Ebooks have long been the tool of choice for many online businesses to create products and promote their websites. They are a very cheap means to develop information products such as self-help books, courses, and reports. There are always free ebooks being given away as bonuses to anyone that subscribes to a mailing list or purchases a product. It appeared, for a time, that ebooks would always be the means to distribute information across the Internet. However, the times have changed and ebooks are losing their status as the dominant online tool.
Although ebooks are still used widely today, their popularity has steadily decreased. People have begun to get bored with all the free ebooks they receive and no longer consider them an incentive to sign up for another newsletter or mailing list.
The Rise of Audio Books
Technology has grown to the point where most people are no longer limited by a slow Internet connection. The days of the old dial up modem are over – replaced by broadband and high-speed connections. This opens up the door for a number of ways to distribute all kinds of information, not just ebooks.
The last few years have seen a rise in various multi-media instruments. Streaming video allows people to view entire seminars and presentations live as they occur. Flash technology can make learning interactive and fun. But one of the most overlooked and most effective informational tools is the audio book.
Like ebooks, audio books can be created fairly cheap – if you make the recording yourself the cost is next to nothing. And like ebooks, audio books can be bought and transmitted to customers over the Internet the exact same way.
The Benefits of Audio Books
There are various benefits to using audio books over ebooks. First, audio books appeal to a far broader range of people. There are people who would not read a 100-page book, but they would listen to it. People can upload the audio book onto their MP3 player or burn it onto a CD and listen to it as they exercise, drive to work, or ride a train or bus; they don’t have to be stationary to take in the information – a benefit extremely appealing to anyone who is always busy or on the move. Blind people can purchase audio books to enjoy literature they would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience. The list goes on and on.
Besides expanding your customer base, the next best reason to use an audio book over an ebook is the increased profit margin. Audio books have a much higher perceived value than ebooks and therefore can be sold at a higher price, even though they can potentially be created for the same cost. It has been shown that people will pay up to two to three times more for an audio book than an ebook of the same material, especially when it is provided on a CD or DVD.
Ebooks are becoming stale on the Internet and will soon be shadowed by the various multi-media products being created. After learning the benefits of using audio books you should not be surprised to see an increase in this type of multi-media information product over the coming years, which may perhaps develop into the tool of choice for online businesses. The question now becomes, “What method will you choose for your business?”
Are Ebooks Still an Effective Online Business Tool?
Top Search Engine Rankings for Your Home Based Online Business
We all should know that one of the best ways to get a massive amount of free traffic to our online business websites is by getting a high ranking with the major search engines.
That makes for a great deal of competition for the top positions, so you need to use every ethical angle you can find if you want to be successful. I have outlined three of the best methods that will greatly help you to achieve top search engine rankings.
1. Getting inbound links is essential to getting your home based online business website in the top rankings. Search engines view each link to your website as a vote. Google tells this very plainly at their website. The more votes you have, the more seriously the search engines will view your site.
Exchanging links with other websites is not as beneficial as it once was, but there is still some value to be received, especially for a new site. This needs to be handled with care. You want to exchange with good quality sites, and ones that are both related to yours and will provide value to your visitors.
Submitting your site to directories is also good. This can bring you one way links which have more value. Many directories are free and do not require a link back. These are the ones to choose in the beginning when your budget is small. Later, you can submit to some of the directories that charge a fee if you think it provides value.
Another way to gain inbound one way links is to write articles. Content is highly in demand, and if you write good informative articles you will find many article directories that will accept your articles. The resource box is your key here, so do some research on how to use a resource box, and visit some directories to get a feel for which type of articles are popular in your field.
2. Keyword selection is very important, and should have been one of the basic building blocks both in choosing what you are marketing online, and what keywords you are going to use in the marketing process. Your keywords should be the foundation of your page titles and they should be sprinkled throughout your website copy. You do want to keep some balance and not get too carried away. Too many keywords can get you penalized.
3. The content you provide on your website is very important. The job of the search engines is to provide the best match for what people are searching for online. When you build quality pages of content on your given subject you increase the possibility that the search engines will see the value and send you visitors.
It is also important to keep your website updated. If the information on your website is timely you need to take care to keep it up with the times and changes on the internet.
Add content from time to time to keep both visitors and search engines coming back. Build your home based online business with a good foundation, use these suggestions and you will begin to see the rewards. Do be patient though, it does take a little time and some concentrated good effort.
Is Writing Articles & Submitting Them To Directories Going To Help Your Online Business?
Well, the title of this article is a question that I have once asked, "Is writing articles and submitting them to directories going to help your Online business?" and I am sure many others are also asking. How in the world can writing articles going to help in our online business? Good question. It certainly helps, this is my honest answer.
I have since written a few articles and used a article submission company to submit it for me. You can also submit manually if you wish to, but it can be quite tedious and time consuming, plus you can only submit your article to one directory at one time.
I am glad I used a article submission company to do it for me, because when I submit one article, it is being distributed to hundreds of article directories in a short time. Not only did I save so much time, I have also learned many tips from this article submission company and gotten more exposure too. Let me tell you, when submitting your articles, you need to have some basic knowledge and tips to avoid having your article being rejected from article directories, especially those of very good standing and one of them is ezinearticles.
Due to the professionalism of some articles directories, like ezinearticles, they will reject your article if your articles do not meet their standard. I am using a article submission company called Article Marketer, and also due to their strict and professional handling of articles submission for their clients, they will proof read your articles by a computer first, and then follow by a human to vet through your articles again before they submit it for you.
If they feel that you need to change certain things on your article, they will not hesitate to hold your article, write and inform you of your mistakes again and again until it is finally good, and then they will submit it for you. I think this is professional and good, because your article is going to be sent to hundreds of directories and it will also be indexed by Google if it is good enough. Thousands of people will be reading your article too, so it better be readable.
Coming back to my answer, will it help you in your Online Business?, of course it does, because subscribers for my newsletters have since increased, and the number of visitors to my websites and blogs too. In my bio box where I write a little information about myself, and have put my website and blog address there, so that when people read my articles, they may just wish to visit my websites and blogs. But please be advised that you do not write an article which is too much sales pitch in it and also in your bio box too. Be natural, be yourself, speak the truth and speak with integrity and conviction in whatever you are writing about.
If you have not tried writing any articles yet, or even asked a ghost writer to write for you yet, I suggest that you do so soon.
When I first started my article writing, I did not know what and how to write, so I bought some articles from one article writer, from there I learned how to write articles.
Hope this article will motivate you to start writing articles and submitting them to directories if you have not started yet.
Advertising Your Online Business
If you are looking to market your online business and need some tips on how to go about it this information should help you discover three of the best ways to go about your online advertising. The first option is pay per click. There are sites you can choose from that offer pay per click advertising. This means whenever someone does a search for items using keywords that are found on your site, your sites link will be showed in the ad space next to the persons search results.
You do not pay to list your advertisement and there are no other hidden costs to this type of advertising. Pay Per Click can also be included on other web sites giving you the most exposure possible with very little out bound cost. Pay per click offers a great way to utilize your money, get more traffic to your site which can help increase sales.
One of the best things about Pay Per Click is that you only pay each time someone clicks on the advertisement that takes them to your site. Be wary of search engines that offer clickers money or incentives to click through their results as you may end up paying for clicks that result nothing for you. Pay per click can also be known as pay per ranking, pay per position or pay per placement and all of these sites offer the same type of service.
Creating a web banner is yet another way to advertise online. A banner is generally a color animated or still advertisement for your site. The banner is clickable and will take people directly to your site. This means that your banner should be on other sites that people frequent in order to see your banner and click on it. There are companies that offer free banners and online advertising but this is not always the best way to go.
You will have to look at the site and determine if this is going to be the right way for you to go. While the advertising may not cost you anything to create your banner and advertise on a site they often require you to allow other banners on your site to advertise for others. You will also likely get half the displays that you generate. So if your site advertises 1000 banners for someone else you will get 500 banner advertising on other sites. This is the average and some may offer more or less then this.
Your third option is to pay for advertising through an online advertising company. This generally offers you more control over how much banner advertising you receive but costs you money up front. The choice is up to you and no matter which way you go you will generate more sales if you advertise online.
The Step by Step Guide to Online Business
Just like in the offline market, something has to be sold for any income to be made. Whether you are selling gasoline or groceries, houses or cars, or even services like accounting and dog grooming, you must sell the item for a profit to be made.
So the first step to online business is deciding on a product or set of products to sell. You can choose one product, several products (a family of related products) or a large array of products (like a catalogue). Get online and search out some of your favorite topics. What would you LIKE to sell? There are so many objects for sale online, and so many people more than willing to buy just about anything online, that you might as well sell something you will enjoy selling.
Once you have determined what you are going to sell, you need a web site to sell it from. In some cases, you may initially choose to sell someone else’s product. In that case, you will be given a special affiliate link to their site, so theoretically you don’t need a web site at all. I prefer, however, to have my own site, so that I can route the customers my way first. That way I can offer them a newsletter and keep their name and email address on file. This allows me to market additional products to them if they don’t buy at the first site they go to.
If you are going to collect names and email addresses, then you will also need an auto responder service so you can keep in touch with the people who visited your web site. It has been said that the average purchaser buys after an average of 7 follow-up calls or letters. No sense in losing track of the person who will buy on the seventh email!
The next thing you need to do is send traffic to your site. Obviously, there are many ways to do that, some more effective than others. Some of the most effective are press releases, articles, classified ezine ads, and JV email partners. Give each of these methods a try and see what works better for you. Keep in mind, any form of advertising you do will need to be tweaked some before it will become profitable.
Once you have all of those things in place, you must track and test everything you do. You must know who bought what product and when they bought it. Which advertising sources are producing a profit and which are not? Make adjustments. You can only make your online business successful if you are willing to work at it and make the necessary adjustments.
One thing that is important to remember when you are starting out online is that everyone makes mistakes. There is no perfect way to make money online. If there were today, someone would sell the idea to a million people, and then that market would be saturated. You must just innovate and develop, and become good at promoting.
Online Business Brain Dump - Create a Mailing List
Without a doubt, the mailing list is the most VITAL and NECESSARY tool for your online business. It is so essential that entire e-books, courses and websites have been written on this subject.
Your mailing list will be your primary tool for success. There is a phrase that says: ?The money is in the list.? That is definitely true! It is imperative for you to have a mailing list to keep in touch with your website visitors and feature your new products to proven buyers.
There is a common point of failure for many in setting up a mailing list. You CANNOT put a small text link or graphic on your site that simply says "Sign up for our mailing list." That is not going to cut it. It won't even be close. You need to be a SUPER salesperson online!
You will need to find creative ways to entice customers to sign up for your list. Do whatever it takes! Once you have them on your list, they become a prospect and then hopefully, a new customer, for life! If you can develop repeat customers, this will be the lifeblood for your business. Offer them a freebie ? something of value ? to attract them to your mailing list.
Because it is so important, here are a few ideas:
- Offer your visitors a free email course, like the one you are reading now!
- Provide a contest or drawing into which every subscriber can be entered
- Make a special "Members Only" section for your subscribers
- Give discounts or other promotional offers
Promote your mailing list every place available ? your emails, website, newsletters, EVERYWHERE! You will need to find unique and clever ways to encourage visitors to sign up for your mailing list. If you are bold and creative, you?ll be able to develop new, never-seen-before ways to attract new subscribers. Spend some time surfing the net to see what others are doing. You will notice that other websites often dedicate an entire domain name just for their opt-in list. It?s that important!
So, are you ready to set up your mailing list? A highly recommended site that provides tons of resources is http://www.aweber.com/?286072. Not only are they very good at what they do, they are very affordable! They even have a 30-Day Trial for FREE!
If you do not have a mailing list, it is time to start one today!
If you do not create, build, protect, take care of and pamper your mailing list, you will not succeed online. It is the life blood of your business and website.
Get started: http://www.aweber.com/?286072
(Note: this article is part of a mini-course with twenty lessons. You can find that entire free mini-course here: http://brentriggsblog.com/minicourses.asp )
Online Business Brain Dump - Limit your Sources
There are lots of companies out there that claim to have 100,000 or even 1,000,000 products for you to sell. WARNING...be careful!
It is hard enough to focus on marketing and advertising when you offer 10 products, much less 10,000.
You have most likely heard of smaller companies who grow too large, too quickly. That can be a real problem for a small online business.
It is essential for you to stay focused! It is easier to become an "expert" in your market if you maintain a narrow product line and focus all of your efforts on it. GUARANTEED! You'll want to create a niche' market and capitalize on it.
It may seem easy to sell "everything under the sun," but the truth is that specializing in a specific, quality product is much more profitable than attempting to have a little bit of everything in your inventory. Trying to meet all customers' needs by selling to every shopper online is a recipe for insanity.
One proven option is to find a drop shipping source that you feel confident in - one that dedicates themselves to drop shipping specifically. A great resource for finding these drop ship suppliers is http://www.worldwidebrands.com. These drop shippers will send the products to your customers after you've made the sale, and you don't have to house the inventory.
You will find a lot of quality products to sell on their site and you can learn more about drop-shipping in general. There are many businesses that offer drop shipping services, but unfortunately, it is not their primary focus and it shows! Their drop shipping services seem to be an afterthought because their primary business is always going to be BULK wholesale.
After you begin dealing with these types of sources, you might find that the tools and support that you need as a distributor is not quite adequate to meet your needs.
Sometimes, these tools and support don't even exist at all! You might want access to inventory counts, online package tracking, or quality images and descriptions from digital downloadable catalogs and they may not be available.
Here is my great list for finding physical products:
Electronics, DVD's, Books
www.ingrambook.com www.techdata.com
Housewares and Hardware
www.housewares.org
www.nationalhardwareshow.com
Consumables and vitamins
www.expoeast.com www.expowest.com
Thomas Register
www.thomasnet.com
Drop Shipping Sources
www.dropshipsource.com
Digital Products
www.clickbank.com
www.cj.com
(Note: This article is part of a mini-course with twenty lessons. You can find that entire free mini-course here: http://brentriggsblog.com/minicourses.asp)