Online Business

180 Websites To Avoid with Work At Home Truth

Paul Schlegel at Work At Home Truth has a new warning blog post up, “180 Websites To Avoid”.

Warnings about Online Profit Masters tops Paul’s list. I’ve not seen this site, but based on the previous review blog post on it, it has many red flags in the advertising. The Utah Better Business Bureau gives them an F rating, not because of complaints, but because they are not responding to requests for information from the BBB. Here’s their explanation for the low rating.

Factors that lowered Online Profit Masters’ rating include:

• BBB concerns with the industry in which this business operates.
• BBB does not have sufficient information to determine how long this business has been operating. BBB made one or more requests for background information from the business. BBB has not received a response from this business and/or has not been able to verify information received from this business.
• BBB does not have sufficient background information on this business. BBB made one or more requests for background information from the business. BBB has not received a response from this business and/or has not been able to verify information received from this business.

Paul’s research shows that Online Profit Masters may have links to The Online Hosting Network. Paul includes 129 sites that may be connected to that. I found another posting from 2009 about this group that has a rather disturbing discussion about it. You can check that one out at Electron Plumber.

If you are serious about creating an internet marketing business, I suggest you check out Paul’s article.

Is Ebay a Giant Garage Sale or ?

Intuition about Ebay don't always work. Are you thinking correctly about eBay? Do you trust your intuition? Let's do a small test. Take a piece of paper (imagine it to be a large piece of newspaper) and fold it in half 50 times about how tall would the folded paper be? I'll give you the answer in a moment, but unless you've seen this example before you will probably be very surprised by the answer. It's a test of your intuition - and proof that you can be VERY wrong when trying to imagine how BIG something is based on a few simple facts. Now, let's talk about eBay...

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Want to Sell Online? First Decide WHAT You Want to Sell

With the large number of people who shop online today, when considering starting an online business selling something one of the biggest questions that people face is the age-old "What should I sell?" It can be a real nightmare trying to figure out what to sell online, but the following tips should give you a good idea of what has the best potential to sell specifically online...

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Essential Free Tools For Running An Online Business

To run a successful Internet business there are some basic decisions you need to settle as soon as possible. You need to decide specifically on some basic tools to put into place to run your day-to-day business operation. Without tools like these, it's pretty impossible to make any money at all, let alone expect business to grow. Plus, you really need to have these settled on and set up so that you can focus on competing with the fierce competition you are likely to encounter.

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Two Simple Tools for Generating Publicity

Key Elements of a Public Awareness Program – Part 5

Some of tools are at zero or minimal cost to produce, such as your PR calendar, letters the editor, proclamations, fact sheets, news releases, news conferences, pitch letters, media advisories, and your media list.

Others have higher costs, but are still excellent investments: advertising, website, fliers, gift subscriptions to your publication, brochures, and media kit.

In this article we’ll look at two simple tools that are easy to produce and use, pitch letters and a PR .

Pitch Letters

A pitch letter is proposed article or story idea that you “pitch” to editors to get them to give you publicity. Read more…

How to Write a Press Release

Key Elements of a Public Awareness Program – Part 4

Once you have determined the most newsworthy aspect of your story, you must summarize that information at the beginning of the release and then quickly back up the lead statement with facts. Save the less important details for last to fit the inverted-pyramid style of news writing.

Put the most comprehensive information in the lead, so that the reader gets the point of the story even if he reads only the first sentence or paragraph. All the essential information summarizing the whole story should be contained in the first paragraph if at all possible.

If you are announcing an event or meeting, make sure your first paragraph answers the basic questions: Who, What, When, Why, Where, and How.

A press release must be a complete story because some publications will run a release verbatim. This is usually more likely with trade publications. Read more…

How to Build Media Relationships

Key Elements of a Public Awareness Program – Part 3

Create trust and respect

The first step to securing some good free publicity is hooking up with the right people. Sending information to a generic address at every major media outlet in your area is almost always a waste of time. You need to find someone who is ready, willing, and able to get your story covered.

If your business or organization is in a metropolitan area, invest in a “Media Guide” from local PR firm, preferably a large one with a good reputation. This will provide you with the names and addresses of editors, staff writers, producers, and other key contacts for print, radio, and TV.

Once you have the names, Read more…

Tips on Getting News Coverage

Key Elements of a Public Awareness Program – Part 2

Are there other ways of getting news coverage besides news releases and press conferences?

News releases on run-of-the-mill activities are unlikely to generate much interest, but unique projects generate attention. Get creative in your projects and tell the world.

If your event isn’t much out of the ordinary, you can generate attention by hiring a local news anchor to serve as emcee. People love the opportunity to meet celebrities and news anchors are local celebrities.

Invite local dignitaries or other celebrities to events. Both are likely to bring along an entourage. If you invite political figures, you tap into a different source of interest from community members. Read more…

One of My Favorite PLR Sources

When searching for PLR content to use, I found there were a lot of different types of sites available. Some offered monthly memberships and others offered just one time purchases. So be sure to look around before you decide where to buy.

You want to make sure that you get your PLR from someone with a strong reputation in the market. Gabor Olah is one of those. Check out IMReportCard.com (this link takes you directly to the review) to see what the public has to say about him. You’ll find that 14 people (maybe more now) have evaluated his PLRWholesaler site and the average over all rating is an A-. That’s one of the very top.

I’m a member of PLRWholesaler and I highly recommend it. Not only do they have an unbelievable amount of content, but it’s completely FREE. Read more…

Mind Map Your Way to Internet Marketing Success

When starting into a new enterprise it is unlikely that we’ll have a concrete picture of everything involved to get things up and running. This is nowhere more true than entering into the world of Internet Marketing. We are quite used to thinking in terms of brick and mortar stores that we walk into for shopping, the printed ads and the weekly specials. All things that we can touch with our hands and read with our eyes.

But when we move into the virtual world, hard things disappear. Instead we are working in concepts and fluid designs. We can’t direct our customers to our store with maps and direct them within our stores with aisles. They don’t get to actually pick up an item we are selling and literally feel it for value. Instead, we must guide with virtual sign posts (menus and hyperlinks) and assure value by testimonials.

Where location, location, location is the retail mantra in the physical world, the concept of location evaporates in the virtual world. Drive-by traffic, one of the keystones of a physical business becomes traffic generation – trying to find ways to put your website in front of the eyes of the virtual browsers to entice them to come in.

How do we grasp all of these differences in how business is done in the virtual world? Can we just make a gigantic plan and start filling in the blanks hoping it all works out in the end? Read more…