Building A Home Business Versus Making Money Online

Every day I see folks advertising make money online however rarely discuss the concept of building a home business. This gives a false perception on how to make money as most ads appear to say sign up and begin making money right now.

In order to be successful online one needs to get rid of the colossal make money information they read every day and start thinking about how to build a home business.

Years ago I set a goal to build a million dollar a year business. To accomplish this I needed a plan. By working more than most, up to seventeen hours a day, I built a communications business billing out over 1.2 million dollars a year.  I only bring this up for two reasons.

  • First I had a plan for building a home business which in turn would make me money.
  • I did not have a large office with a lot of employees, just me, myself and I.

It appears to be human nature to jump at an ad online stating make money when in reality if you are strictly thinking on those lines you will never be successful.

Here are a couple guidelines to assist you in building a successful home business.

First sit down and figure out exactly it is that you want to get involved with. I recommend it is something you are familiar with already and something you enjoy such as a hobby.

If you are already familiar with something already, this helps to answer questions others will have making you the go to person as the expert in your field.

Being you already are knowledgeable and enjoy the topic, most likely you will not become board with your new business. Many home businesses fail due to not understanding exactly what they are selling as well as not being interested in what they are selling.

If you do not have a product or service find something that you can actually assist others. I am not referring to an MLM type of scheme where if you sign up I make money and they told two friends and so on but rather something to save ordinary people money each year!

One reason I enjoy telecommunications is the fact that I help people save money on their monthly phone bills each and every month. I do not call them; rather they find my websites online and sign up. I do not try to push one vendor over another, but rather try to locate them best rates for their area. Over the years this has helped in building my home business to where many people tell their friends, if you want to save money on your telephone bill you need to call this guy…

Once you have gotten this far, do not hesitate. Here is another area where many people fail by not taking the next step and actually implementing their ideas whether it is afraid of failure or another reason.  The only way to building a home business is to get both of your feet wet!

The money never comes first. The whole idea revolves around building a home business and the money will follow if you set your goals and stick to them.

For more information on how to be successful online and building home businesses sign up for the Make Money Online free newsletter from Bruce Galle, a successful online entrepreneur since 1996.

Effective Online Article Marketing

Today I am going to discuss article marketing and article directories and their effectiveness when marketing online. I know some of you have heard of this marketing technique, however I found something useful so read on…

There are many ways to market online; one of the most popular perhaps is Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. Anyone that has tried this knows it gets very expensive.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was going back to the “Old School” techniques on this website as well as to market my own sites online. Why, because this has proven to be the most effective way to market your online website.

The area I wanted to concentrate on today is article marketing and how this can be an effective tool for you.

Article marketing online has tremendous advantages first being most article directories are free to submit to saving you money compared to PPC advertising!  They also generate one way links back to your website from numerous high traffic websites. Now the reason I mention this is the fact that some search engines do not give credit for one way links unless it is a relevant website. Being article directories cover just about every category or subject, these become relevant links.

Another benefit to being listed on article directories is the fact that search engines love these types of sites. Rather than simply spider the website once a day, they constantly return throughout the day looking for FRESH content. I know this as I recently started one and already have seen spiders crawling my new website, Press Hound article submission directory three to five times a day. This just proves how much search engines such as Google rely on article directories for fresh content to list upon their own websites.

Now here is an important key factor when submitting articles to directories. Do not simple resubmit each article as is to every database you can find. Each article needs to be unique if to qualify for the search engines otherwise your lead article will be added while the others will be disregarded as duplicates.

I realize trying to “spin” each article for separate directories can be time consuming; hence I went out and tried some free as well as paid versions of article spinners and article directory submission software products.

So what is an article spinner?

This is a neat tool usually with a built in Thesaurus enabling you to highlight words and replace them randomly with one or more synonyms so as to make each article appear different than the others you are submitting.

I finally came across one I liked that was an Automatic Article Submitter which had the built in spinner but went a step further. Not only can you spin words but entire sentences can be rewritten numerous times having them rotated randomly with each article submission. To further compliment this, the software offers automatic submission. In other words, you do not have to click on each article directory and submit one by one. Ever hear the expression, set it and forget it!

The initial setup took a little time, but isn’t that true for anything worthwhile these days! The program came with easy to follow directions as well as included a number of helpful videos.

Over all I am impressed with the Automatic Article Submitter especially when compared to all the other ones I tried. If you are serious about making money online, this is a tool you need in your marketing arsenal.

Good Luck in Your Online Adventures,

Bruce Galle

Low Cost Web Hosting Review

Low cost web hosting offers the consumer the option of paying less for web hosting a business website however this can come with a higher price tag in the long run. You want to know ahead of time exactly what you are paying; no strings attached something many web hosting providers hide from you in forms of fine print, hidden in terms of service…

I currently have three web hosting servers which host an array of different websites I personally own. At first, a low cost web hosting provider looks very attractive; after all you can save money each month by going this route. The problem arises with a few issues ending up costing you, the consumer more than what you could be paying through a low cost reputable web hosting company! I have found this out over my fifteen years doing business online!

First, more and more low cost web hosting providers are offering unlimited disk space and or bandwidth. In order for this to be true, the servers would need to be magical ones.

As servers, just like your PC or laptop have a hard drive for disk space. Once you fill the space, you have no more room to add anything else to your computer. Hence the concept of unlimited disk space is simply a lure to get consumers to sign up with them. Somewhere in the term of service or other place on the website there is a limit to what the term unlimited refers too.

Unlimited bandwidth is another ploy to take consumer money. There is no such thing! Every webhosting company in their terms of service or other page will again state what is meant by unlimited bandwidth.  After all, the hosting company purchases huge packets of bandwidth from third party suppliers each month. Since they are paying for it, they are not going to give it away free or they would not be in business after a couple months. In fact if you end up using more bandwidth than the amount actually issued to your account, one of two things will happen. One your web hosting server will be shut down until the next month, or more than likely you will be contacted with the amount you need to pay extra monthly in order to bring your website back online.

Another lure used by some low cost web hosting providers is to offer a free domain name with your hosting account. Beware of these as many actually list themselves as the registrant for your domain name. After you spend time branding your domain and decide you want to go with another web hosting provider you are informed you do not own the domain name. I have known this to happen to several people in the past. Usually you can purchase your domain from the low cost hosting provider for a hefty fee from several hundred to several thousand dollars.

Many of your low cost web hosting providers also offer third party software, many of which are offered free online, through open source. The hosting providers just offer a simple point and click to install, however do not backup the software nor support it. This was an issue I ran across recently ending up costing 3 days of downtime and sales!

There are reputable low cost web hosts out there; however they are few and far between. What you want to look for is a low cost web host service which is upfront about what you are paying for. You want to be able to see exactly what the bandwidth is you are permitted per month along with the disk space offered. You also want to register your own domain, insuring that the domain is registered to you, the registrant! Lastly you want a web host provider that offers their own software which they personally support such as shopping carts for your online store.

One such company offering all these at a low cost is Order Your Domain. The pricing is broken down with the specifics you need to know. You do not need all the bells and whistles, but rather order À la carte obtaining only the software you need, i.e. web hosting, shopping cart, blog…

Order Your Domain also offers software developed and supported by the company and its associates. This is a major difference and something you will wish you had looked into in the event you ever have an issue with another low cost hosting provider later on down the road.

Old School versus New School

I have been online making money since back in 1996 and am amazed when I think back to my first site. Back then we only had a telephone line attached to a 56K modem. There was no such thing as DSL or Cable access. Boy I feel old. Did I mention when I was young we walked five miles each way to school in three feet of snow… Had to throw that one in ;-)

To get back on track an animated .GIF was one of the coolest things you could add to your website.

When it came to marketing there were a few items on the list you needed to do in order to be successful. Even back then there was competition as not everyone was online. In fact many households did not even have a single computer.

Today, things are much different with most people having fast internet connections, a laptop or PC in every room of the house and even accessing via their cell phone. Now you have Social networks used to assist in marketing, a ton of available software, some of which advertises you can sit pack while the software does all the work for you…

While we have had major advancements online and will continue to see more advances on the Internet, there are a few things that have not changed and probably never will. Remember in ten years from now, you heard it here first!

Newer tools such as Facebook and Twitter definitely have made advances in the way we can reach additional people in a targeted audience. However one of the best has always been fresh content or original articles on your website as well as being listed in article directories such as IdeaMarketers.

With this in mind, the Blog was born. Rather than having to know programming to build an article directory on your own website, Blog programs made it simple for anyone to write articles. Then along came pluggins which helped with search engine optimization and other automated tasks.

Another tool which has blossomed in ease of use as well as availability is the autoresponder. If you were and are today serious about making money online, you NEED this tool.

The fresh content is what helps get you found in search engines, while the autoresponder enables your visitors to sign up so as you can continuously market to them. After all, most people will not bookmark your website; however with your newsletter you can redirect them back to your site!

A rule of sales is a simple one, however many ignore it. For a potential buyer to make a purchase, you need to get it in front of them seven times. The autoresponder has always outperformed any marketing tool when it comes to accomplishing this task.

Do not get discouraged because a person has 100,000 on their mailing newsletter list as we all began at the same point with “ZERO” subscribers.

One of the best and original autoresponder companies is Aweber. They have been around for over ten years and keep coming up with new tools to assist you in your marketing efforts.

So when it comes down to old school versus new school, basically the best marketing weapons in your arsenal are still old school or advancements hindering on old school technology. Fresh content and a newsletter are still king of the hill!

 

Automated Email Marketing With Autoresponders

In the past I have stated if you are serious about making money online then you need to automate your marketing with an autoresponder. This is still one of the best tools an online marketer can add to their arsenal of tools.

An autoresponder is a simple tool that enables you to complete numerous tasks such as sending out prewritten newsletters at intervals you set. For example, once a person signs up for your newsletter, you can have prewritten newsletter number two sent automatically to the new member 4 days after they have signed up. Then follow-up with newsletter number three a week after that with no intervention on your part.

I decided to write this article after trying one of latest improvements by the third party autoresponder service I use. Now I have never claimed to be a graphics person nor a web designer, however with the latest improvement, my submission forms now look professional :-) You know the form which asks you to input your name and email to sign up. I was truly amazed that within literally a minute or two, my submission forms look as if well, to put it bluntly, as if I hired someone to make it for me!

Getting back on point, there are many ways to use an autoresponder. Not only can you have the automated newsletters or articles sent out, but you can broadcast to your entire newsletter subscriber list when you write a new article.

Another way to use your autoresponder is to keep your subscribers updated on new specials you may be offering, hence driving them to your online store and generating additional backend sales.

A highly successful way to grab your share of new subscribers is to offer something of value for free upon signing up. This again can be totally automated. Just for example, when someone signs up for my Weekly Domain List, they in turn are sent a free, easy to install, domain parking script as an attachment in the thank you email. Again, once setup, I do nothing further, the system is completely automated.

Years ago I thought I could save a bit of money by purchasing a third party autoresponder script, which in actuality ended up costing me money in lost sales.

I eventually ended up using a third party vendor for my autoresponder needs, AWeber, which I am happy to report, I remain a loyal customer for years now!

I have tried and tested numerous autoresponders only to keep using the one I originally started with. I found the delivery percentages higher with AWeber than with the competitors. Basically, I received less responses bouncing back as undeliverable. The ease of use and the availability to create an unlimited number of email newsletters for one low price…

If you are serious about making money online, give it a free test drive by submitting the form below and see for yourself ;)

Starting An Online Business

Today, starting an online business can be confusing to many, perhaps even you. With so much hype on how to jump-start your business, most of which, in reality, is either just repeated info from someone else or proven to be ineffective. With the correct instruction, it is easy to accomplish and extremely cheap compared to a brick and mortar store.

While I have enjoyed great success with my online ventures, I have decided to help others learn by my experiences, hence saving you money and time.

Four Main Areas To Concentrate On:

Domain Name – If you do not already have a domain name, you will need to register one. Many places charge up to $35.00/year for a .com domain name. Some will charge less if you also use their web hosting solutions or if you register your domain for multiple years. At Order Your Domain, a reputable domain registration service assisting others with their domains for 10 years, you can register a .com domain for just $7.67/year with a slew of extras thrown in for free that other domain registrars charge for.

When selecting a domain name try to keep it short and relevant to the products you want to offer. A good example is OrderYourDomain.com, which includes keywords as well as states exactly what the site pertains to.

A good trick is to find a few good domain names that are common search phrases and point the extra domains to the corresponding page on your existing website. For example, FishingEmail.com, a decent search phrase (Fishing Email) points to GoneFishing.net/email, which offers a free email account such as YourName@GoneFishing.net.

Web Hosting – you will need this to build your site, create your email accounts… Again, Order Your Domain offers the best of both worlds. Point and Click, WebSite Tonight – For those who do not know HTML, do not wish to learn, or just anxious to get started. WebSite Tonight offers over 1,500 professional templates along with more than 8,000 images, or use your own. FTP Accounts – for the more advanced where you create your own website and upload to the server via a FTP client.

When choosing a web host, keep in mind most new online businesses do not require a large server unless you have a large number of products, huge databases . . . Most web hosting companies will permit you to start with a smaller hosting package and upgrade as your needs expand by simply paying the difference in the monthly fee.

Product and/or Service — Usually the best products or services are ones that are your own. You should be very knowledgeable in the field you are going to offer; hence you could write an eBook and offer as downloadable once payment is received. This automation can save time and money as printing costs money and running to the post office everyday will take time. Your time can then be put too much better use, marketing your website to increase sales!

If you do not have a product to sell or wish to simply add more products to compliment your own, try LinkConnector Network , a free to join affiliate network of thousands of products and services. There are a few things that make them stand out from other networks . . . the commissions are usually higher and you get your own personal account representative for assistance if needed.

For payment processing do not spend thousands of dollars on a merchant account. If needed, you can always add at a later date, but for now use a free service such as PayPal. The only fees you pay are per transaction; you pay nothing except a small percentage when someone pays you!

Marketing – How will you market and promote your products and/or services? There are many ways to accomplish this. The correct way is to use a number of different marketing techniques, finding which work best for you. Some of the best are writing and publishing your own articles and then submitting to article archives such as Idea Marketers, allowing others to use with a four- or five-line signature with links back to your site (see the end of this article).

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search engines such as Yahoo or Google.

Assisting others needing help on targeted discussion forums.

One free way to begin driving targeted traffic to your website is with TrafficSwarm. Once you setup an account you can target your audience by choosing which categories your ad will display under. This is a good way to get some traffic to your new online business while keeping your overhead at a minimum.

Collecting emails for your own newsletter is a must for any serious internet entrepreneur. Use of Smart Autoreponders will send numerous prewritten emails out over a period of time, which you determine, to those who sign up. Use a remotely hosted script such as Aweber as this is your best bet and one I have used for years. Not only can you send one batch of preset emails to potential customers, but set up a separate batch of emails for existing customers for backend sales, hence increasing your profits for pennies on the dollar!


Lastly you can make your website stand out from your competitors by adding credibility to your website. How many times have you visited a website and clicked on the “contact us” link only to find a telephone number such as 954-201-1256 rather than an 800 toll free number? A toll free number adds not just credibility but sales as well. In fact I have three different toll free numbers for my online businesses.

The idea is not to just obtain a simple toll free number but rather a virtual PBX system which has over 30 features, all included in the service price.

One that I personally use is currently offering a FREE 14 Day No Obligation Test Drive at present.

There you have it, the right tools for getting started online.

Good Luck in Your Online Adventures!

Make Money Opportunities Come And Go

First of all, welcome to the all new make money website. I decided to redo this site as it was not taking the direction I intended, which brings me to the title of this article.

I have made money online going on fourteen years now and have seen thousands of make money opportunities appear and almost as quickly, disappear. There are numerous reasons, some figured they could make a million dollars overnight and did not succeed in the first 24 hours :-) Others just never figured out how to effectively market their product or service. The last group falls into the scammer’s category. The latter has blossomed into a huge market over the past decade or so.

When I first began making money online back in 1996, things were much different. I remember my first website, which for the era and the tools available was pretty neat, or so I thought!

Back in the day, online marketers had much more respect as well as morals offering viable products or services compared to what the majority offer today.

Just for example, if I or anyone else I knew in the nineties were to promote an eBook, we purchased it ourselves prior. If it met our criteria, we would offer the product through their affiliate program.

Years later, sites such as ClickBank have come along, where just about anyone can write a downloadable eBook and offer it for sale using ClickBank’s huge network of affiliates. The affiliates for the most part find downloadable products related or even unrelated to their topic of interest and begin promoting, without even buying the product and reviewing for themselves first!

In fact, there are programs out there showing you how you do not even need a website, just pick out some ClickBank products and promote them through Social networks such as Twitter.

Now I am not putting down ClickBank nor am I saying every product offered through ClickBank is a bunch of trash.

What I am stating is that a majority of people online today will try to push anything in front of you to make a few dollars off your hard earned money!

This is why I opted to scratch my entire make money site and start it from scratch.

I am opting to go back to my roots, where I got my start online, helping others to make money online with one major difference. I am not going to throw a bunch of garbage at you promising you it will flourish into an exotic garden paradise!

If you have not already signed up for the Make Money newsletter you can do so now while I tend to getting this site up and running!

Good Luck in Your Online Adventures.

Bruce Galle