The dot.com boom of the 1980s permitted legions of people to cash in on the mushrooming availability and popularity of the Internet but when the bubble burst, there were those who did not cash in but instead ended up owing the bank a small fortune. Those who profited were also those who were able to find a way of starting an ecommerce business without a bank loan. Granted, some might have dipped into their credit cards or homes equity, which is only marginally better but by and large they only invested that which they knew they could afford to lose.
At this point in time potential web entrepreneurs are a lot more hesitant to march to the bank and ask for a loan to fund their ecommerce business. They have learned from the mistakes of others and perhaps they are already so strapped in their personal finances that they know adding another monthly payment will send them over the abyss. Those who are able to not take out the loans in order to invest them in a shiny new ecommerce opportunity will also be those who will live to try another day. The others who may or may not succeed will require years some even decades to financially recover from a failure.
It is important to understand that you do not need to start an ecommerce business with a bank loan. Instead, there are alternative ways of funding your entrepreneurship and those methods might in the long run be safer. For example, you will need a great computer and the latest software to make your presence known on the Net. While it is tempting to buy the latest and greatest machine, find out if you can simply upgrade that which you already have.
Usually you will be able to do so for a fraction of the price that a new system costs. If a new computer system is indicated, wait until special sales events come up and take advantage of them. Refurbished units and used machines which are for sale on many of the major auction sites are also a good idea. Similarly, do not worry about having an office to start out. You spare bedroom will work just fine until the money begins to roll in. It is important that you do not spend money on items which will do little to further your business.
Thus, if you are making and selling e-books, an office is unnecessary. Advertising, packaging and other incidentals can all be tackled at a shoe string budget until your business grows to such an extent that you can get a bit fancier. While it is tempting to ask for money from the bank, remember that you will need to repay this money no matter what. Starting an ecommerce business without a bank loan makes more sense in the long run, since you will be able to finance the next phase of your business with the monies you earn from the current phase.
Source : http://www.articlesbase.com
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
How to Get Internet Advertising Cheap!
How do I get internet advertising cheap? Awesome question. Well lets start off with free internet advertisement and then move to cheap internet advertising.
Free Internet Advertisement
Among the best ways to get free ads for your site online are link exchanges. While frowned upon by some I have found them to be extremely successful. The basic concept of it is "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours". You put my link on your site and I'll put yours on my site.
Sounds easy enough right? Well it really is.
To get started with this link exchange concept you will need to create a links page on your site. Decide up front whether you want to put text links, or image links. Image links require banners and may make your links page load slow, while text links load faster and often don't take away from the overall look and feel of your site. I would suggest text links. In order for this free internet advertisement scheme of ours to work you need to find sites you would like to place your link / or ad on. It's always best to put your link on a page of similar content. The reason for this is simple; If you run a website for "Beach Volleyball Lovers" and you put your free advert on a site for Russian Hockey Fans you probably aren't going to get many people clicking through to your site. So find a site that is similar to yours and contact that person via email and say something like hey I run such and such site, and I would like to exchange links with you. The more people you contact the more internet advertisements you get.
Once you have that Free Internet Advertisement / Link exchange stuff down to a science it may to time for you to purchase some cheap or affordable internet advertising
Cheap Internet Advertisement
My 2 personal favorites on the way of internet advertisement companies are the 2 giants; Yahoo and Google.
Google Adwords and Yahoo Publisher are my current solutions to internet advertisement on the cheap. Yahoo currently has a .10 CPC(cost per click) minimum on all ads. Google on the other hand does not. It's possible to put ads on Google syndicated searches for .01 CPC That is as cheap as it gets. However if you want the ads on their search engine search results I believe there is a .05 CPC minimum. Either way Google seems to be the cheaper of the two companies as far as the advertisement goes.
Another concept I would like to touch upon is "branding" or getting the name of your company out there. If you sell antiques and put an ad on Google, it may be displayed 1,000 before it is clicked. That means your banner or ad with your Sites name was displayed 1,000 for .05 cents. Well.. dam that's a deal. Eventually people will start to associate your sites name Bubbas Antiques with quality quality antiques. Believe it or not people branding is what sells. If you are thirsty and see 2 pops (sodas) on a table one says Pepsi and the other says Bubbas cola you are most likely to buy the Pepsi.
So again there are many ways to get internet advertisements cheap or free. All you need to do is get out there and do it.
Source : http://www.articlesbase.com
Free Internet Advertisement
Among the best ways to get free ads for your site online are link exchanges. While frowned upon by some I have found them to be extremely successful. The basic concept of it is "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours". You put my link on your site and I'll put yours on my site.
Sounds easy enough right? Well it really is.
To get started with this link exchange concept you will need to create a links page on your site. Decide up front whether you want to put text links, or image links. Image links require banners and may make your links page load slow, while text links load faster and often don't take away from the overall look and feel of your site. I would suggest text links. In order for this free internet advertisement scheme of ours to work you need to find sites you would like to place your link / or ad on. It's always best to put your link on a page of similar content. The reason for this is simple; If you run a website for "Beach Volleyball Lovers" and you put your free advert on a site for Russian Hockey Fans you probably aren't going to get many people clicking through to your site. So find a site that is similar to yours and contact that person via email and say something like hey I run such and such site, and I would like to exchange links with you. The more people you contact the more internet advertisements you get.
Once you have that Free Internet Advertisement / Link exchange stuff down to a science it may to time for you to purchase some cheap or affordable internet advertising
Cheap Internet Advertisement
My 2 personal favorites on the way of internet advertisement companies are the 2 giants; Yahoo and Google.
Google Adwords and Yahoo Publisher are my current solutions to internet advertisement on the cheap. Yahoo currently has a .10 CPC(cost per click) minimum on all ads. Google on the other hand does not. It's possible to put ads on Google syndicated searches for .01 CPC That is as cheap as it gets. However if you want the ads on their search engine search results I believe there is a .05 CPC minimum. Either way Google seems to be the cheaper of the two companies as far as the advertisement goes.
Another concept I would like to touch upon is "branding" or getting the name of your company out there. If you sell antiques and put an ad on Google, it may be displayed 1,000 before it is clicked. That means your banner or ad with your Sites name was displayed 1,000 for .05 cents. Well.. dam that's a deal. Eventually people will start to associate your sites name Bubbas Antiques with quality quality antiques. Believe it or not people branding is what sells. If you are thirsty and see 2 pops (sodas) on a table one says Pepsi and the other says Bubbas cola you are most likely to buy the Pepsi.
So again there are many ways to get internet advertisements cheap or free. All you need to do is get out there and do it.
Source : http://www.articlesbase.com
How do I make a Mobile Device Website?
Mobile Devices like the BlackBerry and Pocket PC are becoming ever more popular. People are moving away from the office so that they can become more productive.
As this trend continues it becomes even more popular for the webmaster or business to have a website that is friendly to a mobile device.
It's best to retain those web users and maybe even gain a few new one in the process. Website's specifically engineered for mobile devices do just that.
Why can't mobile devices use the same website as pc's and mac's?
Well the main reason is that the pages are way to large. Most websites are made to be viewed at a 1024x768 resolution or at least 800x600. Well the BlackBerry 8730e has a resolution of 320x240. It's the equivalent of looking at a map through a pinhole.
So what needs to be done? We need to lower the resolution of the web page. Because we can't expect 90% of your users that are on PC's to look at a tiny website on their screen we need to create a duplicate site.
There are a few solutions, but the best one in my opinion is to do it by hand. 1st consider why someone would be viewing your website from a mobile device? There are a few main reasons 1.Looking for email address 2.Looking for phone number 3.Looking for location 4.They want to know more about your company
OK. I'm getting ahead of myself here. So we must create a second website for mobile users. Most people choose to go with the mobile.yourwebsite.com approach. I think that creating a subdomain is probably the best and fastest way to deal with the situation.
Creating Subdomain for Mobile on Apache Web Server
If you are running your site on an apache web server chances are that it has cpanel and in cpanel there is a create subdomain icon/text. If this is the case go there and follow those directions. It will then create a folder on your site like so. http://www.yoursite.com/mobile/ and when users go to mobile.yoursite.com it will show the contents of the mobile folder.
Creating Subdomain for Mobile on IIS Server
Creating Subdomain on IIS Server is a little more tricky that on Apache. First you must create a folder in the inetpub called mobile. Then you need to add new website by right clicking My Computer going to Manage and then Services and Then IIS then Web Sites. Create a new website naming it Mobile Site, then make sure that the properly / Home Directory Tab is showing the contents of the mobile folder. Then go to the control panel and select network devices and right click your network connection and go to properties. Then click the advanced button and make sure the tab is on IP Settings. Add an IP address (a new one not the same one as your other site) and then save all that.
Now you need to NAT the incoming request for mail.yoursite.com to that internal ip address. I may have skipped a step or two but i thing i have all that covered. If you have questions just google "Subdomain Setup IIS Tutorial"
Now back to what we where talking about earlier, making a few pages specifically for the mobile device browsers You need to create at least 4 different pages
* Email Directory
* Phone Directory
* Location
* About
If your organization is not that large you can probably compress Email / Phone directory into 1 contact page.
These pages need to be minimal. Minimal text, minimal tables, minimal pictures ect. Also NO FRAMES, NO JAVASCRIPT, and NO FLASH as most mobile device browsers can't read any of those.
Assuming that everything has wen 't well you should have a mobile friendly website that can be viewed by any user anywhere. Make sure to post a link on your main page linking to the Mobile Page, and give it out to your customers as well.
Source : http://www.articlesbase.com
As this trend continues it becomes even more popular for the webmaster or business to have a website that is friendly to a mobile device.
It's best to retain those web users and maybe even gain a few new one in the process. Website's specifically engineered for mobile devices do just that.
Why can't mobile devices use the same website as pc's and mac's?
Well the main reason is that the pages are way to large. Most websites are made to be viewed at a 1024x768 resolution or at least 800x600. Well the BlackBerry 8730e has a resolution of 320x240. It's the equivalent of looking at a map through a pinhole.
So what needs to be done? We need to lower the resolution of the web page. Because we can't expect 90% of your users that are on PC's to look at a tiny website on their screen we need to create a duplicate site.
There are a few solutions, but the best one in my opinion is to do it by hand. 1st consider why someone would be viewing your website from a mobile device? There are a few main reasons 1.Looking for email address 2.Looking for phone number 3.Looking for location 4.They want to know more about your company
OK. I'm getting ahead of myself here. So we must create a second website for mobile users. Most people choose to go with the mobile.yourwebsite.com approach. I think that creating a subdomain is probably the best and fastest way to deal with the situation.
Creating Subdomain for Mobile on Apache Web Server
If you are running your site on an apache web server chances are that it has cpanel and in cpanel there is a create subdomain icon/text. If this is the case go there and follow those directions. It will then create a folder on your site like so. http://www.yoursite.com/mobile/ and when users go to mobile.yoursite.com it will show the contents of the mobile folder.
Creating Subdomain for Mobile on IIS Server
Creating Subdomain on IIS Server is a little more tricky that on Apache. First you must create a folder in the inetpub called mobile. Then you need to add new website by right clicking My Computer going to Manage and then Services and Then IIS then Web Sites. Create a new website naming it Mobile Site, then make sure that the properly / Home Directory Tab is showing the contents of the mobile folder. Then go to the control panel and select network devices and right click your network connection and go to properties. Then click the advanced button and make sure the tab is on IP Settings. Add an IP address (a new one not the same one as your other site) and then save all that.
Now you need to NAT the incoming request for mail.yoursite.com to that internal ip address. I may have skipped a step or two but i thing i have all that covered. If you have questions just google "Subdomain Setup IIS Tutorial"
Now back to what we where talking about earlier, making a few pages specifically for the mobile device browsers You need to create at least 4 different pages
* Email Directory
* Phone Directory
* Location
* About
If your organization is not that large you can probably compress Email / Phone directory into 1 contact page.
These pages need to be minimal. Minimal text, minimal tables, minimal pictures ect. Also NO FRAMES, NO JAVASCRIPT, and NO FLASH as most mobile device browsers can't read any of those.
Assuming that everything has wen 't well you should have a mobile friendly website that can be viewed by any user anywhere. Make sure to post a link on your main page linking to the Mobile Page, and give it out to your customers as well.
Source : http://www.articlesbase.com
Leverage Web Directories To Boost SEO!
The pioneer of the web directory would have to be dmoz. The big benefit of Dmoz is that it is an open source link directory By open source I mean it is free to get into. It is not easy to have your site included in Dmoz but I recommend that every give it a shot. The websites that do get included will surely see reap so big benefits. It's not unheard of for webmasters to purchase domain names just because they are indexed in Dmoz.
Internet link directories are websites that have a sorted list of websites by specific categories. Internet directories are mostly used to find information on a specific subject
Directories have their initial category and are then split into a subcategory. Under the category of computers, for instance, one would find several subcategories for hardware and software, the Internet, hacking, ethics, education, computer jobs, algorithms, robotics, and virtual reality, to name a few. Each of these subcategories would be divided further into sites providing more specific topics.
Internet web directories are also used to help a webmaster improve their seo. Directories are useful to webmasters as quality backlinks. This is how they help build a web sites link popularity.
There are many different types of link directories such as general directories. The other directories will focus on a specific niche. If you are going to use web directories to help you build backlinks submit to as many as you can. Getting a link placed in a general web directory is good but if you can find one that relates to your niche it's even better. If your website is in a niche topic, using a niche link directory can allow you to get traffic that is highly targeted.
99% of directories and edited manually by a human. Just about all search engines will use website bots to index and add your website to their engine. The best part of a directory is that they are easy to maintain and create. It does not take much effort to create a quality directory. These are just a few reasons they have become a favorite source for webmasters.
Directories follow different processes for submitting links. The directory can ask you to register before submitting a link. Some will let you submit a free link but it can take a long time for you listing to show up. The fastest way to get listed is to pay for your inclusion. While getting your site listed in a popular link directory may cost money, it is well worth it. In addition to this, you will find that your site will begin receiving traffic much faster.
Try and submit you site to only the best link directories to get a good return on your investment. Having your site included in such a directory would give it the benefit of being listed as a quality site, as well as ensure high rankings. Submitting to directories is one of the most commonly used methods to improve a websites seo and PR standings. Your website will become much more visible, and this will allow you to gain larger amounts of traffic. The last benefit of submitting to directories is that you will now be able to sell quality advertising space.
Articles Source :http://www.articles-hub.com
Internet link directories are websites that have a sorted list of websites by specific categories. Internet directories are mostly used to find information on a specific subject
Directories have their initial category and are then split into a subcategory. Under the category of computers, for instance, one would find several subcategories for hardware and software, the Internet, hacking, ethics, education, computer jobs, algorithms, robotics, and virtual reality, to name a few. Each of these subcategories would be divided further into sites providing more specific topics.
Internet web directories are also used to help a webmaster improve their seo. Directories are useful to webmasters as quality backlinks. This is how they help build a web sites link popularity.
There are many different types of link directories such as general directories. The other directories will focus on a specific niche. If you are going to use web directories to help you build backlinks submit to as many as you can. Getting a link placed in a general web directory is good but if you can find one that relates to your niche it's even better. If your website is in a niche topic, using a niche link directory can allow you to get traffic that is highly targeted.
99% of directories and edited manually by a human. Just about all search engines will use website bots to index and add your website to their engine. The best part of a directory is that they are easy to maintain and create. It does not take much effort to create a quality directory. These are just a few reasons they have become a favorite source for webmasters.
Directories follow different processes for submitting links. The directory can ask you to register before submitting a link. Some will let you submit a free link but it can take a long time for you listing to show up. The fastest way to get listed is to pay for your inclusion. While getting your site listed in a popular link directory may cost money, it is well worth it. In addition to this, you will find that your site will begin receiving traffic much faster.
Try and submit you site to only the best link directories to get a good return on your investment. Having your site included in such a directory would give it the benefit of being listed as a quality site, as well as ensure high rankings. Submitting to directories is one of the most commonly used methods to improve a websites seo and PR standings. Your website will become much more visible, and this will allow you to gain larger amounts of traffic. The last benefit of submitting to directories is that you will now be able to sell quality advertising space.
Articles Source :http://www.articles-hub.com
The Importance of Incoming Links
When you to go google, and type in a search term, well say for example "make money online". The most revelant search terms will show up. How do you get those spots?
Some people will argue with me here the single most important factor is the incoming links. There are a few types of different incoming links. I personally have had 3 websites rank on number 1 for google.
1. One way links: One way links are just that. You have a website giving you a one way link to your website. These are valued the highest of all the links coming in. How would you go about getting these types of links? There are websites out there that offer that. Go to google and type in "one way links" You'll get plenty of results. It never hurts to do a little research on the sites before accepting their terms.
2. Reciprical links: These are links that would exchange with someone, and the most common type of link. How would you go about getting these? Simple, you just ask. Send them an email with your name your website, telling them you want to link. Put the link on your site first, and let the webmaster know where it is. If they don't respond contact again in a week. Still no response, delete the link.
3. 3 Way Links: They are 3 different websites all 1 way linking to each other. For example: Site A,B,C... Site A Links to B Site B Links to C Site C links to A. If this is confusing, draw it out on a piece of paper in a triangle shape, and you will see A--B B--C C--A.
Another important thing to remember is to link to websites that have the same theme as yours. Incoming links can't hurt you, but your out going links can. If you have a website about dogs, you don't want links coming in from Debt Companies, get it?
Of course there are a few other things that contribute to getting a high ranking page, but I'll go over that at a different time.
Articles Source :http://www.articles-hub.com
Some people will argue with me here the single most important factor is the incoming links. There are a few types of different incoming links. I personally have had 3 websites rank on number 1 for google.
1. One way links: One way links are just that. You have a website giving you a one way link to your website. These are valued the highest of all the links coming in. How would you go about getting these types of links? There are websites out there that offer that. Go to google and type in "one way links" You'll get plenty of results. It never hurts to do a little research on the sites before accepting their terms.
2. Reciprical links: These are links that would exchange with someone, and the most common type of link. How would you go about getting these? Simple, you just ask. Send them an email with your name your website, telling them you want to link. Put the link on your site first, and let the webmaster know where it is. If they don't respond contact again in a week. Still no response, delete the link.
3. 3 Way Links: They are 3 different websites all 1 way linking to each other. For example: Site A,B,C... Site A Links to B Site B Links to C Site C links to A. If this is confusing, draw it out on a piece of paper in a triangle shape, and you will see A--B B--C C--A.
Another important thing to remember is to link to websites that have the same theme as yours. Incoming links can't hurt you, but your out going links can. If you have a website about dogs, you don't want links coming in from Debt Companies, get it?
Of course there are a few other things that contribute to getting a high ranking page, but I'll go over that at a different time.
Articles Source :http://www.articles-hub.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)