Make Money Starting Your Own Home Business

You’ve been thinking about starting your own home business, but until now, it’s been just a dream. Now I’m going to help it become a reality for you. In part 2 How to Start a Home Business – Getting Started, I cover the following: constructing a website, setting up a sales processing system, personal customer service, open for business, and finally review, rewrite, and revise.

If you missed part 1, here’s a link to How to Start a Home Business – Getting Started.

Step 6: Constructing A Website

Today web sites are becoming easier to create. You don’t even have to know a line of HTML in order to create an effective Web page yourself. Pick a Web address (otherwise known as a URL, or Uniform Resource Locator) that’s easy to remember. You can purchase a short domain-name alias, such as company.com, to replace a longer one like internetprovider.com/~username/companyname/index.html. If the ideal dot-com (.com) name isn’t available, you can choose one of the newer domain suffixes such as .biz.

An easy way to get a great website that has everything and is fully optimized is to use Site Build It, they help you every step of the way and provide plenty of video tutorials. This is the way to go if you don’t know anything about website building. Read my Site Build It article review for more information.

Another popular option is WordPress, a templating system which includes widgets that can be rearranged without editing PHP or HTML code, as well as themes that can be installed and switched between. The PHP and HTML code in themes can also be edited for more advanced customizations.

If your interested in building your own website, be sure to check out my templates photoshop and website design articles. You’ll find lot’s of great content to help you get started with html or wordpress.

Deciding On A Top – Level Domain Name

Where does a business like yours get the easy-to-remember addresses you need? You purchase them from one of the approved domain name registrars. A registrar is a business that has been designated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as having the responsibility for keeping track of the names registered in one of the top-level domains. Originally, there were six domains; but as .com and others became crowded, alternatives were eventually approved.

If you need to purchase a domain name, you’ll need a good domain registration company. Team up with the internets best. GoDaddy the internets #1 domain registrar, also the company I use for all my domain registration needs.

The domains available are shown below.

The list of domains presented by ICANN indicates that certain domains are “restricted” only to certain types of individuals or organizations. For instance, .biz is restricted to businesses, .pro is restricted to licensed professionals, and so on. In actual practice, businesses don’t observe such restrictions very strictly. The .net domain, which was originally intended for network service providers such as ISPs and Web hosts, is commonly used by businesses that can’t find their ideal name in the .com domain, for example. You aren’t necessarily limited to one domain, either.

Make Your Site Content – Rich

Provide Compelling Content

The textual component of a Web site is what attracts visitors and keeps them coming back on a regular basis. The more useful the information and compelling content you provide, the more visits your site will receive. By compelling content, I’m talking about words, headings, or images that induce visitors to interact with your site in some way. You can make your content compelling in a number of ways:

Provide a call to action, for example “Click Here!” or “Buy Now!”

Explain how the reader will benefit by clicking a link and exploring your web site.

Briefly and concisely summarize your business. Concise communication is key to having your dream realized.

Scan or use a digital camera to capture images of your sale items (or of the services you provide), and post them on a Web page called Products.

Don’t forget the personal touch when it comes to connecting with your customers’ needs. People who shop online don’t get to meet their merchants in person, so anything you can tell about yourself helps to personalize the process and put your visitors at ease.

Step 7: Setting Up A Sales Processing System

Online Success

Many businesses go online and then are surprised by their own success. They don’t have systems in place for finalizing sales, shipping out purchased goods in a timely manner, and tracking finances and inventory.

An excellent way to plan for success is to set up ways to track your business finances and to create a secure purchasing environment for your online customers. That way, you can build on your success rather than be surprised by it.

Providing A Means For Secure Transactions

Getting paid is the key to survival as well as success. When your business exists only online, the payment process is not always straightforward. Make your Web site a safe and easy place for customers to pay you. Provide different payment options and build your customers’ level of trust any way you can.

Paypal offers a great way to start accepting credit card and check payments online, all you do is put in your PayPal link on your website and let PayPal do the rest. For more details on setting up a paypal merchant account visit PayPal.com.

Becoming A Credit Card Merchant And Setting Up A Merchant Account

The words electronic commerce or e-commerce bring to mind visions of online forms and credit card data that is transmitted over the Internet. Do you have to provide such service in order to run a successful online business? Not necessarily. Being a credit card merchant makes life easier for your customers, to be sure, but it also adds complications and extra costs to your operation.

I don’t want to discourage you from becoming credit card ready by any means, but you need to be aware of the steps (and the expenses) involved, many of which may not occur to you when you’re just starting out. For example, you may not be aware of one or more of the following:

Merchant accounts: You have to apply and be approved for a special bank account called a merchant account in order for a bank to process the credit card orders that you receive. If you work through traditional banks, approval can take days or weeks. However, a number of online merchant account businesses are providing hot competition, which includes streamlining the application process.

Fees: Fees can be high but they vary widely, and it pays to shop around. Some banks charge a merchant application fee ($300 to $800). On the other hand, some online companies such as PayPal charge no application fee.

Discount rates: All banks and merchant account companies (and even payment companies like PayPal) charge a usage fee, deceptively called a discount rate. Typically, this fee ranges from 1 to 4 percent of each transaction. Plus, you may have to pay a monthly premium charge in the range of $30–70 to the bank.

American Express and Discover: If you want to accept payments from American Express and Discover cardholders, you must make arrangements through the companies themselves. You can apply online to be an American Express card merchant by going to the American Express Merchant Homepage and clicking the Apply to Accept the Card link. At the Discover Card merchant site, click the Become a Merchant link, which leads you to the application for credit card merchants.

Software and hardware: Unless you depend on a payment service such as PayPal, you need software or hardware to process transactions and transmit the data to the banking system. If you plan to accept credit card numbers online only and don’t need a device to handle actual “card swipes” from in-person customers, you can use your computer modem to transmit the data. 1st American Card Service lets you use software called PCCharge Express for processing transactions with your browser, but you have to either purchase the software for $295 or lease it for rates that vary from $22 to $34 per year. The hardware involved is a terminal or phone line, which you can either purchase for $229 or lease for anywhere from $17 to $26 per month, depending on the length of the lease.

The good news is that getting merchant status is becoming easier, as more banks accept the notion that businesses don’t have to have an actual, physical storefront in order to be successful.

Step 8: Personal Customer Service

Outstanding Personal Customer Service

The Internet may not seem like a place for the personal touch, but technology didn’t actually create the Internet and all of its content; people did that. In fact, the Internet is a great place to provide your clients and customers with outstanding, personal customer service.

In many cases, customer service on the Internet is a matter of being available and responding quickly to all inquiries. You check your e-mail regularly; you make sure you respond within a day; you cheerfully solve problems and hand out refunds if needed. By helping your customers, you help yourself, too. You build loyalty as well as credibility among your clientele. For many small businesses, the key to competing effectively with larger competitors is by providing superior customer service.

Your knowledge and experience are among your most valuable commodities. So you may be surprised when I suggest that you give them away for free. Why? It’s a “try before you buy” concept. Helping people for free builds your credibility and makes them more likely to pay for your services down the road.

Someone once told me “if you give everything and more away for free, then people will know what you have for sale is really good and worth buying”, and I truly believe that.

Make Your Web Site A Go-To Resource Site

Many online entrepreneurs succeed by making their Web sites not only a place for sales and promotion but also an indispensable resource, full of useful hyperlinks and other information, that customers want to visit again and again. For example, I give away a lot of valuable home business content for free on www.makecashnow.biz. I feel strongly that the secret on the Web is to provide a solution to a problem and, for the most part, to do it for free.

I could have easily made a ebook full of many of my great tips and sold it for $50, but instead I made the content free and accessible to everyone. I choose to make money thru advertising, which most people will click on when they are ready to leave my site. Advertising is a great way to make money with your website, we will talk about it more later.

In order to be successful and make money, you need to give people a reason to visit your site on a regular basis. Having repeat customers makes it easier to be successful, otherwise you’ll have to generate new traffic each and every day.

Email Auto-responders

Become An Expert E-mailer

For an online business, knowing the names and addresses of people who visit and who don’t necessarily make purchases is a gold mine of information. The business can use the contact information to send members special offers and news releases; the more frequently contact is maintained, the more likely those casual shoppers will eventually turn into
paying customers.

Aweber is one of the best company’s to use for your email auto-responder needs, they are the industry leader and their program features are excellent.

Use an auto-responder to email newsletters, offers, tips, or free gifts.

Become A Super e-mailer

E-mail is, in my opinion, is the single most important marketing tool that you can use to boost your online business. Becoming an expert e-mail user increases your contacts and provides you with new sources of support, too.

The two best and easiest e-mail strategies are the following:

Check your e-mail regularly and as often as possible.

Respond to e-mail inquiries immediately.

Additionally, you can e-mail inquiries about co-marketing opportunities to other Web sites similar to your own. Ask other online business owners if they will provide links to your site in exchange for you providing links to theirs. And always include a signature file with your message that includes the name of your business and a link to your business site.

Step 9: Open For Business

Get The Word Out

In order to be successful, small businesses need to get the word out to the people who are likely to purchase what they have to offer. If this group turns out to be only a narrow market, so much the better; the Internet is great for connecting to niche markets that share a common interest.

The Internet provides many unique and effective ways for small businesses to advertise, including search services, e-mail, newsgroups, electronic mailing lists, and more.

Try them all and see which ones are most effective for you! Don’t forget about advertising offline as well, offline advertising can still be very effective.

Listing Your site with Search Engines

How, exactly, do you get listed on the search engines such as Yahoo! and Lycos? Frankly, it’s getting more difficult. Many of the big search services charge for listings. But some let you contribute a listing for free, though there’s no guarantee if or when you’ll see your site included in their databases.

Add your site to local searches: Most of the search engines have local search functions, and you should definitely appear there. Visit www.local.yahoo.com, www.local.google.com, and www.superpages.com to list your site.

You can also increase the chances that search services will list your site by including special keywords and site descriptions in the HTML commands for your Web pages. You place these keywords after a special HTML command (the <META> tag), making them invisible to the casual viewer of your site.

You will also need to make sure all your web pages have been search engine optimized, so the search engines will pick them up. Be sure to read my search engine optimization articles so you know exactly what you need to do.

Step 10: Review, Rewrite, and Revise

Update Regularly

Getting your business online now and then updating your site regularly is better than waiting to unveil the perfect Web site all at one time. In fact, seeing your site improve and grow is one of the best things about going online. Over time, you can create contests, strike up cooperative relationships with other businesses, and add more background information about your products and services.

Businesses on the Web need to evaluate and revise their practices on a regular basis. Online business is a process of trial and error. Some promotions work better than others. The point is that it needs to be an ongoing process and a long-term commitment. Taking a chance and profiting from your mistakes is better than not trying in the first place.

Another thing to remember, content can become dated you may need to update or replace it from time to time. Also consider changing what’s on your home page from time to time. Add new pictures, new text, if there’s a holiday coming up use something holiday themed. People like to see new content and tire of looking at the same old thing.

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Make Cash Completing Offers

Welcome Message From Shawn Culver, Founder

Welcome aboard, and thanks for joining me!

You’re going to be surprised at just how easy my system is, and unlike 98% of all other “make money” programs on the Internet today, you will be able to start earning money TODAY – with no risk or further investment.

I’ve been a successful Internet marketer for the past few years and make a nice comfortable living working mostly at home.

I have spent a lot of time searching the web for new ideas – trying to figure out what I wanted to do next. Out of the blue, I stumbled onto something incredible. What I discovered eventually became the foundation for this training guide.

I had a bunch of friends test my new theories and strategies, and they had incredible results. Every single one of them started marking money almost right away.

This was unlike anything I had seen before – an actual working way of making money online.

Remember – this is no get-rich-quick scheme. In fact, as my website made clear, I guarantee that you will NOT get rich using these strategies.

However you will discover a fool-proof way to easily earn anywhere from $3,000 to about $8,000 a month online. And that can have a serious positive affect on your finances.

I’ve tested just about every online money making system – well over a hundred. I promise you this is the easiest and most risk-free way that currently exists.

I wrote this guide for all of the honest, hard-working people out there who are still struggling month to month, to try and make some extra money online, and who have yet to find something that really truly works.

I’m sure you’re ready to begin, and start making money, so I’m going to get right to it. You really can start making money in the next few hours!

I purposely made my training guide as short and “to the point” as possible, to help you get off to a fast start. I’ll cover everything you need to know, and nothing you don’t.

Good luck,

Shawn Culver, Founder

Now let’s get started! Introduction to the Make Cash Now Extra Income System.

Free Money Making Programs

My goal is to help you find your way through the money making jungle so that you pick the right route the first time and make the least number of mistakes along the way.

Whether you are a new starter or already making money on the internet and want to increase your earnings, I can help you.

I will provide you with a guide to legitimate, internet-based work at home, work from home, small business, and home based business opportunities that have desirable products, and are profitable.

I don’t offer hype – just real money making solutions and ideas for those who are serious about working from home based on my own successful experiences.

Listed below are several free programs that you can use to make money online today. Programs 1 Thru 5 are available to anyone living in North America.

1. Make Cash Now Program: Use my program to make money today, you can also use it with offers 2, 3, 4, & Internet Cash Club to make more money!
2. Money Bonanzas: Make $145 today!
3. Dollar Deal Double Cash: Make $120 today!
4. Swift Rewards: Make $80 today!
5. Internet Cash Club: Free to join and start making money right away, if for some reason you can’t make money in 48hrs they will pay you $50 for your time. I’ve done it in the past, and it is some easy money! You can make over $500 today. Be sure to do numbers 2, 3, and 4 first. Those are your highest paying jobs, Internet Cash Club’s jobs are around $60.
6. Click Sense: Get paid to click ads.
7. Money Making Forum Lots of programs and methods are available in the MakeCashNow forum, so you can actually learn to earn money.

Video On Making Money for Completing Offers

http://bubble-cast.com

Want to see more money making opportunities? Check out my article series on 101 Different Ways to Make Money Online and Offline.

Know of any other similar money making opportunities? Share them with us using the form below.

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Traffic exchanges

This article explains in detail how to drive and receive lots of free traffic to your website by using traffic exchanges.

What Are Traffic Exchanges?

A traffic exchange website receives website submissions from website owners that join traffic exchange networks. The person submitting the website then has to browse other member sites on the exchange program to earn credits, which enable their websites to be viewed by other members through the surf system. This increases the number of visitors to all the sites involved.

Traffic exchanges enforce a certain credit ratio, which illustrates the amount of websites the surfer must view in order to receive one hit through the program for their promoted website. Many exchange sites offer the ability to upgrade one’s membership level for a more equal credit ratio.

As the viewers are all website owners or affiliates, it’s possible that some might find certain member websites interesting and thus make note of them on their own sites, sending more traffic their way. Most traffic programs also impose a time limit when members are browsing, ranging from 10 seconds to 60 seconds. Some incorporate the use of captcha to ensure user interaction.

Almost all traffic exchange programs are free, although many of them offer special features to paid members and offer credits for purchase. Almost all traffic exchange programs encourage users to build their own referral networks, which in turn increases the referrers’ amount of credits.

The traffic generated in a traffic exchange can be leveraged by using a downline builder to assist the user in building a referral network in the many different traffic exchanges.

Traffic exchange programs are generally used by small business owners or marketers who either want free advertising or use the exchange programs for low-budget advertisement campaigns.

Instructions On How To Use Traffic Exchanges

Step 1: First and foremost, if you are signed up with any advertisement companies that allow you to make money off of your website, make sure you have checked their policy on traffic exchange programs. Google Adsense, for example, prohibits the use of click-exchange programs and discourages traffic exchange as they feel that they are detrimental to their advertisers. Being caught breaking policy will result in your affiliate account being disabled and you possibly banned.

Tip: Create another website to send your targeted traffic to your site. You can create a free website thru Yahoo GeoCities, and then create a squeeze page on your Yahoo website to send traffic to your main website from there.

Step 2: Keep in mind that the traffic you get might be quantity-based, not quality-based. In other words, you may get lots of traffic, but it won’t guarantee that you will immediately create a fan-base. Despite this, traffic exchanges are a good way to get your site noticed and may build a stream of steady visitors in the long run. One visitor out of 20 brought in from a traffic exchange may find your site interesting, bookmark it, and pass it to their friends; who, in turn, pass it to their friends, and so on.

Step 3: Traffic exchanges are a basic system of “you visit my site and I’ll visit yours”. Most exchanges are set up on a credit scale…each credit you earn is a visit to your site. Some sites offer a 1:1 ratio, but the ratio can be up to 3:1. Additionally, you can earn credits used towards visitors by referring others to join their network and some offer rewards if you view a lot of sites.

Step 4: Some traffic exchange sites assign a surfing URL to you that you will use when you want to visit sites and build up your credits. To make it easier, it is recommended that you assign this surfing URL as your start page or bookmark it for easy access.

Step 5: Other sites may require that you download and install a toolbar. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, then don’t sign up for the traffic exchange. You can always find another one as there are plenty to choose from.

Step 6: Set aside some time to participate. The whole point of traffic exchange is that you get visitors by visiting other sites. Set aside a little time each day to browse sites in the traffic exchange.

Step 7: If you don’t have time to browse sites, a number of traffic exchanges offer to give you a certain number of visitors for a small fee. For example, you could pay $5.95 for 500 guaranteed visits to your site.

Step 8: Check out the Traffic Exchange Directory at the bottom of the page for some traffic exchange sites that can drive traffic to your website!

Signing Up With Traffic Exchanges

I recommend signing up with many different traffic exchanges. You don’t have to use them all, but it’s a good idea to be a member of several exchanges.

Being a member of many exchanges has its benefits:

1. Traffic exchanges run different promotions on different days, you will want to use the exchanges that offer you the most surf credits on a given day. 2 surf credits for 1 page view is a common promotion ran on the exchanges.

2. Become an affiliate. At most traffic exchanges, you get 100 credits for referring a new, active member…the member must join and surf a certain number of websites…then, when that person continues to surf webpages to build credits for themselves, you usually earn 10% of their credits earned. Put it this way, if you refer 100 people to a traffic exchange, you first get 10,000 credits (or 83 hours worth of clicking yourself). Then, if for example, those 100 members click for 1 hour a day 5 days a week…600 credits a week per person (or, at 10% credits to you, that comes to 6000 credits – 50 hours of clicking).

So, all in all, in one month of referrals using traffic exchanges…you could amass 34,000 credits the first month (283 hours of clicking) and 24,000 credits a month there after (200 hours of clicking)…basically, you do not have to actually click at the traffic exchanges anymore.

So go out there and start referring members to your traffic exchanges. With a little work, you could be receiving over 250,000 website visitors a month.

3. Make Money, traffic exchanges even pay you money for referrals if they upgrade to paid member status.

Be sure to read my article on How To Cheat The Traffic Exchanges, it offers tips on ways you can increase your surf credits with the exchanges. It is one of the many great home business articles available on www.makecashnow.biz.

Traffic Exchange Directory

Traffic Roundup

Traffic Roundup is a veteran traffic exchange system and is an excellent tool to drive visitors to your website or affiliate marketing page. Be aware, this system is large, full of people, and uses advertising credits quickly! Even pro memberships cannot keep enough credits in your account; therefore, you have to be specifically plan when to unleash your credits for page views…think Prime Time Television times in America!

Traffic Swarm

This is the Big Boy of Traffic Exchanges and can be one of the fastest and easiest way to website traffic. However, this system relies on your ad writing skills to deliver better results…a poor ad will receive less traffic! Rated #1

Ultimate Traffic Exchange

This is the Ultimate traffic exchange because it offers you both manual and auto-surf options. It also builds you credits when you invite others to just look at their exchange…called visitor credits, which is a nice feature because most exchanges require the person looking to sign up to get any benefit.

Soaring 4 Traffic

High Flying Traffic to Your Websites.

Traffic Splash

Splashes into Floods of Traffic!

Traffic Syndicate 25

Free Traffic Exchange. Join free, surf and earn traffic to your own website, buy traffic, hits, free to join, free traffic, #1 traffic exchange on the net, Logiscape Technologies Inc

Hit 2 Hit

Quality traffic at Hit2Hit, where traffic is exchanged manually, get your sites seen! Promote your business opportunity, free advertising, Manual Traffic Exchange, web site promotion, more free web site traffic.

Traffic Bully

Unlimited number of unique visitors.

Traffic Meet

Get paid to surf the web at Trafficmeet.com

Hit Magik

HitMagik.Com Start-Page Traffic Exchange, Magik Super-Surfer, Magik Desktop Ads, Paid to Read Email, Click and More! Generate unlimited, targeted and quality free traffic to your site! Driving traffic to your site can only do one thing, Increase your results!

Top Surfer

Advertising Portal with multiple tools!

Traffic G

Five Excellent Services, One Awesome Site!

Traffic Witch

One of the newest and fastest growing traffic exchanges.

ClicksaGoGo

Getting website traffic doesn’t have to be a Bad Trip!”Discover the Fast, Free, Fun and Groovy Way to Increase Your Website Traffic” ClicksaGoGo.com is a free advertising service that will bring real visitors to your website within minutes.

4X4Hitscom

Traffic Exchange!

EasyHits4U.com

1:1 Traffic Exchange, Great anti-cheating protection, and a 5 level referral program.

EternalHits.com

Free Traffic, Free Advertising, Free Promotion, Free Marketing, List unlimited sites, 50 credits per referral + loads more.

JurassicSurf.com

Great new traffic Exchange.

HitsBoosterPro.com

1,000 free surf credits for signing up.

HitSafari.com

2:1 Traffic Exchange, and is very easy to use.

Feel free to copy this article and use it on your website. Start promoting all these great traffic exchanges and soon you too will be receiving lots of free traffic to your website.

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