Building a mailing list is one of the most important – and one of the most satisfying – aspects of running your home based online business. Your mailing list can be considered a long-term investment…something that can provide an income for the future. Getting started on building a list is relatively straightforward; you need an auto-responder (preferably not a free version) and a squeeze page…plus something, say a short report, that you can give away as an ‘inducement’ for people to opt-in to your list.

This article does not cover the technical aspects of setting-up your list building page – there are plenty of tutorials

available on line for this. Rather, this article covers three ways you can place an advertisement on high-traffic online websites (at little or no cost) thus giving you a good chance to build your list at a decent rate.

1. Place your report on Upload.com

Upload.com (part of CNET) attracts a huge amount of visitors and you can place your report on the site as a giveaway in return for an opt-in to your mailing list. Placing your report on Upload.com is free although there is the option to upgrade to paid insertions, giving faster approval times and other benefits. There is a three stage initial sign-up process, each requiring approval, to get through and this is time consuming, however, this is a one-off process and is worth the effort in order to tap into the potential of the site.

2. Use eBay Classified Ads

For a few dollars per month you can place a classified ad on eBay and, again, give away your report in return for an opt-in. In fact you have to put a price on the report (say $0.01) but in effect you will give away the report, since eBay allows you to place an opt-in form on the sales page. A professional looking description and adding some free graphics will make your ad that much more appealing to visitors. Read the rest of this entry

The term RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication and is a standardized way of taking internet content from web-based media and making it available for syndication on other sites.

An RSS is an XML document known as a feed. This feed contains full or summarized content and makes it possible for another website to receive any updated news from your site to theirs.

Blogs and news sites are the most frequent users of this form of syndication. Most blog applications have the ability to provide a feed built right into the application making it very easy to syndicate your blog content.
To display an RSS feed on your website or blog, you would need to have a feed reader on your site. For bloggers, that is as easy as installing a plugin to their blogging platform.

The advantages to having the ability publish your content for syndication are many. It is a great way to drive traffic to your website, to stay in touch with your potential customers, to create backlinks on other sites, and to stay on visible within your chosen niche.

Why would you want to publish someone else’s RSS feed on your site? It is a way to keep your blog looking active without having to do the posting yourself. It also gives your visitors great value by providing the latest and most up-to-date news within your niche. If you have a website about small business, would your visitors not appreciate being able to read the top business news headlines on your site? Of course they would. They would soon learn to go to your website to find out what is happening today in your niche.

This is just one way you can get your business website noticed.

Is an internet business right for you?

With the economic times being as they are, so many people have turned to the internet to try to either supplement their income or trying to replace a lost job with an online business. Unfortunately, there are also an equal number of people willing to take their money by making outrageous promises of instant wealth with no work and no skills involved. “Internet marketing” has gotten a bum rap as a result.

True internet marketing is not the get rich quick schemes that have become the norm these day. Every business online is an internet marketer. It is not a profession, but a means of reaching your target market online. That being said, is internet marketing the right business for your personal skill set?

Do you want to make money on autopilot with no work or skills involved?

So many times, as a business coach, I hear people claiming they want to make money online but then hear that they do not want to create content, write articles or do social marketing. I find this very amusing. It is like having someone say they want to become a doctor but they really don’t want to examine patients.

If this is you, then you are not suited to internet marketing. You will be a buyer for the rest of your life. Seeking that magic button that you will be able to click and make money. Those buttons do not exist, by the way. Trying to run a business this way is no different than buying a lottery ticket to create wealth. Your chances are slim to none.

What do “Real” internet marketers do?

Real internet marketers understand that the internet is basically a huge resource library. They understand that they must provide useful information to their potential customers if they ever want to get noticed and make sales. Real online business people write articles, build websites, maintain active blogs, provide services, build an opt-in list to create relationships with potential customers and create products that solve problems. Read the rest of this entry

For most of us, our computer is not only an amazing business tool, it is also a means of entertainment. Unfortunately, the entertainment has a way of intruding on our online business causing us to waste valuable hours that should be spend productively. Distraction is the number one complaint of people who work from home.

The two biggest time wasters are email and social networking. We all need to use email for our business, but we also stay in touch with family and friends through email. The same goes for social networking. Twitter and Facebook have become a necessity for business marketing and also a big part of our social lives. How often do you go to your Facebook account with the intent to update the status by sharing your latest blog update, but then get caught up in watching a video sent to you by a friend or looking at your friend’s newest baby pictures? The key is to keep your business and personal life separate.

2 Important Tips To Avoid Distraction When You Work From Home

1. Never mix business and personal social accounts. Set up two separate accounts and do not invite friends to join you on your business accounts. During the time you have set aside for work, never login to your personal accounts. This will save you hours of time and remove the temptation to socialize. Not only will it make you more efficient, it will make you look more professional too. Your business clients and associates do not need to know what you did on the weekend, and sometimes you would not want them to know! Read the rest of this entry