Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

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Aug192010

Why 99% Of Bloggers Will Fail

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What makes a committed blogger?

Blogging is about being committed, about writing regularly, not about putting one post /article up and let your site site there for days, weeks and years. The best way to describe blogging is like having your own personal diary for whatever niche you are in. So just like a diary, it is there to be filled out, to be up to date with life, and for those who wish to have a public diary to share with the world about your feelings and desires, then blogging may be a great interest to you and so then you make it a duty, not just a hobby.

But how does one make money from being a blogger?

Well this is when you post discreetly and have affiliate links in your posts or even better recommendations of products that you get commissions from each time you post about it from affiliate sites. There are many full time bloggers, who make lots of money from blogging, I’m talking hundreds and thousands of dollars per year. When someone clicks a link from your site and goes to buy from another site, you get commission usually up to 75% if with high paying affiliate networks such as Clickbank. I have mentioned before that I make $2000 a month from blogging just 30 mins per day, not bad, if I was to do it full time I’m sure I would make a lot more.

How do you get a blog up and running?

You chase him and he starts running.. (That was just a joke) No seriously, you can easily get a blog up by following some simple steps as I have outlined here.

But why is it true that most bloggers will fail?

Well the truth is, most people who decide to get into blogging do it for the wrong reasons, usually to make some part time income, which of course is great, but you should never get into it purely for that reason, because a majority of the time, if you are posting just for the sake of self promotion then you will fail. First and foremost you must decide a niche and then stick to that niche.

You might have an interest in Classic wooden surfboards, so you post about your surfing experiences with your board everyday or week when you go surfing, some days you can post about some interesting experiences along the way, like perhaps a walk along the beach, and a sand castle you thought was great, so you take a photo of this and post it on your blog, then you might post a Billabong surfboard competition that is coming up or that you recently watched. And then you might post about some surf gear ($$) Or surfing books you have read ($$).blogging to the bank

The additional luxuries that come with being a blogger, is you can do it from anywhere in the world and even from home, as long as you have internet connection you can blog. But most of all as great as all that seems, newbies who think they will get into blogging, get up their blog, perhaps post regularly, then one day, stop, that’s it. Their blog is dead, they lost the community of visitors they once had, and lose motivation. Another thing is bloggers should never aim to high with earning online, start at a low reasonable figure and work your way up, this way you will not disappoint yourself.

Rome was not built in a day, it takes months and years of dedication just like anything in life and you need to grow your blogging business the same way. like I said earlier, treat it as a duty not a hobby and you will succeed. Just like you have to brush your teeth, and have a shower, you should make commitment to blog, then it will be easy to fit into your daily schedule, the most important thing is once you decide to start, never give up.

Once you get the hang of things you can then get more advanced and set up multiple automated blog sites for multiple income streams, but i suggest you learn the passionate and normal way of blogging first.

Good Luck!

Aug122010

Make Money Online As A Merchant With ShareASale

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Have you been looking around for an affiliate marketplace to promote your products?

ShareASale are one of the oldest affiliate networks around, and seem to be still holding strong. One thing about ShareASale is if you have your own product or website and want to be a Merchant it is very cost effective to set up compared to affiliate networks such as Commission Junction who charge Merchants around $6,000 for set up and to be listed in the marketplace.

With ShareASale it’s just $550 for the network access fee and $100 for the minimum deposit, then there is a $25 a monthly cost which seems to be pretty reasonable.

I myself have used ShareASale for quite a few years, and am always happy about their tracking reports and payments, they are very reliable on sending money.

The good thing about having a Merchant account is:

  1. Setup your account in a matter of hours. Determine your commission amount
  2. Upload creatives for affiliates to use. Banners, Text Data feeds, Videos and Widgets
  3. Affiliates generate traffic to your site. You pay only on generated leads and sales

What is unique about their Merchant system and different from any other is that you as a business can add your own promotional Videos to the system for affiliate marketers can promote, they are exclusive to ShareASale. So after someone clicks your video this

Here is a static example of the video (pretty smart hey!):

On the other hand if you are an Affiliate and would like to earn commissions then ShareASale is a good start paying around 20% on most affiliate programs.

If you have had some experience using ShareASale and would like to give some feedback to the readers, feel free to leave your comment below.

Aug42010

HotelORes.com – Launching Off Day

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My Hotel Reservations Website

I have recently launched my own hotel reservations website HotelOres.com. It is officially up and running now, anytime soon I will be adding hotels to the database which is going to be an ongoing duty when I get time apart from my other work which I currently do for momentohs®.

I have always had a dream to have my own hotel reservations website and found that putting this together during my dedicated online years will get this thing moving much faster. Obviously my key strengths with SEO will get our site the type of audience and website traffic we need. I will be lookign forward to any future partners or investors on this project, so do not be shy in getting in contact with me.

I always found that although there are loads of hotel reservations websites out there, but very few good ones.  But we will achieve our own personal targets for the time frame we set.

Our hotel reservations system allows hotel guests the ability to quickly find the hotel they would like to stay at for their desired location and book online immediately, the hotel owner will then have their details on booking confirmation ready for check in.

The site also features reviews and star ratings for each hotel along with photo gallery and prices for weekdays and weekends.

I may have my own little launch party for hotel owners and managers in the next coming months, so stick around for the updates.

Jul242010

It’s A Tough Life Travelling Again

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I am soon to be launching my own hotel booking engine, and have been travelling around an awful lot particularly in Holiday destinations such as Bangkok and Hua Hin.

I have been speaking with 3 1/2 star – 5 star hotels about integrating our engine for them and so far the response has been overwhelming. I will be sure to give some more detail on the booking engine in the near future. Right now it is still quietly being worked on and not officially ready for launch.

I enjoy the lifestyle that goes with the Hotel industry, this is one of the reasons why I chose to work on this new company project of mine and release this booking engine to the market. Anyway again I hope to release some information about this in the next coming weeks.

So Stay Tuned!

Here is a photo of myself enjoying myself in one of many hotels I have visited in Hua Hin recently:

Jul82010

What Makes A Great Marketer

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I’m not talking about someone who claims they can find any idea and make it sell, I am talking about someone that is not only a talker but an action taker, cause that’s what successful marketers are. Someone that moves with the times. Marketing is about constant change and you keep up with being innovative to suit the audience. With sales it’s different your told to just sell something, in Marketing you are the one that invents the wheel!

Going out and networking with the right people and making it happen is what it’s all about both offline and online. You can be very successful and sales comes easy when you know how to market quality products and services and to the right audience. The key about marketing is you get to know your audience and their likes and dislikes by asking questions.

Questions can also be made by not necessarily by asking directly but finding out through other means, a bit like finding out where on a web page someone likes to click, you do the same with Marketing and you analyze it, and work out percentages and ratios constantly. Marketing is not for everyone, you either have it or you don’t and alot will tend to give up when they do not achieve their goals.

Always start off with a low goal, even if your goal is to achieve making money, be sure to set your goal on say making $1 a day. You will be far more pleased achieving this target and then work your way up from there, then to not achieve your target because it was too high and give up.

Making mistakes is also a great way to learn quickly, never be afraid to make a mistake. This will make you stronger and more determined. It is the stronger and more determined characters that makes a successful person.

Someone that has left university for example with all the know-how under their belt, can walk out in to the world and find that getting rejected can pull them down from getting back up and be easily lead to having low self esteem and not continuing their career path. So education is one thing but you really need the will power.

People who are go-getters understand this. I myself worked as a door to door sales man, years back and was very dedicated and wouldn’t take no for an answer, I would walk the streets of Victoria selling Satellite TV (Foxtel) to home owners in the freezing cold at night. I soon became Top salesman of Victoria in the year of 2003 out of about 100 people.

But what I learnt is the only way to sell to people who answer the door was to sell in a creative way, to change the mindset. I would find out what worked well for me and stick to it, then tweak it, then re-invent again.

Someone that can see a small idea and make it big, and not just thinking of an idea once, always thinking of ideas, someone that has creative vision and entrepreneurship skills and business mind will be a great marketer, good luck!

Jul22010

Top 10 Web Directories

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I put together a list of what I find to be the best web directories available today. This list includes a mixture of both, local, business and general web directories, both paid and free.

In most cases you pay for what you get, and Business.com and Yahoo are the most expensive but the most quality backlinks you will get. Sites like DMOZ and Jade are free and are extremely good if you can get in but takes a long time to get approved, where others are almost instant!

For those who have an online advertising budget, I highly recommend getting listed in at least a few of these paid directories along with your SEO campaigns.

Here is the list:

1. Best Of The Web – This is by far one of the greatest web directories out there. Make sure your site is not under construction and you submit to the proper category or you might get rejected. Sign up and get a $20 credit.

2. Business.com -  One of the best business directories out there and highly ranked by Google. The cost os $299 per year, but if you click the following link you will receive $50 off on checkout!

3. Local.com – A quality local business directory. Just $69.95 to be listed or $49.95 if you click the following link to get a $20 discount.

4. Yahoo Advertising – Both Yahoo Search and Yahoo Directory have Sponsored Search which lists your business on top sites like Yahoo!, AltaVista and CNN. Sign up and get a $25 credit.

5. DMOZ -  PR 8 Free directory, This directory is the largest ever created, but its nearly impossible to get your link approved unless you are an editor!

6. Jayde.com – This one allows free submits. Just make sure to use an email address/account that you don’t mind getting some junk mail sent to.

7. V7N -  PR 5 Directory which has quite high Alexa ranking. A one time fee of $49.95.

8. Web Directory – PR7 site which costs $108 per year to be included. This web directory is human edited and is of quality and has been around for a very long time.

9. Aviva Directory – This is another directory that you’ll want to make sure your site is not under construction when you submit. High Google Page Rank.

10. Digital Point – DP recently put together their own web directory. It is $125 per year to be included to the directory. The site is very high in Alexa. Another quality web directory.