Online Business Questions Revealed

The word blog comes from the term weblog, web and log. It is a place anyone can post their comments, articles, videos, and just about anything at all.

The idea behind blogs has been around for a very long time, better known as CMS (Content Management System) but these systems were very difficult for most folks to use and set up. They took a big learning curve and most didn’t want to go through this.

Blogs are chronological diaries; starting with the newest post of the day showing first. Many bloggers post at least once a day and some post multiple times a day. Each post usually has a “permalink” (a URL which always links to the post), but the blog itself has a constant URL, and the content of that URL is always changing.

Blogs are also a type of social interaction, with comments being left and a group of readers springing up around them. This can make marketing efforts far more personal and accessible to potential customers.

With blogs it is much easier and faster to get set up and going and anyone can do this.

Blogs can and are being used for many different things today. Teenagers are even getting in on this concept since it is so easy to set up and start using immediately.

Today marketers online have found that having a blog helps them with their promotions and building a following of loyal followers. Their income increases and they build respect within their market.

As a marketer should you have a blog? YES!!

If you are just starting out and building a list, I would highly recommend that you start out with a simple blog with an op-in form on it. You do not have to start out with a website and the hassles and costs of building a website.

Another good reason why a marketer should use a blog is for search engines. Search engines such as Google love blogs as they are updated frequently with good content. But don’t get carried away and update your blog all day long, Google will slap you for that. Making one post a day is enough to get your blog noticed and ranked by Google.

Bogs may also use a “TrackBack” system that allows the visitor to see who has written the original post and any other entry concerning it.

I would not recommend your blog be your main focus, unless you totally understand how they work and how to add plug ins and other resources into them. The use of blogs for online marketing is best used as a tool to bring in visitors and give them good quality content so they will return often and check out other posts and click on some of your links.

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Making money online seems to be everyone’s’ dreams today. They are tired of the old 9 to 5 jobs, the commuting back and forth, and never getting ahead financially or emotionally.

When it comes to making money online there are a few things you must consider.

1. Is it something you can do
2. What type of business do you want to start
3. Have you done your research for your market place
4. Do you have the skills needed
5. Will you have to pay a lot of money to get help

One thing to remember as you venture out online, is time is money, and money is time. You have to be willing to give up one or the other and sometimes both. Don’t just decide this is what I want to do and not have a laid out plan of attack.

The first and most important place for you to start is with training. Find yourself a good mentor, someone you can follow and relate to.

There are certain steps all online businesses take, and the first step is to build a good responsive list of clientele. You can do this without a product or service set up. Setup a simple squeeze page to bring in visitors to sign up to your list by offering them something of value for free.

Build trust with this list as time goes by, by providing good quality information and products that will help them solve a problem they are having. This will build your relationship with them and they will begin to look at you as an expert within your market.

Starting out it is strongly recommended that you use affiliate products, this is simply selling other people’s products for a cut of the cost, known as a commission. This can get you up and earning an income right a way, without the hassle of having your own products or website yet.

By starting out with affiliate products/programs you will get a feel of how the system works without having to spend tons of cash up front and the headaches that go along with it.

Education is the key to a successful marketer. Learn all you can learn as you go along, but do not get overwhelmed with all this information. Make a list of what you know how to do, build a website, find affiliate products, and writing copy that sells.

If you have issues with any of these, consider finding people who have these skills and either stick up a deal with them or pay them to do it for you.

Making money online isn’t as hard as most people think it is, but it does take time and a learning curve.

Dr Smiley
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Today starting out as an affiliate has become more and more popular. Using services such as ClickBank, PayDotCom, and others is a great way to start earning an income.

Using ClickBank is one of the first places anyone should start out with. They are free to get started and very easy to set up and starting making a commission.

The steps you need to take to get started are easy enough:

1. Go to ClickBank and sign up as an affiliate – free and takes less than 5 minutes
2. Go to their marketplace and find a good quality product to promote.
3. Get your affiliate link for the product and just start promoting it.

Easy enough eh? But there are some things to keep in mind when you do this.

Do your research!!

Make sure this is a product people are looking for and willing to pay for. Learn how ClickBank works and how it pays out commissions.

One of the reasons most marketers like to use ClickBank is because they don’t need their own website to get started. The owner of the product/service has this already set up for you; you just need to promote the link.

But keep in mind you are building the owners list and not yours. Something to consider if you are going to use any affiliate product/program is to set up your own simple website with an op-in form. Once they op-in for more information, you can send them to your affiliate website now. This method does 2 things for you, it builds your list and you are earning a commission at the same time.

Another good aspect of ClickBank is if you already have your own product/service you can sign up with them as have others promoting your stuff. This frees you up to worrying about having to build websites for affiliates and paying them, ClickBank does this for you. All you need to do is sign up as a publisher and start selling your products/services, there is a one time setup fee of $50 to get set up. But when you look at the income it will bring you it is well worth the investment.

Dr Smiley
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When it comes to building your online business, on of the most important things all business owners do is build their list. This is the core of any business owners business is their list.

If you ask any online entrepreneur today, if they had to start all over where would they start? They would all tell you that they would start out with building their list of prospect.

The money IS IN the list!

Building your list is easy if you know the proper steps to take and then understand the process.

Process of building your list:

1. Create a 2 page website known as a squeeze page. One is your main site where visitors will sign up; the other page is your thank you page.
2. Get a way to keep these visitors information in a safe place. An auto responder service is the best to use.
3. Create a few messages in your auto responder thanking them for joining your list. Always offer valuable information and products to them
4. Write to your list regularly. It is said that a prospect needs to see the same offer at least 7 times before they will purchase anything. Keep this in mind when you are writing your messages.
5. Do Not hard sell your prospects. Keep your messages to the point and at the end of some of your messages add in a little note if they liked this information, then they should get this.

It’s really this easy to do; there isn’t much effort here to start building a list of reliable prospects once you understand the process. The problem most beginners find is that some of the steps are difficult for them. Such as building the 2 page website, they struggle here when there is no reason for it. There are lots of places online today that offer to show you how to build a simple website with a form on it.

Don’t let technical things get in your way to building your list. Find someone who can build the sites, set up the auto responders, and write good copy for you, if these are some of your stumbling blocks.

Some of these places can cost you a lot of money if you don’t research what is out there. If you are on a tight budget, then consider doing an exchange with someone.

List building is the number one place everyone needs to start when it comes to building an online business. Take what is said here and take action today!!

Dr Smiley

Does your website stand out from the others in your market?

There was time when fancy animation and flash were real big and everyone went out and put that on their websites, hoping to stand out from the crowd.

Things have definitely changed since then. Even the color of your text and your background make a big impact on how people see your website.

It’s important to understand these concepts Before you set out to build your website. Plan it carefully.

Here are some basic things you should keep in mind:

1. Do Not put flash and animation on your website! This has become to annoy visitors! Most nowadays won’t even stay at a website that has flash on it. And unless you know how to do it properly flash and animation take a very long time load. People today are in a hurry and won’t wait around for it to load

2. I’ve seen websites with all kinds of backgrounds and some are nice and fit the market the owner is with. But there have been some that are just plain ugly and make me leave. Be sure to keep your background image or color to what your market will appreciate

3. The text area is another big issue with some websites. You do not want to have a black background and then red or yellow text colors. This makes it very hard on the eyes and you need to consider who is visiting your site, do they have difficulties reading, are they older? The best combination so far is to keep your text area white with black text, this is the easiest to read through for most people. For important information you want to make sure some sees, make that text a bit bigger than the rest. Also, you should always have the size of your text set to 12 this will also make things easier to read.

4. Images, I have seen some pretty badly placed images, and some images that just don’t have anything at all to do with the market. Make sure you are using images properly. Do not make them very big, remember the size of most computer screens is 1024 with 32 bit settings. So keep you images within size, like around 800pixels this makes things easier for your visitor. Be sure that your visitors don’t have to move left to right to see your pages.

5. With videos there is a right and wrong way to go about putting videos on your website. Most do not want to go to a website and get blared out by the audio or video immediately. If you must have your video or audio start as soon as someone lands on your website, make sure that you have a pause or stop button in plain site and easy to find so they can turn it off if they choose. Keep your audio and videos down to about 2 minutes, so they can also read your website without spending a lot of time there.

6. If you are planning on selling products on your website, make sure that you place the buy buttons in easy to find plain site so there is no mistake as to what you want them to do and why. Also tell them exactly what to expect and when, so there is no confusion on what will happen once they purchase something from you. Place a call to action link in several places on your website also, this will entice them to purchase.

7. If your website is just for list building, make sure that is all that is on your website. Do not put anything else on there but an opt in form. If there is more than one action, your visitor might get confused and just leave even though they might of wanted your report or ebook or whatever you were offering.

These are just a few of the things you need to keep in mind when planning your website. If you do then your visitors will have a pleasant time visiting and will remember you and possibly tell their friends about your website and come back again.

Using auto responders is a must for all online businesses today. But do you actually know how to use them properly?

The first thing you need of course is an auto responder service, such as Aweber, this is what I use and have found them to be very good and reliable.

Once you have your account log into the members area and set things up.

Here are a few simple steps to setting up your auto responder.

1.Find your settings tab and see that your information is in there properly. Your from email address, your name, your contact information such as physical address, phone number, etc..
2.Make sure your website link is in place
3.You should always request verification from your subscriber
4.Set up your messages. You don’t have to start out with a lot of messages just start out with a welcome email. You can add more messages later. Make sure you DO NOT hard sell yet, it takes up to 7 times for a person to see something, and most people don’t like to be pitched at, so keep your message more to the benefits and what’s in it for your subscriber
5.There is usually always different forms you can use – one that is one your website, a pop up, exit pop up, slide in, check with your auto responder service to see which ones they offer. Aweber has all these a few more, so depending on your market will depend on which one works best.

The best way to use an auto responder is to build your marketing list no matter what type of market you are in.

Using an auto responder for hard selling anything is not a good idea, you should be using your auto responder for building a relationship with your list of subscribers. This will benefit you and them in the long run.

By using your auto responder the proper way by following the steps above, you will build a good reliable list of followers that will look forward to your messages and offers. This will mark you as an expert within your market and they will be more willing to purchase from you.

Dr Smiley

Auto responders are tools you use to automate your mailings. When a visitor finds your website, you have a form on your website asking them for their email address and name, you should also have something of value to offer them in return. Once they enter in their information, your Auto Responder will deliver messages you have set up.

This Provides an automated system that communicates with your website visitors automatically, selling value and creating a relationship on your behalf.

You can have one auto responder account with multiple responders inside, each catering to a specific type of message market.

Automation is important to all businesses. With an Auto Responder we will spend less time with staying in touch with our subscribers and spend more time promoting our business.

The first message you setup should be a welcome type message, you don’t need to make these messages long and drawn out. Just one or two simple sentences to welcome them to your list.

The next set of messages, you should be addressing their problem or pain, and tell a short story of how you too experienced this at one time. Then the follow up message you should gently ease into the benefits of your product or service. Explaining how your product or service has helped you overcome the same problems.

So how do you find a good reliable auto responder? You could do a search on your favorite search engine for auto responders, and get back tons of results from free to paid services. I caution now, about going with a free service. They aren’t that good and they aren’t reliable, and most will put ads at the beginning of your messages, please stay away from free services.

Auto responders are not expensive, think of it as an investment in your business not as an expense. I highly recommend you check out Aweber services, they have been around for 10years and have proven to be the best there is today with support and reliability. They provide step by step training using videos and written instructions.

Hope this information has helped you better understand what auto responders are and how they work, if you need detailed information explaining how to use one properly, then see our article on How to Use Auto Responders

Dr Smiley

When it comes to running a business online you need to have a name for your website. These are known as Domain Names, such as the link www.askdrsmiley.com the part in this link askdrsmiley is the domain name.

Once you’ve decided on a name and found that it is available, you need to find a company that will let you purchase it, these are called Registrars. There are thousands online today so you can do a search using your favorite search engine, but I have used http://www.godaddy.com for many years and they are the best in my opinion.

Once you find your registrar, just type in the name you wish to purchase and see if it is available, most registrars will offer suggestions if the name you chose is not available. Just keep trying variations of the name until one is available.

One important thing you should know while registering a domain name – DO NOT get hosting at the same place you are registering your domain name!!!! Why? If your registrar goes out of business, you won’t lose your website information as it is being hosted somewhere else, and if your hosting company folds you won’t lose your domain name.

Most of the time it is easy to transfer one or the other, but not both. If your hosting and domain name are in the same place you can lose everything!!!!

Stick with extension of .com or .net they are most popular and most people remember these.

Once you have purchased your domain name, there is one more step you must do!!! Get your domain name to talk to your hosting company. This is called DNS (Domain Name Server) this is how browsers will find your website. When you get your hosting, you will get an email with all your information in it, inside they will also provide you with your DNS information.

If you have not yet set up your hosting you can read the article I wrote on How to Find a Good Hosting Company

Head over to your registrar and log in, choose your domain name and there should be an option for Domain Name Server, go there and enter your information you got from your hosting company. The DNS number should look like this – dns1.namehosting.com dns2.nameofhosting.com or ns1.nameofhosting.com ns2.nameofhosting.com

Now it can take up to 48 hours for your new domain name to be live throughout the Internet, so be patient. You can however, start building your website and uploading it to your hosting company right a way.

That is really all there is to registering a domain name and then getting your hosting to talk to your new domain name so the world can see it.

Dr Smiley

Let’s talk about finding the right hosting company today. This is a critical step in web designing, if you don’t have the right hosting then your site will suffer for it in the long run.

Too many people think about now and not about the future with hosting, it’s important to find the right hosting company that will grow with your website/business. And let me tell you, not all hosting companies are the same!

There are a few things you Must consider in your hosting company, here are just a few to look out for -

1. They Must have enough space available for your website to grow. Make sure they will upgrade your space when you need to add more to your website. Some hosting companies will either let you purchase more space on your current package, or they will let you upgrade your package to a more robust one.

2. They Must provide you with c-panel (Control Panel) access. You must be able to access your admin area of your website via a c-panel. This will give you more control and flexibility to manage your website. You can add a word press blog, forums, content manager system and much more through a c-panel, you will also be able to track your website stats and see how things are going for you.

3. They Must provide good quality support! This is a Must with any hosting company, especially if you are new to all this stuff. Support is the first thing you must look for! To see how well a company’s support is, find their support link, submit a question, and see how long it takes to get an answer, and see just how well they answer the question for you. Most hosting companies should answer your question within 48 hours max! Do they have a forum you can post a question? Go ahead and post one to see what kind of response you get. Check out their FAQs how well do they explain the answers, can you understand the answer?

4. What kind of features are you getting? This is probably another important thing to look for in a hosting company, just what are you getting for your money. You want to make sure they provide enough space for your traffic and your website, to get started you should be fine with no more than 300GB and 360GB bandwidth. It’s not too important you understand this, but it is within reason to have at least this amount. Can you add more domains later on? You want to make sure the package you choose, will let you add another domain name later as you grow. So see that this is available in the package you decide.

5. The Price? Make sure your budget can handle the monthly cost of your hosting. For what I’ve described about it should not cost you any more than $5 to $10 a month. Just make sure you can upgrade later easily and most hosting companies will help you with the upgrade so you won’t have to do anything.

A good rule of thumb here is to choose at least 3 hosting companies and do a comparision on them, write down the pros and cons of all of them, then choose the one that best fits your needs and your budget!

Again, you can do a search for hosting companies on your favorite search engine, but I highly recommend Hostgator.com they meet all the above and more.

Until next time Take Action and get yourself Hosting today!

Dr Smiley

Let me start with defining what a domain name actually is.

A domain name is the name of your website. Once upon a time, when the Internet started out, web addresses were actually numbers and not actual names. Since computers talk in hexadecimal coding everything was numbers. So for your website address could be something like 22.333.444.22

Well this was just to hard for the ordinary person to remember or figure out, so it was decided to assign actual names to these numbers. Hence we have Domain Names!

When it comes to picking a domain name for your business, there are a few things you need to keep in mind before you get a domain name.

1. Keep your domain name down to 3 or 4 words

2. Use your first and last name if possible

3. Use your main keywords within your domain name

4. Try to register your domain name as .com or .net they are most popular

5. Make it easy to remember

Choosing a good Domain Name can be difficult for some, take your time with this, as this will be your website address for many years to come. If you aren’t sure what your name should be try places like http://www.godaddy.com and http://www.nameboy.com here you will be able to type in different names and see what is available. Both places will give you suggestions as well.

It’s also a good idea to use words such as easy, fast, quick, and so forth in front of your actual domain name, just remember to make it memorable and fun.

Avoid names that can be hard to spell for the average person. Such names as Michael or is it Micheal, you never know for sure. Keep in mind that something that easy for you to spell correctly may not be that easy for someone else. Your audience is a wide variety of people and not everyone speaks or spells things the same.

This should get you off to a good start on picking your Domain Name, keep it short and easy to spell, have your keywords within the name if possible. Make sure it makes sense and relates to what your audience is looking for.

I hope the above has helped you better understand what Domain Names are and how to go about picking the right Domain Name for your business!

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