The Mason Jar Experiment

Starting your own business has never been easier. Thrive Learning is one resource that can help you improve what you’re already doing, but before that I think it’s time we address one simple fundamental that keeps many people from their dreams. The Flee.

When thinking of everything we have access to these days the easiest thing you can do, if you really want it, is make money online. It’s really not that hard. However; a lot of people are trapped into thinking it’s impossible and because of this they leave it to others to go out and start businesses that they’ll just simply seek to work for. This can be summed up in this illustration: Flees are one of the smallest insects in the world but their ability to jump is up to 3 meters. If you catch a flee and put it in a regular mason jar and place a lid over the top with a hole or two for it to breath but small enough so it can’t jump out the flee will jump for a period of time smashing its head into the lid. After a short period of time the flee will adjust and jump just shy of hitting its head, pretty smart right? Once this happens you can take the lid off. The flee will continue to jump, but it will never jump hirer then when it had the lid on. It’s been conditioned and given the mindset that it cannot achieve anymore then what we limited it to. And yet, we know it can jump up to 3 meters with ease.

Owning your own business and making money online is easy. It only takes a bit of effort on your part to get it done. If you’re unsure about how it would work exactly and want to wait until you know everything there is to know about it, remember this: you can imagine all day long what a pizza smells like, what it looks like, and what it feels like, but until you’ve actually had a slice you’ll never know what it tastes like. Go out and start your business today. It doesn’t have to be perfect when you set it up, that’s the beauty of the whole thing, you get to improve it over time as you learn. And, if it turns out you don’t like it, fine, scrap it and start over, or better yet, sell it.

In closing, are you still stuck in the mason jar even though the lids off?

How Double Chocolate Changed PR

Today I had the fortunate experience to relive what it truly means to be in PR and the power that it can have in online marketing. When you want to really thrive learning from what others have done is key in making great improvements. Here’s the story:

Its not secret that many large, hotshot companies want their products in the faces of customers around the globe and that a lot of that happens through social media and popular bloggers. In this particular case it was a combined effort. Scott Stratten is one of the many online social bloggers I follow. I always find that his posts show facts and his personality. So instead of just reading words blindly I’ve come to understand and know Scott more. That said in his most recent post he talks about the caliber of the PR/Agency People that are “Awesome”. You’re welcome to go and read his post but what I really wanted to emphasize was the matter in which things happened not only for him but the company in general.

When we approach customers with our products and ideas it’s important to always remember they have the freedom of choice. They can choose to accept or reject our offer. Our main goal in marketing is to provide the customer with the information and the ability to get what they want. When Scott was approached Duri and Magnum he tells us that they just wanted him to be him. To be honest about what he thought, to blog and tweet only if he wanted to. And it paid off big time, but only After a follow-up. We’ll come back to that. After shipping a crate of ice cream to Scott and trying several flavors Scott got on and made a quick little video talking about how dumb the title was of one of the ice creams. It was labeled something like double chocolate. In the video he expresses, that’s impossible, it should be called quad chocolate because there’s four layers of chocolate. Scott mentions how his regular readers, family and friends enjoyed the video. He also mentions that he really wasn’t trying to sell the product. In fact, the title of the video was “Magnum’s False Advertising”. Now lets skip ahead to the follow-up.

The main reason this became a big story and that Scott wrote the post was based off of the follow up. The PR group from Duri and Magnum watched the video and then shipped Scott a special package. Four cartons of “Magnum Quadruple Chocolate”. It also had his name across the top.

This type of follow up is key in our efforts to not only get on the good side of our customers but to get a better idea of how we can improve ourselves as a company.

Small Niche Web Sites: Lots of Patience and Hard Work

With hundreds of home business opportunities, how is a person supposed to be able to choose one that's going to be good for them. Perhaps things are going well for you financially, but you could still use a little extra spending money or some money to replace your savings spent on holiday gifts. So, what is a person to do? You want to make some cash without putting too much of a monetary investment into the endeavor so you decide to start a small niche website.

Hundreds of get rich quick schemes tell you that you can make thousands of dollars a month or even a week, immediately. I'll be honest with you, unless these people are going to give you a gold or diamond mine for free, there's very little chance that you're going to make that much money in a week right away.

What if I told you there's a way to make money and you only have to spend about ten dollars a month plus any fee your supplier may charge. I'm not saying you'll make thousands of dollars a week, you may not even make that in a month, but I can tell you that if you choose a good niche and work hard, you will see great results a few months after starting up a small niche website with Thrive Learning Institute.

Have you ever needed something very specific and you couldn't find it in any brick and mortar stores but you did find it on a small website? Well, that website was probably a niche site. Good news, it's not that hard to set one up, if you give it the time and the effort that is needed to begin.

To begin, you will need a tax ID number, a business license, a website, and a supplier. You may hire someone to build you a web page or you can build your own. There are sites on the Internet such as Weebly.com and Yola.com that will allow you to easily and quickly set up your own website. You can also use blog sites such as Blogspot and Wordpress. These sites are free to use but may require a small fee to forfeit advertising on your page.

Once the site is up, you have a business license and a tax ID number (when applicable), and a supplier, you can get going on your business. However, I would suggest getting started on optimizing your business in search engines shortly after purchasing a domain name. You can put a placeholder on the site and begin building links to it which will help your site rank higher in search engines such as Google.

So you see, it's not terribly difficult, all you really need is a lot of patience, hard work, and someone to show you the way.

Please visit our site for more information about Thrive Learning Institute.

The Importance of Tracking Traffic to Your Website

There are so many people out there who believe that as long as they're getting traffic to their website, and they know they're getting traffic to their site, that it doesn't matter where the traffic is coming from. Those people are wrong. To be honest, if you're not tracking your traffic effectively, you could be losing thousands of dollars a month. How? Well, are you paying for Internet advertising of any kind? If so, do you know how much traffic is coming in from each ad? Perhaps there isn't any traffic coming in from any of your paid advertising which means no conversions, if so, why are you paying to advertise if you get nothing in return?

The interesting thing is that you may be getting the majority of your conversions through various sites that are ranking on the first page of search engines for your specified keywords. If this is the case, you are receiving thousands of dollars of free advertising; something any business should be ecstatic to get. I mean, really, what business doesn't like receiving free advertising, free traffic, and free conversions.

Adwords

It's about time you stop paying for unnecessary adwords that aren't even bringing in any conversions. Keeping any kind of ad that you're not actually making any money off of is like pouring money down the drain. If an ad isn't converting, it's time to change it. Constant corrections and changes are a necessity when advertising online. So you're getting clicks, good for you, but if you're not getting conversions what's the point of paying for people to simply view your website?

Social Media and Articles

How much of your traffic is coming from social media sites and articles you have posted on the web? This is something to consider as you try to link it to ranking organically. What exactly are you doing to help your site rank? It's very important to track the percentage of conversions that are actually coming from social media and article marketing. If it's working for you and it's getting you ranked in search engines, keep at it.

Ranking in Search Engines

If your site is ranking high in search engines for your designated keywords, you may not even need paid advertising. In fact, you might be funneling thousands of dollars into pay per click ads that aren't actually converting. If this is the case, perhaps it's time to reassign your marketing budget and decide if search engine optimization should carry greater weight than pay per click advertising.

All in all, it's up to each individual company to decide what is going to work best for them. Assess the marketing goals of your company in order to discern if your current marketing strategy is helping you reach them. If it is, keep up the good work but continue to search for anything else you could do in order to make even more improvements. If it's not working at all for you, it's probably a good time to do a marketing overhaul.

For more information, please visit Thrive Learning Institute.

Thrive Learning Institute Podcasts Help Students Learn

Press Release - For Immediate Release - December 7, 2009

Thrive Learning Institute Podcasts Help Students Learn

Students of the Thrive Learning Institute are getting fast-breaking tech news and up to the minute internet marketing advice via the "Audible Commerce" Podcast. The weekly half-hour audio show shares discussion of the latest in tech business.

The podcast often includes interviews with SEO gurus and other computer professionals. A recent episode featured discussion with a top Utah-based SEO firm. Their rep shared his insights into the value of inbound linking, and strategies to get those links.

"It's often difficult for our students, many of whom are still working out the building of a website or a blog, to understand the intricacies of the news in the tech world." Said Jim Young, "But that news can have a strong impact on their businesses." Recent tech news segments in the podcast have included commentary on Windows 7, and discussions of how mergers among the big companies can impact smaller mom-and-pop web shops.

The Audible Commerce Podcast resides within the Thrive Learning Institute's online learning center, recently updated to version 3.0. This update included not only a revised interface (completely reworked to facilitate access and learning), but a full revision of the curriculum as well. The podcast was added along with the new material, to give students an additional method of receiving the information. The podcast format also allows for discussion of more immediate and timely topics.

Jim Young continued, "The Audible Commerce podcast shows Thrive's committment to helping our students learn, no matter what background they bring to the table." He added that the podcast hosts are experts at taking complex technical issues and making them understandable to those without a deep tech background. Those that are more experienced in the computer world are still finding benefit by learning about the money-making applications.

Some of the more business-related topics that have been covered include the importance of branding in the long-term promotion of a website, as well as how having a secure computer can impact your business. How can having an obviously secure website impact your ability to convert visitors into buyers? How can having good keywords impact your search engine ranking?

For more information on how to access the Audible Commerce podcast, visit the Thrive Learning Institute's website, http://thrivelearninginstitute.com.


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Search Engine Optimization vs. Pay Per Click

There are a lot of people out there who are dumping more and more money into what some would call a lost cause. They are literally throwing money away, apparently with the idea that money is made to be lost. There is, however, an easier way, a way to multiply money instead of giving it up. In this article, I will be discussing the difference between search engine optimization and pay per click.

Okay, so the biggest difference should be inherently obvious to everyone, yep, you guessed it. Search engine optimization is free, whereas, pay per click uses that one little word that sends shivers up and down the spines of new business owners and seasoned veterans alike, “pay”. I suppose it's all well and good until you begin adding up all the costs of pay per click, it's then that your tongue swells and it all of a sudden becomes hard to speak, hard to breath. This is the point where you finally realize that you have actually lost $20 on the sale you just made on your small niche website; it's the point where you realize that your pay per click campaigns are eating giant holes in your profit. In fact, they're not just eating giant holes in it; they're devouring it, eliminating it all together.

You find yourself scrambling for a solution, a way to kill that ugly beast that continually eats without lamentation. You find the solution, could this really be? A way to get more traffic by paying nothing at all? After pinching your arm to wake yourself, you find that this is not a dream. The answer, search engine optimization. A way to give your site notice in search engines without spending a single red cent on it.

You know, there is a much easier way, get rid of the profit eating beast. Within months, you can actually be ranking on the first page of Search Engines. This happens if you're smart about things and build good quality links. Of course, you may have to lean on pay per click for long enough to get ranking on your own so that you don't lose traffic all together. Once you're ranking high in search engines, you may decide to get rid of pay per click, I would. You'll find that when this happens, your traffic will rise and so will your profit.

Give it a shot, it can't hurt, right? Get out there and do some research on Search Engine Optimization and Marketing. You may be surprised at some of the simple things one may do to help their site rank higher in search engines such as Google. You can start with working on the obvious things (ie. Your title and content) then you can move into some of the more intricate details of search engine optimization. For more information about search engine optimization, please read the Thrive Learning Institute Blog. And, trust me, it will be worth your effort to get very familiar with search engine optimization and how it can help you save expenses.

Marketing: Back to Basics for Small Business

Writing a business plan can be the most difficult element of business. Executing the business plan is also very difficult at times but writing it presents a myriad of challenges. It can take months to write a decent business plan, but don't loose patience. Then again, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. If you're struggling writing a business plan, perhaps it's time to consult an expert.

This article will walk you through the sections of a business plan. After reading this, you should have a pretty good idea of what you need to do in order to get started on your plan. Doing research on and including these sections in your business plan, will help you formulate better decisions about your business and how to lay it out.

There are several sections every business plan should contain. These sections include: executive summary, company description, product/service description, market analysis, operations, web plan, management summary, critical risks, financial plan, and the appendix.

Executive Summary

The executive summary should be a summary of everything that is in the document as a whole. One should be able to read your executive summary and understand what each section of your business plan will cover.

Company Description

Your company description will describe the legalities of the company. It will also tell about how the company got started and its history.

Product/Service Description

What exactly are you selling? Describe the product or service you are putting out on the market. Make sure you describe the benefits which it has and how it is going to benefit your target consumer.

Market Analysis

Who is your target market? What is the demographic and psychographic of your customers? What needs are you fulfilling with your product or service?

Operations

How is this whole thing going to operate? What kind of management plan are you going to have? Create a calendar of how your plan will be implemented; make this trackable and fulfillable

Web Plan

This section is included if your company or service is online. Discuss any and all aspects of your business which are online.

Management Summary

This will show how your company is going to be organized and also tells about the management team such as who is on it, etc.

Critical Risks

Describe any risks which are in the area such as competition and environmental risks.

Financial Plan

Include any accounting information such as cash flow tables and information on your predicted profit and loss on a profit and loss sheet.

Appendix

Include any sheets such as the complete financial results in this appendix and then site that it is there in the actual document.

You don't have to start writing a business plan in this specific order, in fact, I believe it will be easier not to. Simply use common sense and complete it in an order which makes sense to you.

Thrive Learning Institute, Making an Impact

Thrive Learning Institute is giving back, in a big way by supporting their local chapter of Golden K Kiwanis, an organization which serves the children of the world.

Employees of Thrive Learning Institute are proud to work for a company that cares so much about serving the community. In an effort to help fund local children's programs, Thrive Learning Institute teamed up with the Orem Owlz, their local team, and Kiwanis Club of Orem.

Thrive Learning Institute donated over $6,000 to benefit local children's programs. To learn more about how Thrive Learning Institute, Kiwanis, and the Orem Owlz work together to bring light into the eyes of local children please visit the Orem Owlz.

Amazon Affiliate - Domain Name Research

When you're planning on creating a niche website to make money from one of the biggest factors in how quickly you rank well for your chosen keyword is the domain name you choose. Its extremely important that you get your keyword in the domain name and that the domain name be a.com,.org or.net.

There are a lot of questions and arguments out there about what is actually needed in a domain name and from my personal experience I'll just say that the best format for a domain name is "http://www.keyword.com" instead of "http://www.keywordstore.com" or "http://www.mykeyword.com". It ALWAYS best to have your exact keyword as the domain, nothing more and nothing less. I've had great success by sticking to this practice.

There's also a lot of talk about the.info domain names. Well to be honest you could get and you could rank with it however in my experience.info's aren't give as much authority as the other three (.com.org and.net). Also when you get ready to sell your sites for a nice chunk of change having one of the other three will always help your sale.

My favorite way to quickly research my keywords for domain name availability is to use the free software, "Domain Name Analyzer. Please follow the link and check it out. It allows you to put in an unlimited number domain name possibilities and then choose which extensions to search for (an extension is the.com or.org). The software makes this process go much faster and is much much easier than pounding everything out in GoDaddy.

Amazon Affiliates - Competition Research

Competition research is an essential part of doing thorough market research. When it comes to doing competition research for an amazon affiliate site you need to several things. First of all head over to Google and type in your keyword. Just below the search input field you'll see a number of competing pages often times in the millions.

What you need to do is put your keyword in quotes so that you only search web pages that are optimizing for that keyword on their site. This will make the number of competing pages drop dramatically. I usually shoot for keywords with less than 100,000 competing pages when I search for my keyword with quotes around it.

Next you want to do a search for how many pages are optimizing for your keyword in the title of their page as well. To do that type this into Google's search field. "allintitle:your keyword". By doing that you'll get a reading of how many web pages have your keyword in their title. I usually try to get keywords that have less than 20,000 competing pages with their keyword in the title.

After you've gotten past those two requirements for your keywords its time to check the top results for your keyword. If they're strong websites you'll want to avoid them and if they're weak you'll know you can rank well for that keyword. I recommend using the SEO for Firefox plugin by SEO Book to do my analysis of competing websites. This will allow you to see how many backlinks these sites have, what their PR is, how old they are and how many different sites are linking to them.

Mainly you want to look at how many backlinks there are to the page thats ranking. If its over 500 then you now have a target for how many backlinks you need to get. 500 can take a little while but its very doable. For me if find that my competing sites have 500 backlinks or less I get very excited and you should too. Thats a keyword you should be able to rank well for in 2-3 months.

Amazon Associates - Product Research

Product research is an incredibly important part of market research. In the context of building a successful Amazon affiliate website there are several things to watch out for when choosing a product to promote.

First of all the product should be expensive enough for you to make a decent commission on. The Amazon affiliate program offers an average of about 6% on sales so I would go for a price range of $100 or more so that you can make at least $6 per sale. However if you feel you can get a ton of sales for lower-priced products then by all means go for it.

Another factor you should take into account is the selection of products for your chosen keyword. For example I recently researched a keyword about hard drives that had a HUGE selection. However other keywords will have much lower selection like DJ Speakers (another niche I recently researched). So make sure you have a wide selection of relevant products you can promote in your niche.

You should also look at the product reviews of the products you'll be promoting. I wouldn't worry too much about the ratings of the products but more about whether or not they have ratings. They can be a great source of content for your site and can help drive sales if used properly. Also when your customers see those reviews they will more warmed up to buy instead of just going into the purchase with no input from other users.

The last thing you should check on for product research is if the products you're going to promote actually sell well online or not. The best place I've found to check that is eBay. All you have to do is login and check the completed listings for your niche. If there are a lot of sales within a small time frame (a day or two) then you know that a lot of people are willing to buy your niches products online. However if you find that those products only sell occasionally or there are a lot of listings that close without selling it may not be the best niche to build a website around.

In my experience as I've followed these basic guidelines Iv found numerous profitable products to promote with the Amazon Affiliate program.

Keyword Research - Amazon Affiliate

The first step in this whole process is the keyword research phase. Without properly researched keywords you're entire venture will fall flat on its face, you'll get frustrated and give up calling the whole 'make money online' thing a scam. So. Lets get this right eh :)

For our keyword research were going to use a tool that Google makes available for free called, interestingly enough, the Keyword Tool. Our goal using this tool is to come up with a nice list of keywords that we can potentially build profitable websites around. In this phase we're not going for the one golden keyword, we're just compiling a big list of keywords that we'll qualify in the next few lessons.

Ok so we need to start brainstorming ideas to plug into the keyword tool. I like to go to eBay's categories to get ideas of niches that I can research because they cover just about every tangible product. So head over to eBay and plug in one of the categories.



I decided to go with "water sports" so I pasted that into the search field, entered the captcha and clicked on "get keyword ideas". Then it brings up a big table of data. I wont go into everything about the tool here, we just need to focus on a few things. Set your match type to "exact" and in the "choose columns to display" drop down menu make sure you're showing local searches and trends. Now sort the table by local searches from most to least.



Before we dig into these numbers we need to set some parameters to look for so were not completely lost and we can start building list of keywords that have an adequate amount of searches and hopefully an upward trend. I make sure the keywords I choose have at least 1000 searches (per month) and there are at least 3 words in the phrase.

We go with at least 1000 searches per month because any less than that simply wouldn't be worth it. You need enough people coming to your site so that you can make regular sales. We want to go with at least 3 words in the phrase because the longer key phrases will have less competition than one or two word keywords.

After doing a search for "water sports" and sorting by local, exact searches I only have 2 keywords over 1000 searches per month. "water sports" gets 27,100 searches which is a ton. I'm going to just pass on that because I know the competition will be very tough for that phrase because of the search count and the fact that's its only 2 words. However the second phrase "water sports equipment" has a lot more potential. with 1600 searches and 3 words it fits our parameters perfectly.

One more thing to look at is the trend. It looks like this keyword hits its peak in the summer which makes sense:) If you were looking to make quick sales this might not be the keyword for you but I'm going to keep it because it would be a good keyword to develop a site around in preparation for next summer. It will give me time to get it built up. I'm going to copy that and paste it into a spreadsheet for future research.

Now its just rinse and repeat. After you've compiled at least 20 keywords that fit those parameters go ahead and move on to the next lesson.

Amazon Affiliate Program - Market Reseach

Doing market research before starting a business is like having an accurate flight plan before you go on a trip. If you don't have anything planned out there are a whole slew of hazards that can endanger your flight, make it failure and take you somewhere you don't want to go. Imagine an eager young pilot who wants to get out and be free like the birds but who has no plan. He gets up in the air and immediately has a rush of adrenaline. He's away from civilization doing his own thing.

However that rush soon fades and He finds himself a little lost. He frantically searches for landmarks or cues that will show him where he is. Instead He decides to just keep going in the same direction because he figures he find some city or airport. Unfortunately His freedom is taken right back and he is a slave to his aircraft. He soon begins to run out of fuel and has to make a crash landing. If only he had made a flight plan he could have traveled somewhere exciting. Instead he was just thrilled to be up in the air.

So it is with business. Eager young entrepreneurs romanticize about owning their own business so they rush in and find out quickly enough that they're lost and too far invested to just stop. With a business if you're just winging it even if by some slim chance you turn a profit you will most certainly end up in a place you dont want to be. You may even need to make a crash landing by filing bankruptcy. If only you had made a flight plan. If only you had done thorough market research.

In this Course we're going to review the elements of market research as it pertains to creating and profiting from websites based on Amazons Associate program. With proper, in depth research you'll discover niches that will make you consistent money by selling Amazons products.

1. Keyword research
2. Product research
3. Competition research
4. Domain name research

Before we go in depth into the "how" and "what" of each element we will discuss the "WHY". Understanding why will give you the motivation and big picture perspective necessary to really make this course successful for you and will help you realize your personal financial goals. This is going to be specific stuff that will really help you in the long run and many of this can be applied to a lot of different business models as well.

1. Why Keyword Research?

Simple. People use search engines to find what they're looking for on the internet. Search engines use keywords to organize the results they deliver to their user. Some keywords are used more than others and therefore it would be very profitable to convince the search engine that you're worthy to be served up as a website for the higher volume keywords. Why keyword research? If you choose the wrong keywords you wont get any traffic to your website. And in this game traffic=money.


2. Why Product Research?

After some keyword research lets say you come across the keyword "chocolate candy bar". The next step would be to check out what products would be relevant. Obviously chocolate candy bars would be a good thing to sell if that was your chosen keyword, however people don't buy candy bars on the internet. Not only that but candy bars are very inexpensive so even if you were able to sell any each sale would amount to pennies. This is why you do product research. You need to find products that will pay well and that people will buy online.


3. Why Competition Research?

If you were to pit a mouse and a rottweiler against each other who would you bet on? The obvious choice is the dog. He far out matches the mouse. In one swing the dog could break the mouses neck. When you're just starting out you want to choose small niches where you'll be able to reasonably compete. Don't go after the electronics industry. You'll go up against behemoths like best buy, circuit city and Walmart. The more narrow your niche market the less competition there will be and because you're just starting out you'll want to go small.

4. Why Domain Name Research?

This is what your website will be known by. You want to make sure you can get a reputable domain extension and a reasonable keyword rich name. Doing proper research on potential domain names can dramatically effect how soon you start to see sales.

4 Things ALL Articles Must Have

The importance of articles in today’s websites and internet based companies are immeasurable. They dictate a lot in the success and the drive of traffic into one’s site. It has become a key element in making a site work and earns a profit. A website operator and owner must have the good sense to include articles in his or her site that will work for them and earn them the many benefits articles can give to their site.

Articles have been known to be the driving force in driving traffic to a website. Articles are a factor in giving site high rankings in search result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie he gets. With a huge number in traffic flow, there are more profits and more potential for other income generating schemes as well.

But, it is not just about stuffing your site with articles; they have certain requirements as well. These requirements must be met to obtain the maximum benefits an article will provide for your site. A well written article will catch the eyes and interest of your customers and keep them coming back for more. They would also be able to recommend your site to others.

Here are some tips to help you and assist you in making your articles. Below you will read about four things all articles must have to make it successful and helpful in making your site a profit earning and traffic overflowing site.

• Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

An article must always be centered on the keywords and keyword phrases. As each website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are just merely browsing but actually looking for a specific something. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Toyota Camry, Meningitis, Tax Lawyer and Etcetera). It could be anything they want.

The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must be able t have articles about cars and their parts. There are many tools in the internet that provides service in helping a webmaster out in determining what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought out. You can use this tool to determine what keywords to use and write about.

• Keyword Density

Know that you have your keywords and keyword phrases, you must use them fully. An article must have good keyword density for a search engine to “feel” its presence. Articles should at least have ten to fifteen percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results. Getting a high rank is what articles do best for a site.

Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used on an article. The number varies depending on the number of words used in an article. An effective article must have a keyword density that is not too high or too low. With a very high density, the essence of the article is lost and may turn off a reader as well as the search engines. It comes off as overeager. A low number may be ignored by the search engines.

• Good Article Content

Like what is stated above, you cannot just riddle an article with keywords. They must also be regarded as good reading materials. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic. As more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.

• Linking Articles

And another important thing to remember. If you are going to submit articles to ezines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON’T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description of your site and you should always be placed right after your articles that you have submitted. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site.

How to Get Started on eBay

Are you interested in using eBay to buy the products that you need or even sell items that you no longer want? If you are, you will need to create an eBay account, if you haven’t already done so. Although many automatically assume that getting started with eBay is a complicated task, it doesn’t have to be. All you really need to do is follow a few simple steps and you should be good to go.

The first thing that you will want to do is visit eBay’s website, which is located at eBay.com. Once you are at eBay’s website, you can then click on the link that allows you to register a new account. At that stage, you will be brought to a signup form. That signup form will ask you a series of questions. For instance, you will need to enter in your full name, your address, your telephone number, as well as an e-mail address. You will also be required to come up with an eBay screen name or sign in name, as well as an eBay password, which will be used to access your eBay account. Once you have correctly filled out the form, you will be sent a verification email from eBay.

Once you have received eBay’s verification email and followed all of the instructions, which will help you validate your eBay account, you will be able to start using eBay right away. When you first get started, you may need to sign in to your eBay account. As previously stated, you will need to use your eBay sign in name or screen name and password to do so. For that reason, you may want to write down your sign in information and keep it in a safe place. Once you have signed in to your eBay account, you can then do whatever you want; buy or sell.

If you are interested in using eBay to shop online, to buy, you will want to start searching for items to buy. This can be done a number of different ways. eBay allows you to browse through their large selection of items, by detailed categories. You can also perform a standard eBay search or an advanced one. Searches are more likely to give you accurate, tailored results. When browsing or searching for something in particular, you should be able to see a large number of auction listing all on one page. The information that you will be presented with at this time is the standard, bare minimum. If you would like more information on the item in question, such as how much shipping costs or too see additional pictures, you will want to click on the link to view the detailed sales page. Should you like what you see, follow the instructions to buy and you will have made your first purchase on eBay!

As it was previously stated, if you are interested in selling on eBay, to make a little bit of extra money, you can also do so. The only difference is that you are required to pay small fees to become an eBay seller, unlike eBay buyers who have completely free accounts. The amount of money that you are charged will all depend on your auctions, particularly how much you list each item for, as well as how well each item sells. To get started with selling, you will want to click on the “sell,” link at the top of the eBay webpage. What is nice about listing items for sale on eBay is it is relatively easy to do. For instance, you need to choose a category for your item, make a headline for your auction listing, write a description of your product, upload pictures of what you are selling, outline shipping costs, as well as accepted forms of payments, but everything is outlined for you, in a step-by-step matter.

Whether you are interested in becoming an eBay buyer or an eBay seller, you can do both, in as little as a few minutes. eBay, as previously mentioned, is considered one the most shopped at online marketplaces. For you, this means that if you are looking to make money on eBay, you should be able to do so and if you are interested in buying on eBay, you should be able to find millions of products to choose from.

A Day In The Life Of An Affiliate Marketer

Being in the affiliate marketing business is not that hard now with the internet at your disposable. It is much easier now compared to the days when people have to make use of the telephones and other mediums of information just to get the latest updates on the way their program is coming along.

So with technology at hand, and assuming that the affiliate is working from home, a day in his or her life would sound something like this…

Upon waking up and after having breakfast, the computer is turned on to check out new developments in the network. As far as the marketer is concerned there might be new things to update and statistics to keep track on.

The site design has to be revised. The marketer knows that a well-designed site can increase sign ups from visitors. It can also help in the affiliate’s conversion rates.

That done, it is time to submit the affiliate program to directories that lists affiliate programs. These directories are means to attract people in joining your affiliate program. A sure way of promoting the affiliate program.

Time to track down the sales you are getting from your affiliates fairly and accurately. There are phone orders and mails to track down. See if they are new clients checking the products out. Noting down the contact information that might be a viable source in the future.

There are lots of resources to sort out. Ads, banners, button ads and sample recommendations to give out because the marketer knows that this is one way of ensuring more sales. Best to stay visible and accessible too.

The affiliate marketer remembered that there are questions to answer from the visitors. This has to be done quickly. Nothing can turn off a customer than an unanswered email.

To prove that the affiliate is working effectively and efficiently, inquiries would have to be paid more attention on. Nobody wants to be ignored and customers are not always the most patient of all people. Quick answer that should appear professional yet friendly too.

In the process of doing all the necessities, the marketer is logged on to a chat room where he or she interacts with other affiliates and those under that same program. This is where they can discuss things on how to best promote their products.

There are things to be learned and it is a continuous process. Sharing tips and advices is a good way of showing support. There may be others out there wanting to join and may be enticed by the discussion that is going on. There is no harm in assuming what opportunities ahead.

The newsletters and ezines were updated days ago, so it is time for the affiliate marketer to see if there are some new things happening in the market. This will be written about in the marketer’s publication to be distributed to the old and new customers.

These same publications are also an important tool in keeping up to date with the newly introduced products. The marketer has put up a sale and promotion that customers may want to know about. Besides, they have to keep up with the deadline of these sales written in the publications.

It is that time to show some appreciation to those who have helped the marketer in the promotions and sale increase. Nothing like mentioning the persons, their sites and the process they have done that made everything worked.

Of course, this will be published in the newsletters. Among the more important information that have been written already.

The marketer still has time to write out recommendations to those who want credible sources for the products being promoted. There is also time to post some comments on how to be a successful affiliate marketer on a site where there are lots of wannabees.

Two objectives done at the same time. The marketer gets to promote the product as well as the program they are in. Who knows, someone may be inclined to join.

Time flies. Missed lunch but is quite contented with the tasks done. Bed time….

Ok, so this may not be all done in a day. But then, this gives you an idea of how an affiliate marketer, a dedicated one that is, spends the marketing day.

Is that success looming in the distance or what?

Internet Based Business Opportunities, Entering Foreign Markets

Business originated as bartering for this good or that, trading one service or good for another within a village. It then branched out to trading with neighboring villages and eventually with neighboring countries. That's how we have such things as chocolate, tobacco, silk, etc. Not a whole lot of advertising was taking place at the time, especially since these items were delicacies to foreign markets and were accepted with open arms.

Now we've developed into a global market place where commodities can be traded back and forth with companies across the world, all in a matter of moments. With the invention of the World Wide Web someone in the United States can buy a product from someone in China at the click of a mouse. Pretty cool huh, considering we started off using caravans of carts and horses taking extensive journeys to trade.

Thanks to technical advancements such as the Internet, we can now market to the entire world at the click of a mouse, well, to all those with an Internet connection that is. Don't think that you can get away without market research simply because you can market with a click of the mouse. That's where a lot of people go wrong; they think that everything should be able to be done in an instant. Cultural differences and government regulations are just a couple of the details that many forget about in their haste to start a business.

Identify Critical Cultural Differences

If you've never searched for funny cross-cultural differences, I think you should. If you're in the mood for a good laugh, this is one way you can get it. For example, when General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova to South America it wasn't selling very well. They quickly realized that “Nova”, in Spanish, means “it won't go”. The car was renamed and, big surprise, sales went up.

This example was mainly with brick and mortar establishments entering foreign markets but it really does apply to Internet business as well. Be weary of how you market things, what your slogans mean, what colors you use, and the entire atmosphere of the campaign.

Familiarize Yourself With Government Regulations

There are so many regulations to business in foreign countries that, in some cases, it's easier to hire a professional to figure out what you need to do. If you would like to go global, make sure that you are aware of the different government regulations surrounding imports and exports. Also, realize that in some countries, when you ship a product to the consumer, the product may end up sitting in customs for weeks waiting for someone to approve it. This is why it is imperative that you find out as much about shipping to/from a particular country as possible.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment. You may also be interested in this article about Internet based business opportunities.

Fake Amber Alerts, are People Abusing Social Media

Today I received a text message about an amber alert in my area. Of course I forwarded the message on to my friends; I wanted to help. I got a message back from a friend of mine saying that she had heard on a local news channel that the alert is a hoax and has spread all over the area; thousands of people have received the fake message via text, Twitter, Face Book, and various other social media sites. At first, I was a little mad, then disappointed, and then just plain curious. I was mad at myself for forwarding the message on before checking for accuracy, disappointed at the nincompoop who started the whole thing in the first place, and curious at the fact that the message had spread so fast over a one day period. So, the question now stands in my mind, has the boy cried wolf so many times that people are going to be desensitized when the real emergency needs to go viral across social media.

What happened to social media integrity?

Have you ever received one of those seemingly robotic messages through text, email, twitter, or other social media sites. In my opinion, those people are abusing social media. They act as though they aren't human and expect the rest of us to respond with smiling faces. Seriously, what ever happened to being human? Is the world so full of machines that we now feel the need to blend in with them instead of the other way around?

There are literally thousands of people who take advantage of the benefits of social media in order to scam others, to spread false information, or make their marketing efforts mechanical and machine-like. Yes, there are those who would take the positives right out of social media, causing the rest of us, those who use it for good, to be absolutely disgusted.

The right way to use social media

Getting Amber Alerts and other emergency information out via social media sites and text message is a brilliant idea but only if people don't abuse it. If the hoax had been a real alert, thousands of people across this state and other states would have been watching for the car in question. In the case of a true emergency social media can be and should be used to spread the word as fast as possible.

The right way to use social media for marketing purposes is to make sure that your intention is to help customers or inform the public of an additional service which your company now offers. No matter what, be sure to act personable, and really get across that you truly do care about the people you are sending the message to.

In short, please do not abuse the social media system, you're human, act like it. People want to know that they are seen as real people and they want to see you as a real person too.

Integrity...Pass it On, Thrive Learning Institute

What is Business Integrity?

When I was a little child I was taught that integrity is doing the right thing, even when nobody else is looking. It's something that is not open for debate, either you have it or you don't, there's no gray area. Henry Kravis once said “If you don't have integrity, you have nothing. You can't buy it. You can have all the money in the world, but if you are not a moral and ethical person, you really have nothing”. So, in a sense, integrity is everything because, without it, you have nothing.

Is Integrity a Lost Cause?

So, do you think integrity is a lost cause? Sadly enough, there are people out there who believe it is. They think that the world is going downhill so fast that there is no stopping the decrease of ethics and integrity in business or otherwise. The thing that they don't realize is that it only takes one person to make a difference when it comes to business integrity and ethics.

When I was in College, the professor of my capstone class gave us each a quarter in a plastic case with a quote illustrating the integrity we had been taught all our lives and while we were attending the University. The quarter is to help us always remember a story he told us about a man who, when at an airport, saw an associate of his drop a quarter in a paper box and then proceed to remove one paper for each of his associates, including himself, without paying for them. The man who witnessed this returned to the paper box and proceeded to drop in a quarter for the paper his friend had intended to give him. The second man, witnessing this, returned to the paper box, thinking nobody was watching, and inserted a quarter for each paper he had taken out of the box for each of his associates.

Both men learned something that day. One learned the importance of integrity and the other learned that integrity is in deed not a lost cause.

How Do We Uphold Integrity In the Workplace?

Charles Caleb Colton once said, “Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity than straight forward and simple integrity in another”. Put simply, if you want to maintain integrity in business, you better have integrity yourself. Employees of Thrive Learning Institute value integrity and ethics in the work place. They know that upholding the integrity of the business world begins with one person and it grows from there. That one person is you.

Thrive Learning Institute - Time Management

H. Jackson Brown once said, "Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." How many of us would love to manage our time in such a way that would enable us to do everything we need to do and still have time left over for things we want to do. There are two categories of limitations in time management, the physical and the psychological.

Physical Limitations of Time

Obviously there are physical limitations to how much one person can do in any given day. One cannot create more time in a day just because they want to. However, a person can shift the hours of the day around to create more or less time for a given project. For example, the bartering of sleep for more time with friends as part of the expressed need for social interaction.

Try scheduling, it's a very proactive way to manage the physical limits created by time. You cannot stretch time or rearrange it in any fashion you want but you can stretch your abilities and rearrange your priorities.

Psychological Limitations of Time

Procrastination is a fearsome beast; we'll call it the devourer of opportunity. It slowly eats its way through any chance a person may have of success and decimates opportunities like the Bubonic Plague decimated the population of Europe.

Believe it or not, personality plays one of the largest parts of time management? Often times it is your personality that is the root of your time management problems. For example, can you make a decision when needed and then stick with that decision? Or, do you have problems making decisions and find yourself dwelling on the impossible, ultimately being the cause of your own time management downfall?

The Solutions

Don't worry; there are solutions to both the physical and psychological quandaries of time. Let's start with a few simple steps that may result in new windows of opportunity for time to be spent more affectively.

Step #1 Evaluate Your Time

If you find yourself with a shortage of time, could it be because you do not perceive its value? Take some time to write down everything you do in any given day. Will you be amazed by how much time you spend texting friends, watching television, or surfing the internet or will it come as no surprise that you give away several hours of priceless time to these often fruitless activities? Now look at your opportunity cost of spending so much time on these activities, what are you giving up?

Step #2 Expand Your Vocabulary, Use the Word “No”

Learn to use the word “no”. You have to be able to differentiate between necessary and unnecessary tasks. For example, you started up an internet based business, and there's work that needs to be done on your web page but your buddies just invited you to go play basketball at the court down the street. So, what's it going to be? Do you feel you have to say yes to every activity that comes along? If your business is more crucial right now you may have to learn the word no in order to get the full value out of the time you will never have again.

Step #3 Leave Time Open For Application

So, you're ready for the real world now, that's right, application. How on Earth is one supposed to know how to apply time management if everyone has their own method and must work out the logistics on their own? Realize that just like everything else, this step takes time. Take some time to figure out what's going to be most effective for you in time management and apply it.

Good luck to you. Time management really isn't as tricky as it seems, just follow the steps, value, vocabulary, and application. There are many clients and employees of Thrive Learning Institute who are working on time management. I know that there are hundreds of activities a day competing for your time, but I also know you can do it. Keep applying and before you know it you will have time management mastered.