Sunday, January 31, 2010

Stop Wasting Time and Money With Your Article Marketing

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Bill Platt



Online marketers are always arguing for or against the value of article marketing. Many will argue that article marketing could provide real traffic and sales to ones' website, and furthermore, article submission has the potential to offer some serious SEO value to the marketers' websites. Many more will tell you that article marketing is an utter waste of time and money...

The difference between those who do well with article marketing and those who do not is usually a matter of education, or lack thereof...

Those who succeed with article marketing generally know a few things that others don't, and just as importantly, these people understand the nature of the article marketing landscape.

Those who fail with article marketing do so for a number of reasons, although most importantly, the reason for failure is rooted in a lack of knowledge about how to truly make article marketing work for them, and the lack of understanding about an always shifting landscape of article marketing.

Other reasons many online marketers fail with article marketing:

  • They think that one article is a good test of the technique. Even the greatest baseball player in history (Ty Cobb) only batted .367, which is just a hair over one hit for every three "at bats".

  • Even the professional article marketers, who have a track record of making hundreds of thousands of dollars with article marketing, do not produce winners at the same level as Ty Cobb provided hits... There are no article marketers who hit it out of the park every time... As with anything else in life, article marketing success is dictated by the Law Of Averages.

    So consider this: If the professional article writers do not hit it out of the park with every article, what makes YOU think that your one article is a "good test" of the technique?

  • People suppose that since article marketing is a method of advertising, then they should "advertise" in their articles. But, it does not work that way. People want information, so in articles, we give them the information that they want. All advertising should be reserved for the Authors' Resource Box that follows the article - this is also where you will place your anchor text links, to influence your websites' rankings in the search engines.

  • Press Releases are for sharing news about your company. Articles are for sharing information that people want to know. In your press release, you should mention the name of your company / website inside the main body of text. But with articles, you should only mention your company / website in the Authors' Resource Box.

  • If people will not want to read your article, reputable publishers will not want to publish your article.

  • The Always Shifting Landscape

    Websites that are willing to accept your articles directly fall into two categories:

  • Those who will publish anything; and

  • Those who have editorial standards and are very selective about the articles they are willing to accept from marketers...

  • Those who will publish anything generally find it difficult to attract repeat visitors... Therefore, they find that attracting visitors is a struggle that never ends.

    This results in websites that do not provide profits to the website owner... How many websites do you own where you will keep pumping money into them, once you have come to the realization that those websites will never turn a profit for you?

    New website owners will frequently prepay up to two years of domain registration and web hosting. As you can imagine, if after two years the website has never turned a profit, the site will close when its registration expires.

    The other side of this coin is that if the website is not earning money, the website owner will frequently quit working on it, well before the website expires... So if it is an article directory, don't be surprised when you realize that the website works, but no one is home to approve your article submissions...

    Those webmasters, who do have editorial standards, find attracting and keeping visitors to be much easier... And as a result, they find that earning a profit is not only realistic, but it is a way of life...

    Article Directories that have editorial standards, like Ezine Articles, will continue to be around for a very long time. Chris Knight has owned and operated EzineArticles.com at a profit since November of 1999, and so long as he continues to exercise his perogative to have editorial standards, you can bet that he will continue to attract repeat visitors and to earn a profit from his website.

    Quality information is the key to the survival of websites and to writing articles that will stand the test of time, delivering a lifetime of traffic and sales.

    Here Today... Gone Tomorrow...

    If for one minute, you rely on websites that will publish anything, to make your article marketing campaigns work for you, then you will find that most of your article submission efforts will be wasted...

    The owners of a vast majority of the Article Directories are not even approving the articles that have been submitted to them...

    And even if they are approving articles, most of those websites that will accept your article submissions will close within two years, due to a lack of profits, resulting from a lack of editorial standards on the part of the website owner.

    The vast majority of websites, which accept articles from the public, stop approving articles within just a few months... Thereafter, when the domain expires, the website and your articles on it will disappear into the dust bin of history...

    In Conclusion...

    If you focus only on you or your products / website in your articles, then you will have no one to blame for your failure, but you...

    But, if you focus on providing your readers information that they can use and will enjoy reading, then your article marketing campaigns could provide the level of success to you that you seek, just as it has provided success to the many authors, whose names you know and websites you recognize by name...


    About the Author:
    My name is Bill Platt. If you enjoyed this article and found it useful, then you will love my newest ebook titled, "How To Use Article Marketing To Positively Impact Your SEO Efforts". It is 70-pages of hard-hitting information about how to make your article marketing truly profitable: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-seo.html Or, you can get warmed up with my free "Article Marketing: Beyond The Basics" ebook at: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/advanced-article-marketing.html


    Business Startups with Bad Credit

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 K. MacKillop



    Bad personal credit is a common stumbling block for first-time entrepreneurs. Often, the motivation for going into business is to make more money, indicating that they are not making enough money working for others, thus, bad credit. Working for yourself is the best opportunity for building wealth, and the sooner you get started, the better. Bad credit among entrepreneurs is more common than you think and can make the startup process slightly more difficult, but is not a total barrier in itself.

    If your credit is pretty good but with some negative entries, it may be worth the effort to dispute inaccurate information and negotiate with creditors about removing negative entries. If you have several delinquent accounts or other derogatory information on your credit report, it takes months (at least) to bring your score up, even if you do everything right. Do not even consider the "credit repair" services -- the FTC has yet to find a single legitimate firm. The trickery they attempt to clean your credit report is bogus and at most will remove negative entries temporarily. If the information on your credit report is accurate, it is probably going to stay there for the seven years the law allows. You are better served spending your time finding creative ways to get your business off the ground than trying to "fix" the unfixable.

    The primary complication of launching a startup with bad personal credit is funding the business. Banks rarely finance startups anyway, but bad credit will make it impossible to obtain a bank loan for your business. Same with the SBA loan guarantees -- because the SBA programs ultimately rely on you qualifying for a bank loan, excellent credit is required to get in the door. Even local economic development not-for-profits generally include credit score limits to qualify for government funded microloans. Generally, your credit score must be over 680 to even be considered, and anything below 620 will likely torpedo your chances. Not to worry, most businesses are launched without bank loans, and if you are driven to open the doors, you will find a way to finance your idea.

    The other downside of starting up with bad credit is that some things will be more expensive and some necessities may be more difficult to secure. First, most businesses will need merchant services, the ability to take payments from credit and ATM cards. Your personal credit is a major factor in securing these services, and the regular banks are quite strict about who they approve. Fortunately, there are alternative merchant services firms that specialize in "high-risk" applicants. You will pay higher per transaction and percentage of sales rates, but you will at least have the ability to accept credit cards. If your business can be conducted over the internet, you can also obtain a Paypal account without a credit check...they accept both major credit cards and checking account drafts and their rates are usually better than the high-risk merchant services. Being flexible can overcome many of the issues associated with less than perfect credit.

    Some suppliers request a personal guarantee and credit check before providing terms. If you don't qualify, you may be required to pre-pay your business's orders or pay more for terms. In most cases, you will have multiple vendors to choose from and there may be some who do not require a credit check. If you don't need to purchase on credit, making your first few orders prepaid can avoid the personal credit issue completely. Shop around for the best deals, but avoid having multiple vendors run a credit check -- believe it or not, inquiries lower your score even more.

    Register your business with Dun and Bradstreet (under the EIN) as soon as possible to begin building business credit, and use the EIN on contracts and to apply for terms whenever possible. It takes time to build business credit, but eventually you want to be sure that the business liabilities are completely independent of your personal assets.

    Don't let negative credit stop you from pursuing your dream of owning a business. While some things may be more difficult, there is no hard and fast rule that bad credit means you can't succeed in your own business. If anything, it will force you to be more conscientious about how you spend your startup capital and keep you focused on building your business with an eye on profitability.


    About the Author:
    K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur with a J.D. from Duke University, is founder of LaunchX and authors a blog focused on starting a business. The LaunchX System's comprehensive, step-by-step approach to starting a business will help you develop the knowledge and skills you need to make your business startup a success. Visit http://www.LaunchX.com/ and take our Business Readiness Assessment and learn what to do next for your business startup.


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    Why Your Web Presence Needs Video

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario



    Since the middle of the last century, mass media has been largely defined by video content. Television supplanted radio and newspapers as the dominant form of mass communication, and the main reason the Internet began as a text-based medium was the limitations of processing and connection technology. Thanks to broadband and high-powered video cards and processors, video is once again taking its place in mass communications.

    YouTube became the fourth most popular website in the world within a year of its launch, and remains a powerhouse in the field of video hosting and management. People want video content, and businesses that fail to bring it to their web presence likely will find themselves being left behind. Let's take a look at six strong advantages web content has for your organization's web presence.

    Video is Sharp.

    People surfing the web have fairly short attention spans. Affordable broadband means that people can afford to open a dozen or more Web pages at a time, and click through them as casually as reading a book. Given this kind of general speed at their disposal, people aren't often interested in paging through large amounts of text materials. They want brief, concise information that answers their pressing questions of the moment.

    When handled properly, video plays to this tendency perfectly. Since people have gotten used to perusing video content on sites, they will usually click a prominent link to a video relevant to their interests. Chances are they came to your page for a reason, and if there's a relevant video there, you're very likely to catch their eye.

    Video is Convenient.

    Whether we're talking about television versus a novel, or a short infomercial versus a page-long text description, people often choose video content over text content when the choice is available. This is generally true even if both the video and the text would take the same amount of time to examine.

    Whether it's true or not, there's a common perception that reading text takes longer, or more effort than viewing a video. Get your best content into a few short videos that people can quickly view, and take advantage of this preference.

    Video is Viral.

    Anyone up to date in the world of Internet marketing has heard of viral videos and Internet memes. In expanding the availability of communication access, the Internet and the Web have created a true, international form of popular culture. With literally constant, worldwide communications, the Internet can disseminate information far faster than anyone ever conceived, and video is at the forefront of this activity.

    The phenomenon stems from the proliferation of video hosting sites such as YouTube, as well as affordable and easy to use video embedding scripts. Since literally anyone can host a video on YouTube, or embed a video they found interesting on their blog, viewership spreads in ways no one could initially predict. Putting video on your site, along with relevant embedding scripts, gives you at least the chance to participate in and capitalize on this phenomenon.

    Video is Cheap.

    There was a time when video production was an expensive endeavor, requiring specialized equipment, personnel, and training to pull off properly. Those days no longer exist. High quality digital cameras and recorders are extremely affordable compared to even ten years ago, and video editing software exists for purchase or for free in dozens of formats. Yes, there is still some initial investment required, but it can be negligible compared to the benefits.

    Video is Adaptable.

    Text is text. One informative article on the web tends to read more or less like another, which is one of text's strongest advantages and disadvantages all in one. Video truly begins to shine as an option when we realize that it has the advantage of adaptability. Basically, this means that there are many levels of video quality, and any one of them can be highly successful, as long as it is suited to the needs of the moment.

    For example, the videos on the pop-culture website That Guy with the Glasses are fairly low key, consisting of amateur, home computer editing efforts without benefit of high-end production techniques. Yet, as the site has persisted, the quality of these videos has improved, with more advanced techniques making their way into production.

    Video is Vibrant.

    In a world dominated by how-to guides and step-by-step tutorials, we tend to forget that one of the greatest advantages of the human mind is creativity. Some of the biggest successes in our history have come from someone attempting something creative and unheard of, such as improvisational comedy (a huge part of the highly successful Comedy Central's evening programming).

    Video allows people to tap into their creative outlets. Boring videos don't get watched, dugg, or embedded, creative ones do. Video content allows you to exercise creative muscles that you may not have realized were available, and can lead to some surprising successes that really let your Web presence take off.


    About the Author:
    Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/


    Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

    Saturday, January 30, 2010

    Fewer Broken Appointments Mean a More Profitable Dental Practice

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Peter Gopal, Ph.D.



    On a daily basis, a dentist and staff probably spend more time discussing and dealing with the topic of appointment cancels, broken appointments, and no-shows than any other subject. It is a source of endless frustration. Downtime is also the biggest single source of lost revenue.

    A full appointment book translates to revenues and production only if the patients come in. If a practice loses 1 to 2 appointments/day, either on the hygienist's schedule or on the dentist's schedule, the lost production from this could be anywhere from $150 (minimally) to $700 per day, depending upon the procedure. Assuming 200 working days during the year, the annual lost production works out to $30,000 at the low end to $140,000 at the high end.

    Those figures are for a solo practitioner, with one full-time hygienist. The figures multiply for a multi-doctor office, with more than one hygienist. Improving practice performance in this one area alone could significantly improve the financial status of many dental practices.

    It is not possible to eliminate appointment cancels completely, as patients do have legitimate reasons for canceling. However, with proper systems in place, and motivated, diligent staff, it is possible to reduce broken appointments up to 75%. Start with these three fundamental routines.

    Three Surprisingly Effective Steps to Fewer Broken Dentist Appointments

    1. Communicate the value and the need for treatment or preventive care.

  • Involve your staff in educating the patient. Your dental assistant and hygienist play a crucial role in educating the patient.

  • Develop verbal skills that convey to the patient the consequence of not completing the treatment. Patients are often under the impression that no treatment is necessary, unless there is pain. Most conditions in dentistry are dormant. Compare dental treatment to other insidious medical conditions such as high blood pressure, which patients may understand.

  • Your entire staff should role play and master verbal skills for all the procedures. Go over and learn to head off typical patient concerns and objections.

  • Convey the value of preventive care exams and cleanings. Emphasize that regular exams and check-ups preserve health, save suffering, and save money too. Compare preventive care to some thing they can relate to, for example, automobile oil changes. Patients take their cars in for routine oil changes even though the car does not make a noise; they do not wait for their engine to seize.

  • 2. Use technology to educate the patient and involve them in diagnosis.

  • Use as many visual tools as possible for diagnosis. Purchase an intra-oral camera if you don't have one. When the patient sees what you see, they are more likely to understand the need for work.

  • Play a patient education DVD on a TV monitor in your treatment room. This is an invaluable tool, allowing you to educate the patient without spending a lot of time.

  • Use tables, charts, and other data-recording tools. Patients like to see or hear scientific evidence. If you are perio-charting, tell them what a normal pocket depth is before you start measuring the pocket depth. Then, as your hygienist reads out the numbers for the assistant to record, the patient hears the data and can deduce for themselves the health of their periodontium.

  • Demonstrate the problem with three-dimensional models when applicable and possible.

  • 3. Discuss the cost for treatment before scheduling the patient.

  • If it is an insurance patient, be sure to tell them that what you are providing is an estimate for their out-of-pocket expense.

  • Schedule the appointment only after the cost is discussed. Also, discuss the number of visits necessary and what would be done at each visit.

  • If the patient has a financial issue, offer payment options.




  • About the Author:
    Peter Gopal, PhD, together with his wife, Hema Gopal, M.B.A. and D.M.D., consults with dentists who are intent on building a more profitable practice. Whether you are leaving money on the table due to broken patient appointments, improper scheduling, poor case acceptance, low hygienist productivity, excessive overhead, or unnecessary reliance on PPOs, they can pinpoint your weaknesses and prescribe remedies. Receive a free, realistic assessment of the earning potential of your dental practice by going to: http://www.visionary-management.com/assessment.php


    Read more of Peter Gopal, Ph.D.'s articles.

    Getting a Web Presence - Six Reasons to Go Cyber

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario



    Saying that the Web is complicated is like saying that football is aggressive. Web trends come and go, with success stories and disasters wrestling for attention in the public eye. Sometimes people get it, and you have an amazing case like the advent of Twitter. Others miss the point spectacularly, such as CNN's short-lived series where newscasters read excerpts from blogs.

    With so much coming so quickly, it's no surprise that some people are hesitant to expand their business into the online marketplace. It's intimidating, and the penalties for failure can be harsh. However, here are six good reasons that every business can and should establish a Web presence.

    #1 - Common Reference

    Today, the Web is an integral part of most people's lives. It's not surprising that fewer and fewer people each year go to the newspaper or television for information and entertainment. News travels faster on the Web, and the sheer volume of entertainment available via sites like YouTube, Netflix, College Humor and others all mean less time in front of the television, and more time surfing the Web.

    This is a warning and an opportunity. Traditional venues do still have a place simply through inertia and ubiquity, but they also are giving ground to the rising force of the Web. Getting a presence online allows you to keep pace with these growing trends; as people grow ever more dependent on the Web as a means of information and conducting business, it is the Web-oriented enterprise that likely will have its customer base grow, rather than shrink.

    #2 - Innovation

    The Web is so unrestrained that there are all manner of ways people can develop their creative impulses and come up with the next world-winning idea.

    In that spirit, it's healthy for any business to expose itself to innovation and competition. The increased tide of information may seem overwhelming, but managed carefully and studied diligently it can provide a wealth of ideas that can help your business grow. Any organization that cuts itself off from valuable information is just asking to be bypassed.

    #3 - Communication

    No other system of communication has been so fundamentally universal as the Web. People crave communication and contact, and the Web has affirmed this through every social multimedia network that has evolved and thrived. This is much more than a simple case of friends catching up on the latest gossip; it is a powerful tool that can keep your business ahead of the game.

    The Web is bursting with information. Many experts use the Web to publish materials they don't want to take the time to ram through slower, more traditional channels, because they're eager to share. If you have an issue for your business, the Web has an expert ready to discuss it. Getting a Web presence allows these experts to see what you have to offer, and to help you refine it, be it through a forum discussion or a friendly email.

    #4 - Efficiency of Exposure

    This is where the Web truly shines, as demonstrated by the success of bookselling giant Amazon. Advertising takes time and money, so you want to put your advertisements where the greatest number can see them for the smallest cost. So rather than have many scattered retail bookstores, Amazon has one centralized system that everyone can go to, almost anywhere in the world.

    These benefits extend beyond the mail-order mindset, as well. Having a well-designed, effective website for your store can get people interested. Rather than take a gamble on an unknown restaurant, for example, consumers can come to its site and see exactly what's on the menu, for what prices, and even reserve a table with a convenient online form. As a result, the restaurant fills up tables, and its competition misses out.

    #5 - Inexpensive Investment

    Very few businesses have to incur a massive expense when setting up their initial Web presence. The cases in which you'd need your own server, for example, are vanishingly rare. Bandwidth and hosting space can be acquired for very reasonable rates, with many hosts offering trial periods and special business discounts. For the many benefits a Web presence can offer, the investment is hardly worth mentioning-but the ROI can be staggering.

    #6 - A Case in Point

    This is a bit of a 'meta' reference, meaning it requires a little thinking outside the usual box. But consider for a moment just where you're reading this article. Consider what probably brought you to this website. Is it a coincidence that an article about establishing a Web presence can be found on the Web? A bit of lighthearted irony, but it does get you thinking a little, doesn't it?

    People are using the Web, and are going to continue using it. Major legislative battles are being fought over just how the Web should be allowed to function, but the Web most likely is going to be the defining arena of all business for the next century and beyond. Do your business the best service you can, and consider not if you should get a Web presence, but what form is the most appropriate to begin with.


    About the Author:
    Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/


    Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

    Friday, January 29, 2010

    Ten Tips for Quality Video SEO Results

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario



    Within one year of its launch, YouTube became the fourth most popular website in the world, and is currently a multi-million dollar enterprise. This fact alone should explain the utter relevance and power of video content to the modern Web. Widespread broadband internet access, increasingly capable video recording hardware and editing software, and high-capacity data storage have conspired to convert the web from predominantly text-based to an increasingly audio-visual phenomenon.

    Since people seem to want video content, the big search engines are incorporating video links into their organic results - and as with any content, there are ways to optimize your search engine performance.

    Ten Tips for Quality Video SEO Results

    1 - Make sure the video is worth the effort to find it.

    Content must be relevant, and it must have an acceptable standard of quality. Potential visitors to any site probably have a great many alternatives they can turn to for any particular interest. Before worrying about other optimization factors, make sure the videos you're promoting are the very best quality you can produce.

    2 - Integrate the video.

    In strong SEO practices, all content is tied to other content on the site, and nothing stands alone. Make sure the videos include links back to other portions of the site to increase traffic and sympathetic search results. For example, link back product demonstrations to the products' description page.

    3 - Optimize keywords.

    Nearly all good SEO practice comes back to keyword optimization. Search the statistics, find out what keywords are most relevant to the videos you're producing, and use them. Build catchy titles around them, and incorporate them into the video descriptions and associated text. As in tip 2, make sure they integrate with other keywords important to your site as a whole.

    4 - Seek wide coverage.

    The end goal of SEO techniques is the generation of web traffic. The chances of a user going to any particular website are fairly slim, so get your content out there. Post to YouTube, Vimeo, and Google Video, but also look into the specialty markets that offer specific types of video. Be creative, and get your content in front of as many people as possible.

    5 - Omit needless words.

    A trick right out of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, this advice is as true for video content as it is for text. Keep the video brief and punchy, down to exactly what you need to convey your message. People prefer videos of about five minutes' length, as a rule of thumb.

    6 - Brand yourself.

    Video content is an excellent chance to associate your content with your site's brand. Incorporate your organization's logo into the video (generally in the introduction and/or conclusion), and be sure to link back to your site. However, keep these mentions discrete and logical. Over-stressing the name often leads to eye rolling and clicking to another site. Let the video's strengths carry the product name, instead of simply repeating it.

    7 - Think of the user.

    People are not robots, who will automatically respond positively just because they saw a video. Respect their intelligence and the time they're taking to view the content you've provided. Allow them to comment on or at least rate the video, so they feel a sense of contribution to the brand. Consider the option of providing embedding code so they can post the video to their own sites, and provide a contact point so they can leave commentary (moderated for politeness, of course).

    8 - Use RSS.

    RSS is a standardized syndication format that allows easy publication for frequently updated materials. People set up RSS feeds to their preferred content sources, be they comics, blogs, or video feeds. If you submit your content to RSS and users see it, they're more likely to add you to their feed and therefore return to your videos in the future.

    9 - Remember the Code.

    Search engines still operate largely on indexes of hard copy material. Video hasn't replaced text content so much as grown into a role alongside it. Descriptions and transcripts of your video content add another point of interest for search engines along with meta tags and titles, so don't neglect good HTML-sensitive writing.

    10 - Choose an appropriate format.

    If your content is generated toward a predominantly Mac-friendly audience, you will win more viewers by settling on Apple's .mov format rather than Windows' .avi. Do some research into your target audience and see what formats are most preferred, and stick to that format. In the past there may have been some merit to offering alternative formats, but with widely available broadband access, people can acquire multiple players with relative ease.

    As with text SEO practices, video SEO is not about magic bullets or painting by the numbers. It must be an organic, considered practice that takes many factors into account. All content must be tied intrinsically to the entire business, with video and text content supporting each other in an integrated effort to promote the whole. Adding Video will not save a site from shoddy products, but as part of a comprehensive plan of good practices, it is one more tool in the successful business' toolbox.


    About the Author:
    Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/


    Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

    Thursday, January 28, 2010

    Top Ten Startup MistakesThat Almost Always Lead to Business Failure

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 K. MacKillop



    Many startup ideas fail to ever be launched and many, many fail within the first year or two. In most cases, the failure has nothing to do with the business idea, but how the business side is handled. The business of entrepreneurship is business first, then operations (what your business actually does). The Top Ten startup mistakes that lead to ultimate failure are:

    1. Insufficient Startup Idea Development -- Most startups do not fail because the business idea is bad. The problem is that many first-time entrepreneurs fail to actually plan the business before sinking cash into the startup. No matter how great a business idea is, it can't succeed without detailed planning. Take the time to work through every angle of your business idea. Not only will you have a better grasp of how far your business can go, you will also reduce your risk and prepare yourself to make the best decisions as you go.

    2. Failure to Understand and Comply with Legal Obligations -- An unbelievable number of entrepreneurs leave the legal aspects of business startup to someone else or, worse, ignore them altogether. Eventually this failure to comply with legal obligations will come back to bite you...and the outcome can be devastating. Every entrepreneur must understand and secure all necessary licenses and permits, and set up compliance systems for taxes and fees due the local, state, and federal government.

    3. Poor (or no) Marketing Planning -- Marketing is the lifeblood of every business startup, and it is more than business cards and a yellow pages ad. A significant portion of your time and expense budget should be dedicated to marketing. Poor or no marketing equals no sales...equals business failure. Do your homework before you launch to identify your target markets, figure out how to best reach them, and establish clear objectives and evaluations to ensure your marketing efforts are paying off.

    4. Poor (or no) Financial Management -- Success in business is all about the bottom line -- no profit, no business. Keeping the books correctly is half the battle. Too many first-time entrepreneurs are willing to turn over complete responsibility for the books to someone else -- a dangerous decision that very often leads to business failure. Reviewing and analyzing the financial reports is the other half. It is critical for every business owner to understand what the financial reports mean and how a change in one area affects all the others. Cash flow issues are also major financial management problem for many startups in the earliest stages. Good planning before launching a startup will clarify how much cash on hand your business idea will need to succeed. Whether you consider yourself a numbers person or not, as a business owner it is critical that you take responsibility for learning and applying basic financial management skills if you want to succeed.

    5. Sales Forecast Errors: Establishing your initial sales forecast can be difficult, but there are procedures you can follow to make it as realistic and accurate as possible. All too often would-be entrepreneurs build a sales forecast around what they would like to sell, rather than what they are likely to sell. While optimism is an excellent entrepreneurial trait, an overly optimistic sales forecast will leave you with serious cash flow problems and even greater difficulty in securing financing.

    For example, one business plan we recently reviewed appeared well-written and professionally laid out. However, the sales forecast reflected sales that required every member of the staff to bill out 19 hours per day, 300 days per year. Another retail business showed average total purchases at $230 each, even though the average price of their products is only $12. Assuming that each customer will purchase an average of 19 items each time they visit is unrealistic. Any competent investor will look for these errors.

    6. Under-Capitalization: Not starting with enough capital to support the business through the initial stages is a common error. By thoroughly planning your idea, you will know how much capital you need to cover while you build your customer base, including working capital to keep yourself in ramen noodles until your business takes off. Good planning will also increase the chance of securing investors, whether public (banks) or private (family and friends).

    7. Poor Web Presence: An effective web presence is an absolute must for any modern business. Simply posting a website is not enough. In fact, uploading a website without marketing it is like posting ad copy only in your own living room -- if your target market doesn't see it, it might as well not exist. Many recent startups have crashed and burned because the entrepreneur thought that simply posting a website to the internet would drive sales. It won't.

    8. Leaving Critical Tasks "To the Professionals": Many entrepreneurs believe that a good idea and solid operations are enough to build a successful business, so they opt to turn over critical startup tasks, like marketing and accounting, to outsourced professionals. For some, the business side of business just doesn't interest them, so they choose to forgo learning the details of financial and marketing management. Eventually, these choices backfire. If you don't know how the money works, you can't make the best decisions for your business. If you are not aware of the outcomes of your marketing efforts, you can't accurately forecast sales and thus can't plan for the future. It's your business, you need to know and understand every facet from the beginning, or you might as well be working for someone else.

    9. No Ongoing Planning and Review: As the actual operations of a startup take up more and more of an entrepreneur's time, it is very easy to overlook the critical tasks of reviewing and planning. Every aspect of a company should be reviewed periodically, particularly the financial statements and marketing plan. If you don't know where you are or where you have been, it's impossible to know where you are going.

    10. Lack of Patience - Pit of Despair: Every startup experiences a period of time between being ready to sell and actually building the sales. We call this gap the Pit of Despair because the entrepreneur is left wondering if they have made the right decisions and whether the business is ever going to work. Many startups hit this point and the entrepreneur quits in frustration. Startups don't generally succeed overnight. The Pit of Despair should be used to refine internal systems, work through free internet marketing techniques (participate in relevant forums, write and publish articles, build website content), and plan for the future of the business. Don't let the inevitable delay destroy your chances of success -- plan for it, expect it, and use the time wisely.

    For the most part, a strong focus on the three keys of startup success (planning, marketing, and financial management) will overcome most of the common reasons for business failure. Pay attention to the details from the beginning, learn all you can about running your own business, and don't let anything get in the way of building your business into the thriving company it can be.


    About the Author:
    K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur, is founder of LaunchX and authors a small business startup blog. The LaunchX System includes step-by-step business startup procedures, small business software and more, to help entrepreneurs start a business based on their idea and avoid these top ten startup mistakes. Visit http://www.LaunchX.com for a free Business Readiness Assessment and get on the road to starting a business today.


    Follow @LaunchX on Twitter.

    How Numbers Matter in Marketing

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Judy Murdoch



    (Note: Actually I was going to title this article, "How to use numbers in marketing without turning into the Robot from Planet X" but that was way too long for an email subject line.)

    I typically write a lot more about the "human side of marketing," because I think topics like trust, sincerity, and emotions get overlooked in most marketing advice discussions.

    And no matter how clever your copy and fail safe your system, neglect trust building and you will have to work twice as hard at your marketing for half the results.

    But that doesn't mean you can ignore the numbers side of marketing.

    In this article I talk about why numbers are important and how to make them work in your marketing.

    ===============================
    True Story
    ===============================

    Last year I was promoting a new teleclass that I was very excited about. I had done the class as a live workshop twice and participants got great results.

    It seemed to me that live success should easily translate into teleclass success, right?

    I followed all the guidelines for successful online promotions, wrote a strong message, etc. And I didn't get single sign up.

    Someone suggested that I offer a couple scholarships so that we at least made or minimum enrollment of 8 participants. So I wrote another offer and posted it in a small business discussion forum in which I was well known and trusted by members.

    Three days went by, then a week, and still, no one was signing up even to take the class for free!!!

    Boy did that knock me off my center.

    Lucky for me, I felt safe enough in this forum to post a second message telling folks that I was baffled and disappointed no one had taken advantage of my free offer.

    Even luckier for me, other forum members responded with honesty and empathy. Of the ten people who responded:

    2 said they were really excited about the class but they had other commitments on the class dates.

    3 said they were focused on other parts of their business and weren't ready to learn the subject I was teaching but to let them know if I gave it later in the year.

    One said they were on vacation when I posted the offer

    One said they didn't feel they needed to take my class because they had already mastered the subject matter but they thought the class sounded great for those new to the topic.

    The other three people didn't mention the class specifically but said they appreciated my willingness to ask for help and encouraged me not to give up.

    Here's what I took away from the experience:

    In marketing, especially in online marketing you must put your message in front of a lot of people and repeat your message over and over again over a period of time.

    Why online marketing in particular? Because non-verbal communication--your smile, your tone of voice, your hand gestures, your posture--all go a long way to establishing trust.

    When you promote online you often have only the written word with which to establish trust. Thus your response rate is a lot lower.

    And, the chances of actually getting your message in front of the right people at the right moment is lower as well.

    ===============================
    Understanding the Odds
    ===============================

    For your marketing to work (for an audience member to act on your offer's Call to Action) all of these things need to happen. Your prospect:

    - actually needs what you're offering

    - is aware that they need what you offer

    - trusts you and believes you'll deliver what you promise

    - actually reads or listens to your message when it goes out

    - has the time and money to take you up on your offer

    The odds I use are 1 out of 10 in the case of responses to online marketing.

    In other words, for every 100 emails you send to readers who have opted in to your e-mail list:

    10 will act on your call to action (click through to your sales page) 1 will actually make a purchase

    And 1 in 10 (10%) is actually a spectacular rate of response! It's not unusual for rates to be more like 5% even 1%.

    What's important is to remember these percents are guidelines. And you can actually improve your odds.

    Factors that affect your response rate include:

    - Familiarity with your offer. The more often someone sees your offer, the more likely they'll take the next step assuming they want and need what you offer

    - A marketing message that is personalized to the problem and the way your prospect experiences the problem

    - How well you define your niche and the likelihood that everyone receiving your message has the problem you're addressing

    - Your message avoids words and phrases that trigger spam filters, etc.

    ===============================
    How These Numbers Apply to Your Marketing
    ===============================

    If you're a small business owner and use online marketing, here are the main points to take away:

    - Take Away Point #1 You Need a Large Email List

    When someone tells me they're disappointed with the low number of response they received from a promotion. The first question I ask them is, "How big is your list?"

    How large is "large"? At least 500 subscribers, preferably 1,000.

    It's perfectly ok if you have a smaller list but you will need to supplement your online marketing with activities that are more personal: local networking, free presentations, etc.

    - Take Away Point #2 Repeated Offers Over Time are a Must

    People don't see every email you send because ...

    - they're out of the office

    - they're reading their email on their phone and only look at the most urgent messages

    - they accidentally delete your email

    - etc.

    And even if they open your email they may not pay much attention because ...

    - your event is six weeks away and they just can't think that far into the future

    - they aren't ready yet to take a class on the subject matter because other priorities take precedence

    Which is why it's so important to repeat your offers to your prospects over a period of time; such as six to eight weeks.

    Because eventually, the people who want to enroll in your class or buy your DVD or hire you as a coach will actually see your offer, read it, and take action.

    - Take Away Point #3 Relevance is Important

    The main resistance to point #2 is "if I send too many emails, everyone will unsubscribe."

    Which is why there's point #3; they won't subscribe if the offer is relevant to something they need now or are likely to need soon.

    You can email an offer for discounted tire inspections to your heart's content but there won't be many takers if most of the people to whom you're promoting don't own cars.

    - Take Away Point #4 Don't Forget Those Annoying but Important Details

    Once I sent out an offer and had no idea why people weren't registering until someone emailed me saying "hey, I think the link is broken."

    Sure enough, I hadn't tested the link people were supposed to click to view the sales page on my website.

    Doh!

    So, don't assume everything works. Make sure:

    - the links in your message take people where you want them to go

    - your message isn't peppered with words that will send your email right into spam oblivion

    - you use the right dates and times,

    - and check for typos.

    Every one of those annoying little things can ruin an otherwise well done promotion and make it look like no one is interested.

    ===============================
    Bottom Line
    ===============================

    Numbers in marketing are every bit as important as your sincere intentions to serve. In particular:

    - Remember you will lose about 9 out of every 10 prospects for each step they must take in the process to becoming customers.

    - The more you depend on online marketing the more important it is to have a large list of subscribers.

    - There are specific actions you can take to improve the odds so that you lose fewer people along the way such as

    -- repeating your offers

    -- making sure your offers are relevant to prospects, and

    -- testing for technical problems.


    About the Author:
    Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
    You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com


    Follow Judy Murdoch on Twitter.

    Lessons I Learned From Paris Hilton

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Jesse Self



    Today I'm going to chat about shameless self-promotion. That's right, I said it! Shameless! After all, we are learning from Paris Hilton here.

    It's all about self-promotion! Self-promotion comes in many forms and you can use different tactics to get your name out there. Look at politicians! Talk about self-promotion and in some not so discreet ways, at that. But, seriously, consider some of the major superstars we all know. Madonna, Donald Trump, Howard Stern and Bill Clinton, just to name a few.

    We all self promote. Did you raise your hand in class to show the teacher you knew the answer? Of course! That's self-promotion. This is the kind of self-promotion we are talking about. With dignity, class and the knowledge to back it up. If you self-promote only to prove you don't really know what you're talking about, you're going to lose business.

    Natural self-promoters are the former and I want to tell you about the three major traits they have and use to build themselves and their businesses.

    1. The first is position. You need to position yourself around people who can make a difference in your life. You need to do this frequently. You need to wake up every morning and ask yourself "Who can I meet today who will make a difference in my success?" In fact, go a step further, write it in big, bold letters and tape it on your bathroom mirror.

    Also consider:

    Who can help me meet my goals?

    Is it a prospective customer/client? A colleague with contacts? An association with key members who may become prospects?

    Don't settle into interacting with the people who are the easiest to access. You need to reach outside your comfort zone and there you will find a wealth of new connections that will bring you great success.

    2. Now, let's talk about Style. No, this doesn't mean you need an Armani suit to bring in more business (though, let's be honest-it wouldn't hurt) J What this really means is how are you different from your competitors and others in your industry. What makes you memorable with customers?

    If you are meeting a lot of people and they don't remember you once you leave the room, you have a serious problem! This means you have an opportunity to present yourself in a more memorable way.

    There are lots of little subtle changes you can make. Reassess your:

  • Business cards

  • Company message

  • Your picture

  • Your wording

  • Maybe even, your hairstyle (of course, now we're back to the expensive suit, but it really works!)

    You get the idea. There are lots of little ways you can work on making your image and business more successful. Also, consider how you sound on the phone and how you great people at meetings or other events. Think about your 30-sec elevator speech.

    3. The third trait of natural promoters is repetition. You can't say it once and leave it at that. Successful self-promoters say it as many times as they need until they get a response. Would you remember a commercial for Coca-Cola if you only saw it once, no! You see it over and over and eventually you head out to the store.

    You, also, have to make multiple impressions on those you are networking with in order to build brand awareness. Repetition is in direct connection with positioning. Once you find people to network with, reach out and find hundreds more who can help in your success as well.




    About the Author:
    If you haven't already taken us up on it, Jesse Self is offering, for a limited time only, a F.R.E.E test drive at http://www.marketingwithjesse.com/ - the site is your one stop shop, all under-one-roof, source of genuinely tested, proven-yet-original, ground-breaking, even radical "insider" roadmaps for turning ordinary businesses into extra-ordinary businesses. We offer 30 hours of high-end video and audio, plus countless resources at: http://www.marketingwithjesse.com/


    Read more of Jesse Self's articles.

    Video Surveillance in 2010 - New Frontiers in an Economic Recovery

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Nahshon Calvin



    As we move into the second decade of the 21st century, technology developments are foremost on people's minds when they think of video surveillance. What the future holds for video surveillance in 2010 may be a mixed bag, however, as sundry economic forces jostle for position in a recovering economy.

    The use of CCTV, IP Video, and other technologies continues to become more prevalent. What's really changing in the market, and what we can expect to see in 2010, is reflected in where and how this technology is being implemented.

    Great Recession, Great Recovery?

    The market for video surveillance has slowed over the past few years. Past market forecasts aren't matching reality. Some analysts believe the recent down-turn in the economy indicates permanent systemic changes. Previous market activity in this industry may be no sure indicator of what may be coming in 2010.

    While research and development departments have produced some startling innovations in face-recognition and AI applications, many customers are reluctant to adopt untested technologies. The risk-averse nature of current market conditions seems to be prevailing.

    However, as Mark Twain said, history doesn't really repeat itself, but it does rhyme. The market for all video surveillance may be down in a semi-permanent way, but that doesn't mean there aren't more prosperous days ahead for this industry.

    "We expect the overall market to return to growth in 2010," says In-Stat analyst Michelle Abraham about the future growth of the video surveillance market (http://bit.ly/4SKHsw). IMS Research also projects a market recovery in video surveillance (http://bit.ly/8MzoWI) for the late quarters of 2010.

    For example, recent record unemployment rates have helped make human security guards cheaper than ever. This condition, however, is highly temporary. As the economic recovery progresses and wages rise, CCTV and IP-based video surveillance options may look more profitable than ever.

    The real question is how far into 2010 this growth will begin to take place, and what that recovery in the market will look like. The answers may lie in new markets for video surveillance that are already beginning to present themselves.

    New Markets and Applications

    Home users in 2010 will find video surveillance to be more desirable. Web-based solutions that work with smart phones help make video surveillance both more useful and less expensive, but that's not all. The recent climate of financial insecurity is, to some degree, translating into feelings of overall insecurity. Home users are likely to flock to these surveillance solutions as they become more readily available in 2010 and smart phone users continue to multiply.

    IMS Research projects that demand for security cameras (http://bit.ly/4RlNRx) in US law enforcement vehicles will grow 6.5% into 2013; this, in spite of financial crises and severe budget cuts in municipalities nation-wide.

    Law enforcement agencies are also finding uses for remote video surveillance outside the squad car. LA County Sheriffs have deployed a wireless camera network in Lynwood, California. The system has already led to several arrests. Other cities are looking into the technology. Wireless surveillance will become increasingly invaluable in fighting violent crime all over America.

    Unexpected Developments - Analog CCTV Holding On Tight

    One thing we can expect to see in 2010 is not CCTV customers converting to IP, but IP-based surveillance systems finding their ways into homes and other places that haven't seen any video surveillance of any kind before. Existing systems are also getting smarter. AI applications can learn from the patterns of movement in a given field of view and will alert the user when something deviates from the norm. This kind of application only gets smarter with use, allowing users to fine-tune which activities cause alerts and which are just part of the pattern.

    The major downside of these kinds of applications is that they can require significant computing assets to run them. One way around this is digital cameras with some of the thinking hardware built-in. All of this, of course, comes back to questions of cost. We may not see a robust expansion of these developments until 2011 and beyond.

    GI Joe

    Government contracts seem to increase by the year. The US Military reports that, for the first time ever the number of unmanned aircraft purchased has exceeded the number of manned aircraft purchased (http://bit.ly/7AULvF). This milestone seems to indicate that CCTV will continue to play a crucial role in defense and law enforcement applications into the future.

    One of the biggest necessary developments in unmanned aerial vehicles is the refinement of wireless security. The earliest unmanned aircraft had no wireless security whatsoever. When raids revealed that enemy installations had UAV monitoring stations the need for tighter security was revealed. Since then the enemy has continued to find ways to "hack in". This kind of escalation helps ensure that security measures will be refined as developers think strategically to outsmart hackers. These security refinements will continue to filter down to the private sector.

    Big Brother

    While civil liberties groups voice some valid concerns about the social and political impact of video surveillance, these often engender unrealistic concerns among the general public. Movies and television, for instance, give one the impression that one could be feasibly observed by video surveillance throughout the entire day with the cold totalitarian eyes of Big Brother watching every move one makes. This just isn't the case.

    It's true that video surveillance through CCTV is ubiquitous. By no means, however, are all cameras and systems networked, and doing so would mean a complete tear-down and rebuild of almost every system. Future developments in video surveillance don't seem to indicate a move in this direction.

    Copyright (c) 2010 Evaluseek Publishing


    About the Author:
    Nahshon Calvin is a successful freelance writer providing practical information and advice about video security for business, non-profit and home use. His numerous articles include tips for saving both time and money when shopping for video surveillance products; equipment reviews and reports; and other valuable insights about the CCTV markets. Learn more about IP surveillance in 2010 when you visit http://www.Video-Surveillance-Guide.com/ today!


    Read more Articles written by Nahshon Calvin.

    Wednesday, January 27, 2010

    Crowdsourcing: Three Ways You Can Find a Great New Company or Product Name Free or at Low Cost

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Marcia Yudkin



    Increasingly popular, "crowdsourcing" involves inviting a large number of people to perform a task, with a prize promised to the person or team whose work is selected as the winner. Specialized web sites now exist where you can ask people to compete by creating designs for T-shirts, logos or ads. Not long ago, crowdsourcing was even featured on a TV show, House MD, where disease aficionados competed for a $25,000 reward offered by the patient to the person who arrived at the correct diagnosis.

    When it comes to naming a company or product through crowdsourcing, there are actually three ways to do it.

    Crowdsourcing Method #1: Run a contest. This procedure goes back decades, and it doesn't require the Internet or any advanced technology. You simply need a way to let people know about the contest and tell them how to enter, and this can be done on radio, TV, in newspapers or magazines, at events, through mailing pieces or via flyers. You have one or more judges, choose a winner and award a prize.

    Crowdsourcing Method #2: Ask for help in an online forum. I've seen requests for help with names and tag lines in many business-related online forums and email discussion lists - both public and members-only ones. Generally no reward is offered or given in this kind of setting. Some participants provide suggestions, while others kibitz, praise and criticize.

    Crowdsourcing Method #3: Use crowdsourcing sites specifically devote to naming. These include Naming Force, Name This and, to a lesser extent, Mechanical Turk. With this option, there is a formal technical infrastructure for making suggestions and selecting the best name candidate, and generally the user pays a reward of up to $100 or $200.

    Some people think the advantages of crowdsourcing are way too obvious to dwell on - especially, saving money and getting more input from more people. However, there are many less obvious disadvantages as well, so let's be systematic in listing both pros and cons.

    Five Advantages of Crowdsourcing

    1. Savings. The set-up cost for crowdsourcing is little or nothing. At most you owe $100 or $200 as the winner's reward. This costs far less than hiring a professional.

    2. Access to talent. Although many crowdsourcing entries are nothing to write home about, some amateurs, novices, moonlighters and retirees may get involved and give you excellent work.

    3. Quick results. Need a logo, a T-shirt design or a product name by the end of the week? Crowdsourcing often works with that fast a turnaround. In-demand professionals may not be able to get to your job and finish it so quickly.

    4. A wide range of ideas. Since you get to see entries from many, many people, you probably have access this way to many, many more ways of thinking about your challenge than would be generated by an individual or a small team.

    5. Bonus insights. Often the flood of input from people outside your field of expertise prompts valuable observations about perceptions of your organization or topic.

    Five Disadvantages of Crowdsourcing

    1. No confidentiality. To receive useful name suggestions, you must toss secrecy out the window. Strategic information about your plans for the company or product, its features, benefits and target market necessarily become public and available to your competition. Worse, with crowdsourcing methods #2 and #3, anyone watching the ideas come in can snatch up a concept for themselves or register a relevant domain before you can.

    2. No accountability. Unlike a professional you hire, your suggestors aren't bound by ethics, so they can deliberately submit stolen or recycled names with no responsibility or consequences. This has actually occurred in several logo contests or crowdsourcing competitions.

    3. Lack of professional effort. Namers usually don't know much about what you're trying to name, and they rarely take the time to understand the background of your project and its real-world constraints.

    4. No culling. It's so exhausting to have to wade through hundreds or thousands of low-quality entries that you run the risk of overlooking a few terrific suggestions hiding amongst the dreck.

    5. Easily derailed. Because all three crowdsourcing methods are public, they can be taken over by mischief makers or even competitors who skew the process for their own ends.

    Think carefully about what's at stake in your naming project. If you have no concern for secrecy and you're prepared to cope with the other dangers, then the savings and the unfettered creativity of crowdsourcing might work well for you. On the other hand, if you might sustain damage from your project's plans becoming public or the naming process going off the rails, you're better off sticking to internal naming or hiring a naming professional.


    About the Author:
    Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm


    Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.

    Are You Paying Too Much For Traffic? Increase Clicks 40-Fold With This PPC Strategy

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Bill Platt



    In any business, if you can reduce your effective advertising expenses, you will increase your profits. Many business owners will opt to push the additional savings into more advertising, and if you are utilizing the information described in this article, you could feasibly increase your paid traffic by 40-times, with the exact same advertising budget.

    But before I can show you how to reduce your advertising expenses and increase your traffic, it is important for you to learn about proper keyword research.

    When playing the search engine rankings game, it is important to know what people are "actually typing into the search engines" in an attempt to find your business...

    Food For Thought

    Think about this, if you were going to take a vacation to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and you needed to find accommodations in Ft. Lauderdale FL, what would your first search keywords be?

    Would your first search be the generic search phrase, "travel"?

    If you answered, "Certainly not", then you and I are not much different...

    Why would anyone type in the generic keyword "travel", when they know specifically what they want, before doing the search?

    They wouldn't, would they?

    Some people will abbreviate the "Fort" in Fort Lauderdale; others will not abbreviate. The same applies to the state information - some will abbreviate; others will not. Some web searchers will eliminate the state information, because they assume that Google will know "which" Fort Lauderdale they mean. (In the case of Fort Lauderdale, that is reasonable to believe. But search for something like "Paris", and you might discover that 23 U.S. states have a town or city named, Paris, along with the country of France.)

    People will search for a range of spellings for the locality, and then they would add niche-specific keywords to their search, utilizing words like:

  • hotels

  • hotel rooms

  • hotel suites

  • accommodations

  • Expand Your Thinking

    Chances are that even if you sat down to generate a list of keyword phrases that people might use to find your business in the search engines, you will get stuck in the "keyword rut" that bogs down so many other webmasters... The "keyword rut" that I speak of is the one where we get a certain set of words and types of words stuck in our heads, and that prevents us from exploring the wider range of what might be available.

    Even the best keyword research tools fail to show us the full-range of related keywords - keyword research tools tend to only show us the keyword phrases of a "similar root word". For example, if you type in the word "hotel", you can get vastly different results from the Google Keyword Research Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) and the WordTracker Keyword Tool (http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/).

    Just to prove my point, I ran the keyword "hotel" through both keyword search tools. Google's Keyword Research Tool performed better than the WordTracker tool, but WordTracker does provide better estimates of search-volumes outside of the Google universe.

    While not all-inclusive, I wanted to show you a list of suggested keywords that I was expecting to find using both tools. Behind each Keyword, I indicate in parenthesis which tools provided those suggestions to me...

  • motels (Google - YES | WordTracker - YES) BOTH

  • accommodations (Google - YES | WordTracker - no)

  • bed and breakfast (Google - YES | WordTracker - no)

  • b&b (Google - YES | WordTracker - no)

  • vacation rentals (Google - no | WordTracker - no)

  • vacation homes (Google - no | WordTracker - no)

  • condos (Google - no | WordTracker - no)

  • condominiums (Google - no | WordTracker - no)

  • beach rentals (Google - no | WordTracker - no)

  • As you will note from this example, if you let the keyword research tools do all of your thinking for you, then you would have missed over half of the keyword phrases that are actually relevant to your business...

    That my friend spells m-i-s-s-e-d o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-i-e-s!

    How To Do Better Keyword Research

    A trip to the library or your favorite bookstore could be the best thing you will ever do for your business research / keyword research...

    Use book titles to narrow your search, but check the "back of the book" for the Index, before you make your selection...

    Many of the best books in the non-fiction niche have an index at the end of the book, with page-after-page of topic related keywords, with page numbers.

    If you have selected the most relevant book from the shelf, and it has a good Index at the end of it, you will have one of the best resources you will ever need to do keyword research in your niche.

    Value The Long-Tail Keywords

    Many people make the mistake of only chasing the high-volume keyword phrases that signal strong interest in a topic...

    However, the high-volume keywords have some inherent shortcomings:

  • Although 151 million searches are conducted using the word "travel" each month, that search will seldom generate a real click, because the person searching for it will realize that more specificity is to his or her best interest.

  • If you are able to get a click from the search for "travel", that click will cost an average of $2.25 in Google.

  • If you are bidding high enough to be seen for a search for "travel", you will find your competitors to be many. It is harder to be noticed among the crowd.

  • If you do generate a click from your placement on the word "travel", that visitor may hit your website and leave to do more shopping, since there are currently 11 paid listings on the front page of Google for that search phrase. People will spend less time on your site, if they know that they have more varied choices.

  • The still-generic search for "Fort Lauderdale travel" will require $1.72 per click, with 8,100 searches per month.

    A more specific search for "Fort Lauderdale Florida hotels" will actually cost an amazing $3.48 per click, but the hotels that are paying for those leads are more likely to get a larger portion of the 60,500 monthly searches, since this search phrase is far more precise.

    "Fort Lauderdale beach resorts" only costs $2.02 per click and has 27,000 monthly searches, which is really inexpensive compared to the still-generic "Fort Lauderdale Florida hotels".

    "Fort Lauderdale resort" is even cheaper at $1.93 click, with 50,000 monthly searches.

    "Fort Lauderdale beach place" gets a surprisingly high, 3,600 searches per month. It has two competitors and can be purchased at an average of $1.06 per click.

    ...Do you see where we are going here?

    Here is where I get to drive my point home... "Fort Lauderdale reservations" gets 40,000 searches per month, and it has an average Cost Per Click (CPC) in Google of a measly 5 cents per click!

    As individual searchers drill down into the search results, your chances of appealing directly to them when they are likely to make a purchase is greatly increased... And more to the point of this article, you can generate a lot more traffic for a lot less money...

    If you have fewer competitors on the long-tail keywords AND you pay less for those clicks, you could very well cobble together a large list of long-tail keywords that will give you access to the same volume of traffic you would get with one high-volume search, for much less money!

    Let me make my point with "Fort Lauderdale beach resorts", which has 27,000 monthly searches at a rate of $2.02 per click, and "Fort Lauderdale resort" with an 50,000 monthly searches and an average CPC of $1.93. These two long-tail keywords co-joined will be exposed to 77,000 people at Google, and those clicks will cost an average of less than $2.02 per click.

    If you simply compared the above example with the 60,000 searches for "Fort Lauderdale Florida hotels" at $3.48 per click, you will find that you can reach more people, at more than a 38% discount in PPC pricing...

    In Conclusion

    There are many niches where you might advertise, where your competitors are paying $2 to $6 per click in a shark-feeding frenzy, and yet you can get 5 cent clicks all day long for other relevant, more specific, long-tail keywords, with less search volume... But, by bidding on more keywords, you could actually get as much exposure as your competitors are getting, at a much lower cost...

    There is one niche where I am getting as much exposure as the competition, but I am only paying 5 cents a click in MSN and Google, while my competitors are fighting among each other for the shorter, less specific keywords in the niche, at $2 to $6 per click... In comparison, I am able to get 40 to 120 times more traffic for my websites than my competitors are getting for the exact same amount of money... And the people visiting my site have pre-qualified themselves by drilling down to my extremely relevant keywords for their searches...

    As a business owner or manager, it is important to target your PPC and SEO towards the actual keyword phrases that your potential customers are using to find your website... But more importantly, if you leverage the knowledge found in this article and your efforts, you might be able to discover that you can tilt the odds towards you getting the sale, and you can do it at a cost that would make your competitors envious...


    About the Author:
    Bill Platt has been providing article distribution services since 2001 at http://thePhantomWriters.com/ Utilizing his nearly one decade of article marketing experience, Bill Platt created a free ebook titled, "Article Marketing: Beyond the Basics", which will teach you why many people fail with article marketing, and how you can turn your articles into profitable and productive advertising tools. Get your copy of this article marketing ebook that has been receiving rave reviews. Download it for free here: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/advanced-article-marketing.html


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    Obama Tells the Banks to Lend!

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Martin Harshberger



    Any kind of real recovery and job creation is impossible without access to credit by small to mid-sized businesses.

    A newsletter from the Small Business Administration dated September 2008 provides the following interesting figures about U. S. small businesses. It says the firms with fewer than 500 employees -

  • Represent 99.7% of all firms with employees.

  • Employ about half of private sector employees.

  • Create between 60% and 80% of all new jobs during the last decade.

  • Generate more than half of non-farm gross domestic product.

  • Employ 40% of our nation's scientists, engineers, and computer workers.

  • In spite of that information loans are tough to get for small to mid-sized businesses.

    Banks are looking for businesses that present no risk. Loans if they make them, must be over capitalized, and in nearly all cases personally guaranteed by the owner.

    Even profitable small to mid-sized businesses in the U.S. have trouble getting asset-based financing using receivables and inventory as collateral.

    New entrepreneurs, and even experienced business people, often ask me to help them write plans to get SBA financing for a new or troubled venture. I tell them it just doesn't happen that way. The SBA, USDA, and most other federal loan programs simply guarantee bank loans. You have to get the bank to approve your loan first. But banks are not in the venture capital business. They want secure loans.

    Every business owner or CEO must start with a vision and a well-constructed plan. Then evaluate all decisions about securing and spending working capital against that plan.

    If you don't have a clear vision, a well-constructed plan, and well-defined goals, you can burn lots of cash going down blind alleys and chasing false opportunities. That can cause you to loose credibility with your lenders and investors. Or even worse, lose your shirt!

    When you need additional capital, know how much you need and exactly how you're going to use it. With every trip to the well, you may have to pay higher costs in terms of -

  • Equity dilution.

  • Additional personal guarantees.

  • Additional debt service costs.

  • Conserve your cash. If you don't, the day may come when you can't get any more.

    Evaluate non-revenue-based activities most critically.

    It's relatively easy to calculate the return on investment for things such as new machinery or raw materials that you'll use within thirty days to manufacture products and generate sales. It's much harder to evaluate the ROI for overhead expenditures, such as information systems or employee benefits. But you still need to do it.

    For example, suppose you're considering investing in additional employee benefits with the goal of reducing turnover. Do your best to assess the recruiting, retraining, and other costs associated with turnover. Then project how much reduction in the turnover rate you can realistically expect as a result of the proposed new benefits. Finally, estimate how much money the reduced turnover will save you and calculate your ROI.

    Look inside your organization for cash before you look outside.

    Seek to free up working capital by -

  • Reducing inventory. Inventory is cash on your floor. Even asset-based lenders generally won't loan you more than 50 percent of the value of your inventory.

  • Reducing rework and scrap. These soak up cash for materials and labor, but they generate zero sales.

  • Retraining or dismissing underachieving employees. The investment for underperformers is about the same as for high producers, but the return is far less.

  • Increasing quality. This frees up cash by reducing the amount of rework, scrap, and customer returns.

  • We've all heard the expression "Cash is King." That's even truer when you don't have it and someone else does.

    Over the years, I have gained (with considerable pain) a greater understanding of and appreciation for the real cost of money. One this is certain,

    The golden rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."


    About the Author:
    Martin Harshberger is Managing Partner of Measurable Results LLC. Marty specializes in strategic planning, pre- and post-merger integration, as well as business process improvement. He can be reached at 662-844-9088 or by email at: mailto:info@bottomlinecoach.com His new book Bottom Line Focus is available on Amazon and his website: http://www.bottomlinecoach.com/


    Read more Articles written by Martin Harshberger.

    Tuesday, January 26, 2010

    Strategic Planning Starts With Your Vision for Your Company

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Martin Harshberger



    What role does vision play in the development of your business plan? If you listen to Jack Welch it's a big role.

    "Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion." -- Jack Welch

    Step #1 in the planning process: Clarify and document your vision.

    Where do you want to be in five years? What specifically will that look like? Write that down in as much detail as possible. If you are tempted to blow this off or think this is easy, you've probably never done it. It's not as simple as it sounds.

    Now ask yourself, what's been holding you back? Why you aren't already there? The answers to these questions can be enlightening. Maybe it's because you're confused or conflicted about what you really want. Or maybe something stands in your way that you haven't had the awareness or courage to confront.

    Don't skimp on this phase of the planning process. If you're unclear about your vision, your whole plan will be useless.

    Taking time to understand your business, both as it is today and as you want it to be tomorrow, is not as simple as it sounds.

    It helps to have a knowledgeable and objective outsider involved in the planning process. An outsider will challenge you to think creatively. You'll be better able to see familiar situations in new ways. And it will be harder for people to get away with excuses and blame shifting.

    Frankly, I think it's a dangerous mistake for the CEO or some other senior executive from within the organization to try to facilitate this assessment exercise. All too often participating staff members try to say what they think that executive wants to hear. A "herd mentality" develops that stifles honesty and creativity.

    But a competent facilitator won't accept pat answers, clichÃ(c)s, and jargon. He or she will encourage innovative thinking and force participants to drill down to bedrock facts.

    When I go into a company, I start by asking the key players to clearly describe in writing what they want their company to look like in five years. What businesses will they be in? What products and services will they be selling? How many employees and locations will they have?

    Most business owners, CEOs, and other major stakeholders think they know the answers to these questions. That is, until they try to put them on paper. Typically they struggle for hours before they reach agreement on their direction and general goals.

    This process almost always births useful insights and promising opportunities.

    A strong vision is the foundation of any successful business.

    Your vision gives you a point of reference for evaluating and planning all aspects of your business. You'll make better and faster decisions when you evaluate every choice by asking, "Does this take me closer to or farther from the attainment of my vision?"

    If you want your company to achieve maximum success, all business processes, management practices, and employee incentives should flow from and be in alignment with a clearly defined strategy. All employees should understand and be "on the same page" as your vision and strategy. Every employee should consider the vision when they encounter their individual "moments of truth".

    In the fast food industry, moments of truth occur at the counter when the orders are taken. In manufacturing companies, they happen when a sales professional interacts with a prospect or customer, a serviceman repairs a customer's machine, a shipment goes out the door to a customer, a customer service representative answers the phone, and at numerous other points.

    Where are the moments of truth in your business? What interactions are crucial for your success? Design and execute your strategy and all of your processes and practices to create positive moments of truth experiences for your external customers.

    How do you create an environment that equips and motivates your internal customers to create positive moments of truth experiences for your external customers?

    You start by clarifying your vision and communicating it consistently and constantly, so that every aspect of your company is built around it.

    Your vision is your definition of success. Your strategy to achieve your vision is the foundation for your success. When you have a clear vision and a sound strategy - supported by good planning, communications, and metrics - your entire workforce will perform at a higher level. That means more profits and faster growth for your business, which is exactly what this book's about.

    These concepts always work. Why? Because clear expectations built on the foundation of a sound vision always increase commitment, motivation, teamwork, and productivity.

    Shifting expectations, on the other hand, increase confusion, discomfort, apathy, and disharmony.

    Which will you choose for your business? You want successful growth for your business, of course. Otherwise, you wouldn't be reading this book. So now it's time to take your first step toward success by developing a clear vision and communicating it well and often to all concerned.


    About the Author:
    Martin Harshberger is Managing Partner of Measurable Results LLC. Marty specializes in strategic planning, pre- and post-merger integration, as well as business process improvement. He can be reached at 662-844-9088 or by email at: mailto:info@bottomlinecoach.com His new book Bottom Line Focus is available on Amazon and his website: http://www.bottomlinecoach.com/


    Read more Articles written by Martin Harshberger.

    Five Ways to Make Your Company Slogan Catchy or Your Tag Line Terrific

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Marcia Yudkin



    Whether you call it a company slogan, a tag line, a strapline, a logline, a branding statement, a positioning statement, a motto or a memory hook, this refers to a phrase that follows the company name in website headers, in print ads, on business cards and everywhere else.

    Ideally, the slogan should say something interesting in a snappy way. In many cases, however, it just says something ordinary in a snappy way, and that gets the job done. The slogan makes the company stand out from competitors and stick in the minds of customers. It performs marketing magic.

    Let's start with a couple of bland company names and then see how to jazz them up with five tag line techniques.

    Example #1 is Benton Motor Rental. It rents cars to tourists and business visitors in Boston. The owners don't think it's all that special or exciting, but let's see what happens when we apply some creativity.

    Technique #1: Alliteration. This means repeated initial sounds or letters, as in: Benton Motor Rental: Boston's Best Rides

    Note that all the words in the business name and tag line need not start with the same letter for alliteration to add pizzazz.

    Technique #2: Contrast. This means a juxtaposition of opposites or extremes, such as day/night, minimum/maximum, rich/poor. Let's add this to the previous example to get: Benton Motor Rental: Boston's Best Rides, by the Hour or the Month

    The contrast in the added phrase conveys flexibility and range and makes the company sound like it caters to the convenience of the customer.

    Technique #3: Rhyme. Again, let's reuse and tweak an idea we already thought up: Benton Motor Rental: Your Best Ride is Our Pride

    Although that's a little hackneyed, the rhymed tag line still adds energy and a promise of customer service to the company name.

    Technique #4: Make an unexpected connection. Boston's nickname is Beantown, and this company's car rental service costs less than some competitors. So that yields: Benton Motor Rental: Beancounter's Delight

    Technique #5: Riff off a popular saying. Find a clichÃ(c) related to car rental and add a clever twist, or take a saying having nothing to do with car rental and make it relate: Benton Motor Rental: Making Boston Your Oyster

    Well, anyone who knows Boston's twisted street system and aggressive drivers won't believe that slogan for a minute, but you get the idea, right?

    Example #2 is Cathy's Fruit Shop. It sells both seasonal local fruits and fruits from overseas. It's known for being a friendly place with fresh, attractive produce. Again, let's get creative.

    Technique #1: Alliteration. Cathy's Fruit Shop: Pears, Papayas, Plums... Plus

    Or, Cathy's Fruit Shop: Fundamentally Fresh and Friendly

    Technique #2: Contrast. Cathy's Fruit Shop: Earth's Bounty, Heavenly Fresh

    Technique #3: Rhyme. Cathy's Fruit Shop: Always the Freshest Crop

    Technique #4: An unexpected connection. Cathy's Fruit Shop: Fresh Fruit on Fridays - and Every Other Day of the Week, Too

    Technique #5: Riff off a popular saying. Cathy's Fruit Shop: Compare Our Apples and Oranges

    It's so much easier to pull captivating slogans out of your hat when you have these guidelines for combining words in punchy ways!


    About the Author:
    Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm


    Sunday, January 24, 2010

    A Recent Issue Of Playboy Revealed...

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2010 Bill Platt



    A Recent Issue Of Playboy Revealed... If you put the right title on your article, your article will get opened and read by its intended audience...

    Article marketers must serve two masters: Publishers who reach your target audience, and the Readers in your target audience.

    Since 2005, online marketers have been living under an illusion that the article's content does not matter, because there are many publishers who will accept anything that meets a minimum word count.

    The underlying theory is that if publishers will publish anything, then one should not need to worry about the quality of the content, especially if the goal of the marketer is to gain inbound links for the purpose of impressing Google and its search listings...

    Many people poo-poo my opinion on how to write articles, because they think of me as an Old-School Article Marketing Purist...

    Alert! I am not the "purist" that many people suggest I am...

    And there is nothing wrong with "old school", because it worked just fine in 1995, 2000, 2005 and even now in 2010. People have profitably used "old school article marketing" since the early days of the Internet to generate substantial sales and profits for their online businesses. We "old school article marketers" also do pretty well in the search engine ranking game, by using "old school article marketing" to influence our rankings in Google and the other search engines.

    In this article, I am going to tackle some of the problems inherent in the "article marketing for SEO" techniques that so many online marketers want to trust as gospel...

    Content Does Not Matter... Or Does It?

    Yes, it is true that there are many online publishers that will accept anything and everything submitted to them, provided the content meets a minimum word count...

    But this is what you have never been told about this article marketing strategy... If you think about what I am going to tell you here, you will have no doubt that what I am getting ready to tell you is true...

  • How many junk sites do you find that you spend any amount of time reading? Websites that do not have an editorial policy will not be able to attract and retain repeat visitors...

  • Websites that cannot attract and keep visitors, will not make a reliable profit and will soon go out of business... How long will you keep flushing your money on a website that is not creating profits for you? If you wouldn't keep throwing money at a dud website, why would anyone else?

  • Many new webmasters purchase domain registration for two years. Some will also prepay domain hosting for the same two years. This is the primary reason why most new websites disappear within two years of launch...

  • If you only post content that those who have no editorial policies will publish, then you can comfortably rely on your inbound links disappearing, nearly as quickly as you can create them...

    Is Anyone Home?

    I have developed a list on one of my websites, of 1200+ article directories that are available online, at: http://www.techcentralpublishing.com/more-article-directories.php

    On the surface, it would seem like you should be able to acquire thousands of links to your website, by submitting your articles to article directories...

    But here is what you don't know about article directories...

    All article directory software has been designed in such a way that the directory owner will need to manually verify all content submitted to the article directory...

    And most new article directory owners quit approving articles within just a few weeks, because they never imagined how much work an article directory would actually entail...

    As an example, I took one of the directories from the beginning of the above list: abunchofarticles.com

    On the front page of the website, they have the Most Recent articles listed on the front page. I clicked through to the first article on the list, and it shows that the article was submitted on 2009-08-26, and today is 2010-01-17!! That means that this website has not approved any new articles in 4-1/2 months.

    Another sample from the list is: allbpi.net. The last article approved on this website was submitted on 2009-09-19!!

    You can submit your articles to these websites ALL DAY LONG, but when done, there are probably fewer than 40 article directories that approve articles regularly...

    It should be clear to you at this point that if you ignore the quality of your content:

  • The people who will continue to publish your junk articles will soon be out of business, voiding any links you were able to get for your website; and

  • Many of the people to whom you are currently submitting your articles, aren't even available to approve your submissions...

  • Publishers Who Have Editorial Policies Have Specific Expectations

    Publishers who have editorial policies do so, because they understand their visitors and work hard to keep the loyalty of their readers...

    They work hard to ensure the loyalty of their visitors, because it is cheaper to retain loyal readers than it is to acquire new visitors.

    By ensuring visitor loyalty, these webmasters are ensuring that they are able to retain their current income and grow the revenue opportunities for their website.

    As a webmaster, you have the free will to choose the content that you place on your own website. And the publishers whose audience we should want to reach with article marketing also have the free will to decide what they will publish on their sites...

    Link Popularity In The Search Engine Marketing Game

    Those guaranteed links through article directories are not as guaranteed as you once thought, are they? Even if you can get those cherished links in the article directories, will those links ever gain any search engine link popularity to share with your website?

    For your articles to be able to share link popularity with your website, they must develop their own link popularity, where ever they sit on the Internet.

    If you write and submit junk articles, who in their right mind will link to those articles that you have made available to the world?

    Alert: People only link to articles that they believe that their audience will appreciate. If they link to junk, then their audience will lose confidence in their recommendations...

    Serving Your Real Masters...

    Your real masters in the article marketing game are the publishers who are going to choose to share your articles with their readers, and the people who read your articles...

    As should be obvious to you by now, the publishers who have a real audience with whom to share your articles will only publish quality content...

    Some publishers have audiences in the hundreds of thousands. When your article gets posted on many of the big publisher websites, it is not uncommon for the readers of that publication to either post a copy of your article also on their website or to link to your article on the publisher's website.

    Winning the approval of large publishers can result in your article being published on additional websites, and more for the benefit of the search engine optimization game, people will link to your articles on the big publishers' website...

    How does this benefit your website? More copies of your article on more websites, and link popularity being funneled into your articles on third-party websites, which in turn will pass link popularity back to your own website...

    Publishers, who are committed to earning a profit, want to publish articles that its readers will want to read...

    So your first master is always the publisher, and your second master is always the reader who will be thrilled to have had the opportunity to read your article...

    If you serve your first and second masters well, then your articles will develop real value that the search engines will recognize and credit you for having...

    A Recent Issue Of Playboy Revealed...

    As I wrap up this article, we have finally come full circle to the point made in the title of this article...

    The title that you select for your article will determine in large degree how successful your article will be....

    David Jackson, a fellow writer, recently pointed out that "On average, 8 out of 10 people will read your headline, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest of your copy..." (http://reviews-by-customers.com/showthread.php?t=253)

    His point was the same as mine is today in this article: Your article title must stand out among the thousands of other articles on the Internet... Your article title must attract attention to the article and get the article opened and read... Even the best article on the planet is worthless, unless someone is actually reading it...

    Just today, someone commented on one of my videos on YouTube. He said, "It's funny... this (video) is gold but nobody is watching here on YouTube!!"

    He was right of course. The video was posted to YouTube on October 18th, 2009, but only 120 people have watched it... http://bit.ly/5WEWqO

    The video carries a factual title, but not necessarily a title that will pull people into it by the droves...

    But this article here... Be honest with yourself now... Did you start reading this article because the title absolutely caught your attention and appealed to your curiosity?

    I am confident in telling you that you would not be reading this article right now if the publisher did not have an overwhelming desire to see what my article was about, based on its title... And because the content delivered more than the publisher expected, the publisher felt that YOU needed to read what I have written here today...

    If I have done my job well, then you will be glad you took a few minutes out of your day to read what I have written... And, you will reward me by reading my Author's Resource Box shown below, to see how I could further help you achieve your goals...


    About the Author:
    My name is Bill Platt. I have been doing article marketing since 1999, and I have operated The Phantom Writers Article Distribution Service since 2001. My most recent article marketing ebook is titled, "How To Use Article Marketing To Positively Impact Your SEO Efforts," and you can buy your own copy at my website: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-seo.html The information in this article merely touches on information that I teach in my ebook about how to leverage your article marketing for real SEO success...


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