Wallet Relief Blog

John Delavera is going live TODAY with his annual all-out holiday bonanza, and early birds get the best offer by far. If any of you don’t yet know who John Delavera is, it’s time to find out, as he has one of the best reputations in the business. So all webmasters, online marketers, internet business owners… head on over and check out Santa Deal Time 2008 now! Here’s the link:

http://getwise.info/about/SantaDeal

Season’s Greetings!

If your web site’s sales and conversions are not up to par, maybe one reason is those stale, dull graphical elements you are using. There is a new graphics package release out this week that can boost your web site’s responsiveness noticeably, and it is very reasonably priced, especially if you know where to get it. Best price I found was at Marketing Graphics Pro. Check it out.

More people leave the office grind behind to work at home.

Whether downsized, outsourced, or sick and tired of cubicle hell, more people are earning their living by working at home.  The work at home industry is booming with a diverse lot of income earning opportunities.  People of all skill and education levels can find a niche in this market.

Telecommuters

Technology has enabled former office rats to do their work at home.  Armed with a computer, fax, and telephone, employees from back office data entry to management staff are able to perform part or all of their jobs at home.  The telecommuting option is appreciated by workers as it allows them more freedom and control over the work day and more time to spend with families.  Companies find that this set up often improves employee morale and productivity.

Net Work

Earning money via the Internet has become an increasingly popular option in the work at home industry.  Chances are you know someone who sells merchandise on eBay.  Many online merchants are working out of their homes.  The Internet offers a wealth of opportunities for writers to earn a living at the keyboard.  People with an Internet-based career often start on a part-time basis while working their regular office gig.  Once their “web job” takes off, they escape the office grind for full-time work at home.

Home Base versus Home Work

Another option in the work at home industry is a home-based business where you go out in the field to provide services for customers.  This is a wide open opportunity - think of any product or service that people need and, viola, you have a business.  The senior population is exploding.  Start an elder service that helps seniors with light housekeeping, grooming, and transportation.  Two career families and busy folks in general equal a business for you running errands such as shopping, chauffeuring kids, and picking up dry cleaning. 

You can strike out on your own with these home-based businesses or buy a franchise.  Franchises offer a brand name people know and trust along with marketing support from the headquarters office.  Start up costs can be out of reach for a lot of people, however, there are hundreds of franchise options in the work at home industry that will fit with small budgets.

Scam Alert

The Internet and print and broadcast media are full of ads for great-sounding work at home opportunities.  Sadly, the work at home industry is full of scam companies that advertise high income home-based jobs.  Some ads are specific while others are vague and keep you in the dark about the exact nature of the pie in the sky venture. 

Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Do your research before you plunge into any work at home opportunity.  Talk with others who are working at home.  Check out franchises or Internet opportunities with the Better Business Bureau.  Despite the scam artists, there are thousands of options in the work at home industry and one of them will suit you.

Sources
funcareers, (funcareers.com)

How many times have you heard about a great home business opportunity?  Probably more than you care to remember.  But to go along with this how many of these home business opportunities ended up being a scam?  Again, probably quite a few.  Hopefully, you were never the victim of any of these scams.  But unfortunately there are others who probably fell for these “opportunities.”  The fact of the matter is that these scammers would not be wasting their time if they were not making any money.  And as long as people continue to get mixed up in this business, these scammers are going to stick around to trick more and more people.

The best way to avoid a home business scam is to thoroughly research each opportunity before you move forward with it.  This means doing much more than simply reading a bit about it online.  You may get lucky and end up with a good home business opportunity, but chances are that you will not.  Not only will you want to read what is available on the site itself, but you will also want to search for other information as well.  Check with third party review sites and on message boards and forums.  You may find out soon enough that a certain company has been reported as being nothing more than a scam.

You may also want to check with the Better Business Bureau if you are thinking about getting involved with a home business opportunity that you are not sure of.  They will be able to tell you if they have any complaints on file.  If they do, you will want to avoid the opportunity at all costs.  But if it appears that a company is doing business the right way, you can continue your research.

Before you decide to do anything, attempt to get in touch with the company that you are interested in.  Can you get them on the phone?  Do they respond to your emails?  If you cannot even talk to a company before you start, there is no chance that they will be around when you need them.  This is one test that you can run early on in order to ensure that you are dealing with a reputable company.  If you do happen to get an employee on the phone ask them questions in order to get some feedback on the company.  Anything that will give you better insight into the home business opportunity is a good question.

Overall, home business scams are all over the place.  Do your part in putting them out on the street by not falling prey.  The best way to do this is through extensive research and questioning. 

Affiliate programs are a great way to increase traffic to and sales for your web site. There are several affiliate tracking software solutions that keep track of sales, clicks, and commissions.

Affiliate tracking software solutions come in a variety of packages.  Software for a click-based program allows you to pay affiliates a set rate for each visitor to your web site.  Look for click-based software with helpful features including click-through tracking, link code generation (keep banners current and linked correctly), referral tracking, and detailed stats.

Other software lets you set up a commission or flat rate pay for each potential customer sent via your affiliate member.  You can also customize the commission schedule for individual affiliates.  Commission-based programs can be more economical because you only pay affiliates when their referrals generate sales.  

You don’t have to choose between click-based or commission affiliate tracking software.  Programs are available that let you use both pay arrangements.

Many affiliate tracking software solutions now have private affiliate network capability.  This feature is helpful for those with multiple web sites.  It lets you run one affiliate program for all your web sites on your own private network as opposed to setting up affiliate programs for each site.

How does it work?

The basic premise of affiliate programs is the same for all affiliate tracking software solutions.  An affiliate joins your program by logging into the member area on your web page.  There the affiliate can get the tools needed for linking to your site such as banner codes, text links, and product images. 

When a visitor clicks from the affiliate’s web page to yours, the tracking software places a cookie on the visitor’s computer to track him as he browses your web site.  If the visitor buys a product or service from your web site, the tracking software notes the affiliate responsible for said visitor and records the sale in a database.  The Administrator and the affiliate are both notified of the sale via email.

Affiliate software makes its easy to monitor the success of your affiliate programs by tracking the number of times banners or links are displayed, number of visitors who linked to your web site, and how many of these visits resulted in a sale.  In addition, the software keeps account of commissions earned by and payouts to affiliates.

Helpful Features

Software packages are easy to install and manage.  However, software companies will gladly lend a hand to technically challenged web entrepreneurs. Look for affiliate software tracking solutions that provide reliable tech support and don’t charge setup fees or monthly charges.  The software should be easy to customize for your specific needs.

Other helpful features include:

Unlimited affiliates categories
Automated fraud protection
Performance rewards for your best affiliates
Lifetime upgrades
Multi-level marketing (affiliate program promotes itself and your web site).

Sources

Cosmicperl (cosmicperl.com)
Affiliate Wiz (affiliatewiz.com)
Quality Unit (qualityunit.com)

Can you get rich selling e-books?  While Bill Gates’ type of income isn’t guaranteed, you can earn you a very nice income selling e-books online.

E-books are electronic versions of printed material that can contain text, sound, and images.  The profit potential from selling them is high because start-up and operating expenses are very low.  The biggest expense is purchasing books for sale. 

You can earn even more money if you write some of your own e-books. Your writing skills don’t have to be stellar.  There are online sources that will take your research and craft an  e-book for you.  Some of these companies even take care of marketing, payments, and shipping.

Buying  e-books for Sale

You can purchase e-books from authors online.  eBay is another source for e-book buying.   Purchase e-books with resell rights.  This allows customers to sell the e-books they buy from you themselves thus providing an incentive for them to do business with you. 

Make sure the e-books you buy (or write yourself) are full of useful information and resources.  Some e-books are nothing more than ads and sales pitches for the writer’s products.  These “ad books” will turn off customers and decrease repeat business.

Do your research to determine what types of information people are seeking.  Getting rich selling e-books will depend on the topics covered, customer base, and marketing campaign. 

Before buying an e-book for resale, do an online search for the title.  If lots of web sites are selling the book, it’s probably a popular title and will be a good seller.  It also helps to sell e-books that cater to a specific market niche.  Search online forums and other group sites to locate potential target markets for niche titles.  Contact these groups with a short email inviting them to visit your site.  Offer an incentive such as 20% off first purchase to increase site traffic.

E-books about current trends or hot topics will generate more income.  Your income will really get a boost if you can spot the “next big topic” and write or purchase e-books to sell before the competition saturates the market. 

Marketing Extras

You can use a common template for your e-books’ web site or sell them on an existing site you already have. However, to stand out from the competition, create you own web site to sell e-books.  Always add new titles to your stock to keep old customers coming back and to attract new ones.  Use email to notify customers of new titles and special sales.  Offer discounts on slow moving titles.

Affiliate programs are another way to get rich selling e-books.  The affiliate pays you a commission for his or her e-books you sell.  To earn extra cash from e-books you write, start your own affiliate program.

There are plenty of online and print books that will help you learn how to get in on the e-book sales bandwagon.  A good place to begin reading is “Make Your Knowledge Sell,” by Ken Evoy and Monique Harris.

Sources

“About Making Money with E-Books,” (about-the-web.com)

“Make Money Selling Ebooks,” (christianet.com)

“Make Money Selling Ebooks,” (homebusinessmag.com)

“Is Your Dog Selling eBooks Too?,” (marketingsource.com)

If you are a stay at home mom you may be getting the urge to do something more with yourself.  You may want to make a bit of money while staying at home with the kids all day.  One of the best ways for any stay at home mom to make money is by using eBay.  This may sound a bit far fetched, but the fact of the matter is that thousands of people have turned eBay into a full-time job.  And to take this a step further, there are many people who have become millionaires by using eBay to buy and sell items.  If you work hard at it, you can be next in line for the profits that are being made on eBay everyday of the week.

At this point you may be wondering how eBay can make you money.  This is something that a lot of people have on their mind.  Using eBay to make money is quite simple.  You will list items for sale, and then wait for other people to bid on them, or purchase at a predetermined price.

But in order to get started with this you will need to have items that you can place for sale on eBay.  There are a few ways that you can go about getting these items.

1. To find items to sell on eBay you may want to become a regular at garage sales and flea markets in your area.  At these events you can buy items for cheap, and then turn around and sell them for a large profit on eBay.  This is one option that a lot of stay at home moms opt for when looking for items that they can sell on eBay.

2. Another option to consider is making your own products, and then listing them on eBay.  For instance, some people make crafts such as candles and then list them for sale.  You may not think that there is a large audience for this type of thing, but there are many people that make a lot of money doing just that.

3. Stay at home moms can get their start on eBay by selling items that they have laying around the house.  Chances are that your garage or attic is full of junk that you no longer use.  But just because you think that the items you have are junk does not mean that somebody else will. By just selling items that you have in your home you may be able to get your start on eBay.  And with the money that you initially make, you can then in turn buy more items.  Pretty soon you will notice that your profits are growing. 

Traffic on the freeway is bad.  Traffic on the Internet is good.  With over 60 million web sites on the Net, you need a solid strategy for steering customers to your home business web site.

Search Engines

Search engines are the yellow pages for a home business web site.  Over 80% of Internet surfers use search engines to find information on the web.  To get the most traffic to your site, list with the big search engine players Yahoo, Google, and MSN.  Smaller search engines also get results from the big three so you’ll be covered in case customers visit less popular engines.

Looking Good

Your home business web site can be simple or complex but it must be functional and attractive.  Make sure your site does what it is supposed to do - provide customers with concise, useful information about your product or service.  Be wary of making things too complicated.  The site should be easy to navigate or customers will look elsewhere.

Your home business web site should also look professional, not cheap.  If you aren’t design savvy, spend money on a good web designer.  The investment will pay off by attracting more people to your web page.

On-line Ads

The Internet has many sites where you can list your home business web site for free.  To guarantee the greatest exposure, place your ad on several (20 or more) sites and repeat the process every month.

Banner advertisements can be as effective as TV spots in increasing customer awareness of your business.  A banner ad should be direct, i.e. promote a benefit of rather than just the name of the product or service.  Try participating in a banner exchange program such as LinkExchange that connects your home business web site to other company sites that have similar customer bases.

Affiliate programs offer an excellent opportunity to promote your home business web site.  Affiliate businesses post links to your web page on their sites.  You pay them a commission or set fee based on the amount of traffic sent to your web site.  Pay arrangements vary and can be based on the number of people who visit your site or the number of customers who purchase your product.

Bloggin’ It

Bloggers are the hot new information medium.  Getting them to write about your home business web site is an excellent way to gain exposure to potential customers. 

Technorati Blog Directory provides a listing of blogs by industry.  Do your research here to determine which blogs might be interested in writing about your business.  Send a short, personal email to a few blog writers describing your web site and asking the blogger to write about it.  Offer the writer something in return, for example, free product or a link back to his blog on your web site.

Off-line Ads

Cruising Down the Highway

Your car is a moving billboard for a home business web site.  Window decals and bumper stickers are inexpensive ways to get the word out about your web site.  Spend a few extra dollars for a personalized license plate with your web address.

Old Media Standby

Regardless of what the bloggers say, people still read the printed page.  Run ads in the classifieds of large and small papers, trade magazines, and free weeklies.  Your choice of print media will depend on the product or service offered and whether you do business locally or nationwide.

Sources

Gaebler Ventures, “Advertising on the Web” (gaebler.com)
Data Synthesis, “Internet Solutions for Today” (ictks.com)
“Top Ten Ways to Promote your Website” (agora-business-center.com)
“Using Blog PR to Promote Your Site” (sitepronews.com)

If you are new to the internet world you are not alone.  There are a lot of people who are not too familiar with the internet, but want to join in on the profits that are available.  If this sounds like you one of the most important things that you will need to learn is how to promote your web site. 

When it comes to promoting your web site there are many options available to you.  The good thing is that a lot of them are free of cost, or will only set you back a few dollars.  But at the same time there are also a lot of ways that you can promote your web site that will cost you quite a bit of money.  But either way, if you learn what you are doing you will be able to get the word out about your web site.

As far as free web site promotion is concerned, one of the best things that you can do is join in on the discussions that are taking place at some of the online forums.  For instance, if your new web site is targeted towards the clothing industry, you will want to find forums that discuss this topic.  When talking with others you can run ideas past them, and also market your new web site to them.  Make sure that you add your web site to your forum signature.  This way, every time you make a post anybody that reads it will be able to click on your link.  Believe it or not this will drive plenty of traffic to your site.

Another low cost way to promote your web site is to submit articles to article directories.  This can be done in a matter of minutes.  All you have to do is write an article that coincides with your web site, and then submit it to directories.  In addition, you will be able to add an author’s resource box after the article.  This again will allow readers to click on your link and head straight for your site.  Over time different article directories will pick up on your articles.  In turn, your links will begin to show up all over the internet, which of course means more traffic directed to your web site.

Overall, web site promotion is something that you will want to learn about early on.  But do not let this scare you away.  There are many ways that you can promote your new web site to the internet world.  With a bit of research, patience, and determination, you will be successfully promoting your web site.  And with successful promotion comes traffic and profits!  And isn’t this what everybody wants?

Many of my readers may already own a health-related blog or may be contemplating starting a website related to diet, weight loss, or nutrition information.  After all, diet and nutrition are always popular topics, and many home businesses or work at home on the internet situations promote or advertise products having to do with weight loss or nutritional supplements. A new service has become available that provides original private label rights articles in this diet and nutrition niche on a monthly basis at an affordable price.  The articles are perfect for blog publishing or other web content uses, and the overall project is overseen by a physician concerned with quality content.  If this niche interests you, don’t miss checking it out early before the competition catches on.  Just go to http://www.diet-nutrition-article-niche.com/ for more info on these private label rights articles for the diet & nutrition niche.