Discounted registrations and transfers for com/net/org/biz domains.

Coupon Code: HNY12

Thanks for your time,

Joel

This article will discuss seven key tips to using social bookmarking to increase web traffic to your site.

1. Provide High Quality Content

No one wants to share rehashed, boring content with their friends. If you work to keep your content relevant and original, your visitors are more likely to want to bookmark it, share it, and comment on it. Keep your site updated with a steady stream of original content, and you’ll quickly see your visitor count grow.      

2. Submit a Catchy Title

Choose an interesting title that shares what your article is about, both when you post it on your site and when you bookmark it on social networks. Use action verbs, catchy language, and a “hook” to get your visitors interested in reading what you have to say. Most readers scan titles quickly to decide whether or not they feel like reading the content – use your title to draw them in.

3. Write a Keyword Based (Not Stuffed) Description

Most social bookmarking sites have an area for you to submit a description of your content. This is an excellent area to add keywords, expand on your content, and draw the reader in. Use your keywords naturally, and avoid stuffing them in repeatedly to attract the search engines. You’re writing for human readers, not robots. Make sure your content reads smoothly, flows naturally, and doesn’t sound like an advertisement.

4. Fill Out Your Profile

If someone is taking the time to bookmark your content, they likely want to know a little bit about you. By filling out your profile on each social network, you allow your readers to see who you are, what kind of business you’re in, and what niches you work in. This helps you to establish yourself as an expert in your niche, and allows you readers a chance to interact with you personally.

5. Keep the “Social” in Social Network

Community is key in many social networks. Users rate content up or down, vote on content, and share content that they’ve enjoyed with other users. This makes community participation a key part of using a social network – your participation adds to your page views in the long run, and is well worth the effort. Participating in the community allows other members to see you as a real person, not just a face behind a screen.

6. Make Your Content Easy to Bookmark

Most people won’t take the time to go to a separate site, log in, and bookmark content. Unless they have a special toolbar installed, they’re likely to enjoy the content and click away without making the effort to bookmark it. Make it easy for your readers to bookmark content that they’ve enjoyed – add a widget to your blog or website that allows them to bookmark, add to Facebook, or re-tweet with one click. People are inherently lazy – make recommending your content as easy as possible.

Facebook likes to know that it is a person who is registering for an account with them,  you will need to sign up with your own name. Once you have set up and account, you can add your business profile. You should include your interests, your skills, your website or blog address, business phone if you have one, and your business email.      

There are many groups you can join online. Using the search option, look up groups that revolve around your business interests. For example if you are a blogging mom, you will want to look for groups who are mommy bloggers, work at home moms, money making bloggers, etc.

Once you have joined a few groups, you will want to introduce yourself on the wall. Follow in the same method as they others have by either just introducing yourself and saying what you like to blog about, or that you make money with a review blog. Do not push your business. You are here to network, not sell. Making money with Facebook comes from your networking results, not outright sales. Much like forums, Facebook is a site where many people come to meet each other for a lot of reasons.

Once you have said your hello, you can browse around the group and look for others who share the same interests as you do. Click to add them as a friend and wait until they accept. You can choose to leave them a message when requesting their friendship but leave it simple and just state you are looking to network with other like minded folks.

You will not want to clutter your own wall up with nonsense. Do not play games, or leave to personal information or chats with others. If you have friends or relatives on your Facebook, send personal messages for anything that you do not want public.

Once you have some friends and have joined some groups, you can also start your own group to invite them to. In this group you can send messages much like an email list that you have from your site. Give them information with regards to the subject of your group. If you have free resources, product launches, or anything else you think they would be interested in, you could tell them.

In time you will see that you are receiving more visitors to your site, sales or commissions will start to come in, and you may be able to get involved with joint ventures from other members in your group. Using the power of Facebook Marketing can build your business and take it to the next level before you know it. Social Media is a great way to have a little fun while reaching out and spreading the news about your website, service, or product. Be creative, be considerate, and be consistent in your marketing efforts and you will soon see some great results.

There are several web hosting services that offer to store information, images, video or other content for individuals, institutions or entities.  Web hosts provide store information, such as web pages on their server.  Internet service providers, aside from giving customers a way to connect to the internet, also offer to host web pages without any additional charge.

Hosting services offer different service packages to fit the need of the consumer.  The most basic type is the web page and file hosting.  This type of hosting package is usually free.  Customers can upload web pages or files via FTP or file transfer protocol, and the website will be posted “as is,” although advertisements may be posted on one part of the web page.  This hosting service package is offered by companies like HostGator and IX Webhosting.      

For more complex and technical websites, some companies offer database support and application development platforms such as PHP, Java and ASP.NET.  These programs allow customers to write scripts for their websites.

If one is planning to create an e-commerce website or a website that allows credit card or debit card transactions, then he would need to get a package which employs the SSL technology.  This is what makes a “secure” website.  SSL, or secure socket layer, is a type of program or platform that encrypts sensitive information such as social security or credit card numbers for security purposes.

Some web hosting companies may also provide customers direct access to the web server, through programs such as the cPanel. The customer can then access and manage the website’s e-mail accounts, domains management, sub-domains, and other
actions required to run a website.

Below are the types of web hosting services, in detail:

1) Free web hosting service

It may be offered free by ISPs, but most companies will host personal websites for a minimal fee.  This type usually supports advertisements, and offers limited support.

2) Shared web hosting service

Companies offer to store a website’s information and content in their server, along with other websites.  Some companies, such as freewebs.com can offer this service free of charge, but one would need to provide a link to the host’s website.  Some features can not be added to the website, too, like forums.

3) Dedicated web hosting service

With this particular hosting service, one has more freedom because the webmaster will have full control of the entire web server.  Some companies advertise web servers for rent or lease, and the webmaster is given administrator access.

4) Co-location web hosting service

This refers to the physical space offered by hosting companies for rent.  Because a server needs to be running all the time, it needs to be placed in an area that where it can be maintained by technicians.

5) Reseller web hosting

This type of web hosting service allows clients to sell server space.  A client can choose to rent a server, for example, and have other customers use the server space for their own websites.

6) File hosting service

This is a type of internet hosting service created to host static content, usually large files which are not web pages.  The files which can be stored in these servers can also be freeware or shareware, programs that are offered free to everyone.  Because downloading programs eats a lot of bandwidth and are costlier, most shareware authors sign up for file hosting service accounts.

Aside from these six primary internet hosting services, there is also specific web services such as image hosting, video hosting and blog hosting services.

Because of the popularity of blogs or web journals, image hosting and video hosting services have also become popular.  People who sign up for image hosting accounts only have personal web pages provided by their ISPs.  Since ISPs provide limited storage space, webmasters get image hosting services to store photos and direct link from the host’s server to their web page.  Although there are restrictions to the maximum file size and the bandwidth allowed per user, it is usually higher that what ISPs are offering.

Blog hosting services, on the other hand, are hosting services that offer to host web journals online.  “Bloggers” access weblog applications to update their website.

This means that you may only get one sale or recruit out of every ten people you talk to. Therefore, the best method of achieving success is to talk to anyone within ten feet of where you might be sitting or standing. This is a significant drawback for people who don’t feel comfortable with direct sales. The same or similar tactics are necessary even if you’re running your business over the phone or internet.      

One of the best ways to make money in a Multi-Level Marketing program is to buy the product yourself. This can be easy or challenging depending on the product. Some companies sell a variety of products for health, apparel, home use, etc, and many of these products are expensive. Therefore, you may actually be spending more money than you’re getting as a result of thee “sales”. Other companies make it much less difficult to buy the product. Some companies don’t provide physical objects. They provide services instead. These services usually require a monthly fee, so that may lessen the amount of money you shell out per month. Other costs of a multi-level marketing company include the costs of marketing equipment such as literature, web sites, web portals, and self help packages.

The number one thing to be aware of is the philosophy of a particular company. Each participant should take a good look at the product, what’s required to sell the product, prescribed methods of selling and recruiting, as well as the image the top executives present to the media and other people in the company. Some companies are very people oriented. These companies aren’t so bent on pressuring people to buy and sell. They also don’t prescribe specific methods of selling and running the business. Instead, they offer a wide range of tricks and techniques that you can choose from to make your business profitable.

Other companies are more “businesslike”. These are companies that stress specific and very unchanging models. These are companies that prescribe very exact methods of doing business and self conduct, and they’re very bent on  presenting a particular image that they perceive to “make it” in a cut-throat world. Therefore, it’s important for each individual to really pay attention to what they’re getting into and what’s expected of each participant.

Multi-level marketing is a type of internet marketing that’s made people lots of money. The trick to making it big in multi-level marketing is to use the ranking structure to your best advantage and to feel good about talking to loads of people about your product. Find a company that works well with your personal philosophy and a product that you really believe in.

First, what is the definition of a multi-level marketing company?

A multi-level marketing company is one that relies on average people to advertise and sell the company’s product. Although companies shell out money that has made many rich, it’s much cheaper for them to do so rather than to pay expensive retail staff and professional advertisement agencies. Each company’s product is different, but the overall ranking structure is similar no matter which company you choose. The phrase “multi-level” refers to the ranking systems and the benefits and responsibilities that come with each rank.      

The rank structure is similar for most all multi-level marketing companies. Each person in the company has Uplines, Downlines, and Crosslines. Uplines are those people above you. Your Direct Upline is the person who brought you into the company. Your Downlines are those you’ve recruited into the business. These include not only Direct Downlines, but those people whom they’ve recruited. Crosslines are people on your team or in other teams who are on your ranking level. Each team is defined as a branch from the source of the system, or the first persons who became part of the company. In essence, the structure is very similar to a family tree.

The function of the system is to ensure that everyone is properly trained and has a coach to help them along. The more help a downline gets, the better his/her business will be. The wealth of individual’s business will help the team and thus benefit the Uplines. Some companies reward everyone’s efforts with money. Uplines will get training bonuses if their Downlines make certain benchmarks in their business, and the benefit of each Downline’s personal coaching will help them meet those benchmarks. In this way, everyone benefits, and the company avoids the messy business associated with pyramid schemes.

Each individual can use this structure to make money. Each person you bring into the team increases your chances of earning income as the coaching you give them helps them along. Any sales they make will also help you to degree by giving you a check of some amount each time the Downline successfully sells the products or recruits a new team member. This money does not come out of the Downline’s check, which is significantly larger than the Upline’s. As each person progresses up the ranking system, they get a larger check for each sale or recruitment than they did at lower levels. To ensure the continuation of this process, companies hold competitions between teams so that Downlines make that business which benefits Uplines, and Uplines continue to train their charges. Movement up the ranks often occurs as a reward for this process.

I will post some more on this tomorrow!

If you’re thinking that what you’re doing is too hard or not going to happen, then you’ve already determined your outcome. Your thoughts will eventually lead to actions. Doubting your business venture will result in lack of effort and failure. On the other hand, having the right mindset will produce results that are worthwhile.      

Get Informed

There aren’t many ways to get ahead in your business ventures when you are not in the right mindset. Think of it this way: Your reality is determined by your thoughts. As soon as you make your mind up that you are going to come out on top, you will. An effective way to start achieving the right mindset is to read about others who have already accomplished what you are trying to do. There are always going to be bogus stories on the web, but the more you read, the more you will find that most of the testimonials you read are true.

Communicate With Others

Another way to achieve the correct thinking mode is to talk to other people online or locally. Ask them questions about how they got started, the steps they took, and how they dealt with obstacles. It’s always good to receive information from another individual because not only does it provide enlightenment, but hope. Surrounding yourself with successful people is an excellent way to stay in the right frame of mind. Keep those people in your life that are negative at arms’ length, or simply do not pay them any attention when they start drowning in their own self-pity. Spread the cheer by encouraging others to lighten up and see the bright side of life with your new mindset. All of that positive energy will come right back to you.

Stop Thinking About Money

Money is the ultimate motivator, but it’s also frustrating when you aren’t earning any. Do not allow your own reason for starting a new business to be all about the money. Doing something you hate will cause your motivation to die, and then you’ll end up feeling burnt out. You have to do something that you are passionate about and can see yourself doing for a long time. If you do something you love, the money will flow.

Set Daily Goals

Instead of setting weekly or monthly goals, take it one day at a time. A positive mindset can easily be brought to a place of discouragement when you place too many demands on yourself. Make a to-do list each night before you go to bed consisting of the things you are going to do for your business the next day and stick with it. Try scheduling five small tasks each day.

Know That it Will Happen

You’re not a psychic, but if you believe, it will happen. When was the last time your negative mindset brought you to a place of fulfillment? Probably never. Think about all of the times you succeeded in life. If you examine closely, each and every time you achieved big accomplishments, you’re going to find that you never gave up, stayed positive, and kept trying. Treat your business the same way and you’ll go far.

Before embarking on any one of these journeys, it’s important for you to ask specific questions. Remember that the more informed you are the better decisions you can make, so if you have any questions you need to ask them for sure. Here are a few to remember.

The first is how often will you be able to find work?      

In the case of sharing expertise, how often is the site visited, and what services do customers look for?

Do you have the ability to meet those needs?

Or, do you meet the caliber of the majority of experts on the site?

For surveys, the questions should be along the lines of how often will surveys come in, how much does each survey go for, and how many do you have to do before you get paid?

You should also look for fees and red tape. Sometimes, fees and red tape are hidden well, so comb the site thoroughly before signing up. If you can, talk to anyone else participating in the programs to get ideas of what’s expected and to answer any lingering questions.

The next thing you want to look for is how you’ll be paid.

Do they want your bank’s account number?

In this case, be careful!

Do they use a third party site such as PayPal?

These payment methods are much safer, but there is always the risk that your account may be compromised by hackers and spoof companies. Read the terms and conditions of the company you are about to work with as well as those set out by any third party payment agencies in order to understand dispute policies in the event that money is stolen or your identity is compromised. Finally, look for fees associated with third party payment agencies.  A good way to answer many of these questions is to do a search on the internet to see what other consumers and participants have had to say. Also, you can check the Better Business Bureau if the company or third party payment agency seems suspicious.

Most Important of all, use your better judgment. If you feel that something is wrong then the chances are that there is something wrong.

Sharing your expertise via the internet is a form of internet marketing that’s very user friendly. It allows individuals to set their own schedule as well as deciding the circumstances under how they’ll be paid and how much they’ll be paid. The important piece in making this work is to shop around and be aware of all of the benefits and risks to free-lance marketing through the internet.

Many of these opportunities take the form of websites that serve as a third party and a meeting place for people to buy and sell services. Some of these sites are specific to a particular type of service such as ghost writing or academic tutoring. These sites operate in certain niche areas, but they offer people an opportunity to advertise their specific services, products, or other specialized abilities.      

Let us consider the idea of a third party site devoted to psychics. There are different types of psychics: there are people who read Tarot cards, numerologists, automatic writers, people who read rune stones, and a variety of psychic healers that draw from a cornucopia of traditions. In the case of a site devoted to psychics, the site allows for each psychic to advertise their expertise in one or more specific areas, and potential customers have the ability to browse through the directory of participating psychics until they have found one they want.

Some sites match people in opposite. They have the directory of participating experts, but the customer specifically lists what they need or want, and experts (dating/marriage in this case) have the opportunity to place bids on that customer. This makes it easier for customers because it immediately weeds out any disqualified candidates. Once the match has been made, the customer receives and pays for the services or recommendations the expert provides. Some of these sites have associated membership fees and some do not.

Just as there are specific niche sites for experts to share their knowledge, some sites are much larger and offer customers a variety of niches to choose from. For example, these sites may have a niche for internet marketers to advertise their abilities, but they’ll also have room for academic tutors, ghost writers, computer and tech support, legal advisors, and much more. These sites work along the same lines as the more specialized sites. The only difference is that they offer a broader range of services to potential customers.

Other sites pay people to test products and services. These sites often take the form of survey clubs that send e-mails every time there’s a survey or availability to test a product of particular interest. Similar sites allow for service on focus groups or groups for study. In this case, there is usually an on the ground component which requires you to actually work with the product or service. The major risk here is that some sites do not pay until you have taken so many surveys, and surveys may or may not be plentiful.

Studies and focus groups may pay more, but there is always some risk involved with testing products such as medications, makeup, and health products, and these tests may take more time out of your day than you thought. They may also require you to travel to some place in order to be served and/or observe in person. Therefore, these are best used not so much as a business, but as a way to supplement income.

So, how do you actually post them?

EBay has an area for sellers to post their stuff. When you post your item for sale, you’ll want to have a high resolution picture of the item taken from a couple of different angles. Some items have stock pictures on file, so you may not need to bother. EBay will require you to offer a description, and they’ll give you a form that includes the basics like whether it’s new or used, in good condition or not, whether or not it comes with accessories, the make and model, and various other factors.      

Remember that these options will depend on the item you’re selling. You’ll also need to offer a description to fill in any spots left out of the general form. This is especially true for collectors’ items, clothing, and anything else that isn’t made in the thousands such as cell phone models. You’ll want your contact information to be visible to any buyer in case they have questions, and you’ll want to accept payments made through PayPal as it’ll allow you to take credit or debit payments or payments made through PayPal itself.  The best length of auction time is usually a week so that people have time to look it over and decide if they want to place bids.

How do you make sure you get the best bids on an item, particularly if others are selling the same or similar merchandise? There are three factors that get your items sold faster and for a good price. The first is price itself. You want to set the price at a reasonable level so your potential customers don’t feel cheated. The price needs to be lower than retail price, but high enough for you to make a profit. Consider adding a “buy it now” option which allows for someone to buy it right away if they’ve just got to have it. The “buy it now” price should be what you’d expect to pay for the item, and remember that, chances are, the bids will start below the “buy it now” price, and that’s okay. Anyone who doesn’t want to take the chance on a higher price than the “buy it now” will forget bidding altogether.

But if you’re lucky, the bids will be higher than the value you set. You can also set a starting bid. Just remember that people tend to bid at the last minute, so don’t be discouraged if the bids are low at the beginning. The next thing you want to watch is shipping costs. People don’t want to pay outrageous shipping costs even if the price of the item is cheap. Otherwise, they’ll look somewhere else. If you know you’re the only one with that item, go for it! They’ll pay the shipping and the original cost just to get it. Finally, it never hurts to watch your feedback. People with low feedback often make consumers cringe because they’re not sure how much they can trust you once they’ve paid you. The best sellers have feedback between 98% to 100%. If you plan on selling several related items, consider running an EBay store and becoming a power seller. Power sellers usually have excellent reputations and feedback.

The name of the game is profit. Whether you’re an EBay store owner or not, you’ll want to restock as much as possible. In terms of technology, this will be simple as it’s easy to get technology from manufacturers at whole sale. For collectors’ items, you’ll need to continue to shop around at different places around town and on the net. Just be sure that you’re buying a quality product as you plan to sell it to someone else at a higher price.

EBay is a wonderful collection of new and used goods. It’s a great monetary resource if you know the secrets. With all EBay has to offer, the best EBay marketing secret is to know EBay consumer habits. With this knowledge, you can make the process of marketing through EBay profitable for you. And, when you need a break from listing your items, consider checking out Weird Al’s “I bought it on EBay”. You never know. Besides entertainment value, it just might give you ideas.