In this issue:

1) Tip of the Week

2) FEATURE ARTICLE: New To Ecommerce? What Beginners To Ecommerce Should Know About What It Really Takes To Make Money On The Internet! by Christopher J. Sewell

3) CLASSIFIEDS Traffic Builders Business Opportunities

4) FREE Resources Recommended Reading

5) POWERQUOTE

6) MANAGEMENT MINUTE: What's REALLY Required To Start An Online Home Business? by Gerald Shaw

If you'd like to read previously ran tips and features, go to http://netcheckspayroll.com/newsletter.html

Both of our writers this week have some practical advice for us for setting into motion a methodical, well-thought-out plan to do business on the internet. Here are a few tips from Steve Nash for establishing a daily discipline of promotion:

Promote Your Site Every Day! by Steve Nash

You want traffic at your site, but with so many new websites added every day it isn't easy. The only solution is to promote your site, each and every day...

Here are 7 promotion methods for you to try, one for each day of the week:

--->>> Day 1 - Submit Your Site To A Search Engine

No big surprises with this promotion method. Just submit your site to a new search engine, or blast your website address to hundreds of directories and Free For All (FFA) sites. (Take care with your e-mail address with the FFA sites!) Try to keep a log of just when and where you submit your site.

Link: http://jimtools.com/submit.html

--->>> Day 2 - Post A Newsgroup Discussion

There are newsgroups, bulletin boards or forums on just about every subject imaginable. A good place to start is http://www.deja.com/usenet which allows you to search all of the Usenet newsgroups for a particular term or phrase.

Post a message online, via Deja.com, or offline using Outlook Express (or similar). Follow the forum or newsgroup guidelines, when you start a discussion or answer someone's query. It *is* okay to mention your website in a 2-line signature, though.

--->>> Day 3 - Swap Links With Other Sites

Links make the World Wide Web go around; they also improve your search-engine ranking! One way of achieving lots of links to your site is to swap links with other sites. There is an excellent article on link-swapping at http://www.bannertips.com/howto.shtml but basically:

- Identify sites with similar content to yours - Request a reciprocal link (be polite, and use webmaster's name) - Create a "Links" section on your site and put the links there.

--->>> Day 4 - Write A Testimonial

Writing favourable comments, testimonials, about another website could make you an instant online friend (we all respond well to flattery after all!). This could lead to a link-swap or even a possible joint venture (see Day 6).

Just review their website (or product), and write about the benefits you gain from the site in specific terms (so it sounds like you're actually talking about *their* site). Just be honest and tell them what you like.

--->>> Day 5 - Be An Expert, Have An Opinion

Believe it or not people are interested in what *you* have to say! Several websites are even willing to pay you for your opinion! And we all have an opinion, don't we! Remember, it's good to talk (especially if your listeners then visit your website!).

If you *really know your stuff*, you can become an 'expert' at several sites. You may have to write articles on your subject of expertise, or just answer questions from site-visitors. Either way *you* gain more exposure, and your site gains more exposure too.

Opinion site: http://www.epinions.com Expert site: http://www.askanexpert.com/

--->>> Day 6 - Start A Joint Venture

A joint venture can be as simple as joining an affiliate program. But basically you sponsor another's product and take a share in the profits. Joint ventures can also improve 'site-stickiness'.

You need to:

a) CONTACT webmasters who market similar products/services and ask them if they would be interested in offering yours. Share the profits, and it's a win-win situation. b) PROMOTE another webmasters' product or service (something you believe in) to your subscribers or customers.

--->>> Day 7 - Follow Up!

No new websites to visit here. No new methods of promotion. Just an opportunity to measure the success (or otherwise) of the previous 6-days' efforts. This is a time to follow-up and perhaps plan for the next 6-days.

--->>>And If All Goes Well...

If all goes well then just take a break, but if you're really keen, however, you *could* take a look at some of these other promotion methods too:

* Encourage visitors to bookmark your site * Join a banner-exchange program * Write a press release * Run a competition * Create great content, and allow others to use it * Create an online community

Good luck, Steve Nash

This article is a summary; the full-length article(s) can be viewed online at http://www.shoptour.co.uk/promote_your_site/

Steve Nash is webmaster of Shop Tour UK: "A unique, fun way to browse over 900 secure UK shopping sites" http://shoptour.co.uk

New To Ecommerce? What Beginners To Ecommerce Should Know About What It Really Takes To Make Money On The Internet!

by Christopher J. Sewell, president PROFIT INTERNATIONAL

The biggest challenge you face as you race to put your existing business online or start a business online is where to start first. Most of the business people and entrepreneurs I speak with are simply overwhelmed with the amount of information available on the techniques and strategies required to start, promote and continually profit from a business online.

Although there are many complete Internet marketing courses being sold online (many are very good by the way), these courses are often more beneficial to the business person or entrepreneur who has already started their online business. These people already have a big picture of what they want to sell online and how they want to go about doing it. They just need to fine tune their marketing skills and implement a few advanced marketing techniques to be profitable.

But what if you're a business person who hasn't started yet? What if you have no idea as to where to begin or what direction you should be going?

This is the problem you may be experiencing right now. You don't have a website, you don't have a product, and you haven't yet identified a target marketing with a specific problem that you would like to solve. In short, you don't know where to start first. This report will very quickly and easily show you where to begin. And if you already have an existing business in the traditional world with an existing customer base, this report will help you put your offline business online.

How long will it take? You can be up an running in as little as one month. How long will it take for you to be profitable? Well, that's a tougher question to answer.

You could be profitable in less than 90 days if you follow ALL of the instructions I give you in this report. Or you may never be profitable if you do things the wrong way. And profitable simply means that you are making more money than you are spending. That could be as little as $100 or as much as $10,000 a month. Your success will depend on how quickly you implement and correctly apply the techniques you will learn today.

Before you get too excited about making money on the Internet with your existing offline business or starting a brand new business, don't think for a second this one free report is the answer to being successful on the Internet. This report is only a beginners guide to help you start your online career. It frustrates me to hear people tell me they've spent money on one or two books, read a few free reports they found on the Internet and aren't profitable online yet.

ONE OR TWO BOOKS, AND A FEW FREE REPORTS WILL NOT MAKE YOU A CYBER-SUCCESS!

Yes, you will have to spend money on other books, software and tools to be successful online. I hate to scare you but this report is just the beginning of the education you must spend money on in order to be successful. It simply amazes me how people contact me about how they can build their online business for ZERO dollars or under $200 or something foolish like that. These people want others to spend money on their goods but won't spend money on the goods of others. Let's get real. Making money doesn't go just one way.

You must spend to get. Nuf said...

There is so much for you to learn before you can make money on the Internet. And, it costs money to learn. And just because you have a successful offline business does not mean you can jump online with the same expectations. What you should expect to get from this report is just what I said in the beginning...a logical place to start.

There are 4 basic key components you need to be successful online. Just using these 4 key components can help you build a profitable online business in 90 days or less. You don't need all those fancy advanced marketing techniques at this point (that often confuse people) to be profitable online. Here's what you do need:

* A HOT PRODUCT - You need to find or create one of the hottest products you can sell online today. And the best product to sell online is a "how-to" informational product. Whether you have an expertise or not, it's easy to find or create a 50+ page "how-to" manual that will sell like wildfire on the Internet. You can begin your quest for an informational product to sell by joining an affiliate program. The best affiliate directories to check out are http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/ and http://www.refer-it.com/ .

* A WEBSITE DESIGNED TO SELL - You must design a website that is designed to sell. Every word, every graphic must lead your visitor to ultimately buy your product. It's almost impossible to tell you in this small little space how to design a website that sells. What you can do is get Ken Evoy's "Make Your Site Sell". Details can be found at http://www.ProfitInternational.com/sitesell/

* BUILD HIGH AMOUNTS OF TRAFFIC - Traffic divides the women from the girls and the men from the boys. Without traffic you're dead in the water. Traffic brings you customers. Traffic is like oxygen. Without it you die. The best ways to build traffic is by submitting articles to ezines, getting your website listed in the major Internet directories, like: Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com), Looksmart (http://www.looksmart.com), and Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org). You can check out what the people at Search Engine Watch (http://www.searchenginewatch) have to say about driving traffic to your website using search engines.

* AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER (EZINE) FOR LONG-TERM PROFITS - Once you have the above components working for you, you'll need to create and promote what's called an ezine. This dandy little tool helps to bring in additional profits, month after month, year in and year out. And it's very simple to create and promote. A good resource for learning email marketing and developing your ezine is Dr. Jeffrey Lants "Email Eldorado". Details at http://www.ProfitInternational.com/catalog/eldorado.htm

That's all you need to do to be profitable online. The next step is for you to begin. Find or develop a "how-to" informational product. Design a website that sells. Drive traffic to that site, and then create an ezine for long-term profits.

Ready...set...go!

----------------

About this Author

Christopher J. Sewell loves showing beginners how to make money on the Internet. Need some valuable tips to help you get your online business going fast? You'll find tons of great internet marketing tips at http://www.beginnersguidetoecommerce.com/cgi/at.cgi?a=137833 Let Profit International send you a check EVERY month just for placing a simple link at your website. Details at http://www.beginnersguidetoecommerce.com/cgi/at.cgi?a=137833&e=affiliate and http://www.mlmsecretsexposed.com/124455/

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"All human beings are born with the same creative potential. Most people squander theirs away on a million superfluous things. I expend mine on one thing and one thing only: my art."

- Pablo Picasso

Questions to Ponder

How do I use my potential, creative or otherwise?

What can I do today to better realize, use or enhance my unique potentials?

Copyright the Discian Group from the Powerquotes ezine. See http://discian.com/powerquote.htm for more information.

What's REALLY Required To Start An Online Home Business?

by Gerald Shaw

Everywhere I turn on the Internet, there's someone trying to sell me something.

People are being suckered into spending literally thousands of dollars on info products, unnecessary software and "killer marketing tools" that will supposedly increase your online revenue.

Unfortunately, 95% of Internet businesses fail within the first year due to their misinformed marketing advice, strategies, and lack of directional support.

Here it is... once and for all, the REAL list of Internet essentials. What you TRULY need in order to succeed online with the minimum of investment.

1) Desire. It starts with the goal in mind which pumps adrenaline around your body every time you visage what the future has in store for you. Every time you think about success, you need to KNOW that you have the ability to achieve it. And you will.

2) Motivation. You have the goal, but what about the drive? Where's the tenacity to keep you going? Keep 100% dedicated at all times. Whenever you have a lazy moment, you need to visualize your goals in order to stay on track and not drift off course.

3) Time. Lots of it. If you're under the false illusion that just an hour a day will be enough to turn your dreams into a reality, then you're going to be waiting a heck of a long time to achieve them. I've worked from 6 am till 11 pm many times dedicating myself to the Internet... this is not "get rich quick". Only effort produces success.

4) Your own PC computer system (or equivalent) connected to the Internet. You need to have access to a phone line at all times so you can dial-up and do some work online whenever you need to.

Keep one machine just for work, and try not to let your friends or children use it for other purposes. After all, it's your business machine and the data you have on it will be very important.

5) Knowledge. I'm not talking about an academic education, I'm talking about real-world business knowledge that you can put to use. Do you know how to register your business? How about dealing with tax issues and book keeping? And how much do you actually know about the Internet?

Do you know how it works... how to develop your own website... how to automate your online income... how to market your products/services effectively?

This can be scary for the average person.

I made the mistake of putting my impatience before my research and making a pigs-ear of myself when I realised I knew nothing about accounting or keeping business records. Don't make the same mistake.

6) A definite plan. Many people just have money on their mind and think constantly cycling through affiliate programs and other opportunities will produce success for them. I can tell you from experience that only the people with sure-fire plans ever succeed.

After all, how can you end up where you want to be if you don't even know how you're going to get there?

7) Your own business model. Many people say for true financial independence you need your own products or services. I say that's rubbish. Instead, what's more important is you have your own *Business Model*.

What I mean is a definite model that you'll work with. If you can successfully market "on the shelf" sites and integrate your affiliate alliances, then there's no reason why you can't produce just as much success.

What's important is that you have a plan to stick to, a business model to work from and a good idea on how you're going to get there. It's common sense.

8) Products or services to sell. These can either be your own, or an existing product line that plugs in well into your own business model. You should give your website model a theme (for instance, golf) and then you may find that other sites exist that can supply the products you require for your own website.

Alternatively, your website may be geared towards another sales vehicle (such as advertising revenue) which will require your own unique plan for success.

9) Your own domain name. You can get a domain for approx. $11 from Joker.com now and hooked up to a web hosting company for less than $20 a month. Why would you put your own professionalism in jeopardy for the sake of less than 200 bucks a year?

Even if you don't use your website as a direct sales vehicle, it'll provide you with a new professional foundation needed to effectively start your business.

10) Money. I won't lie to you, you're not going to get anywhere without at least some investment. It may not have to be a lot (depending on your business model). I started with $500 and now can produce that back every single day online. But joining a free affiliate program with your free URL won't get you anywhere. Just like a "real world" business, there are certain overhead costs that just can't be avoided.

11) Common sense. It's amazing how many people seem to lack this. They join a free affiliate program, grab a free website and promote on search engines and newsgroups... using spam and FFA links, then wonder why they're not yet rich. Here the truth:

The Internet is a communication's medium and nothing more. The rules of good business practice still apply, the only difference is that the economy has changed and introduced the potential for much greater success through ease and cost efficiency of customer reach and the ability to use technology in a big, big way.

You still need to think and act like a business. This one point, unless fully grasped, causes most failure.

12) Contacts. As you go down the route of success you'll network with many people and develop contacts in the industry. If it wasn't for a small group of people I was fortunate to meet along the way, I wouldn't have made so many profitable business alliances. Network, network, network! Once known, your name will be said with respect.

There you go, my "12 points of success". Of course there are MANY individual sub-topics (which is what makes Internet marketing so huge) like good website design, the right marketing knowledge, the ability to put technology to use, etc. But it's up to you to learn these aspects.

With the desire to succeed, the constant motivation and the willingness to learn, you're limited only by your own mind. Success awaits, you just have to know how to grab it.

=========

Want to hear something crazy? The author of this article, Gerald Shaw, turned his crack-pot marketing skepticism into a $200K per year venture! Learn how for free by contacting him directly: mailto:garyAGME@GetResponse.com

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