When you're buried in debt, choosing a credit card is typically a question of finding the one with the lowest interest rate -- not one that has a rewards program. After all, a 1% cash-back bonus isn't much of a perk when you're paying 18% or more in annual interest. Now some credit card companies, including Discover and Bank of America, are trying to convince you otherwise by launching credit cards that offer special cash-back rewards meant to appeal to those carrying a balance. The goal, they say, is to help folks manage their debt better. "We found 85% of (consumers who carry a balance) prefer rewards for paying on time versus rewards on spending," says Margo Georgialis, the chief marketing officer for Discover. "So we created a program that combined both. It wasn't just about rewards, but about a total experience of being on top of your credit." Discover's Motive card, launched this month, offers a twice-a-year cash-back bonus equal to your interest charges for one month, provided you make payments on time for six months in a row. Bank of America's Money Return Visa, on the other hand, gives revolvers a 10% rebate on the interest charges they've paid for the past year. Both cards feature low-rate promotional periods -- 3.9% until 2010 and 0% for six months, respectively -- on balance transfers and no balance-transfer fees, making it easier for consumers to make a dent in their debt.How the math works out But do these new cards stand up to the no-frills low-rate cards or attractive 0% APR (annual percentage rate) balance-transfer offers that revolvers typically favor? It all boils down to the math, says Scott Bilker, the founder of DebtSmart.com. With Bilker's help, we ran debt payoff scenarios for the two new cards, comparing them with two "old-school" credit cards that also target revolvers, but by using low rates rather than special rewards. The Simmons First Visa Platinum card is currently the lowest-rate card out there, according to Cardratings.com, with a 7.25% fixed APR. And with a promotional offer of 0% APR for the life of the balance, as long as you make two purchases a month (use code F1K7), Citibank's Diamond Preferred Card is one of the best balance-transfer deals around, as long as you approach it smartly. (For details on each offer, see the table below.)
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
10 low-cost gifts from the heart
The holidays are supposed to be about visiting with loved ones -- laughing around the fire, chatting up Grandma, hosting people in your home. So stop the holiday madness. Stop trudging all over town, waiting in lines. Stop running after your own sense of Christmas past. Isn't it time to focus on giving gifts that really mean something? Here are 10 suggestions for how to spend less money and put more of yourself into creative gift giving. Some of the best ideas require a fair amount of time, but they're far more rewarding than creating an attack plan for the mall.Not everything on the list is charmingly homemade, but everything is a step above the generic gift card. Family cookbook: Do you miss Grandma's shepherd's pie or Aunt Aggie's famous French toast? You can bet your siblings do, too. Try compiling all the favorite family recipes into a cookbook. Use your design skills to create an attractive cover and add photos or stories to create a wonderful record of family history that extends beyond the kitchen table. For help, check out books such as "Scrapbooking with Recipes" by Better Homes and Gardens or how-to guides online. Web sites such as Secret Ingredients allow you to create a book online for printing.Video tribute: Who doesn't want to be a star, especially when the rewards are as sweet as a personal video tribute from loved ones? Ask family and friends for funny stories and favorite memories of the honoree. Too often we share these stories only on special occasions, such as weddings, or after the people are gone. This is a great idea for parents and grandparents. Just have the tissues handy -- this one's sure to be a tear-jerker. If you need a camcorder, start here. Then check out the simple video-editing software that came with your computer.Personalized/homemade gifts: Anything homemade -- soaps, stationery, jams -- offers something stores cannot: your love and effort in all its imperfect glory. The best ideas take advantage of family history or photos (see "Turn your memories into precious gifts"). You can embellish your gifts with magazines or newspapers that were published on auspicious dates in your family's history -- a wedding or a birthday, perhaps. (You can search for Time magazine covers or for Life magazines and newspapers online.) Or check out the nearest paint-your-own-ceramics shop. Children (and adults) can add charm and personal messages to gifts such as mugs and picture frames for grandparents. The hostess with the mostest: Anyone who has put on a family reunion knows that the level of detail and schedule juggling can be mind-boggling. By taking on the planning, you're freeing everyone else to relax and look forward to the event. Even a simple picnic at a park can be tons of fun.Cover the family beat: It can be difficult to keep up with the comings and goings of your immediate family, let alone extended family across the globe (chances are, they're not all addicted to Facebook). So don your reporter's cap and create a newsletter that includes the extended family's news. Even if you keep track with a blog online, you can compile the news at the end of the year in a great keepsake for family members. "Creating Family Newsletters" by Elaine Floyd is just one book that can help.Gift of the month: You've probably seen the commercial gift-of-the-month clubs that offer flowers, wines or cigars. By drawing on your own talents, you can create a personal monthly gift service at a fraction of the dollar cost. Maybe it's freshly baked bread, homemade candles, flowers or vegetables from your garden that you bestow on lucky friends or family each month -- even a poem or car washing. Be careful, though. It can be a big time commitment. You might want to make it quarterly or consider doing something that you can make ahead, such as jams or homemade soaps. The worst thing you can do with this kind of gift? Not deliver on your promises.A new survey finds 38% of shoppers say high energy prices will make them cut their holiday spending plans.Prepaid cell phones or calling cards: For elderly relatives living on fixed incomes, prepaid calling cards mean they won't have to forgo a comforting call because money is tight. (And for parents of overseas-bound college kids, they can offer invaluable peace of mind.) Try local groceries or drugstores, or research calling cards online. Every major carrier, as well as others such as Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, TracFone and Liberty Wireless, offers prepaid cell plans.Chip in on a group outing: Get everyone to agree to forgo the gifts and instead put the money toward a shared experience. It can be dinner at a fancy restaurant, a day sledding or a whole weekend away in a rented cabin. Not only does it reduce the focus on material goods, but you also will have time to enjoy each other's company.Spread the joy: In the "it's better to give than to receive" camp, consider sponsoring a needy child or giving to a charity in someone else's name. Have your kids pick one of their toys to donate to charity, or make a family event out of preparing a holiday meal for a local family in need. (See "How to tell a good charity from a bad one" or ePhilanthropyFoundation.org for help choosing a charity.)Your time: Ah, the most valuable gift of all. This can take any form you want, but formalizing your offer makes it worthy of being put under the tree. Consider monthly baby-sitting or dog-care coupons, or help someone with a difficult all-day project, such as getting garden beds ready for spring planting or building shelves for a hobby room. Lend your expertise to things your loved ones especially need help with, whether it's an all-day class on how to use their computer or how to cook some of the family recipes you've compiled for them.
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Luxuries for the rest of us
Living in Los Angeles exposes one to a lot of luxury-spending opportunities. Most of them are wasted on me.I don't get the appeal of a $500 T-shirt, a $2,000 purse or a $100,000 sports car with a trunk smaller than the overpriced handbag.But the appeal of some perks the rich enjoy is obvious even to skinflints like me. In fact, when I can get a taste of the luxe life at fraction of the price, I go for it -- because what I envy most is the luxury of less hassle. And there are ways to buy that without being Leona Helmsley.Richie Rich perk No. 1: A private jet No security lines. No set schedules. No wasting hours on a tarmac or at a luggage carousel. Just zip to your destination -- and would Madame like her prime rib rare or medium?The appeal is obvious even to fellow cheapskate Warren Buffett, who for years resisted buying a private jet before caving. Now the investing superstar understands the appeal. In his latest letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett declared that "once you've flown (private), returning to commercial flights is like going back to holding hands."Of course, Hollywood's greenest types now frown on private airplane transportation, citing the contribution of increased carbon dioxide emissions to global climate change. So we can solace ourselves that we're doing less damage to the planet stuffed back in coach.But here are ways for fliers to get a taste of luxury:• Be elite. If you fly a lot, concentrate your trips on one airline to qualify for its elite frequent-flier status (typically 25,000 miles flown a year). That will qualify you for shorter security lines at many airports and win you more-frequent upgrades to first class.• Invest in an airport lounge. Again, if you travel frequently, consider investing in your airline's lounge pass. Most are quiet, comfortable places to read, work and get a free snack.• Get a pass. Even if you travel infrequently, consider buying a day pass to an airport lounge if you have a long layover. Day passes typically cost $25 to $50.• Pick the right flights. Choose nonstops and flights that depart early in the day to minimize hassles. Because airports and airlines are so overbooked, any weather or mechanical problem can touch off a cascade of delays that get worse as the day progresses. The later you leave and the more connections you have to make, the more likely you are to get caught in the gears.Richie Rich perk No. 2: A personal assistant Someone to mail your packages, pick up your dry cleaning, wash the dog, fill your prescriptions and listen -- for the 100th time -- to your complaints about your ex.Personal assistants are a de rigueur accessory in La-La land. Their full-time pay ranges from $40,000 to $120,000, said Jack Lippman, the owner of the Elizabeth Rose Agency, a Los Angeles placement agency for domestic help. The more experienced the assistant and the more intense the job, the higher the pay.Wannabes who can't quite shoulder those costs turn to services that provide assistants for as few as four to eight hours a week, usually for about $30 an hour.CNBC reporter Darren Rovell takes a look at what $1 million can buy you.Can't quite swing that? Here are ways to shed some of the hassles of daily living:• Investigate which businesses near you will deliver. In my neighborhood, for example, are several dry cleaners that pick up, deliver or both; independent pharmacies that bring medicine to your door; and a delivery service that picks up food from most area restaurants.• Schedule pickups for packages. This isn't just a perk for businesses. The Postal Service and most delivery companies will come to your home to collect packages if you schedule in advance. It sure beats standing in long lines to ship holiday packages.• Hire an errand service. These businesses have cropped up in many areas and do everything from waiting for the cable guy to stocking up for your New Year's Eve party. Craigslist is one way to find them. • Check out the world of virtual assistants. If your task can be handled on the phone or the Web, a virtual assistant can do it. They can buy movie tickets, wrangle with customer service departments, research airfares and write letters. There are a ton of sites to choose from, including Elance, Workaholics4Hire.com and GetFriday.Timothy Ferriss, the author of the best-selling book "The 4-Hour Workweek," extols the value of virtual assistants and recommends considering one anytime you can pay less for the outsourced task than your time is worth. A quick way to assess the value of your time, he says, is to knock the zeros off your annual pay, then cut the result in half. Thus, if you make $50,000 a year, your time is worth about $25 an hour.
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Broke? 5 ways to turn your finances around
A recent study painted a dismal portrait of America's working poor, estimating that some 41 million people cannot afford to make ends meet, despite being employed.These hardworking Americans earn low wages, have few benefits and often can't qualify for government help -- and many of the Women in Red are in a similar quandary.But the Women in Red are discovering a way out.Not poor, but struggling to get by "Bridging the Gaps: A Picture of How Work Supports Work in 10 States" was issued in October by the progressive Center for Economic Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts, focusing on families in 10 states with incomes far above the official poverty threshold.The median monthly incomes studied in the report ranged from a low of $2,293 in Iowa to $4,515 in Washington, D.C. Despite not being officially "poor," these families are struggling to get by in a variety of ways:• More than one in five workers (22.1%) are in jobs with low pay and no benefits (no health insurance or retirement plan).• The median monthly "hardship gap" between families' expenses and their earnings was about $1,500.• Those who got "work supports," or aid from the government, still faced an $855 median monthly shortfall.The circumstances of poverty Although the report outlines the broad financial circumstances of the working poor, it attributes them to "bad jobs" and a failure of government programs. What the report misses is the other side of being broke, as many in the Women in Red can testify. That's when your economic stress is partly, if not primarily, of your own making. I'm not referring to those who are impoverished due to a snowballing of circumstances beyond their control. There are countless Americans who live on the financial edge through no fault of their own. • Talk back: What tactics work when you're really broke?But many of the Women in Red are finding that, even amid tough economic straits, it is possible to turn things around. Here's how:1. Get to know your money Being good with money doesn't require a Ph.D. in physics. But you do have to get a certain amount of good, basic personal finance knowledge under your belt to recover from past mistakes, ditch bad money habits and make real financial progress.Tricia, 42, became an avid personal finance reader. As a single mom with three kids and an income of about $1,700 a month -- not the poverty line, but close -- she banked on the fact that knowledge was power. A good book makes abstract money ideas doable, she says. "Someone is always telling you, 'Get a budget, get a budget -- all financially successful people have a budget' -- but you tend to shrug it off," she says."It's when you read about it and see how they work, that's when you can begin to do it yourself."While Tricia says she learned a lot of money basics from personal finance expert Suze Orman, the book that really changed her life, "hands down," was "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko. 2. Get to know your financial self One of the hardest tasks in taking financial control has nothing to do with money but with getting to know yourself financially.This is one of the primary goals for women who join the ranks of the Women in Red. You can't fix those numbers until you have some idea of where your weak spots lurk, what your financial demons look like, and how and why they manage to trip you up.The idea of working at home certainly sounds appealing: save gas, choose your hours and wear whatever you want. But are these jobs real, and how do you find one? Kimber, 28, took a classic head-in-the-sand approach to her money for a long time, taking on close to $18,000 in debt even before she'd graduated from college. A serious illness and the birth of her son, all in the last couple of years, helped her face the mess. A single mom living on a modest income of about $2,200 a month, Kimber isn't poor, but her past financial habits had made life unmanageable."I had to change my whole attitude toward money. I had to drop that I'll-pay-for-it-later fantasy," she says. "Now I buy everything with cash. I don't even have a credit card. That's how I keep myself in check."
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How I Work: Bill Gates
NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - It's pretty incredible to look back 30 years to when Microsoft (Research) was starting and realize how work has been transformed. We're finally getting close to what I call the digital workstyle.If you look at this office, there isn't much paper in it. On my desk I have three screens, synchronized to form a single desktop. I can drag items from one screen to the next. Once you have that large display area, you'll never go back, because it has a direct impact on productivity. The screen on the left has my list of e-mails. On the center screen is usually the specific e-mail I'm reading and responding to. And my browser is on the right-hand screen. This setup gives me the ability to glance and see what new has come in while I'm working on something, and to bring up a link that's related to an e-mail and look at it while the e-mail is still in front of me.At Microsoft, e-mail is the medium of choice, more than phone calls, documents, blogs, bulletin boards, or even meetings (voicemails and faxes are actually integrated into our e-mail in-boxes).I get about 100 e-mails a day. We apply filtering to keep it to that level�e-mail comes straight to me from anyone I've ever corresponded with, anyone from Microsoft, Intel, HP, and all the other partner companies, and anyone I know. And I always see a write-up from my assistant of any other e-mail, from companies that aren't on my permission list or individuals I don't know. That way I know what people are praising us for, what they are complaining about, and what they are asking.We're at the point now where the challenge isn't how to communicate effectively with e-mail, it's ensuring that you spend your time on the e-mail that matters most. I use tools like "in-box rules" and search folders to mark and group messages based on their content and importance.I'm not big on to-do lists. Instead, I use e-mail and desktop folders and my online calendar. So when I walk up to my desk, I can focus on the e-mails I've flagged and check the folders that are monitoring particular projects and particular blogs.Outlook also has a little notification box that comes up in the lower right whenever a new e-mail comes in. We call it the toast. I'm very disciplined about ignoring that unless I see that it's a high-priority topic.Staying focused is one issue; that's the problem of information overload. The other problem is information underload. Being flooded with information doesn't mean we have the right information or that we're in touch with the right people.I deal with this by using SharePoint, a tool that creates websites for collaboration on specific projects. These sites contain plans, schedules, discussion boards, and other information, and they can be created by just about anyone in the company with a couple of clicks.Right now, I'm getting ready for Think Week. In May, I'll go off for a week and read 100 or more papers from Microsoft employees that examine issues related to the company and the future of technology. I've been doing this for over 12 years. It used to be an all-paper process in which I was the only one doing the reading and commenting. Today the whole process is digital and open to the entire company.I'm now far more efficient in picking the right papers to read, and I can add electronic comments that everyone sees in real time.Microsoft has more than 50,000 people, so when I'm thinking, "Hey, what's the future of the online payment system?" or "What's a great way to keep track of your memories of your kid?" or any neat new thing, I write it down. Then people can see it and say, "No, you're wrong" or "Did you know about this work being done at such-and-such a place?"SharePoint puts me in touch with lots of people deep in the organization. It's like having a super-website that lets many people edit and discuss�far more than the standard practice of sending e-mails with enclosures. And it notifies you if anything comes up in an area you're interested in.Another digital tool that has had a big effect on my productivity is desktop search. It has transformed the way I access information on my PC, on servers, and on the Internet. With larger hard drives and increasing bandwidth, I now have gigabytes of information on my PC and servers in the form of e-mails, documents, media files, contact databases, and so on.Instead of having to navigate through folders to find that one document where I think a piece of information might be, I simply type search terms into a toolbar and all the e-mails and documents that contain that information are at my fingertips. The same goes for phone numbers and email addresses.Paper is no longer a big part of my day. I get 90% of my news online, and when I go to a meeting and want to jot things down, I bring my Tablet PC. It's fully synchronized with my office machine so I have all the files I need. It also has a note-taking piece of software called OneNote, so all my notes are in digital form.The one low-tech piece of equipment still in my office is my whiteboard. I always have nice color pens, and it's great for brainstorming when I'm with other people, and even sometimes by myself.The whiteboards in some Microsoft offices have the ability to capture an image and send it up to the computer, almost like a huge Tablet PC. I don't have that right now, but probably I'll get a digital whiteboard in the next year. Today, if there's something up there that's brilliant, I just get out my pen and my Tablet PC and recreate it.Days are often filled with meetings. It's a nice luxury to get some time to go write up my thoughts or follow up on meetings during the day. But sometimes that doesn't happen. So then it's great after the kids go to bed to be able to just sit at home and go through whatever e-mail I didn't get to. If the entire week is very busy, it's the weekend when I'll send the long, thoughtful pieces of e-mail. When people come in Monday morning, they'll see that I've been quite busy� they'll have a lot of e-mail.
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Make Money – a Sure Way to Earn Profits
Many people start out writing articles to promote affiliate programs without success. There are a number of possible reasons for this. You could be promoting a product that converts at a very low rate. Try to find out the conversion ratio before you begin commit a product. Another reason for little or no sales is improper targeting. That is, you are promoting a pay-per-click product and writing articles on traveling. Many people make this mistake. If you’ve been writing articles for a while, and have not achieved any success, there is another alternative where you are almost certain to make money.You can sell your articles to content provider sites. Some of these sites will pay you upfront when they accept your article. This way, you can be assured that you will make some money. You won’t get rich using this technique, but you are assured of making some money. And, if you haven’t been making any money at all, $30 to $50 for a few hours of work may be just the thing that you are looking for. These sites will pay you anywhere from $3 to $ 25 per article, depending on the subject, type, and length of the article.Associated Content is a good content provider site. You must register to begin submitting articles. The nice thing about this site is that they pay you upfront. You can maximize the money that you make with this site by participating in their contests and submitting articles on subjects that they request. These programs tend to pay more than unsolicited submissions. Another good content provider is Constant Content. With this site, you are not paid until someone purchases your article. However, they allow you to decide how much to charge for your article. Constant Content will allow you to charge whatever you like. However, you should be aware that if you price your 500-word article on knitting techniques at $100, few people would consider using it. So, you should price your article according to what the market will pay. Both of these sites allow you to determine what type of rights that you want to offer with your article. That is, you can keep the right to offer your article to other publishers if you wish. But, keep in mind that you are likely to get more money if you offer it as an exclusive to that site.All-in-all, this is an excellent alternative to making money with affiliate programs. With this technique, you are assured of making some money. What are you waiting for, start writing and make money!Do you want to learn more about how I make money? Get my brand new guide on how to make money each and every day.
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Make Money – an Easy Technique for Online Profits
Are you making money from your online efforts? Many people complain that that aren’t making any money at all. In most cases, it is because they aren’t doing the right things to make money. If you can write an article, you can make money. In fact, by investing just a few hours of your time, you can easily make $30 to $50 dollars per day. How, you ask? There are a number of sites on the Internet that will pay you to write articles. Some of them will even pay you upfront. You won’t get rich from this technique, but you can earn some nice money on a daily basis and start generating some online profits. By doing a search, you will find a number of sites that will pay you for submitting content.Associated Content is a site that that I have used in the past. They will pay you between $3 and $25 for each article they accept. The amount that they pay depends upon a number of different factors. There is no limit to the number of articles that you can submit. One nice thing about Associated Content is the fact that they pay you upfront for the articles that you submit.Another good thing about Associated Content is the fact that you can determine the type of rights that you offer with each article. However, if you maintain the right to resubmit the article elsewhere, you will be paid less than if you offer them exclusive rights. They often send out emails requesting certain types of articles. This does not mean that they will ONLY accept these categories. It means that they will pay extra for articles on these subjects. If you are looking to maximize your online profits, you should participate in these special offers.They do not put limits on the categories that you can write about. So, if you are just starting out, write articles on subjects that interest you. That way, you can have a little fun writing on subjects you enjoy, and possibly make money too. It is nice to be able to do something that you enjoy, and make money from it. To get started, all you need to do is visit the site and fill out the registration form. Then, start submitting articles and finally start to make money!Do you want to learn more about how I make money? Get my brand new guide on how to make money each and every day.
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How to Make Money Right From the Comfort of your House!
You have to have the go getting attitude to achieve this and to know how to make money. If you want your hard work to pay off and succeed in your venture you can join any of the online ventures and learn how to make money. With the numerous choices available for earning more money you can very easily feel that money does grow on trees!Work and business options online By way of work and business there are many avenues that will open out to you on the internet. Working online is something that is very popular and many people who already hold jobs opt for this way to earn some additional income. Business online is one more way that will give you a very viable opportunity on how to make money. Online business venturesAmong the most popular and “in rage” buying and selling business is the eBay category. You could buy and sell any product online through your own website. Create a website and give all the information of your products on it along with your contact details. Ideas on how to make money are already spinning in your thoughts, so it will not be long before you will have some idea as to how to make money. Some of the business that does very well online is with clients who are available online and who you communicate with via email. Create a databank of your contacts and increase the contacts as you go along so that you have an increased number and this will keep increasing as you go along. Drop shipping marketing and sellingSomething that has become almost an internet online entrepreneur’s ideal business is drop shipping. Unlike ecommerce where you make sales to chosen customers via the internet, in drop shipping you would have to market the product too online and then sell it at a price that you can fix for it on your own. Though the product is sent directly to the buyer, the payment will come to you from the drop shipper, and you can keep the excess amount that you have charged the customer. This is a way how to make money with selling products and by being the middle man for the product. This is a hassle free way of selling goods, because you will have none of the problems for shipping the goods and keeping inventories for anything that you sell. But like in any venture that you undertake, it is always safe to do your research on the product and know what the sales options of this product are. If you are interested to know how to make money, you should also learn how to play it safe and not take unnecessary risks. Global business with the internetWith the internet all online business has gone global, and you can also be part of this international business by creating your own website and advertising and marketing you wares and those that you represent on the website.
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How to Write Magnetic Headlines for your Ebook Website
The headline is the most important part of your sales page. If your headline doesn't grab the readers attention, the rest of your sales copy might as well not even be there as people won't read on. A good headline will entice the reader to continue on to the body of your sales pitch. You can take it one step further, a truly great headline will communicate your full message to your readers and may even be enough to seal the deal and entice them to purchase your e-book.A good headline should promise a benefit or solution to a problem for the reader. Posing a question can be a good approach as well. Your main aim is to invoke an emotional response in the reader. This is the real key to writing a great headline, once they feel emotionally attached to the content, you have their attention and you can happily go about pitching your ebook to them. There are a few different types of headline formulas:Direct Headline: These go straight to the point and forget all the fluff. An example of a direct headline might be "Get The New Money Making Ebook Here"Indirect headline: These types of headlines try to raise the curiosity level in your customer. An example of an indirect headline is "Don't Be Weighed Down" . This can have a double meaning in feeling physically worn out or literally weighed down. This headline might be suitable for a weigh loss ebook.The Question Headline: These headlines need to pose questions that would be in the customers best interests to answer. A good example of this is "How would you like to make $1234 in just one hour?"The How To Headline: This type of headline is exactly what it says. You need to start the headline with the words 'how to'. An example of this is "How to sell 100 ebooks in under one week"The Command Headline: This type of headline invokes a strong call to action. Ideally you will almost be telling the reader to do something. "Discover The Techniques I Use To Sell eBooks" would be a good example.With ebook sales pages, in addition to the words the color is also important. It is a good idea to create headlines in either red or blue. The idea being that blue implies trust, and red implies warning tempting people to read on.In conclusion, it is important to remember that your headline is the most important part of your sales page. The headline must grab the readers attention. Without that you may have no hope of being able to pitch your ebook to the customer.
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Build Traffic Using Basic Techniques
The lifeblood of any Internet business is traffic. But, how to you increase traffic to your site? The truth is, there are many things that you can do to bring more people to your site. To drive traffic to your site, use some of the following techniques.Use relevant keywords for your site. Search engines pay particular attention, and will send you traffic if you use the right keywords. Traffic from search engines can be a significant part of your business if you optimize properly for the search engines. Well optimized sites will stand out above others. When you consider that there are over 2 billion websites in existence, proper optimization becomes increasingly important.Provide free items of value to your visitors. It can be anything that you like as long as it is perceived as something of value. Articles, ebooks, and pdf’s, are particularly good because they can be downloaded immediately. People like instant gratification. Make sure that you have a squeeze page on your site so that you can capture the name and email address. (This could be important for your future success.) Write and submit articles often. Many people write a couple each week and then complain that articles writing is useless for building traffic. To generate significant amounts of traffic, you need to submit a significant number of articles. Writing at least one or two each day will begin to generate some nice traffic numbers after a month or two. If you really want to be successful, write 1000 or more articles over the course of a year and the traffic will come flooding into your site.If you are making less than $500 per month with your online business, you should consider investing half of your profits into advertising. There are hundreds of advertising methods that you can use. A few that you might consider are: freeads, classifieds, ezine ads, solo ads, and pay-per-click. And traffic feeds on itself, the more you have, the more you get. So, use the techniques described above to generate traffic (and profits) for your online business. Do you want to know how I make money online? Download my free ebook, Make Money Every Day!
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Make Quick Cash on the Internet
How many times have you fallen for that line? Many people make little or no money with their online business. There are two possible reasons for this. The number one reason is that they just don’t know how to make money. It doesn’t mean that they are not intelligent; making money is not a skill that we are born with. In most cases, we have to be shown how it is done.Unfortunately, some people will some quick research on one or two techniques and choose the one that doesn’t work. If you are looking for techniques to make money on the Internet, it is important to be thorough in you research. Spend some time in forums and questions about a particular program that you are considering. You will usually get some very good advice there.The other reason people fail to make money is that they will not do enough work to make it successful. If a particular program says that you need to do 5 things to be successful, do all five things. Don’t do two of them and then quit. That is a sure fire strategy to failure.Most honest Internet money making programs actually require you to work. There is no such thing as free money. So don’t fall for the programs that say you can easily make millions with little or no work. These programs don’t work, don’t fall for them. All they succeed in doing is removing some cash from your wallet.However, if you are willing to work, there are thousands of ways that you can make money on the Internet. Are you good with a video camera? There are many ways that you can earn money by using video. Are you a talented writer, there are tons of ways to make money for people who can write. It’s just a matter of doing it.Do you want to know how I make money? Download my free ebook, Make Money Every Day!
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Make Money, Build Traffic, and Increase Sales
When you are just starting out with your Internet business, you want to keep expenses down to a minimum. Yet, you must still attract people to visit your website. Without traffic, you have no business. Fortunately, there are many free or low cost ways to attract visitors to your website. One of the best free and easy techniques to make money, build traffic, and increase sales is through the use of online Internet forums.Internet forums are websites that focus on the exchange of information. Some people are asking questions and others provide answers. And others just want to vent or discuss topics that are related to their niche. Most forums are targeted to one particular area. An advantage of using forums is the fact that almost all of the people on the site are interested in the same topic. Almost all forums allow you to participate for free, but in most cases, you must first register in order to participate. You can find forums related to your website by going to Google. Once there, go to Groups and enter your keyword information.An important matter related to forums is the fact that you must take the time to read their terms of service. Those who repeatedly violate the rules will quickly be banned and prohibited from using that forum in the future. That brings us to the main focus of this article. How can you advertise your business, make money, build traffic, and increase sales using online forums? Most forums allow you to add a signature (sig) file to each posting that you make. Develop a signature file that promotes the website or product that you are promoting. Your sig file should read like a small two or three line classified ad. When you set up your account, check the box to indicate that your sig file should appear with each posting that you enter.Don’t start posting blatant advertisements on your first visit to a forum. If you do this, people will view your postings as spam and will ignore the information you post. Start out by answering questions in your area of expertise. Of course, with each question you answer, your sig file will quietly advertise your site. After you have answered a number questions, people will begin to see you as an expert in the field, and you will begin to see increased traffic to your site. Make sure you register with as many related forums as possible. To get maximum advantage from your forum sig file, post information every day on each forum you are registered with. By using this technique, you will be quite surprised at the amount of traffic that you can generate through forums. Do you want to learn more about how I make money? I have just completed my brand new guide on how to Make Money Every Day!
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Work at Home Jobs. Do you Want to Work From Home?
Many people are looking for work at home jobs. Perhaps you're a busy mum wanting to make a little extra money. Maybe you already have a job and want to try something new. Whatever your reason for wanting to work at home the internet has opened up a whole new world for online jobs. It has never been easier to work from home. Websites are the new shop window. What's more, you don't need to pay large rents, carry loads of stock or employ extra staff. You can literally start with next to nothing. All it takes to work from home is you, your computer and a little know how.But where do you start? Well the first thing you will need is a website. Now if this is something entirely new to you, before you scream in horror at the thought of building a website let me reassure you that it is far easier than you may think. So easy in fact that the 11 year old son of a friend of mine managed to design one in less than an hour. Of course it all depends on the programme you use and the instructions you're given, however I, myself have gone from being a complete novice to having several sites online with page 1 Google rankings in the space of 1 year. I have also built a good business hosting webpages for other people, and all of this without having a single lesson on how to do it. Everything I do has been self taught. And if I can do it, so can you.Therefore the key to modern day work at home jobs is operating a website. Of course building it is just the start. You then have to go about finding your market, advertising and promoting your business. There are lots of online information guides offering some fairly invaluable tips for example, how to choose good keywords and how to link to other sites to improve search engine ranking etc. However you shouldn't need to spend lots of money on this information. Most of the guides on offer contain more or less the same information. The most important thing is to stick to something you know well. Find a subject or a product you're familiar with, check to see if there is actually a market for what you want to sell, i.e. look at other websites already doing what you're interested in doing to see 1. how many there are. 2. how professional they look etc. Once you're satisfied there's a market for your product a website will prove to be the perfect work at home job. If you would like to reprint this article you may do so provided the text remains unchanged and you include the "Author Bio" statement below:
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Website Design for your Customers
Yes, believe it or not, your website design should not concentrate on what you want or what you would like to see in your website, but it is about what your customers want from your website and its design. You can get website designers to make great looking website for yourself, however you cannot get customers to visit and re-visit your website just because you have got a great looking website or you cannot convert visitors in customers just because you have a great looking website design. Neither do you need a website that offers a lot of functionality if your customers dont need that functionality. If you are selling flowers, the functionality your customers desire from your website will be different to the functionality available on a tyre manufacturers website. So in simple terms you need to develop a website design and functionality that your customers expect from your type of business.
What should I be aiming at?
Even before you go to a see a website designer to undertake website design for your business, I would recommend that you do your fieldwork.
It would be useful to understand:
1. Who your audience is: This probably is the most important step before you go and see a website designer to develop a website for your company. You have to understand who your audience is. Try and estimate who are the people who would regularly come to my website?
2. What does my audience expect: once you identify your audience, the next step is to understand what your audience expect from your website design? Understanding this will not only help you understand the path you should take with your website design, but will also help you explain your requirement to your website designer.
3. What will bring my audience back: An important aspect of a good website design and a successful website is the ability to bring the visitors back. In marketing terms, it is like customer retention. For any business it is important to retain customer loyalty, similarly for any successful website, the ability to bring back your customers is paramount. Customer loyalty leads to increase in traffic. Look at some of the successful websites around you: amazon.com, Youtube, myspace. The success of these websites is an example of the power of customer retention and referrals. If you analyse the website design of these sites, it is fairly simple but it offers its visitors what they need: products and services that matter to their audience.
If you think through the above points, you will realise that a lot of information is already available to you (especially if you are an established business). Your website in many terms is an extension of your physical business. The above mentioned information should be available to you in terms of corporate knowledge. Talk to your sale people, look at your customer files and your sales pattern, try and source information from your suppliers. For a new business, it could include analysing your competitors.
Inc conclusion, I would remind you that try and understand your market before you undertake any part of website design or website development process. Without knowing your market you wont be able to communicate your requirement to your website designer. It is important to go through this process before you start website development instead of re-inventing the loop after your have developed your website and realised after one year that you are not getting enough leverage from your website design. At the end of the day you will only achieve from your website design what you tell your website designer.
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Making Money with Articles: Where to Find Affiliates For Your Niche Website
To make money with articles that you place on websites, you will also need a variety of good affiliate links that will help to generate revenue. It is important that you know where to find affiliates and that you choose the best affiliates for you and your niche site.
When you pick an affiliate, it is important that you determine which companies you will profit best from based on the frequency that the product is likely to sell. There are several types of affiliates and some will offer you more money from a sale than others will. Before you get hazy-eyed by dollar signs, however, remember some products are bound to sell more than others. If you sell on product four times a year from a little known company that gives you $100 per sale or sell a well known product 3 times a week at the rate of $10 per sale, then you will make much more money with the $10 per sale product. Often times large well known companies will offer a very small profit per sale because they are established and know that their product is likely to sell well. Small, unknown companies, on the other hand, need all of the promotion they can get. Also, because they are unknown, their products are likely to sell less frequently.
The most important rule when picking affiliates to promote on your site is to pick products that would be of interest to those who would likely visit your niche site. Otherwise you will be promoting a product to a group of people who do not even want nor need it. If your niche site targets parents of young children, then promote baby products. If you niche site targets gardeners, then promote gardening products. If you promote baby products to gardeners, you are almost guaranteed to not make a profit no matter how much money the affiliate company offers for a sale.
Lastly, there are two main ways to find an affiliate company for your niche website. You can sign up with a company that manages the accounts of hundreds of companies, big and small, and apply for the products within these accounts or you can do a web search for companies that would match well with your niche, visit their websites, and see if they advertise an affiliate program.
