Plans for the 3rd Quarter

My company has grown over the last year and yesterday I noticed that there were a few things I did for my first website that I have not done for my other websites. So my plans for this next quarter are to get more organized and to get some features added to my other two websites. One specific feature that my old site has that my other two sites do not have is Google Adsense.

I also have some Amazon stuff on my first website that has been earning me a few bucks. Gotta get some of those affiliate links on my other sites. I would also like to get some company envelope labels, stamps and a few other side items. While my husband would love for me to look for a real estate broker so that we can sell this old house and move on to bigger and better things, I think I'm not ready for that just yet. Well, those are my plans for the third quarter of this year, what are yours?

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SiteProNews on Quality Content

I am not going to try to reinvent the wheel since I know there are more qualified gurus out there on how to develop quality content, so while researching information on a Pennsylvania bed and breakfast for a road trip I have coming up, I dropped on over to SiteProNews, an excellent resource for those of you who wish to know how to maximize your readership and gain more sales. In fact, recently they sent an email regarding how to develop quality content. Here were their suggestions:

The best way to increase your rankings for a particular search term is to provide meaningful information or content based on that search term. Here a few guidelines I've found that help:

• Make sure you focus on the subject matter (don't try to satisfy too many terms with one web page).
• Get inside the searcher's head – figure out what they want and give it to them.
• Be specific and provide details – don't generalize and be descriptive.
• For a sales page use benefits and features to fully explain the problem and the solution.
• Update your information often – setup a schedule to update and add more content.

These guidelines are extremely useful and are good ways to measure your content for quality.

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Quality Content Means Quality Traffic

Why is it that the best search engine analysts out there continue to refer to the fact that Content is King when it comes to obtaining search engine traffic? The reason is that search engines change their algorithms all the time, but one thing is certain, content continues to drive how search engines view your site. This means that you can not ignore providing quality content to your visitors. The better the content, the more qualified traffic you will receive from search engines. Best of all, search engine traffic is free.

Don't skimp on the time you spend towards creating content for your website. It takes time and effort and a little bit of creativity, but it is all worthwhile. I know you have heard all of this before, but this would not be an internet money maker blog it I didn't mention it to you again and again. If you are selling products like intranet software or toy cars or what have you, where the supplier has provided you with the copy for the product, then you can be sure that they have also supplied the same copy to everyone else who sells their products. This is bad because you are a victim of duplicate content. You do not want this! In the long run, it will hurt your business. Create unique content based on the information your suppliers give you.

That's all I'm going to say on content for now. Going back to Intranet Software, Epazz.com is having a 30 day free trial of their intranet software. They provide integration to backend systems, total manage hosted solutions, website content management and much much more. If you are interested in testing their product contact them to get setup. they will work with you from start to finish.

Until next time...

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Solid Investment - Gold Coins

In an effort to establish multiple income streams, one may think of investing, but what should you invest in? In reading monex.com's latest web release, it was suggested that investing in gold is a solid investment that will reap returns over time. On that note, what is the gold price?

If you were to purchase American eagle gold coins, you can get them "in units of 10 one-ounce coins for personal delivery only" from Monex.com (.9167 fine gold). "Legal tender coin in the USA with a $50 face value." For further details, check out Monex.com, America's best dealer for precious metals.

Next, I will talk a little more about how to make money with a website.

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PayPerClick Marketing

Over the last few weeks, I have taken the opportunity to experiment with PayPerClick advertising. It has been an eye opener to say the least. I have heard of many people finding that they received thousands of unwanted paid for clicks overnight and was very careful to avoid that happening to me. In fact, one of the reasons I avoided PPC advertising in the past was because of this very thing. I just didn't have the money to spend on clicks that were not going to convert into sales.

There is a way to avoid unwanted clicks. I don't mean to imply that all clicks will convert to sales, because that has not happened to me at all. In fact, I haven't had any sales from clicks yet. However, I do notice that the people clicking are actually looking around the store, in other words, surfing through more than just the entry page that the click led them to. This means they are interested. That interest can eventually lead to sales.

I have had thousands of impressions and only $5 or so in clicks. This also means that I have to adjust my ads a little to appeal more accurately to customers I am seeking. To avoid many unwanted clicks, I started with only 100 or so keywords and keyword phrases. I also limited my ads to show to one region of the world only, the US, the region I am most interested in selling to. It may be different for you, but this option is available. You can even limit your ads displaying to internet surfers in your State if you wanted.

I am still experimenting and am in no way an expert yet, but I have a few more adjustments that I can make so that PPC advertising can be more effective for my business. One of the most immediate changes I think I should make is to stop lumping all my keyword phrases together in one ad. For example, if I want to advertise for true religion jeans, then I don't need to focus on just the word "jeans," or on the phrase "true religion." I don't need to get clicks for people looking for "pants" or "black jeans." I can narrow my ad to focus on "true religion jeans" and find keyword phrases that will work with that. If you sell more than one type of jean, then do separate ad campaigns for each type of jean.

I believe that will be my next experiment. Once I get this PPC advertising down pat, I am positive it will start working more effectively for me. So many companies, big and small perform PPC Advertising to enhance their bottom line. It must work. I just have to figure out how to make it work for my business.

I'd love to hear from you. Comment Below or Email Me Using the Sidebar Link. Thank You. :-)

Do You Backup Your Computer?

Do you backup your computer? If not, then you should. After just a month of having a new computer, I realized that I place a lot of faith on the computer not breaking down. What if it just stopped working? Where would all that work go, that information I have stored? Can you retrieve it from memory? Can you depend on that Dell Memory to all of a sudden work for you on a different computer? I think not. That's why you must back up your system.

How often should you back up? It depends on what you use your computer for, but if you have a home business and the use of your computer is of the utmost importance to your business, then you should back it up at least once a day, if not once a week. You will be very thankful when you find your computer not working one day.

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Save While You Can!

One day you will find yourself at the point where you have finally put your finances in order, you have completed your school loan consolidation, you have consolidated all of your credit cards and you are ready to save. What's the first thing you think you're going to do when you finally have some extra cash?

I'd bet that at least 90% of people immediately go out and spend that cash on something they don't really need. Do you think that describes you? It describes me to a "T". Well, I urge you to save. You will end up back in debt faster than you can blink otherwise. Just take some time to save.

While on the topic of saving, have you tried to consolidate your school loans or credit cards? How has it worked for you? I would love to hear from you about your saving techniques.

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How to Accept a Credit Card Payment Over the Phone.

Having an online business does not mean that you never meet your customers. In fact, you may find yourself talking to customers more than you expect. One of the reasons a customer will call is because they are uncomfortable ordering online. Many times, a customer will prefer to talk to a live person to find the comfort they need to finalize their order. You want your customers to be happy, so you must learn how to respond professionally and with confidence.

One way to exude confidence is by knowing your products. You will also need to know how to accept payments over the phone. What information do you need in order to process a credit card payment? I know this is basic, but it merits reviewing. I know because when I first started receiving credit card payments I ended up having to call the customer back because I forgot to ask for one thing or another. This reflects bad on you as a "customer service representative." That's what you are in a sense.

Anyway, so what do you need to ask for when accepting a cc payment? You need the following:

1. Billing Name (Exactly as stated on the credit card)
2. Billing Address (Where the person receives the bill, not where they want you to bill them.)
3. Shipping Name and Address
4. Type of Credit Card (Be sure your payment processor accepts their type of card or that you have been approved to accept the card they will be paying with. The most popular are American Express, Visa, Master Card and Discover - not necessarily in that order.)
5. Credit Card Number
6. Expiration Date of Credit Card
7. Last three Digits on the back of the card.
8. Email Address
9. Contact Phone Number
10. Before hanging up, repeat all information received to verify you have written it down correctly.

If you have all of this information, you will be successful in receiving a credit card payment over the phone. Now just put that information through your credit card processor and that's it. Once the payment has been processed, shred the information for security reasons. You don't want to be responsible for identity theft!

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Quiet Weekend!

It's been a relatively quite weekend as far as sales go. I had a bang of a week and expected things to continue, but only a few sales came in this weekend. I would love to figure out the trend so that I can know why some days are better than others. Apart from that a drawer broke on one of the bathroom vanities (I have two bathrooms). It's the same drawer that keeps breaking reminding me that I should just replace the whole vanity and stop trying to fix the drawer. LOL! Anyway, what's going on in your neck of the woods? I'd love to hear from you, so comment away.

I'd love to hear from you. Comment Below or Email Me Using the Sidebar Link. Thank You. :-)

You Can Do It!

I know that learning how to make money online has been a long journey for some of you. I can say that same thing. It can be hard sometimes, but just don't give up. If you've been working on a website for a while and are still down on traffic. Keep researching. Check your methods. Go to website building forums and ask for a site review. Find out what others think about your site before you give up on it. You may just need to tweak here and there and that will be the answer. I wish you success and know you can do it!

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More Success at QualityPedalCars.com

This article is about success in working with an online business. It will discuss how I came to be successful in one or two areas and also discuss some mistakes I have made. Those mistakes are learning experiences for me. I hope you learn from them without making them yourselves. For a beginner, this article is perfect. It gives specific examples of my thought processes to success. Take this information and use it. Apply it to your product, to your online strategies. Here we go...

In researching items that would work for spring and summer fun, I found Aviva Inflatable Pool Toys/Ride On Toys would work well with my children's toy site. It seemed to be the perfect solution for water fun and blended in nicely with my outdoor fun theme, so I decided to apply for their drop ship program back in February of this year.

After being approved, I entered their products onto my site and they have been doing very well. People love the water at this time of year and so do their kids so the new inflatable pool toys are a hit!

I'm trying not to add too many different product lines to the pot so that I don't draw away from my main focus, which is pedal cars and ride on toys. So far, the business relationships I have built have been wonderful and I believe I have been blessed. I have heard about drop shippers who did not deliver. Hopefully that will not happen to me.

Now, at one time I thought anything having to do with cars or auto accessories would fit into the site nicely, but at that time I didn't really have a good handle on what would work and what wouldn't. In fact, I didn't even really know that I had to focus on one market to get the most out of my advertising efforts. I thought I could sell to men, women, uncles, aunts, grandparents, etc. In reality, I was focusing my advertising on too many different types of people. Now I just try to focus on grandparents and parents who have an expendable income.

You see, now when I write articles or advertisements, I know who I'm speaking to. I know who I want to appeal to. When I finally made that decision, it was like a huge rock was lifted off of my shoulders. Before I was trying to appeal to too many different groups and the ad copy just didn't make sense too all of those people. It didn't speak to them directly. Now it speaks to exactly who I have in mind when I write.

Well that's it for today. I hope you gain some valuable lessons from reading my own experiences.

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Feedburner, RSS Feed and Your Website

I've been trying to figure out how to add a blog to my website. It seems that the website software I'm using lends itself to creating a forum, but not a blog. It's a bummer now since I'd like to put updates, articles and advertisements right on my website without having to doctor it up so that it looks like a blog without the "comments" option.

Anyway, what I've decided to do is to set up a webpage directly on my site just for my blog posts. After this, I signed up with Feedburner and then claimed my blog. Using the RSS feed provided to me by Feedburner, I uploaded the feed's HTML code onto that blog page that I created on my website. Now every time I update my blog on Blogger, the updates automatically show up on the blog page on my website. It's not the perfect solution, but it's definitely working for what I have in mind.

I'd love to hear from you. Comment Below or Email Me Using the Sidebar Link. Thank You. :-)

Can You Defend What You Sell?

When I first started selling online, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. In fact, I received a call within two weeks of buying an e-commerce package from a company who asked me to sell their product. It was a medical product that promised weight loss. At the time, I knew nothing about marketing online and wondered why this company would call me out of the blue just to have me sell their product.

Needless to say, I decided not to go there. In fact, they said I would simply have to pay a monthly fee to them so that I could sell their product. Sounds ridiculous, right? Now, I am not saying that all medicinal type products are not marketable, just that I couldn't do it. I didn't know anything about the product for one thing. They could have been telling me to sell ionamin and I would have thought it was Hoodia.

I would like to make a suggestion about selling online, similar to one I made earlier. You must be passionate about what you are selling, and along with that you must believe in it. This is the key to online success.

I'd love to hear from you. Comment Below or Email Me Using the Sidebar Link. Thank You. :-)

Don't Just Sell One Product!

I recently, in the last three or four months, put up a new website where I sell model ships. It's slowly getting off of the ground, but not nearly as quickly as I would like it to be. For this reason, I sat down and examined how I started making money on my first website and how I could mimic whatever I did with my new site. I remembered that I decided to branch out of my extremely niche product. By branching out, I mean that I started to look for products that would relate to what I sell. I don't mean selling unrelated products on the same site.

After making that change on my first site, it worked wonders for my sales and drew my target market to my website in the process. I wondered why I didn't do that with my second site, and now have started to mimic that same "branching out" process. How I did that was to go to other websites that sell model ships to find out what they were selling as a compliment to this product. It never dawned on me to sell other nautical products, but that's exactly what my competition is doing.

Therefore, since I drop ship to all of my customers, I had to find drop ship suppliers for all things nautical. I thought that one of the best places to look for suppliers is Worldwide Brands. I went there and did a whole week's worth of research in one day. I gathered as many suppliers as I could and contacted all of them with my interest in selling their product on my website. After filling out all of the proper paperwork, I was accepted and approved to sell for these suppliers.

Now I'm in the process of entering all of the new products and am very excited. I have all types of nautical products now and even sell chess sets and other types of games that you would see on a ship.

I find it interesting that in the process of finding suppliers, you will be presented with so many related product lines. So much so that you can pick and choose what you will sell. For example, I have a supplier who sells board games, table games, poker tables, chess games, all types of games. I only need the chess sets, so that is what I have placed on my website. You don't have to sell everything your supplier has to offer, only what you think will work well with your own product line. After all, it is your website, your online store, right!

I'd love to hear from you. Comment Below or Email Me Using the Sidebar Link. Thank You. :-)

How do You Choose What to Sell Online?

How do you choose what to sell online? Are you inventive enough that you've developed your own product? Do you have certain skills that you wish to promote online? Maybe you have heard of a great way to earn money with party sales and wish to boost your offline sales by marketing online as well.

Many of you have heard that making money online is possible, but don't know where to start. Like many of you, I was in that same boat. I never thought I would or even could open up an online store, let alone make it work like it should.

I would like to offer you one very important bit of advice since I am now an experienced online retailer. The advice is that whatever you choose to sell, you must be passionate about it, genuinely passionate. You must really enjoy everything about it. You must know a lot about your product and as your business grows, you must seek to learn even more about it.

Your buyers will expect and consider you to be an expert on your product. They will think you know all there is to know, the minute details of your product, all the things that the average Joe wouldn't know. This is why it is important to be passionate about what you sell. If you are not, then you will quickly tire and become bored with your website. That is a sure sign that your site will not last.

So, are you going to sell cruises or a luxury home? Are you going to sell children's toys? Then go for it! But whatever you sell, be genuinely passionate about it. It will reflect in how successful you become.

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Online University - A Place to Learn.

Remember the other day when I mentioned that getting a college degree online is possible? Well, this university merits mention again. The online university I was referring to was Capella University. This online university is producing top quality students with experienced faculty members who can profess knowledge in the same manner as any college class professor can.

Capella University is an accredited university with all classes fully online. They offer graduate degree programs and bachelors degree programs. They focus on subjects such as business, information technology, education, human services and more.

Haven't you been thinking of finishing your college education, but just don't have the time. Well, then now is the time. Learn online today! Capella Universities latest web release provides their contact information for those of you who are interested. "For more information, please visit capella.edu or call 1-888-CAPELLA (227-3552)."

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Use My Yahoo! Page to Promote Your Blog and Websites

Did you know that you can get your website quickly noticed by Yahoo very simply? I learned this by visiting a forum recently and will briefly tell you what I have done. First, you just start a blog. You can use a free blog platform like Blogger. Your blog should reflect what your website is about. In my case, I have a model ship website, so I started a blog about model ships. If you want to see what it looks like, click here - nautical gifts and model ships.

Anyway, after you create your blog, you go to Yahoo. Get a free Yahoo account, if you don't already have one. At the top of your Yahoo Account page, you will find a link that says, "My Yahoo!" Click on that and start building your Yahoo Page. This is where the blog comes in. Yahoo has a section where you can add your blog's feed. There is a link somewhere around the top of the page that says "Add Content." Click on that link. You will be directed to a page with a field in it for adding a URL. Right next to that field is a link that says "Add RSS by URL."

Click on that link too. This will direct you to a page with a feed where you can put your blog's RSS feed URL. Once you add this URL, you will notice your blog's content on your My Yahoo page. Now every time you add something new to your website, just post the new addition on your blog and wait for Yahoo to update your My Yahoo! page feed.

It's as simple as that. Now, every time Yahoo sees you have updated your blog, all the links on the new blog will be spidered. Hope that helps.

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MSN Pay Per Click Experience

I received an advertisement in the mail from Microsoft adCenter that I couldn't pass up. I've tried Google's Pay Per Click program and ended up paying more than I made, so I decided to stop the campaign I had started. This was back two or three months ago. The Pay Per Click campaign I started with Google was relatively easy for a first timer, but again, there were no results and about $20 or so spent. I must admit that I did narrow my ad range down quite a bit so that I wouldn't be charged for clicks by people who truly were not interested in my product.

Anyway, I digress and go back to my MSN adCenter experience. I just started a campaign using MSN and I have to say it was not as user friendly as Google Adwords. Again, I consider myself a beginner and feel that these types of programs should make it very easy for beginners to learn and use their products with the minimal amount of mistakes.

The process of filling in the blanks was not that difficult. I mean how difficult can that be. However, when I got to putting the link that I wish to have my ad go to, called the "destination url," I found through trial and error that it is possible to have your keywords all go to different destinations. At least that's what I think is going to happen if I did it right.

For example, my home page is www.qualitymodelships.com. However, I don't just sell model ships. I also sell world globes, chess sets, telescopes and other nautical gifts. So I designed my ad campaign to direct people who click on those particular keywords to their exact destination url pages on my site. In other words, if I don't want people to be directed only to my home page, I have to tell MSN which page I want them to go to.

That wasn't easy to figure out, but now that I know how to do it, I'm waiting to see if it will work.

Until next time.

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E-commerce - Search Engine Optimization

An e-commerce website in its beginning stages can get ahead more easily if you perform search engine optimization techniques. It is an amazing strategy that, if performed right, can bring you customers almost immediately after you publish your site for the first time. Of course, what you are selling also has a lot to do with that, but with the proper research you will find out if your product is even marketable to begin with.

According to a web release I read today, "Search engines are the fountain of youth as far successful businesses who want to continue to thrive online." Search engines provide consumers with access to the world wide web on a standard that is almost incomparable to anything else out there. Search engine optimization is all about feeding the search engines what they need in order to find you, organizing your site's content so that search engines can understand what your website is all about.

Again, referring to the web release I read today, "If your web site is a key part of your company’s marketing effort, search engine optimization is a must."

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Online Businesses Need Office Supplies Too

Online businesses need office supplies too. What kind of office supplies do you need? As in other offices, having paper and pens are absolute necessities. I also have post-it notes, binders, a whole puncher, stapler, staples, paper clips, white out strips, folders and more.

Having an online business doesn't mean everything will be online. You need to keep good, organized records and to do that, the computer and computer software can only help so much. You need hard copies of sales receipts, sales records, purchasing receipts, etc. I'm sure you can think of many more reasons to have office supplies.

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E-commerce - Do You Need Business Cards?

Having an online e-commerce website can make one myopic. When all you are focusing on is online, you can tend to lose track of what can be done offline to attract customers. This post is about offline advertising and specifically using business cards.

Offline advertising is just as important as promoting your business online. You can advertise your products in so many places for free. For example, using business cards to promote your website is a wonderful way to get curiosity about your website in the hands of the public. You can put your business cards in local restaurant bathrooms or movie theater bathrooms. You can post them at laundromats and bulletin boards at stores. Keep your eyes open for places to put your business cards. You'd be surprised at the response.

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How To Find a Mailing List for Your Marketing Ventures

Many of you have home businesses where your success is based on converting sales leads. There are even companies out there that strictly focus on how to supply you with leads. Telemarketers work like this as well. Have you ever wondered how they got your phone number or mailing address? One company that supplies mailing lists, telemarketing lists and sales leads is MartinWorldwide.com.

MartinWorldwide.com is a direct marketing industry leader. They focus on ways to find leads that will convert into sales. Not only do they look for ways to meet your demographic requirements, they also focus on psychographic selects. They work to help you build a successful business through lists. Do you need such a list?

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E-commerce - Where to Find Suppliers

When building an e-commerce website, if you don't produce and package your own products, you most likely want to find a supplier for the products you wish to sell. Some places where I have looked to find suppliers for my products are ThomasNet.com and WorldWideBrands.com.

ThomasNet.com is a free service that you can use to find suppliers for anything from skinceuticals to furniture to kitchen utensils. WorldWideBrands.com is perfect for those of you who want to find drop shippers. You have to pay a one-time membership fee, but it is very reasonable and the information provided is very valuable.

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Building an E-commerce Website

I have only experienced building an e-commerce website using Stores Online as a host and I've been doing this for over a year now. Building a website can be fun and exciting and, on the other hand, it can be tiresome. It takes a long time to build an e-commerce website if you want to do it right. First you have to consider what you are going to sell. Then you have to consider where you are going to get the products from and you have to find reliable suppliers. Finally, you have to enter the products and design your site.

It may take a month or two or three to finish building it depending on how much time you have, but when it's done, you will feel a sense of accomplishment. I'll talk a little more about where to find products in the next post.

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How to Learn Online.

The following blog post is based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Online learning is no longer a concept of the future. It is possible and the future has arrived. In fact, one popular university, Capella University, is fully online. It's amazing to note that this university was founded in 1993. This means that online learning has been possible for a long while now.

Do you wish you could complete your degree, but don't have the time to go to classes? Why not do so online. Capella University is an accredited university offering graduate degrees for programs in business, IT or information technology, psychology and more. They also have a variety of bacherlor's degree programs.

Are you committed to completing your degree program? Let Capella University help you.

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