Posted by Daniel on January 4, 2009 under Online Business, Working At Home | 
Many people dream of having their own home-based online business. I have been working online from home for the past four years and I would hate to go back to a regular office job. But how do you know if an online business is right for you?
Here are several questions to help you determine if you are ready for an online business working from home.
1. Can You Drive Yourself?
Self-motivation. Discipline. Determination. Perseverance. You might have heard these words a dozen times, but how do you really measure up against them? When you work online from home, there is no place to punch in to prove that you arrived at work on time. There is no boss looking over your shoulder and nobody to set targets for you and push you towards them.
If you want to succeed with an online business I can promise you that you will need to work very hard for the first couple of years. So be honest, do you have the strength and the determination to make a real go of this, and to drive yourself to succeed with your online business?
2. Do You Have Any Online Business Experience?
If you do not have any online business experience, don’t despair. You can still start a business working from home, however if you have no experience you should start by doing it part-time. Start to build your online business in your spare time, in the evenings and on weekends. Online businesses are perfect for this. Do not give up your full-time job until you gain some first-hand online business experience and prove to yourself that you are actually able to earn some revenue through this business.
3. Do You Have Any Additional Savings?
This is a very important question if you are considering leaving your regular job to work online from home. It takes time to build up an online business and I recommend that you should have at least 6 months salary saved up in reserve.
I can promise you that a work from home lifestyle becomes less attractive very quickly when you’re hungry and cannot pay your bills.
4. Do You Prefer Getting Out Of Home?
Come on, be absolutely honest. After all, this is your future happiness you are considering. You see, as much they might dream of having a freelance lifestyle there are many people who simply would not be happy if they were stuck at home all day.
Does your wife or husband drive you up the wall when you spend too many hours together? Then how are you going to survive working from home all day?
I do not want to get into relationship issues and solutions here, but for the sake of your business, and probably your home relationships too, take a long hard look at the reality of your home life before you quit your full-time job and start spending most of every day at home.
How did you do on those questions? Did you pass with flying colors? Well, an online home-based business may be just right for you.
Posted by Daniel on December 17, 2008 under Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Article Marketing, Pay-Per-Click, Social Networking, Viral Marketing, Web Traffic |
There’s sometimes a lot of hype surrounding how you can get Google AdWords traffic more cheaply. And I know people who have spent a lot of money on a guide from a so-called marketing guru only to discover that the amazing traffic techniques were really not so incredible at all.
Leaving the hype aside, here are four ‘down-to-earth’ techniques that will enable you to obtain cheaper traffic from almost any of your Google AdWords campaign.
1. Combine an Increase in Keywords with a Lower Bid
One of the best ways to get more traffic from your Google AdWords campaigns is to add more keyword phrases in conjunction with lowering your pay-per-click bids. By doing this you can end up drive much more traffic through your campaign at a lower price per visitor.
Make sure that the new keyword phrases you add are still very relevant. I bet you can still find plenty more relevant keywords if you think carefully. Many advertisers initially set up a new campaign with a bunch of keywords to test it out, and then they forget to come back later and add more relevant keyword phrases. You can find many more relevant keywords using the free software, Good Keywords, or even Google’s own Keyword Tool. I like Good Keywords’ Phrase Builder as it enables you to build lists of hundreds of keyword phrases in seconds.
2. Use Phrase or Narrow Match
Try using phrase match or narrow match for your keyword phrases. The reason you should try this is that narrower keyword phrases do not always trigger the same minimum bids at AdWords and therefore you can get traffic cheaper.
Often when I’ve been unwilling to pay the minimum bid on broad match for a keyword phrase, I have been able to get it showing quickly by using phrase or narrow match.
The best thing about this technique is that your traffic is will be even more targeted because of the matching so it will most likely convert better, and all the time it costs you less than the broad match would have
To add a keyword phrase with phrase matching put quotes around it like this:
“keyword phrase”
To add a keyword phrase with narrow matching put brackets around it like this:
[keyword phrase]
3. Advertise in Other Countries
North America is an excellent geographical target area for many campaigns, but it also very much more competitive to get traffic when compared to other regions. Try targeting a few other countries that may be interested in your product or service. I can think of one particular campaign where I simply cannot get North American traffic for under $0.05 per click, yet I still get loads of traffic from parts of Europe for $0.01 per click.
4. Use a Keyword Research Tool
If you spend a considerable amount on pay-per-click advertising you should really be using a professional keyword research tool. A good keyword tool like Keyword Elite will enable you to quickly research good keyword phrases that have less competition.
And less competition means you will pay less for your traffic if you bid on those keywords.
There you go. Four ways that you can get more traffic from Google AdWords at a lower cost per click. Try it and watch your advertising campaigns become more profitable.
Posted by Daniel on November 14, 2008 under Ebook Business |
By Daniel Moro
If you are setting up an online business then sooner or later you will wonder whether you should be writing and selling your own ebook. Here are 8 reasons why you should do it.
1. Brand Awareness
When you write your own ebook and publish it online, not only is there the prestige of being able to call yourself a book author, there is also an increase in brand awareness.
Your audience will grow to recognize and trust your name, they will perceive you as more of an expert in your topic, and they will be more likely to purchase something from you in the future.
2. Good Prices
If you believe that electronic books always sell for less than their paper counterparts, think again! Ebooks are regularly selling for remarkably high prices.
If you don’t believe me, have a browse at the ebook marketplace at ClickBank. In this marketplace alone there are over 10,000 products for sale and many of them are ebooks priced between $20 and $50.
3. Low Production Cost
Ebooks take an investment of time during the development stage, but once they are finished they don’t cost anything to produce. There is no manufacturing process required.
You simply place the file on a web server so that your customers can download it.
4. Low Delivery Cost
Ebooks are almost free to store and deliver. Have you ever worked in retail? Then you may know what is involved in maintaining a storeroom, making deliveries to customers, handling returns, and keeping track of all the stock.
When you sell ebooks you need not worry about all of that. You don’t need any special storage space in your office. You only need a few megabytes on your hardrive. And you don’t have to worry about any product returns!
5. Instant Delivery
Ebook delivery is instant and, like production and storage, delivery of ebooks costs virtually nothing. Most customers download their ebook from the Internet immediately after completing their payment.
6. High Profit Margins
After reading the reasons given above, you should not be at all surprised to learn that ebooks have very high profit margins. Once the ebook is written the only real cost you will have is a small percentage for payment processing fees.
7. Never Run Out of Stock
You will never run out of stock. That is, unless you accidentally delete your final copy of the ebook… in which case you better talk very nicely indeed to one of the customers who already purchased your ebook.
8. Instant Gratification
Customers love to buy products that they can receive immediately and selling ebooks is a way of providing this instant gratification. They allow you to provide instant information, instant advice and instant solutions to your readers.
As you can see, ebooks are truly a wonderful tool for online businesses. Get started on your own ebook right away.
