As a crafter, your home based business opportunities are limited
only by your imagination. The ability to create beautiful or
unique items will always be in demand. Who doesnt appreciate
the originality of something handmade  something that will be
treasured for many years to come? People love these
individualized craft items and most will happily pay whatever
price you ask. Consider some of the following ways that you can
make money from your craft talents.

Selling your craft items at local craft shows remains one of the
most well-known home based business opportunities. This type of
business is extremely simple to set up. Other than the cost of
creating your particular craft item, you just need to pay a
table or booth rental fee at the show. In many places, crafters
can also display their items on a consignment basis in local
stores which rent table or booth space. Of course, you still
need to consider any tax liability, but starting this type of
business can be very inexpensive.

Why not try one of the more innovative craft-related home based
business opportunities? Instead of just selling crafts that you
have created, you can also market craft patterns and supplies.
Compile your own collection of craft patterns into a simple
booklet. Then, market it to people at craft shows or on the
Internet. To benefit from this idea even more, why not purchase
the needed supplies and put everything together in a craft kit?
Many people will happily pay for this extra service because they
wont need to spend the time planning the project and obtaining
the materials.

One of the most popular online home based business opportunities
continues to be selling crafts or craft-related products on eBay
and other auction web sites. Of course, you can encounter quite
a bit of competition. However, if your product is very unique or
extremely specialized, you can be quite successful in auctions.
Also, try selling your pattern collections and craft kits in
this way and you may be surprised at the success you experience.

Take advantage of the many home based business opportunities
available for crafters and, before you know it, your creativity
will put you on the road to financial success.

Do I Need It?

Well, that all dependsIf you have insurance, you probably wont
use it. If you dont have it, youll probably be sorry.
Insurance is just one of those necessary evils. Keep the
following points in mind when you consider whether or not you
need home based business insurance.

First, will you be obtaining a business license of any kind? If
so, you will need to check the licensing requirements. Some
local governments require that you maintain a certain level of
liability insurance especially if people will be coming to your
home during the course of your business. If your local
government doesnt require home based business insurance, then
you must look at your individual situation and make that call.
You may want to consult a licensed insurance agent to advise you
of possible affordable options.

Will you keep an inventory in your home? In that case, you will
probably want to insure it against a potential loss. Most
homeowners insurance policies do not cover the loss of business
supplies so check with your local insurance agent to find out
the best option for your home based business insurance needs.

If you will use your car consistently in your business, you will
probably need to contact your auto insurance agent. Premiums
usually increase when you drive your car for regular business
use. One thing to keep in mind is that business use of a car is
often tax deductible so this can help defray the added home
based business insurance cost.

Many people run their businesses without any type of insurance 
sort of under the table if you will. This is probably fine if
you run a fairly small operation and dont mind replacing any
materials that you lose. However, if you anticipate people
coming to your home or maintain a significant inventory,
wouldnt you rather be safe than sorry? Starting a business is
hard enough without risking the loss of all of your hard work
because you didnt invest in home based business insurance.

You already know how wonderful it can be to work from home, but
do you realize how many home based business tax advantages
exist? Here in the United States, many people operate home based
businesses just to take advantage of the numerous tax
deductions.

Claiming the use of your home in your business can give you some
hefty deductions on your tax return. As with anything
tax-related, you must meet certain requirements determined by
the Internal Revenue Service. However, if you use one room or
part of a room specifically for your business, you can receive a
significant home based business tax deduction. This can include
portions of your utility bills specifically related to that area
of your house as well as any relevant home improvements.

Your phone and other office services can also provide you with a
substantial home based business tax deduction. If you maintain a
separate fixed phone line or cell phone specifically for your
business, then all costs related to those phone lines can be tax
deductible. However, if you use equipment or services in both
personal and business environments, it is more difficult to
establish a tax deduction. Its not impossible, but you must
meet some fairly strict requirements and maintain good records.

Using your car in your business gives you the potential for
another good home based business tax deduction. Of course, you
must keep excellent records but you can deduct mileage and
car-related expenses that you incur while conducting your
business. With any type of business, other incidental costs come
up. You can also take deductions for purchases of items such as
office supplies, postage, advertising materials and expenses.
You can potentially deduct even more by hiring your children or
spouse to work as employees for you. This enables you to deduct
health insurance premiums and other typical employee-related
expenses.

In order to find out about the many home based business tax
deductions available to you, consult an experienced tax advisor.
With proper advice and good recordkeeping, your home based
business can become even more successful.

Do you love to cook? Would you spend every waking hour in the
kitchen if you could, especially if you didnt have to work at a
job everyday? What if you could earn money and do what you love
at the same time? Sound good? Well, maybe you should look into
home based business ideas for cooks. A multitude of these
opportunities exist.

One of the most familiar cooking-related home based business
ideas remains that of giving home parties in which you sell
kitchen tools and utensils, cookbooks or even food products. If
you enjoy getting together with people and can speak or
demonstrate comfortably in front of others, you may be a great
candidate. Search on the Internet for companies that offer
cooking-related products or look in a good home business
magazine for possibilities. Your enthusiasm, combined with a
great product, can start you on your way to a successful
business.

If you are especially creative in the kitchen or have access to
a collection of family recipes, you should consider creating
your own cookbook. People absolutely love to collect different
cookbooks even if they already own many others. With the
Internet and the ease of computer desktop publishing, you can
even self-publish your own cookbook. In fact, you could set up a
web site and sell your cookbook from there. On your site, you
could offer a newsletter that gives sample recipes with the
intention of getting the person to buy your complete cookbook.
Alternately, you could start a blog, post some of your recipes
and then offer the rest of your collection as a book. The home
based business ideas and possibilities are endless in this
realm.

Another one of the best home based business ideas for those of
you who love food and cooking is to become an online affiliate
marketer for kitchen-related or cooking products. You can set up
a simple web site about cooking and then promote various
cooking-related products or books through advertising links.

Cooking remains an immensely popular subject both on and off the
Internet. With so many possible cooking-related home based
business ideas, theres no reason you cant make a living doing
what you love.

Are you an individual who operates a successful home based craft
business? If so, you know the challenges of finding and
maintaining a solid customer base. If you havent considered the
Internet, now is the time. With the multitude of possibilities
available online, you can take your business to a new level.

The first thing you should do is set up your own web site  sort
of like opening a home based craft business online store. You
can easily upload digital images and set your prices. Then,
people can purchase directly from your site. All you have to do
is fill the orders and ship them. Optionally, your web site
could simply show sample products. You could take orders from
people and fill them on an as-needed basis.

Why not let the Internet serve as your new advertising medium?
You can grow your home based craft business by purchasing online
directory advertising in regional as well as interest-related
directories. Online advertising is often cheaper than
advertising in an offline directory and typically does not
require the level of commitment required by printed directories.
Additionally, you can purchase ad space in ezines and on
craft-related web sites. For some no-cost advertising, try
participating in craft-related forums or discussion groups. By
using a catchy signature file that includes a link to your web
site, you may be able to gain some new customers.

Use Ebay as a place to sell your crafts. Set up your own Ebay
About Me page so that even if people dont buy your product,
you can offer them the opportunity to be on a pre-notification
list for future auctions. You never know  they may buy
something at a later date. This is a great way to build up a
potential customer database. Another thing you can try is to
create and sell a simple craft template or even a pre-made craft
kit. Often, other crafters are more interested in making a
similar product rather than purchasing one that is already
completed. As you can see, expanding your home based craft
business is limited only by your creativity and imagination.

In a word  yes! You most definitely do. In marketing circles,
research studies indicate that people need seven exposures to
your offer before they buy from you. So, how you can you
guarantee that they visit your site those seven times? Simple 
you collect their contact information and then you follow up
with them periodically through your home based business mail
follow-up system, also known as an autoresponder. This way they
get to know and trust you and, if you do your job right, they
may become your customer at some point.

When looking for a home based business mail follow-up system, it
benefits you to go with a paid service. Although some good free
autoresponders exist, the level of support tends to decrease
when you use them. Also, ads are usually inserted into each
e-mail that goes out  ads that are for someone elses products,
not yours. Common sense says that it is in your best interest
for your message to be the only one that your respondent reads.
Do a search for the term autoresponder and then investigate
the results. If some of your friends or business associates use
this type of service, get a recommendation from them. As with
any service, thorough research ahead of time saves headaches and
lost business later.

In addition to quality customer service, your home based
business mail follow-up system should include as many of the
following features as you can find. Look for the ability to:

Personalize messages with your list members name and other
information. Send an unlimited number of e-mail messages.
Pre-load a series of messages to be sent out at predetermined
intervals. Create and send html messages. Create and add opt-in
forms to your web site. Broadcast a general message to your
list.

Building a list is crucial to your business success. With a good
home based business mail follow-up system in place, your chance
for success can improve substantially.

Okay, so you would rather be out on the lake fishing. You dont
particularly want to spend a lot of time in an office somewhere.
Did you know that working on the Internet could be the best home
business opportunity you can find? Hey, you can even take your
laptop out to the lake and work between catches. So, you may be
wondering, what you can do on the Internet?

If youre like my husband, you love a good fish story. You
probably have a few of your own and can remember the ones your
father or grandfather told you. Why not compile a collection of
these fish stories? Put them together into a short booklet and
sell it in printed or electronic form from a web site. Once you
start reeling in all the orders, youll see why this can be your
best home business opportunity.

Or maybe you have a secret fishing technique that works for you
every time. If youre willing to share it with others, you can
profit in a big way - and this is no fish story! Fellow
fishermen would happily pay for this information. You could also
write reviews of different fishing equipment and share them with
others through an online newsletter. You can see why the
Internet can be your best home business opportunity. The
possibilities are virtually unlimited.

If you love fishing in a really big way, your best home business
opportunity may be to start a fishing membership web site. Over
500 million people fish worldwide. With a truly staggering
statistic like this, you have many potential members. You can
share your special fishing techniques, fish stories and product
reviews for a monthly or yearly fee. Try adding a forum where
people can discuss fishing techniques and maybe even submit
pictures of their biggest catch, and youll have a booming
business before long.

Its not everyday that you find that the best home business
opportunity for you involves doing something you love to do
anyway. Take a close look at the online possibilities for
fishermen and get started today.

Everyone wants to have a great-looking hairstyle and many of us
pay very well to have just that. Personally, I know that I
wouldnt trade my hairdresser for anyone else. She has been
styling my hair for eight years and knows my hair inside and
out. So, if youre a hairdresser, I salute you. However, at some
point, you may be unable to continue working as a hairdresser or
maybe you just need some supplemental income. So, what are some
of the best home business ideas for hairdressers?

For starters, its always good to stick with what you know when
looking for the best home business ideas. So, in this case, you
are familiar with making people look good. You know how hair
grows and how it should be treated. Do you think that maybe some
people out there would like to know more about this? Absolutely.
One of the biggest needs of human beings is to feel and look
attractive.

One of the best home business ideas for hairdressers is to take
your knowledge and use it on the Internet. Perhaps you could
write a short report or ebook telling people how to take care of
their hair or what to look for in a hairdresser? Another
possibility is to start a blog and post interesting facts and
techniques about topics related to hair, hair coloring,
hairstyles, etc. Alternately, you could recommend the best hair
care and hair-related products to people through your own
affiliate web site or newsletter.

If you prefer to continue working as a hairdresser, one of your
best home business ideas may be to use the Internet for
following up with your customers. You might offer them useful
information through an online newsletter and advertise special
discounts at certain times of the year. You could set up a very
simple web site to find new customers. In this way, you can grow
your offline business with online methods.

Its truly amazing to realize that some of the best home
business ideas are right under your nose. Take some time to
evaluate your experience and your goals. Find your own unique
angle and take advantage of it. Then, get started right away to
make your business a success.

As a writer, you probably already use a computer and the
Internet. You may maintain your own web site to showcase your
writing abilities. However, many other opportunities abound when
you have writing skills. You may want to consider a few of the
best home based business opportunities.

As an online writer, you can publish your own ezine or
electronic magazine. The Internet essentially levels the playing
field for writers as you dont have to wait for a publisher to
discover you. If you have the desire to publish an ezine, you
can get started with very little upfront money. By using various
self-promotion techniques, writing your own ezine can become one
of the best home based business opportunities available to you.
Alternatively, you could publish your own weblog or blog. Pick
your own platform or just write to get your name out there. Your
possibilities are limited only by your imagination and time.

Another one of the best home based business opportunities for
writers is blogging or writing for hire. Many businesses and
individuals want to maintain blogs for different reasons but
dont have the time or the experience to do so. They will often
pay a professional writer to maintain this aspect of their
business. They may also require other types of writing for their
web sites or offline needs. You can find out about these types
of opportunities in different writing magazines both on and off
the Internet.

And, of course, one of the best home based business
opportunities for any writer is freelancing. You may choose to
sign up at a site like http://www.elance.com where you can bid
on different writing jobs from all over the world. So many
different possible projects exist for a freelancer. You could
write sales copy for businesses, write business correspondence
or even ghostwrite books. The list goes on and on.

Many of the best home based business opportunities for writers
are available either on the Internet or through the Internet.
You just need to get out there and find the best one for you.

Everyone knows about the stereotype of the starving artist?
Well, guess what? For you, it could soon become a thing of the
past. The Internet has opened up new opportunities for artists.
Now, you have a platform to share your creative efforts with the
rest of the world. You can take advantage of the different at
home business opportunities available to artists.

In the past, you had to find a gallery or showroom and convince
them to display your work. Maybe you even tried setting up your
easel in a local park or on the sidewalk and selling your work
that way. With the Internet, some new at home business
opportunities have opened up for you. You can set up your own
personal web site which will serve as your own digital art
gallery.

Whenever you create a new work, you can easily add a
digital image of it to the site. By adding a shopping cart to
your site, you can sell your works yourself without having to
use a middle man.

If you already have a loyal following for your artwork, you can
explore different at home business opportunities. You might try
selling your art on some of the online auction sites. If you
have prints or multiple copies of your work, you may choose to
offer an affiliate program of your own and recruit people to
sell these works for you.

To help you while you are waiting to become a successful artist,
you might try other at home business opportunities. You could
investigate the possibility of selling art-related products as
an affiliate marketer. Set up your own web site that sells items
such as posters, various art prints, stationery items and art
supplies. Alternately, you could publish a blog or online
newsletter and write reviews of artists, art shows and different
products related to your field of art.

Try something nontraditional in the way of at home business
opportunities so that you can fund your artistic endeavors. In
this way, you can experience your true passion while supporting
yourself without leaving home.

Having a blog on the Internet that gives people some
good informaton doens’t do a lot of good if people
don’t know that it’s there.


If you want people to be able to find your blog,
something that is important is that you have good
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

Whenever you put one or more words into a search bar
to look for something, the SEO of a website is what
helps bring up those websites.

For example, if your blog is about Harry Potter, you
are going to want to be sure that your blog includes
popular terms such as Harry Pottter, JK Rowling, and
other things that are related to Harry Potter.

Think about the things that people look for when they
are interested in Harry Potter, and the kinds of
things that come up when you search.

It’s always a good idea to use your own experience
when you are optimizing your blog for searching.

Think about what has worked, what hasn’t worked, and
use them for your own blog SEO. This way, when someone
puts one of the terms that you put in your blog into a
search engine it will be one of the sites that comes
up.

Of course, there are other factors that come into play
that determine where your blog will come up in the
list, but everyone starts somewhere.

The more keywords that your blog uses, the more people
will come to your blog. It just takes time and
patience.

Something that you will find, especially if you join
something like LiveJournal or GreatestJournal, is that
users just like you have created communities for
people with common interests.


There are communities for just about any subject, and
if you find that there isn’t a community for the
subject you can create one. This is a great place to
advertise your blog.

The nice thing about communities is that there isn’t
any limit as to how many communities that you can
join.

For example, say that you love blogging about books,
horseback riding, and skiing in Tahoe. All you have to
do is look through the communities for ones that have
those interests and join them.

As long as you post something related to the topic to
the chosen community, people will see you and perhaps
they will check out your personal blog.

Something to remember is that you don’t want to write
a post tht is one sentence long in order to get people
to go to your blog. They will want to know that what
you write is interesting and is something worth
reading.

Joining communities can be a great way to advertise
your blog and drive traffic to it. If you are
referring to something that you posted about on your
blog, you can use a link back to your entry in your
post.

As with posting comments on someone else’s blog, you d
on’t want people to think that you joined a community
simply to get traffic to your blog. Otherwise, people
won’t visit your blog and you may get banned from the
community as well.

Something that has become increasingly popular since
the Internet has grown are the email groups that are
available through Yahoo, MSN, and other venues.


They are a great way to meet other people who have a
common interest, and are very similar to the
communities that are available through blogging sites.

There is plenty of diverse subjects and there are
communities for just about any subject.

These groups can be a great place for people who have
a blog about the subject and want to share it with
other people.

Most of the time when you join a group, you are
encouraged to take a moment and to introduce yourself.
This is a great opportunity to tell people about your
blog, but make certain that you don’t overdo it.

Just like with any of the other places you will
advertise your blog, you want to make people want to
go to your blog. If you are too overbearing, you will
turn people off.

If your blog covers different subjects, you can
advertise it on the other groups that cover those
subjects as well.

Make certain that your post to the groups is
interesting and that you let people know what it is
that your blog is about. There’s nothing worse than
getting taken to a blog under false pretences.

When people visit your blog, make certain that you
thank them for visiting and respond to comments that
they leave.

If they know that you appreciate the time that they
took, they are more likely to come back again.

Blogging traffic is a give and take relationship.
Sometimes one of the best ways to get traffic to your
blog is by visiting someone else ’s blog.


Go to their blog and read one of their entries, or
read a few of them. Chances are that you are going to
find something that you have in common.

When you find something that you find truly
interesting on a blog, leave a comment so that they
know that you were there.

One of the best known blogs available is LiveJournal.
A great feature of LiveJournal is that you can search
for interests on their site and it will come up with
results of those who have that interest.

Are you interested in horseback riding You can see
what other bloggers are interested in horseback riding
as well.

When you are commenting on someone’s post, you want to
make sure that you don’t leave generic comment. If you
like the post, say something about what you read in
the post.

After you have commented on the person’s post, then
you can say something like, ‘I really like horseback
riding too. I had a similar experience to yours.’ and
then use it to link back to your journal.

But be sure that you sound sincere when you are
commenting, and don’t make them feel like you’re just
fishing for traffic.

If someone thinks that you are using their blog to get
more traffic to yours, they won’t visit your site and
your efforts will be wasted.

If you want to have more people visit your blog, there
are plenty of blog directories on the Internet that
you can submit your blog to so that people will come
and visit it. Most blog directories are listed by the
topics that the blogs that are submited cover.


Blog Catalog is a free blog directory that offers
categories such as career and jobs, writing, Iraq, and
many others. It has features such as featured blogs
and other things to offer those who submit their blogs
there.

Another great place to add your blog is
blog-drectory.org. Not only do they have an an
extensive list of categories with sub categories, you
can get your blog reviewed. For the most popular
blogs, it shows the amount of hits that blogs have and
if they have any reviews. As well as listing by
category, the blogs are also listed by location.

There are other blog directories on the Internet -
these are only a ouple of them. But blog directories
are a great place to advertise your blog and to make
new friends. You never know what you will find when
you browsing through the directory, and you may just
find out information that you never knew. Some of the
blog directories offer chat features as well, so that
you can meet other people easily.

As you can see, blog directories are a great place to
get your blog noticed and bring people to read your
blog and look at your pictures.

No matter what type of blog that you have, one of the
best places that you can advertise your blog is to
join a blogger forum. After all, everyone who posts
there has a blog and thats the main subject.


It’s a great place to meet other bloggers and to
advertise your blog.

There are quite a few blogger forums that you can sign
up for on the Internet. One is known as Bloggeries,
where you can show off your blog, get your blog
reviewed or review other blogs, and find lots of tools
that you can use for your own blog.

Another good place to go is to Blog Forum.

Blog Forum, like Bloggeries, has spots for you to
market and show off your blog,

Blogger forums are a great place to advertise because
everyone in them are of the same mind and want to make
certain that their blogs get noticed and read.

If you use your blog to advertise something that you
are selling, or you want to get a lot of traffic to
your blog in order to make money, you want to go
someplace where it can get exposure.

When you advertise on a blog forum, you know that you
are placing your advertisement in a place where
blogging is something that people enjoy.

Just remember when you are posting to a forum to read
the rules and abide by them. That way you’ll get your
blog noticed and you will know that you are doing the
right thing.

If you have a blog that you are particularly proud of,
and that you want to share with other people, there
are a lot of free ways that you can get your blog
noticed.


One of those ways is something that you do everyday,
and that you may not even consider as a way to share
your blog. Put the link to your blog in your email
signature.

Chances are that you send out emails more timese that
you can count during the day, Each time you send out
an email, you can advertise your blog by putting the
address of your blog in your email’s signature.

It’s always a good idea to write something catchy
like, See what I am up to now, or Read my latest
chapter of my fanfic here, depending on what type of
blog you have.

The thing to remember about putting an adveritsement
in your signature for your blog is to make it short,
but eyecatching.

You want people to be interested enough to want to
click on it, but you also don’t want to scare them
off.

Just like it is with any adveritsement, you want to
give them just enough to be interested and take a
closer look at what it is that you are advertising.

Think about what it is that your blog is about. What
is really going to interest people abuot it and want
to visit That is what you should include in your
signature, and that is what is going to get people to
go to your blog.

Have you found yourself wondering why you are overwhelmed? There is so much material on the Internet regarding Internet marketing. If a person tries to digest all of it at one time, they will will experience a bad case of online marketing indigestion. This is not a good feeling to have. I have had these feelings before as well.

The solution to this issue is to narrow your focus on one niche. You see it is much easier to become an expert in one area rather than two or more areas. I have made a decision to devote my time to making money on the Internet. There are countless ways to make money in this world today. You can make money in real estate, the stock market, by owning your own offline business and in numerous other ways. But the people who really do well in this world financially are known primarily for one thing. Bill Gates in known for Microsoft. Warren Buffett is known as a stock expert. Donald Trump is known for real estate. I am sure that they have other things that they focus on now but they are known as being experts in a certain field. What do you focus on? Many things or one thing? I am willing to bet that if your answer is many you are in a state of Internet marketing disconbobulation. Find something you like doing and become an expert at it. The trick is to find something you like doing that is profitable financiallly. This is the secret to making money on the net.

If there is a market for your product, you can sell it. Do a search on google and see how many results your area of focus will bring up. If you use keywords, you will get better results. The more targeted the results the better. It is easy to develop a product when you are an expert in that area because you know something that your buyers don't. You are the expert and they are not. They will pay large sums of money to acquire your expertise.

As marketers we must understand that our time is extremely valuable and the more we focus on too many things, the more time that is wasted. This time could be better spent focusing on one niche. It takes time to learn what your niche market wants. After you learn what they want, give the people what they desire. If your child wants a piece of pizza and you give them fish that would cause sadness in their hearts. They may cry and be upset with you. In the same way, if you give your target market something different then what they are asking for they will remove themselves from your list or no longer associate with you.

So use your time wisely and learn what your target market wants. Once you have determined what they want, if you do not already have a product created to meet their needs create one. Remember what they have told you and use the desires of their hearts as your blueprint to create an excellent information product.

Your job as the expert is to provide the answers to the questions that your target market is asking. You answer their questions with your products and you will be seen as an expert by them. You can also become qualified as an expert by creating a blog about your niche market. You can have your readers post their questions on your blog. Answer their questions on your blog and they will also begin to view you in a different light. This will prove to them that you care about what they have to say. People buy more easily when they trust the person they are buying from. A blog is a great way to create an atmoshpere of trust. You can also build a great deal of rapport with your market in this way as well. You can get to know your market on your blog and they can get to know you. An excellent method to implement to accomplish this is simply to be open with your life. Talk about your family and life on the blog and you will find that your market is more likely to talk about their family.

You now have a number of concepts to implement in your Internet business right now. The key is to go out and do them. You will be greatly rewarded if you do. One niche can indeed make you rich.


Much Continued Success,

The creator of "The Online Treasure Box"

Dear Fellow Internet Marketer,

It is vital to create a product that will allow you to eventually expand into other markets. The goal is for the people who initiallly buy your product to also buy your next products. Since you have proven that you can be trusted by delivering a product to your clients they love it should be much easier to obtain their business when your new item hits the online marketplace. We need to understand a seed is truly important indeed. You need to see your first product as that seed.


You see this is about creating an Internet marketing kingdom, a virtual empire of products that all start with one tiny seed that is planted in the fertile soil of those hearts that are eager for your particular product. For example, I am in the process of creating a set of onlline videos where I teach students the various techniques needed to speak English. My area of expertise lies in the field of ESL(English as a second language) of which I have been blessed to have over 10 years of experience teaching to adult learners. My target market would be foreign adults who wish to learn English via video. I realize though that if I wish to branch out and sell different yet similar products later I will have to pick a product that these learners would also enjoy. This led me to recall the great end of the semester food parties in the classes that I taught where both myself and my students brought in dishes from other countries that many enjoyed. Now I know that my second product launched will be an esl cookbook with recipes submitted from actual students. The cookbook will be sold to other esl students online. Branching out even further, a cooking forum would be established as well as an online cooking class with graduates of my esl video courses eventually teaching the course. It is amazing to see how all this began from the planting of one little seed. The online esl videos seed grew to become a cookbook, an online cooking school and a cooking forum. As we all know marketing is a numbers game and the bigger number of people you have on your marketing list the better your chance of survival and dominance.


Think about your online marketing seed before you plant it. You want to plant something that will grow into something huge. When you look into the jungle you see an incredible array of trees. That is what you should want your seed to turn into. The trees in your Internet jungle will be represented by the vast amount of names on your email list who want your first and additional products. The product you create should also appeal to as many people as possible. I know those who may not be interested in esl may be interested in cooking and vice versa. I could use the cooking bait to reel in the esl fish and use the esl bait to reel in those who love cooking. When your Internet marketing seed is sown you will reap the harvest of personal freedom. This translates into having the freedom to spend time doing what is really important. Even though I am blessed to be doing well working from my home right now, my goal is to create an online marketing kingdom. God is of course the king, I am the king, my wife is the queen and my daughter is the princess. I plan to give my little girl the choice to attend college or as the princess of the family become the boss while the queen and I enjoy our travels. It all starts with that tiny Internet marketing seed. The Bible talks about having the faith of a mustard seed and what can happen if we have just a bit of faith. We have to have dreams, big dreams and seeing those dreams become realities is quite inspirational and shows that this Internet marketing thing is real. No one in your circle of naysayers can argue with your results unless they choose to be up against the truth of your success.


Much Continued Success,

The creator of "The Online Treasure Box"

What if, What if, What if. This question comes at us every day. What if I said this, What if I did that or what if I didn’t. It comes down to decisions. We all have decisions to make every day of our lives. We all make good and bad decisions. That’s life. When you look back on your life you can think of some really great decisions that you made, decisions that have altered the course of your life. You can also remember some really bad ones that have affected you in a negative way.

Life is never static, it’s always changing and opportunities come and go. Doors open and we have to decide whether to step through and seize the opportunity or not. When you are standing in front of that open door of opportunity the question arises “What if?” do I or don’t I. We need to make a decision. How do we make decisions? This depends on our background, education, life experiences and sometimes advice from others.

We don’t know each other, but I would like to give you some advice. Suppose I said that I knew something that could change your life forever for the better. Would you be interested? Suppose I said I knew someone that was showing other people how to acquire something like real estate for free. Suppose you could also learn how to build on your “land” something like a five star hotel. You would also learn how to market your “hotel” and collect rent from guests that pay to stay. Would you be interested?

What am I talking about? It’s called virtual real estate. Your own space on the World Wide Web or Internet if you prefer. If you own a space there it can turn out to be very valuable property.

The most expensive house in the world is a 12 bedroom mansion in London England for which an Indian steel tycoon paid $128 million.

The most valuable web page in history, to date, will probably be thesixmilliondollarpage by Alejandro Saavedra and Robert Kanaat. Now here’s the difference. The tycoon paid $128 million for the house. How much did these two guys pay for the page. Next to nothing. Maybe a couple hundred bucks at the most depending on how they went about it.

I am going to open a door for you that could literally change your life. The only cost is your time and effort. Now you must decide! Ask yourself the following question:-



“What if” I click on this link:



It could make all the difference.

I was referred to a prospective client recently that had their website redesigned. They paid $60,000 for a site that really does nothing for them. It is a simple brochure site that provides visitors nothing and it certainly does nothing to convert traffic into sales. Since all their budget went to design, they have no money left over to properly market the site. Mistake #1, don't pay $60,000 for a branding exercise.

A corporate website is about supporting the business. The beauty of the Internet is there is no guessing. You can measure pretty much anything. What are you trying to accomplish? Increase traffic? Generate leads? Increase sales? If it is yes to one of these questions, then a $60,000 investment should get you another $600,00 to your bottom-line? Can a brochure site deliver a 80-95% ROI?

Web design is a commodity today. The cost of design should represent about 25% of your total spend. Design costs are competitive today, so spending more than you have to should be the last thing you do. There are excellent open source Content Management Systems (CMS) that give you the power to manage your own content. The cost of the software is $0 to you. We recommend using either Plone or Joomla. Both of these platforms provide you with Web 2.0 compliant back-end at low cost for setup and maintenance.

The value in web design is working with companies that can properly market what you do. To properly market the site, you should be spending 10-12x what you should spend in design. So, it is possible to get a Web 2.0 website at an affordable cost. If you are a small company that is spending $4,000-$8,000 on a basic website, you should plan over 12 months to spend an additional $30,000-$80,000 on marketing. The dollars spent on marketing brings the traffic to the site. Simple rule, more traffic through the front door means more business.

Unlike other advertising, you can control your spend and measure your ROI pretty quickly. You can turn your marketing dollars on and off depending on the performance, it is all measurable.

DeFabis Photography is an example of a client that went through the redesign process. We built a Search Engine Friendly website that allows him to manage content on the site. Prior to working with us, his website was not listed in the top 100 on Google for the popular keywords. Since working with us, his visitors and page views have increased. But most important, he has doubled his bookings from this time last year. And, he did not spend $60,000 on his web design.

If you need help in evaluating a prospective vendor, here are some question that may help you understand their knowledge:

1. How do capture visitor traffic off the Internet? Can you track their movement through my site? If so, how?
2. How do manage pay per click advertising dollars to ensure I am maximizing my spend and not wasting money?
3. How do you measure whether my site is friendly to my users?
4. How many page views would you estimate my site would get to determine the right level of hosting?
5. What things will you need to change on my website? What things can I change on my own?
6. If I want to change the look, does it require changes to the backend scripting on the site?
7. What will it take to add a new page to match an ad we are running to the new site? For instance, I want to advertise a special and build a page specific for it, what will it take for us to do this?
8. What do you anticipate the average cost per lead for the website to be?
9. Who owns the source code to the site?

So, think about your objectives. Think about what you want to accomplish and spend your money according to the results you want to achieve. A pretty website just does not generate the type of results you should and can get using the Internet. Don't get mugged for $60,000. It's bad for your business.

Copyright 2006 Ewen Chia

If you have a website, you can profit from even the tiniest number of visitors it receives simply by not wasting that traffic.

The KEY is in leveraging on each visitor and making sure you have a monetization strategy in place. Once you get this, you can make any website profitable with a little effort.

Here are 7 basic ways in which you can profit from your traffic today:

1. Sell a product/service

First you can sell a product or service to your visitors. This is the best way to cash in from your own product. Usually an e-book or software works the best – they can be downloaded right away without hassle and shipping charges.

2. Opt-In list

It is crucial you try to convert every visitor of yours to a subscriber of your mailing list. The most important asset that an Internet marketer has is his or her list of subscribers. They define whether you will go far in the online business venture.

With an opt-in list, there are tons of ways you can profit further into the future. You can build repeat customers and turn your list members into partners for your products. For an example of a good opt-in page, visit http://www.InstantMarketingSecrets.com

3. Viral marketing

You can provide a free product or bonus on your site to be downloaded by your visitors. Usually it’ll be an e-book where people can read from and learn useful information. In this bonus, you include give away rights and urge readers to give it away to anyone they want to. This way, you increase your own traffic, publicity and branding without needing to spend a cent.

4. 'Pay-per-click'

In this case, you get paid when your visitors click on ads you place on your site. There are many advertising programs that give you a percentage of the profits based on click through, including Google Adsense, Chitika, Yahoo Publisher Network and Kontera.

When people click on the ads shown from either of these advertising programs, you will earn money. And if your site receives good traffic, these programs alone can bring in huge paychecks to you.

5. Offer an advertising space

Targeted niche websites with high traffic can 'rent' a portion of space on their web page to advertisers. For example you can charge $300 per month in advertising fee if your web page is pulling more than 2000 visitors a day. I use this strategy at my Online Marketing Secrets blog at http://www.EwenChia.com

Other than that, you can also generate advertising revenue using exit pop-ups. By doing this, you won't clutter your website with too many ads and spoil the visitor's experience.

6. Affiliate marketing

If you don’t have your own products for sale yet, you can sell other people’s products instead and receive a commission on every sale. With affiliate marketing, you have an unlimited source of products to sell and you don’t need to go through any fulfillment issues after your sales.

One of the best affiliate marketing training resources can be found at http://www.SecretAffiliateWeapon.com where I provide continual education on affiliate marketing to members.

7. Pay-per-lead

Instead of earning money from click through, you are paid if your visitors subscribe into other people’s mailing list. Alternatively there are a lot of big companies like Coca-Cola who need surveys to be done, and by referring your visitors to complete surveys, you can also earn good profits from your website.

Affiliate marketing is an arrangement between an online merchant and affiliate, in which the affiliate earns a commission for generating sales, leads and/or clicks for the merchant's web site.

Affiliate marketing works in a win-win situation for the merchant and the affiliate. The merchant gains opportunities to advertise his products for free to a larger market which will increase his sales. The more hard-working affiliates he gets, the more sales he can expect. By getting affiliates to market his products and services, he is saving himself time, effort and money in looking for possible markets and customers. When a client clicks on the link in the affiliate website and purchases the product, recommends it to others who look for the same item or buys it again, this way the merchant leverage his chances of earning. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer benefits from each customer who clicks on the link in his website and who actually purchases the product or avails of the service provided by the merchant. Usually the affiliate gets commission per sale, which can be fixed percentage or fixed amount. The best is that it won't cost a single dime to join an affiliate program.

If you want to be an affiliate marketer and make money out of the Internet, you may follow these three most basic steps to start your effective affiliate marketing campaign.

Your first step is to identify a particular niche you are interested in or passionate about so you won’t be bored and forced to develop your affiliate web site later on. Focusing on a specific area you known well, it will help you bring out your best. Here are a few places you can research on - ClickBank Marketplace, AssociatePrograms.com, LinkShare.com, CJ.com etc

Secondly is to look for good paying merchants and high converting products .Make a list of good paying and high converting affiliate programs for your chosen niche and create a website. In choosing the products, you must also consider the support they are giving - Marketing materials may include articles, text links, banner ads, classified ads, reports, etc.

There are many affiliate networks and affiliate solution providers that can give you info on the most profitable products and best paying merchants. So be wise enough to choose the right affiliate program.

Now that you have decided which products to promote and the merchant you are supporting and have created your own web site with a domain name and reliable hosting, you are ready to promote. This is the toughest part, since it is through this that you would be able to increase traffic to the business website, sales and of course, profit. In affiliate marketing, it is possible to earn large sums of money in a short span of time if you use the right strategies and methods.

On how to promote the products would need a separate discussion. You must continue to educate yourself by reading books, courses or other articles online about the best and proven advertising techniques.

Remember, there is no quick path towards success. Affiliate marketing may seem very tempting due to numerous encouraging testimonies of merchants and affiliate marketers alike who have benefited from it, but it really involves in a great deal of hard work and persistence. You also need to be creative and flexible.

Most affiliate marketers don’t understand this, so when they don’t make sales, they quit, look for other programs and carry on the same mistake. In the end, they said that affiliate marketing is just one of those scams in the Internet. You can work your way to great success if you employ the right strategies in affiliate marketing. You can make money as an affiliate marketer if you willing to do what it takes.

They are calling him the million dollar man. Jason Calacanis recently revealed in his blog that he is on track to earn a million dollars from AdSense over the year ahead.

And if that number doesn’t wake you up and have you sitting on the edge of your seat, consider for a moment that he reached this level in less than a year. His company only started using AdSense in September 2004.

Calacanis runs Weblogs Inc., a network dedicated to creating trade weblogs across niche industries. And he’s quickly proven that AdSense is a credible advertising partner.

As their network has grown, so has their AdSense revenue. In January 2005 they earned an average of $580 per day. In March it was $737. In May it was $1,585. One day in July, just before he made the blog entry referred to above, they earned $2,335. Remember that is just for one day. If they can take that daily average to $2,740 they’ll be earning a rate of $1 million for a year. And Calacanis predicts that reaching daily earnings of $3,000 or even $5,000 is quite achievable.

That’s quite an achievement. Keep in mind that Calacanis has 103 bloggers on the payroll and nine staffers. Even so, many webmasters would give an arm or a leg to have even a third of that.

Google’s AdSense has been revolutionary. It has become firmly established as the darling of the online advertising industry. Although rumors are heard of major competitors launching a similar service, AdSense’s premier position seems secure for now.

In essence, AdSense has made it possible for almost anyone with a web site or blog to earn some revenue from advertising, without having to employ sales people or spend precious time searching for advertisers.

AdSense works like this. Webmasters sign up for an account in just a few minutes. They receive a small snippet of code to include on their web pages. Google will then automatically serve advertisements that are relevant to the content on the webmaster's pages. When someone visits the webmaster's site and clicks on one of Google's AdSense advertisements, the webmaster earns a fee. Advertisers can pay anywhere from five cents to a hundred dollars per click, and the webmaster receives a percentage of that fee.

Many webmasters are content with earning five to ten dollars from AdSense to cover the cost of web hosting. But many, unsurprising, have higher ambitions. At a popular WebmasterWorld forum, participants share tips and encouragement on reaching a goal of $300 per day from AdSense. So it is no wonder that Calacanis created quite a buzz when he made his million dollar blog entry.

Google have proven once again that they excel at designing innovative Internet services. If you are in the web industry and have not yet used AdSense, then perhaps you should try it out. Or if you are already using it, perhaps Calacanis’ impressive results will encourage you to track the performance of your AdSense units more closely, fine tune their positions and formats, and take your earnings to a new level.

Calacanis’ million dollar blog entry can be viewed at: http://calacanis.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000403051129/