Tools to Automate an Online Business – Online Business Management tools

With all the information online about tools and techniques available to help someone effective manage and run an online business, how do you ever decide which ones are truly useful to have in your business management toolkit? Here’s my listing of the 20 indispensable tools that I cannot live without:

1. Article Marketing: SubmitYourArticle.com automates the article submission process by allowing you to submit up to eight articles each month and then distributes the articles to hundreds of web sites, article directories and ezine publishers. Without a doubt, this has been my most effective online marketing tool that has produced tremendous results for my business.

2. Audio Recording/Podcasting: AudioAcrobat.com makes audio streaming fast and simple, whether you want to add an audio greeting, audio testimonials, podcast or videos to your website or send out an audio postcard or record a teleclass.

3. Backup: Carbonite.com offers an unlimited amount of data storage for $50 per year. Carbonite is very intuitive and went directly to my email files and Roboform files to back them up without me having to manual select the backup files. I frequently use this service to find the original version of a file that I’ve accidentally overwritten, as well.

4. Blogging: Typepad.com is both simple to use and powerful. You can set up as many blogs as you desire with a Pro account, and you can customize your blog in an infinite number of ways. Once it’s set up, the online interface makes it a snap to make new posts to your blog.

5. Bookmark Manager: SPURL.net makes managing a moderate to massive amount of bookmarks very easy. You create any number of categories in which to file your favorites, and adding a favorite website is as easy as clicking a button.

6. Color Matching: Pixie is a tool that I use daily to help me match a color exactly for a document that I’m creating or a color I’m trying to replicate on a website. Run it, simply point to a color and it will tell you the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of that color.

7. Content Management: Edit.com is a website maintenance service that makes your current website editable so you can change the content yourself. They handle everything to get your site set up and provide you with a phone training to walk you through your first edits. There is no software to install because it just uses your web browser. At no charge, you can have them review your website to ensure that your site is compatible with their service.

8. Email List Management/Autoresponders: aWeber.com is a great service for creating, mailing and reporting back on the success of your newsletter as well as to subscribe your readers to a sequential autoresponder, either associated with your newsletter or with another product. I love to be able to see how many readers opened my newsletter, who opened the newsletter, and what links they clicked on from the newsletters.

9. Fax: MaxEmail.com lets you send a receive faxes through the Internet/email and makes your need for a fax machine obsolete. The faxes arrive in PDF format, so you can easily share you faxes with others as needed. They also offer voice mail on your fax line, and the voicemail message arrives as an audio file in your email inbox.

10. Graphics Program: SnagIt.com lets you show someone exactly what you see on your screen. Select and capture your screen image. and send it to SnagIt’s editor to add professional effects, edit the image (resize, adjust color), and or drop it into your favorite application.

11. Hosting: Aaces.com offers the ability to buy a hosting plan in which you can host and manage a large number of websites through one account rather than buying multiple hosting plans for each website for your business. And, their customer service can’t be beat.

12. Idea Management: With EverNote.com you can easily store and quickly access typed and handwritten memos, webpage excerpts, emails, phone messages, addresses, passwords, brainstorms, sketches, documents and more! A free version or a 30-day trial of the paid version is available for download.

13. Merchant Account: PracticePaySolutions.com offers an all-in-one ecommerce solution that helps you take payment online. The coolest feature that they offer in this service is the ability to do batch uploads of charges, so if you have a number of clients on retainer that you invoice every month, you can simply create a spreadsheet and batch upload the data rather than entering each client’s information individually.

14. Publicity Tracker: Google Alerts let you type in an unlimited number of search terms, like your name, your company name, your industry, the name of your competitors, etc. Google will then deliver an email alert for any mention of your search term online. This is a wonderful way to track your own PR as well as industry trends.

15. Password Management: Roboform.com is the top-rated password manager and web form filler that completely automates password entering and form filling. You’ll never have to remember a password again! I maintain both my passwords and user info and that of my clients in this program.

16. Shopping Cart: KickstartCart.com is easy to use and setup, and offers the ability to create affiliate programs, follow up with prospective and current customers with autoresponders, create coupons for limited-time offers, as well as enable buyers to immediately download electronic purchases (ebooks, audio files). There is a free 30-day trial, but don’t sign up until you have the time to test drive it–30 days goes by fast! Get your free ebook here, How to Pick a Shopping Cart System That Makes You Money.

17. Spyware: CounterSpy.com will protect your computer from spyware, adware, Trojans and other malware threats.

18. Teleconference Line: LiveOfficeFreeConferencing.com lets you meet with colleagues, associates or even family members through a teleconference bridge line that can bring up to 250 people together at one place over a teleconference phone line. You can use the line to conduct classes and training and record your calls, as well as manage your participants from an online interface.

19. Time Tracker: TraxTime.com has helped me keep track of my consulting projects for years. You simply create projects and clock into and out of them, with the ability to write memos about how you’ve used your time.

20. To Do List Management: Accomplice.com works online and offline, integrates with Outlook and other software you already use, and syncs with your PDA. What I love most about this software is that I can create in-depth, hierarchical to-do lists (tasks and sub-tasks of a bigger project) very easily, and add additional tasks on the fly as they occur to me. I can see at any point what are my more important tasks and what is coming due soon.

Internet Lifestyle – How to Achieve Your Desired Internet Lifestyle

What is an Internet lifestyle? If you have been into internet or affiliate marketing for a while, I am sure the term Internet lifestyle is nothing new to you. An internet lifestyle allows you to work from home or anywhere in the world as long as you have a laptop and internet connection. Also, leading an internet lifestyle means you have total control of your life and able to spend time doing what you love.

Living an Internet lifestyle is what all internet marketers strive to achieve. In order to live an Internet lifestyle, you must achieve a full time income online. Many people struggle to achieve a full time online income because they are always doing the wrong stuffs. They either promote products that do not sell or are always trying to come out with a new breakthrough idea.

In fact, your desired lifestyle is closer than you think. As long as you start doing the right stuffs, you can achieve your dream too.

So your next question may be what are the right stuffs? Now let me share with you a formula that has proven itself over and over again. If you follow it religiously, you can achieve success too. Here’s the formula:

1. Only promote products that are already in demand. By promoting products that people are already buying, you can be assured to get sales. The only question is how much sales you can get. And the number of sales you will get is very dependent on the amount of targeted traffic you can drive.

2. Copy an existing working business model. You do not need to reinvent the wheel. Many internet marketers always try to come out with the next big thing. If you do this, you are making things more difficult than it need to be.

3. Drive enough targeted traffic. The best way to drive lots of targeted traffic is to create unique content sites. Start creating content in profitable markets that targets people who are on the verge of buying. SEO your site and bring in consistent targeted traffic.

If you want to achieve your desired lifestyle, you need to be different from other marketers. And the key to make you different from others is to take ACTION. If you take action today and start building content sites in profitable markets, you will be definitely on the way to success.

Creating content sites that can bring you sales is not as hard as you think it is. In fact, you do not even need to have any HTML or technical knowledge to do it.

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Autoresponders: Affiliate Tools that Can Spell Success for Your Business

For those who are just starting out in the affiliate marketing business or those who just formed their own online businesses, not hearing about autoresponders and the wonders they can do is, if not impossible, then highly unlikely. This is because dozens of online marketing experts claim that affiliate tools such as autoresponders are key to making one’s business succeed. Some might scoff at the obvious hyping about autoresponders and rightly so. The success of any business rarely relies on one tool but a complementary mix of many.

However, autoresponders do have their purposes and they do help in making one’s business succeed. Below are more important facts about autoresponders and how one can use them to his or her own advantage.

Autoresponders are affiliate tools which are used to send e-mails automatically to addresses on a list. Autoresponders are actually software programs that allows business owners to send e-mails which
contain varied information, such as sales, new products, even thank you notes to anyone and everyone in their mailing list.

The important part here is that autoresponders can do the task automatically so whether business owners are on vacation or just away from their desk, the affiliate tools can continue sending information to the list. What the owner needs to do is create the e-mails and set up the time that they are to be sent. There are three types of autoresponders available for anyone’s use. The first type are those that are provided by third party services. One has to sign up and pay an amount to be able to use
the service.

Once an account has been set up, the owner can create the e-mails, design, and dates they will be sent. The second type of autoresponders are those that are part of scripts on a web server. Some web providers already have the autoresponder option set up. The last type of these affiliate tools are those that one needs to install on their computers, usually through purchasing the software from some
company.

The best autoresponder affiliate tools can be purchased from several companies or be used with a monthly fee. For example, TrafficWave offers unlimited autoresponder service plus additional features such as ad trackers, lead generation pages, pre-built email templates and more for only $17.95 per month. Aweber also offers the same services plus tools to build one’s email subscriber list for $19 per month. The importance of autoresponders, although sometimes highly exaggerated, should not be underestimated. They can catapult one’s sales to the highest numbers if properly used. This is because one can use them to send enticing information to prospects who most likely will buy the products. Sales are also improved due to the fact that one’s online presence is never forgotten since e-mails can be sent at all times.

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How to Use the Incredible Cragslist Site to Promote Your Business

The internet has provided innumerable avenues for businesses to grow. Now thanks to concentrated sites like Craigslist, promoting a business is easier than ever and reaches more potential clients than ever before. This site, when correctly used, has the potential to help even the smallest businesses see their business grow exponentially, and it helps the larger business continue to compete with their big counterparts. But to effectively use Craigslist, marketing directors and business owners should consider two specific things: their target audience and their marketing strategy.

The Target Audience

Businesses should know who their clients are. They should have an idea in their mind of the ideal client, or in a word, their target audience. Then they should aim to reach that target audience by using the correct advertising category on Craigslist. Craigslist offers free postings to the majority of their clients except for those listing jobs in New York City, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. Thus small business will find their best clients on Craigslist if they just pick the right advertising category.

Consider this: what if a moving company in Portland Oregon posted its advertisement for moving services for a county in Arizona. That just wouldn’t make sense. Instead, the moving company should post their advertisement for the counties that they will serve. Thus if I am preparing to move and I check out Craigslist for possible movers, I can easily find this particular company that will serve my needs in my county.

Craigslist also has a plethora of benefits like a huge audience: they boast of over 4 billion hits a month. In the end, though, the number of views really doesn’t matter if they’re not finding your business in the right spot. So make sure to place your advertisement in the best possible category to reach your ideal customer.

Effective Marketing

A market engineer should use his skills for Craigslist much like he would in any other realm. Great marketing begins with a well written promotional copy, so spend the money and hire a freelance writer who can put together a solid promotion for your company. And then, as stated before, post it in the best possible place on Craigslist. The promotional copy should include information like how to reach your store, how to access your business website, and what specific services your business offers.

Ultimately, a person has all he needs for worldwide promotion the second that he logs onto Craigslist. This site has helped thousands of business not only get started but stay active in the business world, and with a well written promotional copy and correct advertising placement, you will see your business thrive with an investment on Craigslist today.

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Tips on How to Get Started with E-Commerce and be Successful

If you want your business to thrive, do not wait for customers to come to you. Take your products to your customers through internet and e-commerce. Suitable for all business sizes, e-commerce allows you to harness the benefits of business at low-costs, without time and distance barriers.

You do not need to spend a fortune to start your online store, use the following tips and tools to start reaping the benefits of a successful online business and e-commerce.

How Do You Start Selling Online?

1. If you do not want to build your own online store then you may sell your products on big market sites such as Amazon and eBay to build a client base, assess demand, prices and competition.
2. Add a PayPal payment option to your existing website to give customers an easy and convenient payment option. Use PayPal to build a basic order form that can be integrated into your website.
3. Build your own e-commerce site either by hiring a web designer or using template-based website building tools.

If a single option does not work for you, use a combination of two or more options that best suits your business requirements.

Develop a Specialty

Before you start building a new online store, try to find a specific and unique e-commerce niche. Product categories like shoes and books are very common and saturated with large sellers who can cut your business profits. Conduct some research on product categories and specialize in one that has an untapped customer base. This can be your ticket to online store success.

Getting Started With Building Online Store

To build your web store ask your web provider for e-commerce tools and templates. This option is low-cost and can greatly simplify web store design reducing your job to merely pointing, clicking and modifying pre-designed templates. These basic web stores come for a small monthly fee and transaction fees for every order.

If you need extensive customization then hire a web specialist. Discuss the available e-commerce services and web store options with your web designer. A specialist can help you to incorporate advanced features such as connecting your inventory database to the online store so that you do not offer out-of-stock products.

Essential Features of an Online Store

Photos
Photos help to sell products. Use multiple views and pictures of different colors and options to minimize shopper queries and maximize impact on customers.

Product Description
Effective item descriptions can considerably improve product sales. For greatest impact, include all important details and answers to possible shopper queries.

Privacy and Security
If you want shoppers to do business with you, then assure them that their private information is secure and will never be misused. Ensure that sensitive data is always encrypted. Additionally, make sure your privacy and security policies are easily visible and clearly defined.

Multiple Payment and Shipping Options
Customers usually prefer variety in payment methods. Open a merchant account to enable customers to pay through credit cards. Integrate it with PayPal, another popular payment method. Provide multiple shipping options to your customers. Tie up with reputed shipping providers to automatically calculate and project shipping costs for products. Make sure you comply with tax laws. If unsure about tax regulations, get in touch with an e-commerce consultant.

Great Customer Service
Excellent customer service is central to the success of your online store. Ensure timely response to product queries, preferably within 24 hours. Online chat is another option you can offer your customers to get in touch with you. To maintain and build your client base, offer discounts and special coupons to customers. Keep your customers updated by asking them to sign up for monthly e-mails on new products and special deals.

Combine the above mentioned strategies with attractive web design and clear navigation to build an excellent reputation and beat the competition.

How to Easily Choose the Right Web Hosting for Your Business?

If you have had made the decision to get online and are looking for business web hosting to get your regular brick and mortar business on the internet, congratulations, it’s about time!
Seriously, if you don’t have a web presence for your business on the internet you are missing out on a lot of business and much of it is free!

With the proliferation of business web hosting companies available to choose from it can be a confusing process to sort through them all but if you just take it a step at a time and first identify the web hosting needs for your business it will be easier. You need to ask yourself questions such as, “Do I need a dedicated server or can I get by with a shared server?” Unless you do a large volume of business on the internet chances are you don’t need a dedicated server, which can cost you anywhere from $150 to $500 a month. Most businesses can get by with just a regular shared server or virtual server and have web hosting expenses under $30 a month. The price will vary from around $10 a month to as much as $50 depending on how much bandwidth and disk space you need.

If all you are doing is basically putting up an informational site or a blog about your business you will not require much space and probably not a shopping cart although I cannot imagine putting a business website up without one.

Don’t deal with any fly by night web hosting companies that are running their hosting out of their bedroom. You want to be able to get 24/7 support in case you have any problems and you want to be sure that they have minimal or nonexistent down time. Remember that if their servers are down so is your business website. Make sure they have a money back guarantee, all of the reputable web hosting providers do. The company should also make it very easy for you to upgrade or downgrade your services and most will offer you a discount if you pay annually or quarterly instead of monthly. This can make a large difference in your annual web hosting expenses so definitely check into it.

The choice of a business web hosting company is not one to be taken lightly. As we move more and more into the progression of total internet business that is sure to come it will become even more crucial to have the right web hosting, it can very well be a life or death decision for your business.

How to Make Money Online During this Long Recession – There are Ways

It is no real secret that many parts of the world including the United States is in an what is seeming to be a very long and drawn out recession. This recession has affected and continue to affect millions upon millions of people on a daily basis.

If you are reading this article you most likely are being effected by this cruel recession. I am writing this article to let you and others know that there are ways to make some extra money to help you get through these tough times.

Despite what you may have heard or think, You can make money online!

Many people who are desperate to find some ways to bring in some more money ignore the possibility of using the internet to do this because of many misconceptions that are associated with making money online.

Many feel that anything that involves making cash via the internet must be some sort of scam or just something that flat out won’t work.

Yes, I will tell you that there are what some will call “money making scams” out there but the truth is that there are scams everywhere online and off.

There are real money making opportunities online you just have to know how to find them and use them.

Here are some real ways that you can make some money online. Look at these and decide what may work for you.

Online Paid Surveys – This is one of the most debated methods for earning money online. Many will tell you that this is not a real way to get cash and it just doesn’t work. The truth about online paid surveys is this. No you will not make 6 figures a year with this method, but you can earn some cash.

Those who are dedicated paid survey takers can earn anywhere from an extra $25 to a couple hundred dollars a month.

eBay- This is a very well known method for adding to one’s income. Throughout the last few years eBay has mace a lot of changes but people still are making a fairly decent amount of cash with this monster auction site.

I always recommend that people start off selling things that they already own just to get the hang of how eBay works. Then once you start making a little cash you can hookup with some quality wholesale drop shippers and start a your own full fledged eBay business. Yes, this is very possible to do.

Affiliate Marketing – This is definitely the most popular online money making methods out there. Affiliate Marketing is nothing more then the promotion of someone else’s product in which a commission is earned for every sell generated by the promoter.

There are many full-time affiliate marketers making well over a full-time income. Affiliate Marketing can seem tough at first but luckily there are tons of great courses out there that teaches people just like us how to do it to earn the big bucks.

Do not let the recession stop you from living the life that you want to live. Just know that there are ways to make some money besides your traditional 9-5.