RSS directories are popular these days. RSS is widely used initially by news sites to allow others to syndicate their news stories. Now, a lot of other websites are using RSS. It is being used in flagging new forum headlines, auction listings, sales listings and others.

The meaning of RSS is actually not clear. RSS may or may not be an acronym, actually. RSS may stand for Really Simple Syndication. But others say its Rich Site Summary and sometimes Rich Syndication Standard. The noted creator of RSS directory would be Netscape. It was released sometime in March 1999. The included a UserLand application which is called scripting news. Netscape stopped developing it, but UserLand continued doing so. Another company, RSS-DEV Working Group also released their own version.

RSS directories are sites that collate all RSS links and place them in different categories for other applications to use. This is similar to web hosting, only instead of web pages, they contain RSS links. These links will pop out on the website and when you click it, you will be directed to the main source of the link.

RSS poses a lot of uses for those who’d like to use the Internet for marketing or commerce. Here are the things you can do with it:

Create links from their website to yours. If you are selling or promoting something, web traffic is important. The more RSS directory you upload, the more chances you have people seeing those and checking your site out. And if they have customized their sites with your RSS feeds, then they would get updated listings from your site to theirs automatically.

Collating analysis. If you have a brand and you’d like to know how your competitor is doing, you may use RSS to see what they have so far. Get a directory of their product or service so you’ll know first hand what they have come out with. With the data gathered you now can plan on how you can counter them.

Tracking your own progress. If you can check out your competitor, of course you’d like to check out too how your business or product is going too. With an RSS directory of your own, you can know how many people are interested in what you are selling or offering.

Increases productivity. Putting up RSS directories, let’s say for newsletters, adds efficiency to your company. If you use RSS for sending out newsletters instead of mailing them to recipients, you’d eliminate the possibility of your letter being classified as spam by users, or being sent in a closed mail account.

Increases efficiency. There are a lot of websites or news articles that could be beneficial to your brand or company. At times, you’d like to add them to your site. Without the use of RSS, you’d have to copy the entire thing down and note where you got it. If you use RSS, then the headline and part of the story shows up on your site. And this is an automatic process now. If you use RSS, you just include the directory and automatically, the headline appears without you doing much.

I know you have heard the buzz on the Internet about Automated Business Systems and do they work? My reply is yes and no. Automated Businesses work if you work them. There has been a lot of talk lately about P.A.S. (Prosperity Automated System) and if it works? Also you have probably heard about PAS's legal trouble and I think it is time to set the record straight about automated business, at least as I see it.

In the home business, MLM, network marketing--whatever you want to call it--arena there are thousands of Marketers promising you to "get rich using their Automated Business or System" and guess what "you sign up and EARN $50,000 next week." Folks, seriously, do you think it works that way? Do you think there would be a 98% failure rate in home based businesses if all you ever had to do was spend some of your hard earned money, sit back and watch the checks roll in. It's preposterous! Why would anyone invest in stocks, bonds, or real estate anymore? Business will never be that easy, and the professionals know it takes some time an dedication. You can make huge money in network/Internet Marketing, but success does not happen overnight.

Many Internet Marketers prey upon the desperate situations of the people who fall into such "get rich quick" traps. Many of these people find themselves in bad situations and they need help, but don't know where to turn. I know I fall into this category, I was recently divorced, broke, unemployed, late on my mortgage and car payments; desperate for money. I took a high interest loan to fund my venture (I'll keep the opportunity to myself and that company) and I crashed and burned. I was new to business and self-employment. I can not, in all honesty, blame all my failure on the company, but their marketing strategies fpr a young broke business owner where terrible. In my first month I spent $1,500 more, borrowed money, on leads that the company told me I needed to be successful. Long story short, I quit that business after three months and swore home businesses were a scam. I understood I had not done a good job marketing my opportunity, but reasonably priced marketing was not what the company offered, they offered a product upon which they made a profit when I sold it, and they sold leads (to me) upon which they made a profit too. These leads cost me upwards of $18 a piece to have delivered to my auto-responder and from these leads I made a whopping $226 total dollars in three months of full time effort The entire venture ended up costing me upwards of $5,000 (which I did not have) and a whole lot of time and effort.

So what was wrong in this scenario?

1. The company misrepresented the opportunity, their marketing plan and the overall cost of following their "duplicable system."

2. I did not receive training or mentorship that was geared toward my personality or my business budget.

3. The company expected me to pay for worthless leads at a premium price without providing marketing training on how to create leads myself.

Quite a few clients have told me that marketing is difficult for them. It is difficult to get started with marketing; it is difficult to figure out how to market, and it is difficult to understand how to market effectively. Even if you are already using marketing techniques to promote your business, there is no guarantee that your marketing efforts will bring the results you are looking for.

I have put together a simple plan for you to take charge of your marketing and to simplify at least some of the process. Here are five marketing steps:

- Define What Needs To Be Done. What are you marketing? Is it a product or a service? What are the results you are looking for? Would you like to generate more sales, more leads, more partners? Which online marketing techniques are you planning to use? Search engine optimization, article marketing, newsletter publishing? The better you define these points, the easier it will be for you to put your marketing plan into motion.

- Break Your Plan Into Bite-Size Pieces. Divide-and-conquer is a proven, time-tested technique for managing complicated tasks. If your goal is to optimize your web site for search engines, your bite-size pieces will include learning about search engine optimization, performing keyword research, optimizing your pages, optimizing your copy, etc. It is much easier to follow along when you map out the steps.

- Understand The Marketing Process. It is really difficult to apply a marketing technique if you do not have a good understanding of the process. For example, if you do not know how to use article marketing to promote your business, you will not be able to use it to market. Learning about marketing is essential. It will help you market now, and you can use your newly acquired marketing knowledge to continue marketing your business for years to come.

- Don't Try to Do Everything At Once. Don't start using five marketing techniques at the same time. You will simply end up jumping from one method to another, without spending a proper amount of time on any one of them. If you do not devote sufficient time to applying a marketing technique, you will not get results. Take some time to learn and apply a new marketing technique. Then, once you are seeing results, move on to the next one.

- Track Your Results. Tracking your results (or lack thereof) helps you understand what has produced results and what hasn't. It also helps you compare different marketing methods and to determine which one(s) produce better results for your business.

If you thought the Want Ads were a waste of time maybe it's time to take a second look.

Today, I'll show you an easy way to use the CareerBuilder print or other want ads to find possible hidden jobs. You'll use those same want ads to tap into dozens of possible HIDDEN JOBS. You'll find yourself in the enviable position of being the only applicant for the job you really want with no other competition!

There is a simple but effective premise at work here: Go where others don't go. Just because a company is not listing a job you would qualify for this week or this month, does not mean they don't need you and won't hire you.

Your goal is to find those companies who WERE hiring in the relatively recent past.

Here's what you do: go back 30 days, 60 days and 90 days to find the companies that listed jobs with your job title and skills, if the search capability allows this. The reason you are doing this is to be the first in line when they are ready to hire the NEXT person with your skills. They could be getting ready to pull the trigger and begin a NEW search today or next week to:

a.) replace the previous person they just hired (and this happens more often than you think).

b.) fill a new position that was just budgeted.

c.) replace a person who was just promoted.

You have this capability online with the Careerbuilder® section of the newspapers. Unfortunately with Careerbuilder®, you can only go back a maximum of 30 days. An advantage with Careerbuilder®, though, is that they give you a contact name to follow up with. Add this person's name to your "Follow-up Today" list.

With other papers' online want ads, like the Arizona Republic™, you can find listings as far as a year or more back. Other papers should be similar

Otherwise, go to the library and ask a librarian for help in retrieving this information for you. It may prove to be invaluable.

Don't overlook the trade papers such as the Business Journal™ or other local civic and trade-related papers in your city. They tend to focus on business developments, promotions, new hires and legal transactions, both corporate and civic. Pay attention to the sections on promotions and new hires. This may reap a reward with the attendant empty spot left open, the need for another hire due to increased sales activity or department expansion. Here you also get a contact name to follow up with.

Don't stop there. Also, do the same as above - go backwards 30, 60, and 90 days. You're getting valuable information about which companies are most likely to be in need of your services at any point in time. You are also getting a huge leg-up by building your list of names and titles to follow up with today as well as over the next several weeks.

If you are one of those people who gets their Christmas shopping done early every year, you probably find yourself getting a great deal of mean looks from others around the holiday season. This is especially true if you make a habit of letting others know you have already finished your Christmas shopping. This happens because the vast majority of people do not get their Christmas shopping done early and may be envious of those who manage to finish their shopping early. The fact that most Christmas shoppers wait until the last minute is evident by the crowds who flock to malls and shopping centers in the final days before Christmas.

If you are one of these people who always finishes their early Christmas shopping you may already have a method to accomplishing this goal. However, if you are like the majority of people who spend every year last minute Christmas shopping this article will provide you with some tips for getting your Christmas shopping done early this year. One of the best ways to get your early Christmas shopping done is to try to do a great deal of Christmas shopping for the next year in the first few days after Christmas. Although the stores are usually quite crowded on these days there is not the same sense of urgency which prevails in the days just before Christmas so the atmosphere is more relaxed. Additionally, many stores are holding sales so not only can you do a large portion of your shopping but you are also likely to save a great deal of money in the process.

The first few days after Christmas are an excellent time to shop because you are likely still in the Christmas spirit. Another way to get your early Christmas shopping done is to plan on doing all of your Christmas shopping online this year. This is an excellent idea because most retailers will wrap the item for you and ship it directly to the recipient. You will pay a little more for these services but the convenience of not having to do the wrapping yourself or stand in long lines at the post office is certainly worth the extra fee. Committing to Christmas shopping online really helps you to get you shopping done early because you know you have to make your purchases early in order for them to arrive on time.

Another way to get your Christmas shopping done early is plan on purchasing two gifts for each person on your list at the time of their birthday. You can give them the first gift for their birthday and store the other item away until Christmas. This is a great idea because it helps you to get your shopping done early so you can avoid the hassle of going to overcrowded malls and shopping centers and searching for last minute Christmas gifts. If you follow this simple strategy when the Christmas season arrives, you will already have most, if not all, of your Christmas gifts purchased already and you can spend your time relaxing and enjoying the holiday season instead of running around trying to find the perfect gift for each person on your list. While this strategy is effective it is important to note you could be destined to some last minute shopping if you have people on your list who have birthdays in late December. In this case you will have to plan ahead and purchase their birthday gift and their Christmas gift early.

There's no doubt about it that we are being bombarded with more advertising and marketing -- especially online -- than ever before.

And if you want your ads to cut through the noise and clutter of an overcrowded market place, one of the best things you can do is not try to make the sale at all.

Let me explain.

Almost 100 years ago the legendary copywriter Maxwell Sackheim wrote an ad with a headline (that is now ingrained in direct response copywriting mythology) that said, "Do You Make These Mistakes In English?"

And even though the ad is considered to have some of the best "sales copy" of all time, nothing in the ad was being "sold." Instead, the entire ad was designed to get people to send for a free book.

You see, before selling anything, the ad first got anyone interested in developing better English skills to raise their hands. Then they sent them a sales letter selling an actual product. Which, from what I hear, sold a TON of courses.

And this concept is even more important today.

Whether you're writing online or offline, doesn't matter. If you find your ads and sales letters just aren't pulling because you are in an overcrowded market, try to write an ad that sells people on something free first.

From there, when they've gotten to know you and the valuable information you possess, then go for the sale. Then sell a straight pitch on something that costs money.

Now, if you are a copywriter who wants to start attracting dozens -- even hundreds -- of new leads and clients, here's another unique way to accomplish this.

This may sound over simplified (or complicated, depending on your work ethic) but the key to attracting copywriting clients is to simply write a book on the subject.

In fact, Joe Vitale in his book "The 7 Lost Secrets Of Success" told the story of how Bruce Barton (one of the founders of the famous ad agency BBDO) once wrote a book about advertising and business. And how, after the book was published, their ad agency was flooded with new business almost overnight.

People "all the sudden" wanted to hire Bruce Barton -- the guy who wrote the book they had just read -- to do their ads. And BBDO made a lot of money, and got some extremely big accounts as a result.

Now, I'm not saying you will have the same success as Bruce Barton.

But having a book out there that demonstrates your knowledge and skills will do more for your credibility and perceived value as a copywriter than any amount of portfolios, testimonials or bragging will ever do.

And realize that writing a book doesn't have to be a hard, drawn out process. You can do the same thing, get the same effect, by having someone interview you about the subject, putting the interview on CD and having the transcripts typed up into a "book."

The key is to give good information in a format people can easily access it in.

You do that, and you get it in enough people's hands, and you will start to find people coming from all over wanting to hire you, and only you.

Up is the trend and sky is the limit. No, we are not talking about the EPL and its ever-increasing fanatic followers. This goes to signify the scope and effect of online retailing. Nigh is the festive and holiday season, and the projections on the basis of research conducted have already indicated that best ever festive season for online shopping and retailing is around the corner.

Take a look on the IMRG forecast that suggests a growth of 36% in e-commerce with sales worth 26bn in the year 2006. With this in sight, online shopping has pierced much deeper than anticipated. Access to broadband connection for over three quarters of the UK population by December 2006 has certainly boosted these figures as the ease and speed of browsing through a broadband connection gave people another reason to buy online.

This heralds well for online shoppers as well as retailers with the ball bouncing back to consumer’s court. The onus lies on online shoppers to knuckle-down on the most favourable deal amongst myriads of offers with as many online shopping portals. Very soon the mood would be upbeat and revelation would prevail, so be it. Gifts and traveling would attract more and more visitors and this cognizance has very well made these online shopping portals well prepared to take on this traffic and make the most out of it.

Gizmos (as in mobile phones, iPods, MP3 Players, laptops), gifts (viz. flowers, chocolates, wines, games) and travel are estimated to draw more attention than ever on these online shopping websites and the outbreak of festive season has fuelled up the hustle and bustle around.

As it goes, “all is well that ends well”, warm up with a well chalked out plan to make merry in the season of mirth.

Sometimes getting started is the toughest part of the business and information marketing is no exception. However if you know how to get started you will be step ahead of the pack. Here are a few things you need to know to jump start your information marketing:

Develop your niche. There are several ways to think discover your niche by looking internally and externally. You can look at the careers you have held, passions, hobbies. You should ask yourself ‘what value can I bring to this market niche?’ Some external places where you can get ideas might be magazines, trade organizations, public domain materials, look at what other people in your area are doing and what products they are advertising just to name a few. By looking at both internal and external sources you can discover your niche and in so doing, begin the genesis of your first information products.

Start off small. While it is important to think about the whole process and to know how you will service customers on the back-end, you don’t need to become the next amazon.com overnight. Set realistic goals and grow from there it will keep you sane and allow you to better manage the business.

Don’t limit what you think will sell online. While there may not be any virgin markets left, there is virtually nothing off limits. Any niche can work if you committed in what you are doing and investing in the business with your time and energy.

Evaluate the market place – Ask yourself key questions about the market - does this market have money? Will they spend money? Are they reachable online/offline? How hungry are they for new information? Who else is out in this marketing area? What other products are out there? You should also spy on your eventual competition – get on their mailing lists, read their products, and evaluate their marketing materials and keywords.

Don’t be afraid of competitors – If there is already someone in your market niche, that is an indication that there is an audience for the information.

Come up with a hook – very important. Because you will be entering into a market with lots of competitors it is really important that you develop a big idea to stand out so that you are not perceived as just another “me too” product. Even if you are another “me too” product you need to figure out how to present it in a novel way. One of the keys to developing this hook is to actually give people the fish. You might have heard the saying “if you teach them to fish you feed them for a lifetime, if you give them a fish you feed them for a day.” That’s not always true with information marketing. People are looking for quick, pre-digested fish. So give them the fish and then keep asking yourself how else you can serve more fish to diversify your product line.

Sales copy – write a sales letter. As part of developing your hook, it is very important for you to write your sales copy. To do this look at the sales copy of your competitors and ask yourself, ‘how am I different?’ The answers to this question and the highlights of your product will form the basis for your sales copy and the bullets you need to highlight.

Once you have done all of these steps, the rest becomes a game of numbers. You need to generate the right kind and the right quantity of traffic to continue to keep your sales funnel full. Then you start the process all over again with each new product you develop and introduce.

Double coupons are a great tool for the frugal shopper. There is no denying that coupons are a major success. More than often coupons are distrusted by manufacturers of consumer goods or by retailers, retail stores will use this tactic as part of sales promotions. Coupons are paper money that can be used just like cash when making a purchase at a store. Coupons are a surprisingly subtle invention. Once coupons you find them on the web, all you have to do is print them off of your computer. Coupons are not only helpful but easy to find. They can also tell advertisers about which coupons are not ultimately shared. Most people don't know, however, is that coupons are available for online shopping.

Get discount coupons online for restaurants, auto repair, retailers and more. It's easy to save money on your favorite brands with printable grocery coupons. In fact, the money they save with one week's worth of coupons pays for itself and will give you an entire year of savings. You can save money with double coupons, but not every place in the country has double coupon offers. Everyone likes to save money so why not take advantage of some nice internet coupons.

There are many different type and varieties of coupons here are some of them, printable coupons, online coupons, grocery coupons, restaurant and special promo coupons. Printable online coupons on Google Maps are a great way to get coupons for local shopping. First of all, unlike newspapers or magazines, where you can use a coupon only for one time, online coupons can be downloaded and used whenever you need. Before purchasing online, it is usually worth checking for coupons. Almost everything that's sold online can be bought for less by using of web coupons. Coupons extend special promotions to your customer and prospects on the web. Online coupons promote online sales or drive online traffic to your offline store with website coupons. Many online retailers offer coupons that further discount the price of your product or reduce shipping costs.

Just click on the coupon you want, print your coupon and start saving money today. The web allows you to print coupons for groceries, travel, baby supplies, pet supplies, and more. Print out the coupons and bring them in for great savings on your next visit to any store. It is possible for people to send coupons via emails to there friends. Some sites place and icon on there site, when you visit the site you will be able click the icon and print the coupons, it’s that easy.

To ensure the quality of your experience coupons are usually printed using acrobat which is available for free on the web, this protect tampering of the coupons. Coupons are redeemable only by a consumer purchasing the specific products indicated on the coupon Coupons are created as part of the endorsement that you have accepted. Internet coupons are becoming less and less acceptable at local retailers, because of counterfeit coupons. Coupons are most often offered to entice shoppers to buy high priced or overstocked items

Ten years ago I started my first online business venture out of the basement office of my home. I put together a Web site selling scrapbook products on my wife’s suggestion that scrapbooking was emerging as a hot niche in the crafting industry.

Keeping up with the day to day chores of running my own business challenged me to manage my time wisely. Preparing my email newsletter each month consumed many hours of my time. I wrote the sales copy and made sure all the links in the newsletter worked correctly. Cleaning my mailing list of email addresses I dreaded the most.

I wanted to make sure that all unsubscribe requests got properly removed from my list. The software maintaining my list had no reliable way of accomplishing this task so I did it all manually. I broadcast my newsletter to my squeaky clean list but how much time did it take me to keep it that way? Answer: Way too much time.

Penny wise and pound foolish means being cautious with small amounts of money but careless with large amounts. What large amounts of money was I being foolish with? My time. Time is money and being cautious with my money by purchasing inexpensive email marketing software (penny wise) resulted in using way too much time (pound foolish) because the software woefully lacked features I needed. Building trust and relationships is what email marketing is all about. A big part of that trust is built upon how well I managed my subscription lists. When someone on my list asks for removal, I want to respond accordingly. Not complying with these requests puts my business reputation at risk. But there are additional concerns.

Domain registrars are taking spam complaints more seriously and many openly provide complaint forms on their Web sites. Too many complaints reported to my domain registrar could give them reason to disable my domain. I didn’t want to have my thriving online business suddenly brought to a standstill because my domain got shut down.

Also, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 dictates that email sent to the requestor's email address must stop within 10 business days. Each violation of CAN-SPAM provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Ouch!

After several software trials, I found that Mailloop 7 from Internet Marketing Center met my needs of processing subscribe and unsubscribe requests automatically through a list of filters and rules. Now I maintain as many lists as I need to keep up with the demands of my business. But most important, I will never again worry about marketing to anyone who unsubscribes from my list as the software automatically maintains a “Master Unsubscribe List” to make sure of that.

Another part of my online marketing strategy is using an autoresponder to cut down on the daily chore of answering frequently asked questions. Though I’ve provided the answers in a convenient FAQ, I still get email inquiries on a daily basis.

Autoresponders use my customers' desire for instant gratification to my advantage. A single autoresponder frees me from the tedious task of responding to each and every request–such as manually sending out purchase confirmations–giving me time to focus on more profitable areas of my business. But that's not all.

One overlooked or misused form of advertising is free advertising. However, this can be a very important means of growing your business.

There are innumerable free classified advertising sites on the internet. Obviously, some will be better than others, and the value of any site may be anywhere from good for your business to a total waste of time.

One immediately visible advantage of free advertising is the adjective, "free". Many people starting internet businesses simply do not have the funds to buy advertising.

By the same token, a disadvantage to free advertising is that since it is free, everybody floods it with all kinds of ads, and it is easy for your message to get lost in the flood of advertisements.

Another disadvantage is that unlike people who look through newspaper classifieds or advertising papers such as are found at the local convenience store, few people on the Internet actually visit online classified sites in hopes of finding a car or piece of stereo equipment. Even if they do, they are not likely to see your ad if you are trying to interest someone in an internet income opportunity.

So, how can you turn free advertising to your advantage?

First, as mentioned, some sites will have the potential for improving your business in one way or another, and some will be totally worthless. Since the advertisement itself may or may not be effective, or may or may not be effective at a certain website, testing is necessary. Different ads must be tried, and they must be tried on different sites.

A difficulty in determining the value of a given free advertising site is the fact that with the advent of automatic advertising submitters, many sites are hardly ever visited by humans any more. Only the automatic programs drop by and leave off their ads and move on to the next site. Therefore, one of the first criteria to look for might be whether or not ads must be manually posted. At least in that case, humans will visit and may actually see your ad.

By the way, even a site which can be posted to automatically may be of value in the area of linking and search engine optimization. Most of these links will be fleeting or of little value to a search engine spider, but you may be able to build a little stable of sites which will help search engines find your site. I know of several sites where I regularly post ads exactly for this purpose. Ablewise.com (which requires manual submission) for example is regularly visited by search engine spiders, and if I place an ad there, the page I have linked to will soon show up in search engine listings.

Second, free advertising is most effective if it is not used to sell anything. In fact, it will operate best when you use the free advertising to give something of value away in order to establish a condition of trust between yourself and a prospective customer. In the heyday of mail order advertising, this was often referred to as the "two step" method.

It is a well known fact that in the gold rush days of the Old West, most of the fortunes were made not by the gold miners themselves, but by the people and companies that supplied the tools and equipment the gold miners needed. Some, such as Levi Strauss and John Mohler Studebaker, became household names. The tools of the time included pick axes, wheel barrows and clothing.

Knowing this, and hoping to find my own fortune, I went in search of the "gold miners" of today. I looked high and low, read everything I could get my hands on, and finally, it came to me! Every day thousands and thousands of individuals go in search of their fortunes on the internet marketiing "gold mine." Then, I asked myself, "What are the tools today's gold miners need?" I came up with 5 key tools that everyone who is marketing on the internet needs.

First, they need a domain name. A domain is where you live on the internet. It is your address on the internet. It looks something like www.yourdomain.com. This is a unique name that belongs only to you. It is as unique as your home address, phone number, or Social Security number are. No one else has this domain name, except you. All of your webpages with associated graphics and documents are placed on your domain, so people can visit your website.

Secondly, they need a web hosting account. The internet works through servers - computers that are always online for the world to access. Your personal computer can access the internet, but the internet (generally) cannot access your computer. In order to make your website available to the world, you must first upload your domain to a host, or "webspace". Web hosts provide space on their servers so you can upload your webpages, graphics, audio, video, and text documents to your domain, enabling other people to access them via the internet.

The third tool they will need is an autoresponder. An autoresponder will automatically send a series of emails to potential customers who have signed up to receive them on a form on your website. Only a small percentage of visitors to your site will join on the first contact. Studies have shown time after time, people will still be signing up after 7 or more contacts. If you advertise only your affiliate link, you are losing out on a lot of potential money. Most prospect(or)s don't buy on their first visit, but they might submit their names and email addresses to get free information. With a good follow up system, you can convert several times more prospects into customers than one time visitors.

The next thing all modern gold miners will need is traffic. In order to get traffic, they will need to advertise. Without a way to get visitors to your site, no matter how good the site is, it would be worthless. No visitors, means no sales. There are numerous methods of advertising on the internet. We'll explore some of the paid methods here. There is pay-per-click. This means that everytime someone clicks on your advertisement, you are charged. Another type is traffic exchanges. Most traffic exchanges give you advertising credits in exchange for viewing other marketers ads. Some are completely free, while others charge a fee for premium services not available to free members. E-zine advertising is another type of advertising. This includes classifed and solo ads. Others who have built a large list or base of subscribers to a newsletter often sell advertising space. Classified ads are much like newspaper classifieds. Price is often determined by where they are placed. They are also called top sponsor, middle sponser or bottom sponsor. A solo ad, like the name implies, is sent to the subscriber list all by itself. These can be highly effective when targeted to the right market.

Is your Website really communicating effectively to your target viewers? Is it delivering the results you want? Are you losing viewers and sales? The crucial importance of good content writing for effective Websites is often over-looked...

You need effective text content for your Website to cut through Have you noticed some Websites that have nice graphics and functionality...but their professionalism and credibility are let down by the text content? Nick Usborne, speaker and author on writing for the Web, says "Go to your favorite Web site, strip away the glamour of the design and technology, and you’re left with words – your last, best way to differentiate yourself online". Graphics and layout are really important for first impressions but the text content has the final say on a Website’s effectiveness...it holds the information you're seeking or convinces you to buy something.

What are common problems with Website text content? In the technological world of the Internet, the discipline of good old-fashioned writing quality is often overlooked. Elements of poor spelling and grammar, vague or confusing waffle, complicated verbose language, and disjointed sentences are quite common. Business owners know their own products and services, but can't always communicate them effectively to others. Also Web design companies, though usually well trained in graphic design and programming, may lack skills in content writing and general communication.

So what does Website text content really need to achieve? Effective communication is needed for a Website to inform, instruct, or sell to its target viewers in their own 'lingo'.

•Concise and to the point Viewers generally browse Websites somewhat impatiently, in contrast to printed material where they are happy to relax and read more at length. So, to hold attention, Website content generally needs to be concise and to the point. This is even more so for email newsletters. Longer text does have a place, however, where viewers are looking for detailed information or need to be convinced of something, e.g. a captivating real-world story-line to sell a product.

•Accurate and realistic claims Text needs to be accurate and realistic versus exaggerated hype, like "best offer in town" or "unbeatable value", which only raises doubts for many people.

•A personal touch Content written in a personal one-to-one manner can be effective to build trust and rapport, versus an impersonal 'broadcast to the masses'. Encountering real people and places builds credibility with a viewer. Remember the old adage..."people do business with people"...particularly for services more than commodity products.

•Meaningful headings Meaningful headings are important for viewers to be able to scan quickly to get the gist of your message, rather than having to wade through lots of text to find information they need. Hierarchical headings based on relative importance really help to guide a person's eye directly to the most important information first - a general principle of design. In a busy world of information overload, a simple clear format is more effective than busy clutter. Many Websites, even for some high profile companies, have so much information on the screen that you don't know where to look first.

If you are hoping to earn a little residual income, you should consider MLM marketing as a key strategy. MLM is basically just a marketing strategy. You can also take advantage of personal development affiliate programs like SkyQuestCom or Success University which can help you generate more income and is made from work that you haven't done, or that pays long after the initial work was already done. It works like this; if you actively recruit other people that essentially sell for you, it is not that difficult to make money. The most common form of this form of network marketing is known as a pyramid, although there are a few others such as match bonuses or direct levels. In a pyramid, each person will be responsible to recruit say, six people, which would be considered your second level. You just keep on going like that until you can’t go any further. Your can earn a great deal of residual income in doing this. To break it down, you have to think in terms of companies like Avon, Amway, and Mary Kay. These companies have received the MLM success to the highest degree, and you can too! Aside from simply recruiting new members, Avon employs each recruiter as sales reps as well. Each sales rep gets paid a commission for every product they sell, and they receive bonuses for every new rep they bring in. You are wondering how will this bring you MLM residual income success. It is simple; every sale your reps make gives you money from their sales; every rep they bring in brings you more money from their sales and so on. Earn your residual income with little effort on your part.

Basically, you put in the work to bring in your initial sales reps, and after that, you can sit back and watch the money role in over and over again. Now you can use all of your free time to create newer and better businesses while the money keeps rolling. In offering commissions to your reps and bonuses for new recruits you can ensure that your wares will keep on selling and you don’t have to do anything. It’s that easy. You can start by advertising in the newspaper and online and the rest is easy. Your ability to earn residual income is just around the corner!