Chapter Two - Notes on a New Career

Small Businesses Can Go With The Flow

2007-05-14T05:22:00.000-07:00

Adapting to changing market conditions can be a challenge for any small business. This article gives great insight into how a small business can take advantage of immediate market opportunities, without destroying the marketing budget. By submitting articles to online publishers, business owners can speak to the market...fast.

Memphis In May - Amazing

2007-05-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

For anyone who thinks Jerry Lee Lewis is for the old folks, and Hinder is just for the kids, you obviously weren't in Memphis last weekend. The annual Beale Street Music Festival proves that music crosses those age boundaries in a drum beat.

Me and 60,000 of my closest friends crammed Tom Lee Park on the banks of the Mississippi, and slithered our way through the clubs and hot spots along Beale Street. Yep, there were lots of drunken youngsters (and oldsters), lots of smokin blues music, and an unbelievably joyous mix of every type of person you can imagine.

Mark your calendars for the first weekend in May next year. And look for me on at the Rum Boogie Cafe...I ruined my favorite shoes dancing, and wished it would never end.

Best,

Nancy

Article Writing as an Advertising Source

2007-04-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

(Note: Another good article on...articles! It's a easy, affordable way to find new customers for your own small business -- Nancy)

You've started an internet business, have completed your website and now you need to decide how you are going to advertise your new site.

Among the many ways to advertise is by writing articles. I feel that this is one of the best methods because you can include so much information and resources that you can adapt your articles to any situation. First of all let's take a look at some important reasons for writing articles to promote your site.

1. Generate traffic to your site by including links in your resource box.

2. Use them as an advertising tool, not only with the links but your content. Don't be blatant about it. Writing intelligently about your topic will lead visitors to visit your site to further explore what you have to offer. A visitor who realizes that you are competent in your subject is more likely to become a future customer, if not right away.

3. Correlate your keywords with your topic and your site. Internet browsers are looking for a specific subject. The closer your keywords or phrases match their search requirements, the more likely they are to go to your site. Not only that, the closer the match the higher your site will appear on the search engines results.

4. The importance of your resource box cannot be underestimated. First of all it should have your name, a brief description of your site, a short history of you the author, and any links to which you want them to go.

Many marketers, especially beginners, do not like to write articles as they feel that it takes too much time, they don't feel creative enough and it actually scares them. But consider this: I bet 95% of successful article writers started out feeling that way but with experience they became better and eventually came to like doing it.

Tips to making your article interesting and effective.

1. Use short paragraphs.

2. Employ numbers or bullets which makes it easier to read.

3. Create an attention-getting title by describing your content with short, concise words. Relate them to your keywords if possible. Pique their interest so they will want to read further.

4. Be informative, using facts and figures when they apply and even use real-life situations if it would help clarify your theme.

(a little hint here is to start out by composing an outline which will make it easier to organize what you are writing)

If you still don't want to write your own, especially at the beginning, there are sources online which can help you at a nominal cost such as freelancers. You can find them by entering the term in your browser.

Using public domain articles is another good source as these articles are given to the public and you can claim them as your own. The only difficulty here is that anyone can use them so your competitors may use the same one. Here is a good time to edit them in your own words to make them your own.

I have written mostly about linking your article to your website, but it's also easy to link to your affiliate site if you are promoting someone else's product.

Notice that I haven't mentioned advertising that much but that is really what you are doing with your article and your resource box. The more informative your article and how you present it is actually a means of promoting yourself and your subject.

Nancy Stetson. She uses the programs on her website to show the beginner on the internet how one can begin with no experience and little money. Visit her
at http://www.homebased-opportunities.com/optin.html

Expanding Your Reputation Through Article Marketing

2007-04-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

(NOTE: Johnny writes a great piece on why marketing your business with content works so well. Some really good points here!)

A positive reputation is a priceless asset to any business. The loyalty of a small group of customers is nice, but generally not enough to bolster sales and keep food on the table. As entrepreneurs, we are always looking for new ways to reach a greater number of people.

There are a million ways to get your name out there, some more effective than others. Our modern society offers marketing opportunities through television, radio, telephone, the Internet, and a vast array of print sources such as brochures and magazines. Your budget will likely dictate which of these methods you choose to utilize.

There is one method, however, that any business owner should take advantage of. Regardless of the size or success of the company, article marketing is a fast and cost effective way to legitimately market your company.

How to Get Started
There are three main steps to the article marketing process:

1. Begin by writing a batch of articles surrounding topics that relate to your business.

2. Submit the articles to an article distribution service. (You can attempt to submit them to content sites individually if you have a boat load of time to spend on the project.)

3. Watch as your articles are distributed to hundreds of sites and subsequently published all over the Internet. The best part is that all of these articles will have links back to your website, significantly increasing site traffic and company exposure.

Lots of websites have an insatiable hunger for fresh content. This is why these article distribution services have become so popular. They have formed relationships with many of these content sites who have come to trust them to provide well-written and informative articles.

Branding Through Article Marketing
Article marketing is one of the best ways to get your brand name on the public eye's radar screen. When you provide interesting and engaging articles that pique readers' interests, you are assured that many of these people will check out your company website. The more often people see your brand name, the more it becomes ingrained into their memory.

For instance, if your company produces highly efficient halogen bulbs, you might write a number of articles addressing energy consumption and conservation. Every time a reader sees one of these articles, they also see your brand name. Then, the next time they find themselves face to face with a burnt out light bulb, they will immediately think of your company. It's all about putting a face to your name.

The Article Marketing Difference
Article marketing offers something different than other marketing efforts, which is why it has proven to be so effective in gaining positive exposure for the businesses that use it. Instead of bombarding the consumer with fancy sales jargon, these articles simply give the reader good information.

It's like making an investment in the customer before they invest in you. By offering them something right off the bat, they are more likely to trust that you are interested in something more than just sell! sell! sell! It shows that you want to share your expertise about the industry you represent.

As the saying goes, any publicity is good publicity. In my opinion, it's always best to stick with the good publicity. Article marketing will help you do just that. Instead of turning people off through annoying advertisements, choose a different approach. Dispense a little wisdom up front and you are sure to turn potential customers into loyal customers.

Johnny Albertson is a musician, blogger and writer. You can visit his blog, Beatin The Blues, for more insights and pearls of wisdom. Albertson is a big fan of Article Marketer, an online article distribution service.
http://www.articlemarketer.com

Finally ...Custom Articles for a Fair Price

2007-03-26T09:27:00.001-07:00

If you're looking for custom written articles, check out this news from Article Marketer. They've partnered with a writing service that will create 100% original custom articles for you on any topic. These guys are great...easy to work with, affordable, and their quality is head and shoulders above that PLR stuff we all love so much.

eComXpo Now Open!

2007-03-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend Bruce at Article Marketer for turning me on to this virtual tradeshow for e-commerce marketers.

From their website:

An easy, quick way to keep up with this rapidly evolving marketplace including email, search, affiliate, regulatory, branding, advertising, and technology trends and challenges.

Merchants and Advertisers:

Whether you’re a search manager, affiliate manager, brand manager, media buyer, webmaster or ecommerce manager, there’s education and networking opportunities galore at eComXpo. Plus, you can check out hundreds of vendors quickly and efficiently in our online exhibit hall, helping you to stay on top of tomorrow’s innovations today.

Publishers, affiliates and search marketers:

Attend eComXpo and discover new partner opportunities, new programs to represent and new products to help you maximize your business. The educational sessions will leave you armed with the knowledge necessary to stay ahead of the competition.

I'm spending some time there this afternoon...all the benefits of a tradeshow, without the tired feet. It's going on through March 22, and it's free. Learn something new today!

2007-02-22T14:05:00.000-08:00

Positive energy can go a long way in ensuring that your home and
work environment is calm and relatively anxiety free. If you have
ever worked in an office with people who are constantly giving
off negative energy, you surely know what it feels like. You feel
suffocated by this energy, and oftentimes it wears off on others.

The Effect of Positive Energy

Copyright © 2007 Kent Jacobson a.k.a. Mr. Success

Positive energy can go a long way in ensuring that your home and work environment is calm and relatively anxiety free. If you have ever worked in an office with people who are constantly giving off negative energy, you surely know what it feels like. You feel suffocated by this energy, and oftentimes it wears off on others.

One of our major social problems nowadays is negative people who are constantly talking about others and turning people against one another. This form of negative energy is one of the quickest ways to divide an office or your home. If you work with negative people, do not let them bring you down. Easier said than done, so what to do about it.

The best way to combat negative energy is to throw positive energy right back at it. In other words, if a person is constantly degrading someone, you need to step to the plate and throw a good word in about him or her. This will make the person realize that this type of attitude will not be tolerated. By letting this negative energy circulate around the home or office, you are doing nothing to help the situation. In fact, if you are not helping, you are just contributing to the problem.

Try to make it a personal goal to show up at your office every day in a good mood. Oftentimes, positive energy will pass on to your co-workers and family members. If you can get this sort of attitude started, pretty soon everybody is feeding off of each other's positive energy. The end result: anybody who brings negative energy to the office or home will quickly be converted; they have no other choice! The best aspect of positive energy is that it is FREE. You need to look no further than within yourself. Be aware, negative energy is easier to find in some ways. Remind yourself, it is vital to wake up everyday looking at what can go right, not what can go wrong. Try taking a positive attitude the night before; you will see a difference in the morning.

In everyday life positive energy seems to be ignored when evaluating successful business or home environments. Businesses or families that do not address the people who project negative energy are never going to reap the rewards possible in their quest for success. Be part of the solution, not an enabler to the problem.

Remember what Brian Tracy said, "Excellence is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends."

About The Author:

Kent Jacobson, a.k.a. "Mr. Success" is a trusted authority in the success field and provides valuable success information for free through his website at: http://www.Shortcut2Success.com . You can also read Kent's Success Blog to find more success secrets at: http://www.Shortcut2Success.com/blog

Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service

Where's the Sun? My February Embrace

2007-02-20T07:33:00.000-08:00

February has always been a rough time for me...long nights, cold days, no sunshine for what seems like weeks at a time. Enough to make one mad dreaming of spring.

This year, though, things are different. My February has taken on an entirely new twist, and I'm beginning to look at my "worst month" in a whole new way.

It's all about attitude. I realized going into this month, with that familiar "it's gonna take everything I've got just to hold on to my sanity" attitude, that I could change that. Indeed, that I HAD to change that. I just refused to accept the fact that I had to have another February like the ones I've always had.

So, I started to look at all the positive things about this mis-understood month. Like the bitter cold...what a great time to try out those soup recipes I've been collecting, and whip up a batch of home-baked bread.

I was firm with myself this month...no whining, no slinking back into my typical "dark place" wishing I was anywhere but here. I embraced February, with all its ice, wind, snow and dark. I lit candles. I rearranged my office. I jettisoned a number of unpleasant and unproductive things from my life. And I am living this month, and enjoying February in a whole new way.

This has done wonders for business, too. Contacts from last fall have been calling ready to get started. An invitation to give a presentation just came through the other day. And new relationships have given my psyche a much-needed boost.

Are you stuck in the winter doldrums? A little advice...take hold of February and give it a good shake. Then give it a long hug and embrace your dark month. You'll be surprised how well it hugs back.

The Deal of the YEAR!

2007-02-12T08:23:00.000-08:00

Savvy business owners know that article marketing is a hugely successful and cost-effective way to promote yourself and your business online. You get lots of links, improve your search engine results, and drive traffic to your site in droves. And no one does it better than Article Marketer; they are simply Yahoogle-icious!

Article Marketer offers the easiest, fastest and least expensive way to promote your business. This fool-proof article distribution service works great for me, and I know it can work for you too!

Now, take advantage of the fastest-growing distribution list in the industry, and save some big bucks! Subscribe for an Annual Membership at a special price of just $199.99/year, and receive your second year absolutely free! This special price will be locked in for the duration of your subscription. This is a limited time offer, so act today!

"I Made $1683.04 From Writing ONE Article!" Jason DeVelvis Adventures In IM

Take advantage of this limited time offer and get your articles the attention they deserve!

Expand Your Universe With Words

2007-02-11T12:52:00.000-08:00

It's all about who you know...you've heard that old saying before. And in building your business, that's even more true.

I've found a remarkable benefit of using article marketing to promote my business...the number of people I "know," and who now know me, is expanding like crazy.

My name is popping up all over the place! My profile is on a Chinese article directory; an author's directory in Brazil; and on more places in the US than I could have imagined.

All from writing and distributing articles. I was talking to a prospective client the other day, who said "yeah, I googled you, and you're name was everywhere! I guess you know your stuff."

Now, that's the kind of thing I can get used to hearing. And it's all from submitting some articles through an automated distribution service. It's all who you know...I'm so glad I know these guys at Article Marketer ;-)

True Confessions? An Interesting Announcement

2007-01-20T14:47:00.000-08:00

I've heard grumblings about Article Marketer in some of the forums; seems they've had some ups and down over the past few months. I'm pretty new to these guys (both as an article marketer and an affiliate) and my experience has been trouble-free so far.

Thought you might be interested in this announcement, in case you use them too

Article Marketer Announcement.

It's pretty refreshing when a company lays it right out on the line like this :-)

Best,

Nancy

Broke 1,000

2007-01-19T05:13:00.000-08:00

Quick update on my article marketing efforts....I broke 1,000! More than 1,000 separate websites have posted my article, "The Simple Truth About Online Marketing." I used an article distribution service (Article Marketer if you're interested) to get this out into the world, and boy....I guess it works!

Here's my numbers this morning:
Showing on Google: 178 (was at 289 a couple of days ago)
Showing on Yahoo!: 1,170 places!!

I'll keep updating this, and hopefully will be able to show some good results from the next articles too!

Why I Won't Read Your Article

2007-01-13T10:00:00.000-08:00

It's nothing personal--really. Your article just didn't grab me. And let's face it, there are LOTS of articles out there to choose from. So if yours doesn't make my top ten list, don't take it personally. Just take a bit of advice.

For the past few months, I've been building my new consulting business, helping small businesses get launched, with business plans, organizational development, and marketing advice. Local at first, then a friend suggested it was time to think bigger.

So I created a blog, started writing, and began submitting my articles to other content publishers. And, because I want to fill my blog with some good content, I started looking for articles from other authors to post.

That was interesting. I'd be happy to share some specific thoughts on what's been working, and what hasn't...feel free to email me for a complete copy of this article. --- Nancy

First Glimmers of Success

2007-01-12T21:18:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I rambled on about using article marketing to get exposure. So, here's the real results:

I posted an article on Jan 2. By January 10, the article was appearing in 279 different places according to a Google search, 755 places according to Yahoo!, and 44 places on MSN Live search. I'd say that's some good exposure! Now, I wait for the real results...traffic traffic traffic, and lots of new customers.

Stay tuned! This is getting exciting!

Nancy

Consulting Success – The Simple Truth About Online Marketing

2007-01-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

Keywords, optimization, black hat, pay per click, affiliate links, search engine rank, hits, meta tags, analytics….aaaaahhhhh! What does it all mean? And what does it mean for your new business?

If you're like me, you may be embarking on a new chapter in your professional life, building a career as a consultant. You've probably left your previous position with enough knowledge and real-world experience to fill several books. Now you're ready to leverage that information into a new career. You've heard of people just like you building consulting businesses and it sounds great -- work from home, drop the suit and tie, and finally enjoy the freedom that comes with being your own boss.

And being your own boss means wearing a lot of hats. Juggling the books, writing your business plan, managing your website…and last but certainly not least, getting your name out there. Marketing your services is the critical piece to building a successful consulting business. You've got enough business savvy to understand this -- no marketing lectures needed!

And you know you need a website. So you've hired a web designer, or taught yourself how to build a decent site, and now it's time to open the doors. Just launch it and they will find it, right? Hmmm, that's what I thought at first. And boy was I wrong. You've got to do a little work to get your site noticed among the millions and millions of sites out there. For example, do a Google search on "management consultant" and you'll find there are 134,000,000 sites to choose from. Yep, that's 134 million of us out there, my friend. And most online experts agree that the typical search engine user only clicks on the first page, or maybe two, of these search engine results. That leaves 133,999,980 management consultants out in the cold. Brrrrr.

So how do you get your site out of the cold and into the sunshine? If you've done any research on improving your search engine results position (or SERPs, as they are called), you've probably heard terms like the ones in the beginning of this article. It can be a bit daunting; some of these require an awful lot of technical expertise, or a big advertising budget, to even get started. And really, does it work? And how do you sort the good ideas from the bad?

Well, as you've done throughout your career, you go to the source for answers. Let's look at what the search engine experts say about all this.

According to the gurus at Google, you can improve your site's ranking by getting other sites to link to your page. It's that simple! Don’t believe me? Visit Google's Webmaster Help Center and click on "My site's ranking in Google." It's there in black and white --increase the number of good sites that link to yours, and you'll raise your visibility on search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

Okay, that seems clear enough. Now how do you get other sites to link to yours? This is where the magic happens, and it's based on four simple ideas:

The Internet is built on content.
There are thousands of content publishers and hundreds of thousands of site owners constantly looking for fresh content for their newsletters, blogs, emails, websites and e-books.
These content publishers and sites have the potential to reach millions of readers, in very specific target markets.
You can connect with these readers by writing an article about your business expertise or experience and distributing it to all of these places.

No meta tags or SEO tricks, no worrying about web crawlers and spider bots, no pop-ups or hidden text…just write an interesting article, and submit it to the content-hungry publishers out there. They pick up your article – complete with your business information and a link back to you site -- and it starts to appear all over the Web. More links mean better SERPs, and better SERPS means more traffic.

So how do you get your article out there to start driving traffic? There are a couple of options:

***You can submit articles individually to content sites and forums. It doesn't cost anything to submit, other than your time. Lots of time.

***You can submit your article to an automated distribution service and let them send your article to their thousands of contacts. It's quick, easy and virtually goof-proof.

There are several of these article services out there, including:

SubmitYourArticle.com – you can submit 4 articles a month for $37; they send to about 10,000 people;
ThePhantomWriters.com – they charge $35 per article, and have about 20,000 webmasters and publishers on their distribution list. They offer a volume discount of $200 for 10 articles;
ArticleMarketer.com – submit unlimited number of articles here. A quarterly membership is $79.99; or buy a lifetime membership for $499.99, and they send to more than 66,000 content publishers. They even let you sign up for a free account, and send to more than 8,000 publishers.

Want to really build your exposure online? Just write! Write about your experiences, your expertise, your passion…share those real-world business stories with millions of readers around the world! No technical expertise required, no pricey SEO experts, no pay-per-click budget…and it works. How do I know? You're reading this article! Now that's proof you can take to the bank!