to you. However, in exchange for the space on your website these ads take up, you will earn money each time a consumer clicks a link from an advertisement on your website. This is a great way to generate some extra income. The amount of money you earn will depend on the number of ads you have on your site as well as the amount of traffic on your website.

You may be saying this is too easy, what is the catch? It is easy, but there is no catch. This is a great way for businesses to get exposure in various places all over the internet. It also helps them cut down on advertising expenses because they only pay each time a consumer takes a link from a website. Most other types of advertising cost a set amount regardless of if anyone looks at it or not. This is a great method for new businesses that have a low budget for advertising. The more traffic they can generate to their site, the more profits they will make. In turn they can afford to advertise more.

Adsense is a winning situation for everyone. Businesses use it as a low cost way of advertising, website owners use it as a way to earn money, consumers use it as a way to find other products and services they are interested in, and Google uses it as an effective way to earn more money. In fact, Adsense has become so common you will find it on numerous websites just by surfing around the internet a little bit.

Google has a great system in place to determine the best advertisements to place on your website. They will place ads that relate to your products or services offered but not direct competitors. Google is able to determine market trends, customer demands, and evaluate the best ads for your website based on accumulated data that has been analyzed in those areas. This means you have a very good chance of earning money because a great deal of research has gone into determining what consumers are after.

There are many places on your website that you can place Adsense advertisements including your homepage, blogs, emails, and anything else you wish to use. You don’t have to sell products or services to benefit from Adsense either. You may have an educational site or information site. Any type of website can be used for Adsense. Remember that the ads will be fitting and related to the type of website you operate.

The process of signing up for Adsense and start earning money is very simple. Just go to www.Adwords.com. You will need to fill out some basic information on an application. Within 48 hours you will get a response telling you if you were approved or not.

If you are not accepted you will need to contact them to get a full disclosure of why. It is important to have the application completely filled out as that is the number one reason why websites are rejected. Other reasons include personal websites that are not subjective enough and having a website under 15 pages.

Once your application has been accepted you will have to copy and page an html code into the pages you want ads to show up on. You can choose to display the ads vertically or horizontally on your website. You can even customize the colors to make them match your website better. Online help and customer service is available 24/7 if you have questions or other issues.

Remember making money with Adsense is very possible and simple. The more ads you place on your website and the more traffic you have, the more money you will make. Adsense is very simple to set up and you can choose to stop being a part of the process at any time. The ads will be relevant to your website yet not direct competitors. You don’t pay anything to become a member of Adsense, so what do you have to lose?

Affiliate Nightmares – Don’t get ripped off…

For the most part, affiliate programs are a nice, easy way to make money online. However, like many other online opportunities, you need to be on the lookout for scams.

While it’s not quite the ‘wild-west’ it used to be there are many scammers out there waiting to prey upon the unexpected – And unfortunately, there are also scammers who are using affiliate programs as fronts. Although it is hard to associate good news with internet scams, there is good news.

That good news is that there are ways to make sure that you join an affiliate program, make sales, and actually get paid for those sales.

As previously mentioned, a large number of scammers are starting to use affiliate programs as fronts for their scams. These scams can take on a number of different sizes, shapes, and styles. One of the most popular affiliate program scams involves affiliate programs that do not pay.

These programs are selling real, legitimate products. The only problem is that many of these affiliate programs do not pay. Essentially, you end up doing a bunch of work for nothing. Another common affiliate program scam involves selling a product that doesn’t even exist. Not only will you not get paid for your hard work, but you will also be participating in a scam that involves ripping off consumers, by taking their money without giving them what they paid for.

There are a number of different ways that you can prevent yourself from joining an affiliate program that doesn’t pay. One of them involves choosing a well-known affiliate program. If you need assistance choosing an affiliate program, you can seek it online. There are a large number of online websites that give accurate and updated information on a wide variety of affiliate programs.

There are also programs, which are regularly referred to as affiliate directories. These directories are actually in charge of running a company’s affiliate program. Many of these programs, which include LinkShare, come highly rated and recommend, as do the affiliate programs they have listed in their directories.

In conjunction with researching an affiliate program, you can also research the product that is being sold. A large number of customers write product reviews. Many of these product reviews, which can be both positive and negative, can be found online. You will also want to check out websites that are known as scam websites. Scam websites allow internet users, just like you, to post ways that they have been scammed and by whom. You can find information on poor quality products, individuals, companies, and even affiliate programs that are not considered legitimate. When researching an affiliate program or even a product, it is important to remember that nothing and no one is perfect. While it isn’t uncommon to find one or two negative reviews, you need to be cautious of numerous negative reviews.

Since it is relatively easy to avoid an affiliate program scam, you are advised to do so. If anything appears out of the ordinary or if you suspicions are raised, you are advised to use your common sense. In the long run, you will be glad with your decision to do so. Not only can avoiding an affiliate program scam ensure that you get paid, but it will also help you save your own reputation. The last thing you want to be associated with is an affiliate program that doesn’t deliver the products that they promise.

In fact, your name or your company’s name could literally be drudged through the mud. While you may think that this won’t have a long lasting impact, it might just, especially if you plan on selling your own products in the near future. Even if your products are quality products, many consumers might remember you as the person who scammed them before.

Although it is relatively easy to spot an affiliate program scam, there are a few that might “fall threw the cracks.” If you later determine that you are involved in an affiliate program scam, or even just a program that is selling poor quality products, you are advised to get out as soon as possible. Severing your ties will help to ensure you get paid, as well as build a good name for yourself.

Remember affiliate program scams do exist, but you don’t have to live in fear of them. Just use your common sense, when it comes to choosing an affiliate program. Common sense goes a lot further than many imagine