The Various Types of Website Monetization

If you have a website of your own that attracts a reasonable number of visitors, you could consider turning the website into a money making venture. Website monetization is the process of earning money through your website or blog by taking advantage of the traffic your page attracts. By using various techniques, you will be able to transform a simple page into a money making venture. It is an extremely attractive option for a vast number of people due to extremely low capital requirements.

There are numerous ways of monetizing your website. You can advertise the services and products of a company or even sell products of your own. Marketing your website is not an extremely time consuming task and you can either do it yourself, or hire the services of a professional.

Here is a look at some popular methods of website monetization.

Banner ads

Banners are colorful images which are extremely effective at attracting the attention of visitors to your page. They are much larger than text ads since the idea is to get the attention of the reader. Whenever the ad is clicked by a visitor, you will get paid. These days, banners come in a variety of sizes and shapes. This allows you to be creative with their placement, without making your page look too crowded.

Pay per Click

Pay per click is by far one of the most common ways of website monetization and Google AdSense is an extremely popular PPC service. After registering with a firm that deals with pay per click advertising, you will be given links, buttons, etc. which you can use on your website. These links generate advertisements which are related to the content of your page. When visitors click on these ads, they are redirected to an external website. The provider will track the number of clicks that have been made, and pay you at a predetermined rate.

Pay per Impression

This type of website monetization is pretty similar to pay per click. Instead of earning revenue by getting visitors to click on an ad, you will be paid as long as people see the ad. For it to be effective, you have to make sure that you place the advertisement along with relevant text content. Every time the page is viewed, you will earn income.

Data monetization

Even if you don't have quality articles on your website or products and services to sell, you can still make money by generating information. For example, there are various utilities you can use, along with surveys and questionnaires, to catalog information about your visitors such as their demographics and preferences. This information can be sold to companies who are involved in internet marketing research.

Affiliate marketing

If your website has content which is related to the products of services of another firm, you could consider affiliate marketing. You act like a middleman and provide companies' access to potential buyers. You usually get paid a fixed commission, when sales are accomplished through your site.

Make sure that you do proper research before implementing a website monetization technique.




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8050007

Internet and Businesses Online: Site Promotion Article Category

Why Do Trust Seals Work?

There really is not debate anymore among eCommerce specialists that Trust Seals increase sales and conversion rates. If you look at the list for the top 500 internet retailers most of them have at least one Trust Seal on their sites, many of them have multiple trust seals.

The reason is they have read the market research on the subject, and have done the A+B testing and realized that the increase in sales and conversion rates from having the seal is many times higher than the cost of the seal.

The question of why do they work is a little more complex, and it may be better answered by a psychologist than a e-commerce conversion specialist but I will try.

The key to trust seals is 3rd party verification. If you go to the store and the merchant behind the counter tells you this is a great product you are going to be skeptical, but if the guy in the line behind you says "I bought that last week and it is a great product."

Who are you going to believe? In this scenario the merchant selling the product should be the most knowledgeable about the product, but most people would give more weight to the guy in the line. Partly because that person has no financial interest in making the sale, partly because the guy behind you has given you 3rd party verification

3rd party verification is a powerful thing. It is the reason eCommerce sites have testimonials and customer reviews, and show how many likes from Facebook pages. People are skeptical about anything said on a website and after being constantly being bombarded with sales lingo they tend to ignore it. They need more.

In the early days of the internet exit polls showed that the main thing keeping people from buying, was they didn't trust the site. Is this site secure? Was the question these early shoppers were asking. Today's internet shopper is much more sophisticated, they still have questions that need to be answered. Today's exit polls show that the most common question has changed. Is this a good deal? Is what your shoppers want to know. If you want to get the best conversion rates and most sales you need to answer that question.

3rd party verification can still help. There is a new "Discount Seller Trust Seal" this new type of trust seals assures your visitors that you really do offer discounted prices on your website, and answers the question your users are asking.

If you're not a brand name site, you have to make sure you provide enough information that people will believe that you can do or deliver on what you promise.

A trust seal alone will not do that, you also should be adding testimonials, industry awards and memberships, product reviews, and social network follower counts along with the new Discount Seller Trust Seal. The end result better conversions and sales.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8053727

 

Building a Direct Sales Business

Consider using a virtual assistant team! Are you building a direct sales business successfully? How much time do you waste on administrative tasks during your week? Wouldn't you be better off utilizing your talents in some other business building function - like speaking - and leaving the timely tasks to a professional team?

We asked direct sales top producers to share some of the tasks that they have used when building direct sales business and what they have done to streamline their processes. These are a few ideas that you may want to consider for your own business:

Email management, including branding signatures and utilizing blog posts in those signatures;
Event and meeting planning having someone else handle all invitations, scheduling and venue selection;
Online training webinars: Create an on-line team training center so your down-line can duplicate your efforts and your team strategy to build their businesses;
On-line database to streamline the sales funnel process, from new leads from your free giveaway through to the follow-up and sign-on process;
Online meeting forum for their direct sales team so there is a secure and quiet forum to communicate and share ideas.
The list goes on, but let's explore some of these ideas for building a direct sales business. Open your mind and think outside the box. Let's go into some of the details!

Email branding through an on-line service, such as BrandMyMail enables you to create a consistent presence with your prospects. Building a direct sales business by creating your own team brand. Don't just insert the same email signature. Utilize one of the powerful email branding services to pull in your social profiles and share your latest blog posts. If someone isn't interested the first time they get your email - one of your blog posts or a sales item that you are featuring may entice them to give you a call.

Event and meeting planning, so that you can schedule several months out and have venues pre-selected. This gives you and your team a "plug and play" feel. The same meeting format every time, the same types of venues, repeatable. More often we are hearing that people don't have the room in their homes or they don't want to invite strangers to their house. Create a relationship with your local hotel that will possibly give you discounts if you have several repetitive events in that forum.

Consider building Webinar training events and having them available online so that you don't have to be at the meetings in person. These training Webinars can be offered for your downline teams so that you are creating a duplicate-able format that everyone can utilize - foul-proof.

Create an on-line database through a cloud-based service that is only accessible by members you want to give access to. This can be a way to track first, second and third touches, meetings, follow-up processes and anything else you need to track as a sales leader. Again, a duplicate-able process and a great way to save you time and help when building a direct sales business successfully.

Finally, building an online forum for your team that can be accessed privately. If you don't have the resources for an expensive online intranet, there are capabilities within social media forums where you can create private areas for your group members to share ideas, consult on challenges and begin building solid team relationships.

Building a direct sales business empire. No one said it would be easy... but it can be simple if you open your mind to the possibilities.

What are some other ways you can think of to expand your direct sales business? Share your ideas with us so we can learn from each other.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7535431

Direct Sales Recruiting - My Top 5 Tips On Where To Find New Team Members

If you are with one of the Direct Sales companies, I am sure you know all about how important it is to add new team members to your home business. When you build a successful downline team, you will make a certain percentage of your team's sales, which adds to your income stream.

As someone who has worked in Direct Sales since 1989, I thought I would share some of my best tips on where I find my newly recruited team members.

1. At The Party: My number one source of adding new members to my business has been when I have recruited them from a home party. During the party presentation, I drop numerous hints about how fabulous it is to work from home with ABC company. At the end of my presentation, I always spend a few in depth minutes talking about the home business opportunity with the attendees.

2. At Offline Networking Events: My number two source for adding new members to my home business has been when I have attended local home business networking events. When you attend these events, you are meeting and greeting with other like-minded home business professionals who are interested in you and the type of business that you represent.

3. On Online Social Media Networks: My number three source for adding new members to my home business has been when I have ran advertisements on various online social media networking sites. These advertisements can be text ads or graphic ads and both have been effective for me. When I run ads on these networking sites, I try to target people who I think would be interested in my business. For the most part, I target stay at home moms.

4. On Online Work At Home Web Sites: My number four source for finding new members to add to my team has been through text ads or graphic ads that I have placed on various online work at home mom or stay at home mom web sites. These type of web sites attract the type of people who are most likely to join a Direct Sales business.

5. In Print Offline Media Publications: My number five source for finding new members to add to my team has been from classified advertisements that I have ran in various local print publications. To be honest, I don't get much of a response from newspaper ads. However, when I place print ads in regional magazines, I have gotten a great response.

Well...there you have it! These are the top 5 places where I find new members to recruit into my home business opportunity. No matter where you decide to advertise your business, you always need to make sure that you are targeting the type of people who are most likely to be interested in the type of business that you represent.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5729565

Where to Find Super-Qualified Leads for Your Network Marketing/Direct Sales Business

Finding super-qualified leads for your home based business is a lot easier than you might think. The most important key to your success is to first get crystal clear on WHO you want to find. Who are your MOST ideal prospects? Although many different kinds of people may buy your product or join your business, trying to sell or recruit "everyone" is an impossible task. Your business building efforts will be too unfocused with this shot-gun approach. You'll waste valuable time, tripping around trying to sell or sponsor everyone who comes across your path, and not gain traction in any particular direction.

That changes when you narrow your focus and go after a well-defined 'target market' - prospects who are the perfect fit for you, your products and your business opportunity. Your target market could be comprised of baby boomers, stay at home moms, college kids, realtors, health and wellness professionals, teachers, nurses or others. You get to decide which group is right for you and your business. (If you aren't clear on this yet - see my previous article on choosing your ideal prospects).

Once you know WHO you are looking for, it will become a lot easier to know WHERE to find these leads. You'll be able to create a plan to connect with hundreds (even thousands) of your exact targeted group, and start building out your network. Here are some of the best places to start:

1. Live Networking

This approach is probably not new to you, but this tried and true method of prospecting is still the most effective. Nothing beats getting out and meeting people, face to face, to create the kind of solid relationships that can lead to new business.

What can make a big difference in your results, however, is WHERE you are networking live. Instead of schlepping to your nearest leads group, take some time to research your area, and find the group(s) where you are going to find your target market. (This way, you'll only be 'fishing' in the places where you'll find the exact prospects you are after).

Here are some great resources that can help with your research:

* Le Tip Leads Group

* Business Networking International

* US Women's Chamber of Commerce

* EWomen Network

* CraigsList

* Chamber of Commerce (they often have a ton of great info on business related groups in your city, etc)

* Community Clubs (such as the Rotary Club, Lions, PTA, or Elks Club)

* The Business Journal - most of the major cities in the US publish a "business journal" (like the San Diego Business Journal, Miami Business Journal, etc) which list all the major business groups and networking events for your area. You can find more info here:

* Social Clubs. Search on-line to find more socially geared clubs (like mom's groups, singles groups, investment groups, ski clubs, triathalon clubs, etc) which might also be great places to find your specific prospects.

Ideally, look for the groups most closely connected to your target market. If you are looking to recruit more moms into your team, search out the local PTA or "Mommy and Me" groups in your area. If you are looking for baby boomers or business professionals, you may want to check your local golf clubs or country clubs to see what social groups they offer.

2. Use Social Media to Find Hundreds of Leads On-Line

With so many people plugging into the internet these days, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and others are fast becoming hot places to meet new prospects. The major advantage to all of these sites is they make it fairly easy to find large groups of your ideal prospects, so you don't have to find people one at a time. Here are some tips to help you navigate the on-line ocean.

Facebook: Do a search for your ideal prospect (in the search bar at the top of their website) to find the groups or pages that exist for your market.

Looking for a stay at home mom? Put those words in the search bar, and you'll find plenty of groups, 'fan pages' and even blogs where hundreds of these women are already gathering.

Do the same for realtors, chiropractors, lawyers, baby boomers, financial planners, small business owners, or just about any other target market you can think of, and I know you find several places these kinds of people are gathering on Facebook.

Besides searching for your target market by name - ask yourself, "WHO would my ideal prospects follow?" For example, there are thousands of stay-at-home-mom's connected to Oprah's page on Facebook and even more on her Twitter profile. You can connect to Oprah's page, and start networking and creating relationships with the many moms you'll find here. Looking for people into fitness and wellness? Check out the triathalon or yoga groups and pages.

Think outside the box and think strategically! What topics would be of interest to your target market? Facebook currently has over 700 million users globally, so you can bet your ideal prospects are on here, and they aren't too difficult to find.

Twitter: Do a similar approach on Twitter, and you'll find more of your ideal prospects/target market here. Use http://www.Twellow.com to extend your search further (this directory is a virtual 'yellow pages' for 'Twitter').

LinkedIn: This is an amazing site if your target market is from the corporate world or a business professional. As with the other sites, you can search and join groups made up of hundreds of your ideal prospects, and expand your network quickly.

*An Important Note: When networking in the social media sphere, do NOT simply join a group or page, and then start blasting sales-y messages about your products or business. You'll not only turn people off, you'll likely be removed from many of these groups.

The best approach on all these social media platforms is to connect with new people, add value in whatever ways you can (sharing ideas, resources, articles, etc) and build relationships. Ideally, if you have a great free offer that relates to your business (a sample of your products, helpful ideas on your blog or website, etc) you can use this as a way to attract attention and direct some of your connections to your own business website.

3. Attend Expos & Tradeshows For Your Target Market

Attending conferences or tradeshows gives you the opportunity to do some very "leveraged" networking, and the possibility of meeting hundreds of people in your exact target market. It's quite astonishing how many different kinds of people or demographics have their own formal "association" and conferences or tradeshows connected to them.

Build a "Life Network" vs Just a "Business Network"

When looking for leads for your network marketing and direct sales business, I encourage you to keep this intention in mind; rather than just building a network for your business, consider building a large "life network" instead.

A "life network" is a network of people who you just enjoy having in your life. This would include your friends, family, and all the new contacts you'll be making along the way.

Imagine how fun it can be add 300 or 400 new friends to your rolodex in the next year or so, and how having access to some new, interesting people will enrich your life?

This approach takes the stress out of having to sell or sponsor everyone you meet, and will make your networking a lot more fun. Having a large network of any kind is a huge asset, and one that can definitely generate new business too.

As people get to know you, like you and trust you, you'll naturally attract new customers and business partners from within this group. By putting your focus on relationships first (business second) you'll be a lot more attractive to others, and promoting your products and business will come more naturally.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7106473

Direct Sales Website Promotion - Ditch Your Company's Duplicated Website If You Want to Succeed!

Never had a person been so excited at the prospect of getting their own personal website like I was when I first enrolled in a direct selling company! If you looked at the goals I had set for myself, it was very evident to that I knew something of the effectiveness of website optimization in attracting what I thought would be a sea of customers coming from Google, Yahoo and MSN to my site and purchasing loads of products.

My thought process was rather simplistic at the time. I did not quite grasp the nature of website ranking on google, you PR and the like and neither did I count this as a factor that would directly impact my business. All I could see in my minds eye was that people interested in a business would simply find me through a Google search and singing up under me. After all that is how I came to meet my personal mentor, coach and friend Ann Sieg - The Renegade Network Marketer!

The startling truth became very apparent at the realization all I had was but a dummy site and the only visitor in my oodles of traffic was none other that faithful me checking in everyday to see if I had made a sale.

Let me Share with you the major problem of the free website templates that your company provides:

1. Duplicate Content: Any website marketing guru can detail with amazing clarity the negative effects of similar content on your website ranking. Search engines like people like the allure of the new. Nobody likes day old news. And that is exactly what your company replicated website is, day old news multiplied by the number of hundreds of thousands of other direct sales representatives in your beloved company!

Simple. Search engines hate duplicate content, so they only rank a few of the sites highly, and the rest are buried deep down in Google purgatory never to be found or stumbled upon accidentally!

2. Poor website optimization. I spoke at length to a lady who was working on her meta tags. When I asked if she knew what a meta tag was, she said no. And I wondered how she could be working on something that she didn't know about. Have you ever thought or wondered to yourself how come no one finds you online? Have you put in a couple of key phrases associated with your company and each time your parent company always seems to pop up while you are no where to be found? Lovely meta-tags, these a descriptive titles, keywords ad phrases that potential business partners and customers type in order to find what they need! It behooves you to learn what people are looking for, where they are looking for it and how they look for it. Why? So you can strategically position yourself in the eye of the storm so to speak, the storm of a flood of traffic of people who want to do business with you!

3.Fear. Yes many when asked about their attraction to the free websiste cite the following challenges: 
* I do now know how to build a website as being their number one obstacle to getting a personal small business website.

Bill Gate, CEO of Microsoft indicated that in the new millennium there would be two kinds of businesses, "those that have websites and those that are out of business!" So currently you are really not in business are you?

4. People are done, sick and tired of dealing with nameless, faceless corporate entities. The most popular websites and coming to mind are Seth Godin's Blog and the Stuff White People Like which have each won best websites award and in fact the latter made a nice profit. These websites have one thing in common they are personal to the owner, not generic to an industry. You have heard if you do not stand for something you will fall for anything correct? Well I am here to tell you that If you do not stand up and above the crowd you will fall flat on your face! People love to buy. People love to buy from those they know, like and trust! A website will allow you to brand yourself as a credible source of information and a person we can trust to do business with. No one likes cookie cutter templates! Show your unique self on your website!

5. Too often visitors to company website are bombarded with sales pitcthes, bombastic presentations and proof of overnight riches from automated systems. The Direct sales model of business is really not as competitive as they would like you to think. Our model of business is about building relationships. The website is the system, think of it as the door if you will that invites, nay, compels your visitors to venture in, look around. I rarely if ever walk into a store where I do not buy a trinket once I have a good view of what the establishment offers! Your website allows you to start building on the relationship so that you can eventually start capitalizing on the relationship.

You may not win the most popular websites award, and you may not be the best at website design but know this If people don't find your business on the Web, they will certainly find a Website of one of your competitors!

Party Plan Pat is the Author of 10 Deadly Home Party Plan Business Mistakes, Home Party Plan Success Tips - a blog focused solely on imparting marketing wisdom to home party consultants. She is also the creator of the Little Black Book Of Home Party Plan Marketing Success System designed to catapault direct sales profits using new technologies and Methods.

Of what worth is the success of your business to you? Patricia Makhulo offers a practical guide to achieving financial freedom. This is the official how to guide for you to gain control of your business growth and profits, to generating massive income. Put yourself on the positive cash-flow track... with virtually no selling! Learn how to take control of your business. You are worth what you say you are, Don't Delay. Cash In - You Deserve It!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1731285

7 Steps to Starting your Internet Business

Regardless of what type of internet business you plan to start, the process is the same. Once you've set up your business, there are some steps that you can eliminate, like your start up. However, if you follow the other steps repeatedly, you can generate mulitiple streams of income, which will increase your profits.

1. Set Up Your New Business
When you first decide to start your business online, there are several things you need to do.

First, you need to choose an accounting system and open a bank account. You need to keep your money for your business separate from your personal accounts for purposes of accountability.

You can choose either a single entry or double entry accounting program. If you live in the US, single entry is recommended.

2. Choose Your Product
The products or services you choose to market on the internet will depend on what your interests are, how much money you have to get started, and whether or not there is a market for what you want to sell.

You can choose to create your own product, join an MLM, promote affiliate products, or offer your services.

3. Write Your Unique Selling Proposition
You want to make your business different from your competitors. The easiest way to do this is to decide what makes your business different.

When writing your USP, decide who your ideal customer is, how your product will benefit that customer, and what makes your product better than your competitors.

If you understand these things, you'll have a stronger focus in your business, and you're more likely to make the sale because you'll focus your energies where your actual market is.

4. Build a Website
Once you've taken the first three steps, it's time to build a website.

Do your keyword research. Focus on keywords that are popular but don't have a lot of competition.

You can build either a direct response site or a content site.

With a direct response site, you'll basically build a website that's a sales letter.

A content site will be more varied. You can include news, product reviews, articles, a FAQ, and interactive elements like a forum or discussion group.

The possibilities with this type of site are endless. Since the internet is an information driven media, you're more likely to find success with a site that is tightly targeted to a niche, with lots of content and interactivity.

5. Write Your Marketing Plan
Once you've built your website, it's time to decide how you want to market your new site.

During this stage, you'll gather your marketing tools, as well as decide what methods you use.

Examples of ways to market your website are: press releases, writing articles, posting on forums, posting to safelists, etc.

Once you've decided how you want to market, bookmark those sites where you will market.

6. Promote your new business 
Once you've written your marketing plan, you'll need to write your promotional materials and then send them out.

Testing and tracking are key here to see how your marketing is doing.

This way, you can make adjustments and discard marketing methods that don't work for you.

Consistency is also important, and you'll need to market on a regular basis.

7. Maintain your new business
Once you've completed the first six steps, you'll want to apply the 60/30/10 rule of maintaining your new business.

If you sell products, sixty percent of your time will be spent marketing. Thirty percent will be spent on product development, and ten percent will be spent doing administrative tasks like answering email and keeping your business records.

If you sell services, you'll spend sixty percent of your time doing your service and thirty percent of your time marketing.

Keep in mind that regardless of whether you sell products or services, marketing is an integral part of your success.

Once you've created a successful business, then repeat the steps. You'll see more success for years to come.

by Jinger Jarrett

http://goarticles.com/article/7-Steps-to-Starting-your-Internet-Business/152839/