Internet entrepreneurs, work at home moms, network marketers… you’re all fed the same hype about how to promote your website, get leads, recruit members or what have you.One of the first things you will be told is to post your ads on forums. Lots.

This article is a guide to proper forum etiquette so that you don’t waste your own and many other peoples time.

The first thing you need to know is that forum owners deal with a ton of spam. I could easily spend an hour a day cleaning up spammy posts in the forum and deleting and banning

members that don’t abide by forum rules. It’s unnerving to have to waste my time doing that rather then engaging in conversations on the forum and providing my members with useful information.

So from the forum owner perspective, spam is a very bad thing. On the other hand, to help out forum participants and to try to deter them from spamming every forum in the message boards, most forum owners will provide an advertising forum of some sort where you can post an ad.

If all you are planning to do is post ads on forums, then look for this particular section of a message board. Especially don’t post an ad in the introduction section of a forum.

But here is the thing about ads. Nobody really reads them. Your time would be far better spent actually engaging in conversations on the forums you frequent. You will gain the trust and loyalty of the forum population if they get to know you. They will much more

likely decide to sign up for a biz op under someone that they talk with in a trusted forum then from some fly by night forum spammers post. Doesn’t that make sense?

You will be taught that posting your website link on many forums will help to build your websites backlink popularity which will in turn increase your websites ranking in the search engine results. The truth is, your post is most likely going to be deleted as soon

as the forum owner or moderators find it. All you really will have done is wasted your time.

How you can be certain that you will build your backlinks by forum posting is by putting your website link in your signature on a forum and including your signature in your quality posts. The website owner will be happy to have you posting and in turn will be happy to

allow you a small advertisement in your signature when posting.

Another trick you might not know is this. If there is a keyword phrase that you would like to rank well for in the search engines, use this as the ‘anchor text’ in your website link. That means if you want to rank well for a term such as ‘ameriplan business opportunity’ – then you would type that into your signature and have that link to your website.

Keep a folder of forums in your favorites folder on your browser and spend some time every day going to each of the forums. Make it a goal to leave at least one quality post and a few welcome posts to new members.

Informative and engaging comments, coupled with a well optimized signature will win you far more traffic and prospects in the long run. And you might even pick up a thing or two through your engagement on the forum!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lori Redfield is a Freelancer and Internet Entrepreneur. Visit her website, http://www.FreelanceMom.com for more home business ideas.

Certainly, when you start your home business online, you will want to proceed cautiously. No one wants to fail. It’s important to test your idea on a small scale first, to have some reasonable certainly that profit will follow when you roll out the full-scale marketing plan. Certain obstacles are commonly encountered, and it’s a good idea to be aware of them, in order to minimize your mistakes (and frustrations).  

 

Embarking on a home based business involves more than just expertise in selling your product and service. Yes, a proven track record is helpful, but the businessperson who plans for success will need to be savvy in all aspects of running a smooth operation. If the entrepreneur has sold a nutritional product successfully, the desire to further capitalize on the initial success may be strong. But expanding into a full online presence involves knowledge of HTML, site-building, web traffic, advertising, SEO, copywriting, accounting, legal considerations, and knowing when to call in professional help. Further, the entrepreneur will need to know how to manage growth, especially if additional personnel are required in the operation. Unfortunately, watching a few episodes of “The Apprentice” from the sofa will not imbue the entrepreneur with the business acumen required. 

 

Market research is very valuable to insure that one’s business plan is viable. Who are your competitors? Are they successful with similar products? Do they advertise regularly (a indicator of success)? Is your product unique somehow—helpful if it is new or cutting edge—or offers a distinctly different advantage? A clear assessment of the product’s usefulness will determine salability. 

 

Self-reliance is important in any business endeavor, and even more so for the home-based business entrepreneur. Online based businesses depend less upon the “warm market” than do traditional multilevel marketing programs. Also, one must choose whether to involve friends and family in the home business, or whether “the door must be closed while daddy is working.” Different families bring different skills and talents into the equations—some family members may bring valuable contributions to the home business, while others may be a distinct liability. As in any endeavor, bringing in additional partners, even if they are relatives, involves risk. Going it alone can be a strength here, rather than a liability, if your immediate family is not business-minded. Few are. 

 

Sometimes, friends who are well-regarded in personal matters can hinder your business aspirations simply out of jealousy, or fear that your personal success could change the nature of your relationship. Again, knowledge of what motivates human beings will help you determine whether your immediate social circle will support you, or hinder your progress. Again, sometimes a business mindset dictates a degree of isolation. Again, individual circumstances will dictate this. 

 

If the entrepreneur has not been previously successful in marketing endeavors, it may be advisable to scout around for an affiliate product that is being sold by others successfully. Some search engine explorations may turn up prospective programs that seem well-regarded and well-promoted. Searching for general opinions of a program being considered may prove useful. If there are thousands of unhappy marketers who express disappointment with a program or have been burned by a company’s abrupt shift in pay policies, it will likely be evident from a thorough online search. 

 

Organization becomes vitally important as the home business grows. Maintaining accurate records is essential. The entrepreneur must know how to make the necessary contacts to see that supplies are adequate and inventory flows as it should. Good customer service skills are essential, too, and the pride one feels from a job well done is justifiable. It takes effort to please your customer base. Interpersonal skills will serve you well in an online endeavor, just as they would across a department store counter. 

 

You will want to automate things as well as you can. The PC can be a great friend to you as you automate, because this friend doesn’t mind boring, repetitive tasks. And you know that your “pc friend” will see even tedious or complicated tasks through to completion. 

 

Successful entrepreneurs give themselves permission to succeed. They are aware that success will mean change, and they prepare themselves to meet the challenges. While moving beyond one’s range of comfort is never easy, it may be necessary for change and growth. Doing the same thing day in and day out will inevitably render the same result, when a new result is what is desired. Once The more carefully the basic tracks for success have been laid, the more frequent the trips to the bank will be. And that dream vacation to the tropics may not seem so remote a possibility.

 

About the Author:

Jeremy Lytle will be glad to show you how to start an internet-based home business with your own money making website with automated tools to take orders and generate massive residual profits today! Get all the exciting details at:  http://jeremyfive.com/pips.html

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the strategy of using techniques to try to improve the rank a website has among search engine listings. Longtime marketers know that techniques of SEO must adapt to structures of the popular search engines. There are many methods of SEO that can be used effectively to make money online. Although most SEO strategy can be done online, some is done offline, like adding URLs to direct mail pieces to drive traffic to sites. Mailing postcards to prospects to advertise an online opportunity, via website URL, can be a very effective marketing effort, as it combines traditional marketing by mail to more advanced internet marketing. Likewise, distributing flyers can be very effective, particularly in urban areas. These are offline methods of traffic-generating which can create traffic, which is one element the search engines are eyeing. 

 

The search engines keep track of a lot of other elements related to your website which tell them, “This is a site of interest and significance”, resulting in a higher ranking for the site in the search results they return to online information seekers. 

 

SEO methods can certainly cover a wide range of website components; including but not limited to domain name, title / heading / HTML tags, file names and directories, frequency of quality terms used, keyword info, image ALT tags, text without frames, photo captions, targeted quality content, regular updating of content, back-links, and overall website popularity.  

 

And SEO strategies that involve manipulation of these various SEO components can be broken down into two main categories – “white hat” or “black hat.” White hat SEO methods are generally those that are approved by search engines, like adding good content and other quality to your site. Black hat SEO methods are referred to as tricks, like using cloaking devices. Some people say all SEO is manipulative. Others say only black hat is.  

 

Some companies offer SEO services. For practically any budget range, you can buy: 

 

– PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns where you try to draw online traffic to your site by bidding on words relating to your niche that you think people will use in search engines to find you. 

 

– Site Submission – There are plenty of companies out there that will allow you to enter your URL into their form and then they will submit it to a group of top search engines for you at no charge, like Submit Express at: http://www.submitexpress.com/list.html . You can also pay them to submit it to many more. Submitting in this manner is generally recommended once a month. You can also purchase products like: WebPosition Gold, a search engine software all-in-one package that optimizes your web pages, submits them to top search engines, then tracks the page rankings and web site visits and visitors. 

 

– Article Marketing – Online marketers write articles that focus on keywords or key content that would attract search engines to them when people search for their key content. 

 

– Links – Not only through article links but other links as well (whether link exchanges or purchased in-bound links), webmasters try to increase their search engine rank by establishing quality linking with top sites or high-traffic sites out there. 

 

– Posting to Opportunity Seeker Message Boards – This is just another method of creating back-links to the website. An e-mail signature with a compelling line of advertising can redirect readers, who have already shown to have an interest in the opportunity market, back to the selling website—more back-links. 

 

– Online Directories and Classified Ad Sites – These are more fine sources of potential back-links to the website. Search engine spiders regularly determine popularity of sites via back-links, and rate them higher accordingly, which creates even more traffic flow. 

 

– Link Exchange – This is a slower way to create back-links, but it can be effective if done regularly. Usually, this type of arrangement must be set up webmaster-to-webmaster per mutual agreement, but there are automated tools such as LinkMachine which greatly speed up this process.  

 

So add some SEO into your Internet marketing. SEO, when done successfully, can bring waves of traffic that you never expected, and that translates into sales success. Even at little or no cost, there are plenty of things you can do to keep the search engines happy, helping to bring internet visitors to your websites! 

 

About the Author:

Jeremy Lytle will be glad to show you how to start an internet-based home business with your own money making website with automated tools to take orders and generate massive residual profits today! Get all the exciting details at:  http://jeremyfive.com/pips.html

Well I never thought I would find myself in this position. After years working in Corporate America and retiring, I had no desire to do anything else – not even a work-at-home business. But there I was in a new state (Florida) with nothing to do during my day except housework. My son was grown, my husband was working, and I “bumped” into a home business that I knew would work. I had been in my Consumer Direct Marketing business for about a year and a half when my husband and I decided that coastal Florida with their hurricanes were no longer any fun, and “hunkering down” wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. So we decided South Texas would be a better place to live since hurricanes would not be a 6-month threat hanging over our heads and that a change in scenery would be good.

So here I am in Texas working my home-based business with a husband that is now not working. My dilemma is I am not use to having him “underfoot”. For all you women with small children who are home with you, thank your lucky stars and God, because at least you can put them to bed when they get cranky or send them to their room when they get out of control.

Seriously though, it has been a mixed blessing. It has taken us a while to get into the flow of things and my advice to those who suddenly find themselves in the same position is this:

1. Sit down and talk about what he would like to do to help.

2. Divide the chores accordingly.

3. Keep your office hours.

4. Stick to a schedule and let your spouse know your daily schedule.

5. Keep a sense of humor.

6. Realize that the time you do have with your spouse is special.

7. Pray that he gets another job.

Like I said it has taken some time for us to make this work and I am adjusting to having him home. He is a good cook, but I am sure my cholesterol level has climbed a few points. I just know that now that we are in “the flow” of this, someone will call and offer him a job. I will miss his cooking and running errands, but have realized in this life you can’t have your cake and eat it too, which by the way he makes a darn good cake! Now if I could just convince him to do windows.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sherry and her husband, Ken recently moved to South Texas. Her home-based business has rekindled her passion for people to be healthy and well. Informing others of toxic dangers in everyday products is rewarding, because she knows safer, non-toxic products are making a difference in people’s lives. SwitchToSaferProducts.com