The Online Business

You already know a lot about credit cards. You've heard that consumer debt in this country-particularly credit-card debt-is at an all-time high, while our savings rate is lower than ever before. You realize that the boom in online shopping, with its absolute dependence on credit cards, is further fueling their use. You are well aware that running a balance on your plastic-and paying the unconscionable interest rates that come with it-is one of our most basic and widespread financial blunders. And you suspect that the sheer volume of direct-mail credit-card solicitations with low teaser rates must be devastating the forests of northern Idaho.

Still, credit cards are a fact of 21st century life, and it only makes sense to understand how to use them wisely. While it's probably impractical to keep all plastic out of your wallet, it is prudent to limit the number of cards you have, and, of course, to pay all balances in full every month. Indeed, having only a traditional American Express card, which doesn't allow you to carry a balance, can be an excellent way to impose fiscal discipline on you and your family-although, as the Visa ads point out, not everyone accepts American Express. For the rest of us, who do occasionally dabble in credit-card debt, here are a few ways to keep your habit under control.

1. Take advantage of frequent-flier programs tied to credit cards, but keep in mind that interest payments on a high balance can quickly turn "free" flights into outrageously expensive ones. At a dollar per mile, running up a debt of 25,000 may get you a plane ticket, but it will also saddle you with $4,500 in yearly interest payments, assuming an 18% annual rate.

2. Look very closely at credit-card offers before you bite. Obviously, most of those 2.99% and 3.99% rates will be in effect for only a few months. But there may be other catches as well. Making a late payment, even if it arrives only a day after it was due, may immediately trigger a permanent rate hike. Also, low initial rates sometimes apply only to transferred balances, and you could get charged a fee for making the transfer. Check, too, to see whether there is an annual fee, or charges for exceeding your credit limit or even for closing an account.

3. Avoid amazing grace-period tricks. What you're looking for is a provision that says you'll never be charged interest as long as you pay your bill in full by the due date. But some cards have no grace period, calculating interest from the moment you make a purchase, while others give you only a limited time after making a charge before interest is imposed. That period of 20 days or so may end before your payment is due.

4. Don't forget to cancel cards you no longer use. If you don't, they'll show up on credit reports, and that could be a problem, particularly if you're applying for a home mortgage. Your would-be lender may be reluctant to make a loan to someone who has a cumulative credit-card limit of $50,000, $100,000, or even more.

There are a few secrets that I'd like to share with you.  You may have been privy to a few of them before.  Actually you may have heard of all 4, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective.  I will show you how 4 simple secrets can create a powerhouse web business.  This is the first part of the 4 article series.

Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing.  All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence.  A web business is just like an offline business.  It takes hard work and resolve to succeed.  However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working.  These 4 secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.

Web Success Secret #1) Content is king.

Heard that before?  I know I have.  The thing I never knew was how to use content to my advantage.  Content is useless unless it is optimized for the search engines.  It must also be optimized for your reader.  You have two customers- readers and search engines.  You must satisfy both with the same exact content.

Content is king only if you have exact and highly specific keywords placed in correct locations.  Unfortunately the hard part is determining what keywords to use.  A keyword can be a single word or a phrase.  It is the term that web surfers use to search for information.  Place yourself in their shoes and try to discover what search terms they use.  You must then evaluate the search term.  How many people search using that term?  How many sites already deliver information on that search term?  Simple demand and supply rules.  The more demand with the less supply equals more profitability.

You have several options for determining keywords and their profit potential.  Search yourself, pay a company to search for you or have your hosting company do a complete keyword search for your niche or web business topic.  If your hosting company does not offer this service I recommend you switch to a plan that does.  This feature alone can make or break your business' future.  If you would like my recommended hosting plan, please contact me.

Without a proper keyword search and analysis you may as well forget about becoming successful with an Internet business.  Investing in this one secret is literally the start of planning your website.

Your next action step is to plan your site layout based on the 50-175 high-demand and low-supply keywords. Your site should be structured in three tiers.  Tier one is your home page.  Tier two is made of all of your main topics and also constitutes your navigation bar buttons.  Tier three keywords are sub-topics of tier two pages.  Organize your 50-175 keywords into three tiers.  Doing this makes it easier for visitors to navigate through your site and it makes it easier for search engine spiders to find all of your pages.

Search engine spiders do not like to fish around for all of your pages and links.  This is why many sites offer a “site map”.  A site map is one page that contains links to all of the content pages.  This is a fine route to take; however most people agree that pages with a lot of links on it are valued less than content pages that casually link to other content pages.

Using three tiers allows you to go from topic to sub-topic to sub-sub-topic all by natural in-content links.  For example, tier 1 is the homepage on a fitness site.  Tier 2 is a page all about cardio activity and its benefits.  A tier three page off of that tier 2 page is about different treadmill routines.  Do you see how the site visitor would like this structure?  They click on “Cardio” and are given links to more specific pages about cardio topics.  Search engine spiders like the three tier structure too.  It means they do not have to dig through layers and levels of useless links.

There is even more to content than finding profitable keywords and structuring your site into easy-to-navigate tiers.  You must optimize each and every page on your website to perform well and rank high at search engines.  Many people devote their working life to optimization secrets.  A full length article just on optimizing is possible.  Heck, a full length book is possible.  My recommendation is to use a hosting company that automatically teaches you how to optimize web pages for the engines.  Doing that will cause less headache and frustration and it will keep you focused on building content.

A quick education in optimization: place your specific keyword in the file name, title, description and keyword section of your page.  Then sprinkle the keyword throughout the content.  Also provide a link using your specific keyword in the link text.  If all of this has you spinning your head, I recommend going the hosting company I use.  They literally teach you to build a website using blocks.  It’s all simple and easier than you think.

There is one last piece to content.  It must effectively pre-sell your product or service and position you as the expert in your field.  When your website has 50-175 optimized pages for your visitors to read through it will start to position you as the expert.  Your site will become known as the place for information about (insert your niche).

When visitors find your site through search engines they are seeking information about a problem or question they have.  If they land on your site and you try to sell them something right away one thing is sure- they click the back button and find another site that will give them information.  This is why pre-selling your product or service is paramount.  Give your visitors what they want.  Answer their question and in the process let them know about your services and products.

All of the information develops rapport and trust with your site visitor.  It positions you as an expert.  It keeps your visitor on your site longer since they are actually reading content.  Search engines notice this and rank you better.  How well your site can keep visitors is known as "stickiness."  Your site must attract and keep visitors for as long as possible.

Provide content that pre-sells your products, positions you as the expert and focuses on highly profitable keywords.  You cannot go wrong with your web business if you do those things.  The secret to content is to satisfy both your visitor and search engines.  Lose one or both and you are doomed.  As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder.  Your hosting company should be providing most of these services to you free of charge.  There are a small few that do this, but it is well worth the investigation.  Contact me for further resources and information.  Having a successful web business starts with effective content.  Stay tuned for parts 2-4!

Debt is a way of life for many Americans. We owe money on our homes, our cars, our possessions (from furniture to clothes), and our education. Many Americans are so mired in debt they aren't even sure just how much they owe and to whom -- even worse they sometimes don't even remember just what caused their debt.

Some debt is good for you. For example, what you owe on your home can provide a nice way to balance out your income tax. A little debt is not a bad thing either as making regular payments to various creditors helps build your credit rating which makes it easier for you to obtain loans at good rates. However the truth is that most Americans have more than a little debt -- and many owe far too much money and are already, or soon will be, in financial trouble as a result.

Finding yourself owing a lot of money is not the end of the road and you can stop your cycle of debt by taking four positive steps to break the cycle.

First, attack your high-cost debts. This likely includes credit cards where you may be paying high minimum payments and high interest rates. Pay off the balances on credit cards carrying the highest interest rates first. Continue making your minimum payments for lower-interest cards but concentrate on paying off the highest interest. When the high-cost cards are paid off then work to eliminate the balances on your other cards.

Second, reach out to your creditors. If you are going to be late or have difficulty paying your minimum payments then contact the credit card company. Even if you can make all your payments in a timely fashion there are two benefits you can reap from contacting the card issuer. First, you may be able to negotiate lower rates or more favorable terms. Second, they might be able to recommend alternatives that can minimize damage to your credit rating.

Third, consolidate your debts as much as possible. You can accomplish this a number of ways. One possibility is simply transferring balances from one credit card to another with a lower rate, but be aware of transfer fees before choosing this option. Another possibility, if you own your own home, is to take out a home-equity loan or line of credit which should have a lower interest rate than most credit cards can offer as well as offering tax deductions. Finally, you can also consider a secured loan offering the value in another form of property, your vehicle for example.

Fourth, don't sacrifice your retirement savings. Obviously paying off your debt should be a high financial priority but cutting what you save for retirement to do so may not be the wisest course -- especially if that becomes a long term habit or if you are losing out on your employer's matching funds as a result. Perhaps you may be able to borrow against (or from) your retirement funds at a lower interest rate which will allow you to continue to save for retirement while also getting out from under your debt.

While owing money may well be the American way it can also be a tremendous burden to bear. You can shed the weight of your load or at least trim it down to a more manageable level by taking these four steps.

Getting out of debt can be a long, drawn out process. If you spent years wrestling with financial problems, the solution will not come to you overnight. It can take months, even years to unravel debt difficulties but it can be done. You have some options to help you get started; let’s take a look at four of them:
1. Credit Counseling. Credit counseling companies are vying for your business. This can be a good option as you shop around to find the best plan out there, but bad as you learn that many companies will charge exorbitant fees or do work for you that you can do yourself. Some government agencies and nonprofit firms provide credit counseling too. For little or no money you may be able to find a professional who can help you navigate through your debt dilemma.
 
2. Debt Consolidation Loan. Replace your high interest credit cards with one, low interest rate credit card. You could also see if a lending institution will give you a debt consolidation loan. However, you may have to pay for an application fee, whereas with a credit card you would not.
3.Home Refinancing. Even with rising interest rates, refinancing your mortgage may make sense and allow for you to save hundreds of dollars per month on mortgage payments. With the monies saved  with a new, lower mortgage payment you could use your savings to pay off your other debt.
4. Cash Out. Alternately to home refinancing, you may have enough equity in your home to cash out and pay off your debt. Importantly, although credit card debt is not tax deductible, a home equity loan is. Ultimately, you can reduce your debt as well as reduce your tax obligation by cashing out.

You have some viable solutions to help you reduce your debt. Learn all you can about each option and select the plan that is right for you.

A carpenter uses a set of house plans to build a house. If he didn’t the bathroom might get overlooked altogether.

Rocket Scientists would never begin construction on a new booster rocket without a detailed set of design specifications. Yet most of us go blindly out into the world without an inkling of an idea about finances and without any plan at all.

Not very smart of us, is it?

A money plan is called a budget and it is crucial to get us to our desired financial goals.

Without a plan we will drift without direction and end up marooned on a distant financial reef.

If you have a spouse or a significant other, you should make this budget together. Sit down and figure out what your joint financial goals are…long term and short term.

Then plan your route to get to those goals. Every journey begins with one step and the first step to attaining your goals is to make a realistic budget that both of you can live with.

A budget should never be a financial starvation diet. That won’t work for the long haul. Make reasonable allocations for food, clothing, shelter, utilities and insurance and set aside a reasonable amount for entertainment and the occasional luxury item. Savings should always come first before any spending.

Even a small amount saved will help you reach your long term and short term financial goals. You can find many budget forms on the internet. Just use any search engine you choose and type in “free budget forms”.

You’ll get lots of hits. Print one out and work on it with your spouse or significant other. Both of you will need to be happy with the final result and feel like it’s something you can stick to. 

1-Make List of Your Debts
First of all know how much deep you are in credit card debt. Many credit card holders are shocked when they know the total credit card debt to be paid. They unconsciously stay away from compiling this list. But you will have to know your total debts. List down lender name, date of debt, total amount to be paid and interest rate. Arrange list according to interest rate. Highest interest rate credit card debts should be shown first.

2-Pay Credit Card with Highest Interest Rate
Now start paying highest rate credit card first. Always pay more than minimum amount. If you are addicted to minimum payment traps then you will never be out of debt for whole of your life. Banks have arranged minimum debt trap in such way that a loan could take many years to be paid off if you are just paying in minimum amounts. Always pay more than minimum. These small extra payments will save you literally thousand dollars.

3-Start Frugal Living
For as long as you are in debt, start frugal living. Cut off your credit cards. Ask companies to not offer you more credit cards. Discard impulsive buying. Try to save every penny if possible. These few dollars added to minimum payment amounts will create a snow-ball effect towards your credit card debt payments.

When it comes to consolidating debt, the internet offers three very good options. When you want to choose between a consolidation loan, debt management, or debt settlement, it is important to have an understanding of each one so you can choose the option that is best for your needs. Many people confuse these three services, but each one brings unique aspects to the job of helping consumers pay off their debts.

Debt Consolidation Loan

A consolidation loan takes all of your high interest credit card debts and turns them into one low interest loan. Often you have to be a home owner to qualify for this type of loan. The idea behind a consolidation loan is that with a lower interest rate, you will actually be able to afford to pay on the principle and that will help you to eventually get yourself out of debt.

Debt Management

Debt management companies work with consumers to help them learn to get control of their finances. The companies teach individuals how to make a budget and stick to it and often help them make a schedule to follow for paying off their debts. Most debt management companies are non profit and exist solely to help consumers get on track. These companies don’t offer loans or negotiations and seldom work with creditors. Instead they work with you so you will have the tools to secure your financial future.

Debt Settlement

Debt settlement companies actually go to your creditors on your behalf. The work hard to negotiate with credit card companies to reduce what you actually owe. They can often lower interest rates, have penalties and late payment fees removed, and even get credit card companies to lower the balance of what you owe. Many of them will set up a system where you pay them one amount each month and then they in turn make payments to your credit card companies.

Nobody likes a bully… especially small business marketers.  If you’ve ever felt like the little guy taking punches from a heavyweight champion, you know what I’m talking about.  Big business has donned its gloves, and is waiting to put small business down for the count.

I’ve got good news!  Sometimes the little guy wins.  Heck, it isn’t easy and sometimes it’s a close call, but little guys do win and when they do… victory is sweet!

What can you do when you’re being threatened by the bully down the street?

1. Take a careful look at the Competition
Every business has its strengths and weaknesses.  You need to be aware of both… your competitors strong points, and the places where room for improvement is quite obvious.

2.  Be Flexible
Don’t expect your competitor to broadcast his next move so that you can be prepared to block it.  You’ve got to think a step ahead, and be ready to outsmart his next maneuver.

3. Use a little Judo
You don’t have to be big and brawny to successfully use Judo.  Why?  It’s an art that uses your opponent’s momentum to trip him up.  So what if you don’t have thousands of dollars to invest in a campaign.  When you’re competition has invested his tens of thousands in one, you’ll be able to make a quick about turn and counteract quickly with a smaller campaign of your own.  He’ll either forfeit his investment or continue through, but loose steam.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret about your competitors that might encourage you.  Although big businesses often have a wide variety of products filling their shelves, they often don’t have depth.

Think about it this way.  You may run to your local department store and find everything ranging from make-up to camping equipment.  The problem with that?  …chances are they don’t have an extremely wide assortment of their products.

This means that if you’re an avid outdoorsman, you probably wouldn’t be satisfied choosing between two cheap brands of tents when there is an amazing variety on the market.  An outdoor related store could get one over on the big department store by offering the widest variety of fewer products in a focused field.

Another asset about being the small guy, is that it’s easier to make a quick turn.  Hey, how many managers do you have to get okays from to make a quick decision?  Think of the weeks it takes for a local department store to send a request from a customer for a certain product to the regional or national management?  Yeah, too long!

As a small business, you can have a new product on your shelves within a week.  If I were a customer wanting a new tent, I’d prefer to not wait until summer was half over to get it.

There are a lot of benefits to being the small guy.  Don’t take bullying lying down.  You have what it takes to get the best end of the stick and come out a winner.

If you have never gone to an online marketing seminar, you're missing out.

I know what you're thinking...

"Seminars are expensive."

That's true. They are. Some of 'em cost over $5,000. Even the lower-priced parties are around $2,000.

"It's a pain in the butt to attend."

Again, that's fair. In order to go, you have to get on a plane and fly somewhere. And you have to take time from your work and family to do it.

But, there are at least 3 reasons that attending seminars should be on your priority list (even if you DON'T plan to do a major product launch).


1. You Are Surrounded By Like-minded People.

Scoff if you want. But, I'm telling you, there's huge POWER in being around folks who are driven to the same goal as you are.

To this day, my friends and family don't really get what I do. They nod their heads and smile, but I can tell their eyes are glazing over.

Well, picture being at a party with a few hundred people who not only know what you do... they do it, too! You'll be amazed at how inspiring that can be.


2. You Meet People Who Inspire And Drive You.

I know it sounds flighty. But, when you're downing drinks with someone and sharing strategies back and forth about what's working, your mind ignites.

You find yourself wishing you'd brought your laptop so you can start taking action that moment!

And here's something better... you exchange phone numbers (yep, remember that thing you used to use before becoming a recluse?) and follow up with each other.

That's accountability, baby and it can drive you to major success.


3. You Remove Yourself From The Daily Routine.

Ever wake up and have trouble getting your engine started? (I'm not talking about your car here.) And if you ever DO get the thing to turn over, you can't seem to get any speed?

It happens to me all the time. I'll wake up and the day will pass without my having done one truly productive thing! It stinks.

I'll tell you why it happens to me...

I get bored of my routine! Now, don't get me wrong. Routines are good. In fact, they're CRITICAL to your success. Humans need routine.

But, it's JUST as important to get OUT of your routine. And going to a seminar does that for you. It makes you leave your boring daily routine behind.

Going to a seminar can give your brain (and motivation) the jump-start it needs.


Last Thoughts

I'm not trying to sell you on a seminar here. I'm only trying to get you to think about going to one.

There are a lot of benefits to going. Benefits that aren't always clear until you're there, in the hallways, in the bars, at lunch... talking with folks who are doing EXACTLY what you are doing.

It's empowering. It's inspiring. And chances are, one you attend a seminar, you'll be excited to go to another.

Every copywriter's nightmare. We write beautiful copy for a client, who takes one look and says, "You can't be serious! This is too sales-y...or too simple...or too different..."

And I'm reminded of the days, many years ago, when I volunteered as a Pet Adoption Counselor with the San Francisco SPCA. Looking back, I must have been training for what I do now. I had lots of enthusiasm. People often teased, “You’re selling cats!” Sure enough, many visitors went up with a crate holding a furry bundle of joy.

Our Volunteer Coordinator kept reminding us, “Don’t judge the visitors. You’re not going home with this person. The adopter who drives you crazy may be the best thing that ever happened to a dog.”

True.

And copy works the same way. We don’t judge our friends the way their dogs and cats do. And we don’t read our copy like our own customers.

I tell my own clients, “You may not like this copy. But you’re not the target market, even if you think you resemble your clients.”

Here are 3 reasons why.

1. Customers live on a different planet.

If you hang around the Internet, you develop a unique lifestyle. For instance, some of my best friends are people I’ve never met. We exchange emails and phone calls for years. My favorite web designer is an American living in Brazil.

And you hear the same promises over and over. “Bring traffic to your website.” “Attract all the clients you can handle.”

But if you’re targeting ordinary people (i.e., those who have actually met their best friends in person), many of our ho-hum phrases will seem fresh and exciting.

“Hype-free marketing? I like that,” purred an earth-dwelling prospect recently. “That’s a whole new way of looking at marketing.”

Your world may not be the Internet. Maybe you live fitness, coaching, cooking, or finance. But chances are your familiar phrases will seem fresh and exciting to your target market.

2. Customers want to be sold.

They know you’re not putting up websites and creating brochures so you’ll feel good and collect gold stars for your Permanent Records.

And if they want your service, they’re looking for reasons to say “yes.” Think of all those Madison Avenue ads with the theme, “You deserve it.” Or, “You’re worth it.” They’re giving us permission to spend our money.

As long as you’re tasteful and – drum roll – meeting their real needs, your customers will actually appreciate learning about what you offer.

Recently I was pitching my services to “Frank,” a prospective client who sells fitness services. Hesitantly, I referred him to a website I’d written for “Tom” – a financial professional who was terrified we were selling way too hard.

Frank was impressed. “This isn’t the least bit pushy. It’s so warm and friendly! Tom sounds like such a nice guy.”

We’re still talking. But when Frank sees his own fitness site, I bet he says, “Um – do you think we’re selling too hard?”

3. Customers don’t want to stop and think.

Some words and phrases slow us down. For some good examples, pick up your college textbooks and maybe a couple of academic journals. You’ll see words like “moreover,” “counterintuitive,” “although,” and more. (I know. I wrote many.)

How did you read your college textbooks? I bet you read slowly, made marginal notes and hung on tight to your yellow highlighter pen.

Alas, website visitors don’t study our copy the same way. We have to help them create highlights and move along fast.

Which gets read more:

(a) “Although you can work very hard, you may not see results for a long time.”

(b) “But you can work really hard and wait forever for results.”

Bottom Line: Expect surprises when you unveil your copy to your clients, especially if you’re new to marketing yourself and your own products. When I first wrote the title Your 21-Day Extreme Career Makeover, I cringed: Was my site becoming the virtual equivalent of a used car lot?

But my target market – professionals and senior executives – started buying. And the rest, as they say, is history

The concept is really simple, if you think about it. The publisher or the webmaster inserts a java script into a certain website. Each time the page is accessed, the java script will pull advertisements from the Adsense program. The ads that are targeted should therefore be related to the content that is contained on the web page serving the ad. If a visitor clicks on an advertisement, the webmaster serving the ad earns a portion of the money that the advertiser is paying the search engine for the click.

The search engine is the one handling all the tracking and payments, providing an easy way for webmasters to display content-sensitive and targeted ads without having the hassle to solicit advertisers, collect funds, monitor the clicks and statistics which could be a time-consuming task in itself. It seems that there is never a shortage of advertisers in the program from which the search engine pulls the Adsense ads. Also webmasters are less concerned by the lack of information search engines are providing and are more focused in making cash from these search engines.

The first reason why Adsense is essential for content sites is because it already has come a long way in understanding the needs of publishers and webmasters. Together with its continuous progression is the appearance of more advanced system that allows full ad customization. Webmasters are given the chance to choose from many different types of text ad formats to better complement their website and fit their webpage layout.

The different formatting enables the site owners the possibility of more click through from visitors who may or may not be aware of what they are clicking on. It can also appeal to the people visiting thus make them take that next step of looking up what it is all about. This way the people behind the Adsense will get their content read and making profit in the process.

The second reason is the ability of the Adsense publishers to track not only how their sites are progressing but also the earnings based on the webmaster-defined channels. The recent improvements in the search engines gives webmasters the capability to monitor how their ads are performing using customizable reports that has the capacity to detail page impressions, clicks and click-through rates. Webmasters and publishers can now track specific ad formats, colours and pages within a website. Trends are also easily spotted.

With the real-time reporting at hand, the effectiveness of the changes made will be assessed quickly. There would be time to sort out the contents that people are making the most clicks on. The ever-changing demands would be met while generating cash for the webmasters and publishers. The more flexible tools are also allowing webmasters to group web pages by URL, domain, ad type or category, which will provide them some accurate insight on which pages, ads and domains are performing best.

The last and final reason is that the advertisers have realized the benefits associated having their ads served on targeted websites. Thus increasing the possibility that a prospective web surfer will have an interest in their product and services. All because of the content and its constant maintenance. As opposed to those who are no using Adsense in their sites, they are given the option of having other people do their content for them, giving them the benefit of having successful and money-generating web sites.

Adsense is all about targeted content, the more targeted your content is, the more target the search engines’ ads will be. There are some web masters and publishers who are focused more on their site contents and how best to maintain them rather than the cash that the ads will generate for them. This is the part where the effectiveness is working its best.

There was a time when people were not yet aware of the money to be achieved from advertisements. The cash generated only came into existence when the webmasters and publishers realized how they can make Adsense be that generator. In those days, the content were the most important factors that is taken quite seriously. It still is. With the allure of money, of course.