eBay Secrets Revealed

It is rumored that the top affiliate at eBay made over $1 million dollars in January 2004. Who wouldn't like to know his eBay secrets? In fact, it is estimated that the top 10 eBay affiliates all earn over $100,000 per month.

In a world where average men and women commute to jobs they hate, knowing eBay secrets to generating extra income is of major interest. If at least 75% of people hate waking up to an alarm clock and commuting to work, then learning to make extra income part-time from home with online auctions is a big deal.

Can you really make extra income learning eBay secrets? Over 25,000 people make their FULL TIME LIVING with online auctions like eBay, Google, Yahoo and more. A whisper number of part timers is over 250,000! Imagine, a quarter of a million people are putting extra income in their pockets with online auctions.

Raise your hand if you'd like to join the ranks of the thousands of smart people making extra income in their own home-based business thanks to online auctions!

Biggest Internet Marketing Myths

In every myth there is an element of truth. Read the sections below to discover the grain of truth in all of these Internet marketing myths.

Myth #1: Internet Marketing is EASY
This is probably the biggest myth of all, and let me tell you Internet marketing takes time, effort not mention money and anyone who suggests otherwise is trying to sell you a bunch of horse hockey. Granted that it's comparatively easier to brick and mortar in that there's no inventory to carry, no shipping of goods and virtually no overhead, but a lot of work is still involved.

Affiliate marketing eliminates the cost of production, construction and employees.

Myth #2: ANYONE Can Make Money Online
Folks, this is simply not true. Unless someone gets off that lazy boy recliner and download/read everything they can about internet marketing, and put an action plan in motion, they will never make a dime on the internet. DO NOTHING, MAKE NOTHING.

Myth #3: You Can "GET RICH QUICK" On the Net!
This is the trap that a lot of newbie internet marketers falls into, why because scammers make it sounds so easy and let me tell you, chasing "get rich quick scheme" is a waste of time, money and energy. It just won't happen overnight, instead do some research and find out what people really want and need then give it to them.

Myth #4: It's FREE to Do Business Online
This is one of my favorite myths because I believed it during my first year of marketing online and it just wasn't true then, it isn't true today. Compared to opening your first coffee shop or gift shop in downtown Los Angeles, internet business start-up cost and maintenance cost is pretty low. Once you have your domain set up, you only pay for internet connection, advertising and ongoing educations, that's it.

Myth #5: It's TOO LATE to Start an Internet Business
Most super affiliate marketers would love to hear people say "It's too late now, too many competitions, won't help to start an online business, I should just pack my bags and go home, the internet is too complicated, etc...". You know why? the less people they have to compete with the better which in turn will make them more money.

The fact is, it's never ever too late to start anything and that includes internet business. I firmly believe that the internet is not going anywhere and you should too. Every year the stats will show you the number of people shopping online are increasing, their spending dollars are growing also.

Myth #6: The BIG Money Talk is JUST HYPE
Have you heard of the phrase, "it takes money to make money?" Well it's true, although you will be hard pressed to find super affiliate to tell how much they spend on promoting and advertising. Sometimes, you have to dig a little deeper to find the truth in every hype you read.

If you are willing to take the necessary action to make 'big money' happen for you - it will.

Or criticize, be skeptical and sure that 'big money' can't happen for you - and it won't. If you believe that you will succeed you're right, if you believe that it won't work, you're right also.

Your Home Biz Store

To make your home biz store successful, you need to establish the following characteristics.

First. You need to cultivate the trust and credibility of others by being knowledgeable and honest about your business. Second. Don't exaggerate claims because people are wary of these tactics, and you may lose customers. Third, send email messages with at least one question that requires an answer.

Fourth, make sure the messages are short; long messages more than likely won't be read. Fifth, ask people to acknowledge that they got your message about your home biz store. Sixth, be aware of stricter spam practices as many email providers are blocking messages even if they aren't spam. Seventh, don't expect a get rich quick scheme; it takes time for a home business to grow.

Eighth, be persistent with your home biz store. Ninth, expect emotional highs and lows as there will be successes and setbacks. There are time management skills you can utilize. You can make a "to do" list. Write the list down, and leave it somewhere you are sure to look. Of course the list can be flexible; some tasks will have to be put off, and the list may need updating.

Also instead of writing everything on scraps of paper, invest in a simple spiral notebook to record what's going on. It can be a good memory jogger and can be used for future reference. There are also ways to manage the telephone. Record an effective message such as "Hello, this is John Smith. I'm not available now, but if you leave a message about what your call concerns and the best time to get up with you, I'll call you back later." If somebody can answer your calls for you, have them say the same. You want to know what the call is about to better prepare yourself for further conversations.

Your first priority in your home biz store is your customer; the old cliche "the customer is always right" is tired but true. Offer your customers newsletters to keep them apprised of your doings. Ask customers if they want to be notified if you change your website. Keep in contact with a customer after a purchase to ensure satisfaction. Send them surveys, and use rewards as incentives such as gift certificates.

If you have a website, make sure it's easy to use. Have a "frequently asked questions" or FAQ section to tell customers your policies. Send surveys asking about site navigation. Fix any problems promptly. Make your contact information readily available; post hyperlinked email addresses and toll-free numbers. A nice touch is sending longtime customers thank you gifts, emailing them cards on special occasions, and giving them price breaks. With these suggestions, your home business can thrive.

Golden Rules for an Engaging Website

35% of visitors fail to achieve their goal when they visit company websites! By following 2 simple rules, you can increase your web-derived revenue by 1/3 or more!

Renowned website usability researcher, Jakob Nielsen, published results of his latest study. His test subjects used 139 websites. On average, they failed to find what they were looking for 35% of the time. Shockingly, 37% of users couldn’t even find company location details!

What was surprising was that users didn’t give up. They generally found the information they were after – but they found it at a competitor’s site!

So how do you stop potential customers falling into the hands of your competitors? Nielsen is right when he suggests user research. Yes, it’s imperative that know what your users need at your site. But what he doesn’t say is how to structure your website so it meets users’ needs.

There are two golden rules:
1) Write first, build later
2) Write to your customer

Write first, build later
The real message on most websites is in the writing. It makes sense, then, that the writing should determine the structure.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for most businesses. For them, the writing is an afterthought. They structure and design their website first, then try to fit the writing to the structure. This flies in the face of common sense. When you speak to someone, you structure your speech around your message. You don’t decide on a structure, then change the message to suit!

For a truly usable website, you need to plan what you want to say before you create the site – perhaps even write the whole thing. The message – the writing – should determine the structure.

Write to your customer
So how do you decide what to write?

Firstly, don’t think, “What do I want to say?”. When you’re writing a website, you have to think, “What does my customer want to know?”. It’s a very subtle difference, but it’s the key to engaging writing. And that’s what you want to do… engage the customer.

Most customers will want to know the basics:
What do you do?
What benefit do you offer them?
Why should they choose your service or product?
Why should they choose your service or product and not your competitors’?
What does it cost?
How can they contact you?
Where are you located?

Your website has to communicate a lot of information. And to make matters worse, you’re going to have limited screen real-estate. Ideally, your customer won’t have to scroll – especially on your homepage (all your information will fit within a single window). And you can’t fill the whole screen with writing, either. The design and navigation elements take up about a third of the window, and you should leave a bit for white space (you don’t want to overwhelm your customer). As a rule of thumb, you should expect to have about 1/3 – ½ of the window at your disposal for the writing.

Chances are, right now you’re thinking, “How am I going to fit it all in?”. Well, that’s where your writing skills come in. Choose your words very carefully…

Websites can be an extremely powerful piece of marketing collateral. You can reach millions for just a few hundred dollars. Unfortunately, your competitors can do the same thing. It’s a level playing field, but there are a lot of players. It’s important that your thoughts are structured, otherwise your site will be a mess. If your message is clear, your site will be simple and easy to use. It’s all in the words…

8 More Reasons to Write for Your Audience…

1. There are approximately 550 billion documents on the web
2. Every day another 7 million are added
3. Workers take so long trying to find information that it costs organisations $750 billion annually! (A.T. Kearney, Network Publishing study, April 2001)
4. Reading from a monitor is 25% slower than reading from paper. (Sun Microsystems, 1998)
5. Helpful content develops site loyalty. The average person visits no more than 19 websites in the entire month in order to avoid information overload. (Nielsen NetRatings in Jan 2001)
6. 79% of users scan read when online (Sun Microsystems, 1998)
7. Information gathering is the most common use of the Internet - 73% (American Express survey, 2000)
8. 48% of people use the Internet to find work-related information as opposed to 7% who use magazines. (Lyra Research, 2001)

Services Your Online Business Can't Live Without

It doesn't make any difference if you're promoting your own product, affiliate programs or MLM programs, there are 3 services your business can't live without.

Service #1: Web Hosting
I'm not talking about one of those Free accounts where they throw their own ad in everytime someone visits your site. I'm talking about a premium, ad free web hosting package with your own domain name. Plenty of space and able to handle plenty of traffic. Free sites that ad their own banner are not very professional in most peoples eyes and turns them off real quick.

Service #2: A minimum of one Sequential Autoresponder account
Why autoresponders? First they allow you to follow up with your online visitors automatically. Most people won't order during their first visit to your website. You can set your autoresponder to send out follow up email messages.

That makes your initial goal to capture the name and email address or your visitor so you can send them more information about the benefits of your offer. At the same time you're building a list of people that you can keep in regular contact with and send special offers to. You will need to prompt our visitor to sign up for an online newsletter, a free report, or any other offer you may have to encourage them to give you their name and email.

You should have enough autoresponder accounts to promote more that one offer. Eventually, may have hundreds of different messages automatically being sent with your offers.

Service #3: An Online Adtracker
No matter whether you're using free advertising or paid advertising you MUST track the performance of your ads. You need to know what ads work and which ones are duds. You have to know which advertising sources are giving you the best results for your time and money. You can even track individual links in your website to see which ones are getting the most hits.