More importantly…

Do you wish you could just enter your URL and push a button and everything else would be taken care of for you automagically?

Who wouldn’t?

Here’s our solution that does just that:

http://www.DiegoNorte.com/products/Article_Marketing_Five_Pack/

The cost is only $500 for five articles, but you can pay just a fraction of that in the next 24 hours.   We always give a steep discount for blog readers during the first 24 hours of a new product offering.  Your price is only $150 if you order before noon tomorrow (CST which is GMT-7).

Here’s the URL again:

http://www.DiegoNorte.com/products/Article_Marketing_Five_Pack/

All you have to do is enter your URL and click the order button.  We’ll take care of everything else.

These clients are always frustrated and behind with either their writing, marketing, or some other aspect of their business.

When I go over their schedules with them, I usually find one of two things is happening. Either they are running around too much during the day and not setting regular “office hours” OR they are doing too many activities that don’t really make a difference in their careers or income.

Look at your schedule. Determine how much time is spent out of your office. Some of this time is probably well spent. However, how much time are you spending in the car, driving to and from places? This driving time can really start to add up and it can eat up your work day rather quickly. And you aren’t earning income when you’re on the road.

Try to schedule as much work as you can either online or on the phone. Teleconferences are a great way to meet with a group, or you can conduct a webinar.

Even if you must be out of your office for several hours each day, be sure you also set office hours - time to be IN your office doing the actual writing and administrative activities that are part of any business.

Next, if you create a weekly marketing plan every Sunday night or Monday morning (which I highly recommend you do), look at the activities on your plan. How many of those activities are really, really important? Are some of those activities merely “busy work”? If so, then eliminate the busy work so you’ll have more time during the week for activities that really will make a difference in your career and your income.

One of the biggest ways to squander your time is by checking email and browsing around online. Set aside specific times for doing both of these activities each day. Then stick to ONLY those specific times.

Next, set aside specific days for specific tasks. I find that if I leave my office too much during the day I have a hard time settling back into my writing. For that reason, I try to schedule all my outside appointments on the same one or two days a week, so I only have to leave my office on those one or two days. If you like to leave your office every day, then schedule all your appointments for mornings and schedule your office hours for afternoons - or vice versa. That way you won’t be coming and going all day, only part of the day.

You really CAN do all the things you need to do for your business if you make the BEST use of your time every day.

Try it!

Here are some things to remember when having a sale:

1. Make it special - Give your sale a reason to exist, so your customers aren’t left wondering why the random discounts. Any special occasion will work. You can use a holiday, your own birthday, the first day of a new season, anything will work. Just make sure that there is a reason for your sale.

2. It doesn’t have to be across the board - It is your sale and your are the one determining what it needs to accomplish. You can discount everything, just a few things, or you can even send out discount codes for your loyal customers. Consider having a “VIP” list to let your customers know about sales.

3. It won’t last forever - Make sure your customers are aware that there is an end date. Decide before you start your sale how long it will last. In most shopping cart programs, you can even set an end date for a discount, so you won’t have to remember to reset your pricing.

4. Try a buy-one-get-one sale - A current trend in marketing is the BOGO sale. Remember, this doesn’t have to be a buy-one-get-one FREE sale. It can also mean that the second item is discounted. Any type of sale will get your customers interested in buying.

5. Offer free shipping - You can avoid having a sale at all by offering free shipping for a limited time or possible just to your loyal customers. This may inspire your customers to make purchases they had been delaying. Be sure to specify what type of shipping your are offering for free. Overlooking those details could be expensive.

6. Offer a “friend” sale - You can increase your sales AND your customer base simultaneously if you offer a referral sale. Perhaps you can have a sale for your current customers and offer a discount code for them to pass along to a friend with their purchase. It never hurts to combine your efforts in several areas.

If you integrate sales throughout the year, you can control your cash-flow and glide through the periodic slow periods in your business. After you have been in business, you will be able to see trends and can plan sales accordingly. Remember, in order for a sale to work, you will need to make sure everyone knows about it. Send out emails and do some advertising far enough in advance for people to have money available.

It happens a lot though.  People get stuck buying one thing after another hoping that someday they will get just the right tool that will somehow magically create a profitable Internet business for them.

It won’t happen.  Tools are great.  They often make it easier to grow your Internet business faster.  It would be insane to try to build a house without a hammer.  It would be just as insane to never buy a tool to help build your Internet business.

But let’s face it.  It would also be insane to decide to go build a house right now.  That’s just not the way it works.  If you want to become a house builder, you should first learn about pouring foundations or putting up drywall or framing or roofing.  You don’t just decide to build a house without learning the individual parts.  There is no reason to go out a buy a roofing gun and a cement truck because you decided to build a house.

The same goes for an Internet business.  If you are just getting started, you need three things (plus desire):

1. Domain registration.

2. Hosting.

3. A coach that has already built a successful Internet business and can help you learn each step.

The tools come later.  I see no reason to buy anything other than the above three things when you are just getting started.  You need domain registration and hosting so you can start your web-site and have a place to sell stuff.  You need a coach to show you how to generate visitors to your site, create products and write compelling sales pages.

That’s all you really need to get started and even become profitable.  Why not wait until you are profitable before you buy all of those fancy tools designed to help your business grow faster?  Why not wait and buy that software out of your profits?

Pretty strange for me to say since I sell a lot of those tools; right?

Maybe.  Maybe I would rather see the tools I sell put to good use building and growing profitable Internet businesses.  Maybe my business actually depends on having actually helped a lot of people to build their own profitable businesses and not just to have bought my software and put it on the shelf somewhere.

That’s what I would prefer anyways.  I want you to be successful… and then I want you to buy all of my stuff because everything you buy from me makes your business more profitable.  I love win/win scenarios.

With that in mind, I created a very low cost coaching program that includes domain registration and hosting.  It included EVERYTHING you NEED to create a profitable Internet business.  It gives you complete access to a coaching staff that are experienced in running a successful Internet business AND teaching you how to do the same without spending a bunch of money on tools.

The cost will be a very reasonable $300/month, but I always give a huge discount for a 24 hour special to my existing customers.  This is that 24 hour special so until noon on Thursday (CST which is GMT-7), you can get into this coaching plus program for only $100/month.

Here’s the URL with the details:

http://www.DiegoNorte.com/products/Coaching_Plus/

If you have $100/month and the desire to build a profitable Internet business, then this is all you need.  We’ll be happy to hold your hand and answer every single question you have along with providing you with a perfect domain name, registering it for you and even providing your hosting.  We’ll even install blog software on your new site and a template that looks just like this blog…. so you can be off and running instantly with your new Internet business.

That’s what you need… not our latest greatest new software.  Wait until you are profitable to buy our software.  We don’t need the money and you don’t need the software until then.  Why not focus on what you do need right now to get your Internet business running and profitable.  That is…

http://www.DiegoNorte.com/products/Coaching_Plus/

Web pages are no exception! Website authorship means the responsibility of making sure that the information is understandable, but also that the punctuation, the grammar, and the spelling are correct. You also want to make sure that all of the work is properly formatted and that your information is accurate. This is all part of the proofing process.

There are several reasons why proofing your web page is important. Please note that this is only from personal observation.

1. Readers may come to your website and instinctively sense that you may not be as authoritative because of errors in spelling or grammar.

2. Readers who come to your site may find that it is not very professionally done if they see errors that should have been clearly apparent to you as the author before posting. Even if these are not big errors, it sometimes lingers in the back of the mind of the reader which also distracts them from the subject matter that you want them to focus on.

3. Proofing also indicates the level of attention to detail that you might have regarding your ideas or subject.

How can you make sure that your website is not hiding any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors? This is easier than you might think, even if you aren’t a spelling bee champion or an English teacher!

1. Use spell check and grammar check regularly. These are not infallible, however, they will bring things to your attention that might be beneficial if changed.

2. After working on your content, walk away from it for a short while and then return to look it over later. You can always benefit from another look at your work at a later time.

3. Have another individual read over the content for you. It is easy to think a word or phrase is correct and re-read it so many times only to miss an error. A fresh pair of eyes can often help find these errors. There have been several times that I have enlisted someone else’s aid in reading over my articles and have been surprised at what is found! (This sometimes occurs when I have been working long hours on a particular project).

So, if you are one of those people who likes to see the perfection of your website and know that others will expect it of you also, try these simple tips to create a more professional web page! You will never be sorry that you double-checked your work or tried to improve on the content of your web page.

The domain is InternTask.com and was used for an intern program that has now been merged with our paid contractor program.  It doesn’t have a ton of links, but it does still have a steady flow of traffic from some unknown sources.  I actually noticed it in my logs.  It has delivered several hundred visitors to DiegoNorte.com so far this month.

The first blog reader who sends $500 to **SOLD** gets it.  I’ll post here once there is a buyer so we don’t get multiple buyers.  If we still get multiple buyers, I’ll immediately refund everyone but the first buyer.

This is a great way to boost your traffic or to kick start your own intern program.  Our internal evaluation of this domain says it’s worth about $3400 on any of the domain selling sites.  I suppose you could just buy it and flip it on one of those sites.  I personally don’t like to waste my time on those sites, so if that is the destiny of this domain… it’s up to one of you to do that.

I would rather just give it to a loyal blog reader for a fraction of it’s worth and let them profit from it.

1. Take care of your potential customers - Any communication you receive from a potential customer should be answered promptly and courteously. That first communication from a customer is almost like an audition. They may have a question, but they are also testing you to see if they would like to do business with you, not your company, but you. They want to know who is behind the web page.

2. Be persistent - Be determined to make your business a success. You will likely encounter set-backs, but keep working to overcome them. If you chip away at the walls that appear in front of you, you will eventually tear them down.

3. Don’t expect instant success - It will take time and effort to make your online business a success. Work hard and take the necessary action to make your business work. In the end, your hard work will pay off.

4. Create a budget for your business - It is very rare that you will make your business a success without spending some money along the way. Set up your plan for how much you will spend in any given area, so you do not overspend without realizing it. Don’t be afraid to rethink your budget allocations if you see that they need to be changed.

5. Promote aggressively - The only way you will make money in your business is if people are aware that it exists. You have to spend a majority of your time and energy marketing and advertising your business. Do your research and try out different ideas, then put more effort towards the ideas that work. Your goal is to make sure as many people know about you as possible.

6. Never stop learning - Every day is a chance to learn how to do thing more efficiently. Keep your eyes open for news ideas and strategies to implement. Look for tools and techniques that will help you.

7. Communicate - If you have business partners and employees, communicate with them often. Talk to them about decisions and the direction of the company. Also, talk to them about any idea they may have and look objectively at their suggestions. They may see something you have overlooked.

8. Believe in your success - If you believe that you can do this, you will inherently work harder. You will set high goals and standards for yourself. You will not give up easily.

Remember, by following these steps, you will greatly increase your chances for success. You can do this. Grow your business!

Today, you can work with a consultant, a financial planner, or a business coach across the country as easily as someone across town. In the Internet age, prospects often find you (instead of the other way around).

This is the age of the virtual customer. Yet, although the Internet has made it perfectly reasonable to land a major client you’ve never met in-person, it has also created new expectations among consumers.

Prospects now “Google” around to find someone with your skills. They expect you to make a good virtual “case” for yourself. If you don’t pass the test, or make a bad impression, or appear lackluster compared to your competitors, you will lose the potential client.

The only way to be truly successful in business is by establishing a good reputation. And understanding the way business has shifted in the Internet age can help you bring the potential of marketing your business into the virtual world.

The Virtual First Impression

The Internet has increased the expectation among consumers that businesses will have a credible online presence.

Many of us now form “first impressions” of people and companies via our Internet browsers. From the moment your name and business appear in a Web browser to the moment your Web site loads, your first impression often means the difference between a shot at your prospect’s business, or being shut out.

Think about it. You have probably used the Internet to research a company or a person you’re considering doing business with. Certainly potential clients and customers are checking you out online, too.

Prospects you’ve never met are forming opinions about your business at the click of a mouse. Internet first impressions are not just influenced by how your Web site looks, but also by how often your business appears or how high it ranks in a web browser.

Become an Online Center of Influence

We all know people who command rapt attention whenever they speak. Others want to listen to, learn from, and emulate them. They are centers of influence, a distinction you can pursue online by developing the following qualities:

Share inside knowledge with your target market;

Participate, listen, contemplate, and offer thoughtful responses;

Be willing to voice an opinion;

Assume leadership positions in your industry

Certainly, experience counts. But this is not the only prerequisite to becoming an online center of influence that will earn you the distinction of ‘trusted advisor’ within your target market.

Start by making your Web site a resource for your industry. Feature lots of useful information, including articles, links, downloadable files, customer resources, and anything else of use to your target market. Be generous and give, give, give!

There are many shared hosting providers competing for customers, so you have the advantage of finding one with the options that matter most to your business and creating a stable site. If you do adequate research you could end up getting superior hosting services for a very low price.

Here are some key points to keep in mind before deciding on a web site hosting provider:

You must have enough space to store your files and images including your web pages. If you are just starting out try investing in an account that offers no less than 50MB of disk space, but go a lot more if you can.

The ultimate goal for every webmaster is to get as many visitors to their website as possible. You must have as much bandwidth to handle the traffic. If you are reaching your bandwidth then you are on to something, but if you are not prepared to handle it then you will be losing a lot of business. To start, don’t accept anything less than 4GB of bandwidth, but go a lot more if you can.

As you become more familiar with great marketing tools available for people using the internet to earn money online you want to have a hosting account that could handle additional platforms, such as CGI, PHP, RoR and Perl. These are programming languages that can help you create some awesome features for your site or in addition to it.

Having a database is crucial to any business. MySQL is the most common database used when starting out. If you can get an account that offers more than one MySQL database you will be in very good shape.

Once you have a site and a hosting provider you will need a domain name which will be the address of your blog or website. Having the flexibility to have add-on domains, domain forwarding and sub domains should be a must when choosing a hosting account. Unlimited domains would be great!

Most if not all hosting providers will give you the ability to create email addresses, but keep in mind that you need to monitor the usage if you do not have enough disk space in your account.

Make sure to find a hosting provider that has reliable customer support because your website is a very important part of your internet business and knowing you have someone to contact in an emergency situation is vital.

Believe it or not you can get all these features from many quality web site hosting providers so don’t worry about having to rush into investing on any of them without knowing if they offer what you feel is best for your business and a price you can afford.

Having a tagline will associate your business with the message in the tagline. Think of lines other companies have used in the past, such as “Just do it” or “Built Ford tough”. While they don’t expressly say what the company does, they give you an idea and a relate-able message to attach to a product.

So how can you create your tagline? Here are some steps that might help:

1. Keep notes. Keep your eyes and ears open for a few days to a week and just jot down the taglines you hear that catch your attention. The best way to make sure your own tagline is memorable is to figure out what grabs your attention and why. It will likely affect your customers in the same way.

2. Make a list. Over the course of a few days, have a few brainstorming sessions and write down everything that relates to your business. Remember, when brainstorming, nothing is a bad idea. Write down everything that comes to mind until you have a sizeable list. From here, you will be able to narrow your list down into categories to help you direct your tagline. Your goal is to have 3 or 4 main points. Try to keep your final list specific. Generic lines will not get your point across.

3. Keep your tagline short. You want it to be 8-10 words maximum. You might think this would make it easier, but it’s actually harder to express what you want to get across in just a few words. Don’t get discouraged if you have trouble.

4. Come up with a few lines. Use the 3 to 4 main points from your brainstorming list to come up with several options for taglines. Take a little time to think over each. Say them out loud. Try to determine if there are any double meanings you’ve overlooked. It may even be a good idea to get a few opinions from people to see what they think. Ideally, you should ask people who don’t already know what your business does.

Once you have chosen a tagline, be sure to use it everywhere. Include it in your advertising, put it on your business cards, and make sure it is displayed on your site. Because it will be so closely associated with your company it is almost like a second name. It should be displayed everywhere your company’s name shows.

One final note: Don’t be afraid to change your tagline down the road if you would like. While some companies keep their tagline the same for the life of the company, it is not unusual to change it after a few years. If you come up with ideas for a better tagline, jot them down and keep them in a safe place for future use.

This was the #1 suggestion submitted by our customers in a recent survey.  We decided to put our cloudware technology to the test and see what kind of results we could obtain by putting an entire team at work on the task of email consultations and then another team to evaluate their work.

The system has been in beta-test for the last 40 days and we are very impressed with the results.  Do you hate it when you call a customer service operation and get an outsourced minimum wage worker who doesn’t even speak your language as their first language and certainly doesn’t know the answer to your question?

So do we.  It seems to happen with the very best of companies.  Until now, it seemed impossible to get consistent customer service even from mega-giants like Microsoft who charge premium fees for their support.  In fact, most major Internet businesses severely restrict the ability of customers to even contact them because they realize that their customer service more often alienates and disappoints customers than it helps them.

Try contacting customer service for Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Ebay, PayPal or any of the other huge mega-giant Internet businesses.  They have automated their way into a system where it’s nearly impossible to get a live person to answer a question.  Instead you go through form after form and knowledge base search after knowledge base search.

I think we have finally discovered the secret to providing quality personalized customer service.  The secret is to use the same cloudware technology that allows us to do everything we do at Diego Norte with a group of unskilled individuals who aren’t capable of running Diego Norte on their own… but are as a team or a “cloud” of human resources.

It’s true.  Two plus two doesn’t equal four in the cloudware world.  It equals something like 9 or 10.  A group of individuals structured by a computer controlled algorithm can accomplish much more than the sum of the individuals involved.  The computer controlled algorithm is responsible for ensuring that the very best people in every area of talent are consistently chosen to exhibit their talent.  The result is a happier team and happier customers who are served by team members who are the absolute best at what they do.

We put our cloudware algorithm to the test with customer service and the result is spectacular.  Have you had a nagging question about one of our products?  Put our new email consulation service to the test and see for yourself.

Here is the URL:

http://www.diegonorte.com/products/Email_Consultation/

The price will remain the same until noon on Monday (CST which is GMT-6) to show appreciation to our current customers and readers.

To first start your internet business, you need to decide what you’re best at. Determine what your skills are then choose an internet business that fits your strengths. If you choose something you’re not good at, you will probably fail within the first few weeks.

If you know a great deal about copyright laws, marketing and networking, the Blogging industry would be your best bet.

If you are talented in merchandising and customer service, consider going into an Online Auction or Sales business.

If you’re great at relationship building and have fantastic communication skills try working in the recruiting industry.

If customer service is your forte, try working in virtual assistant programs.

There are many different kinds of internet businesses for you to begin. The main types are: Blogging, Virtual Assistance, EBay and Auction selling, Arts and Crafts, Business Marketing, Internet Research, E-commerce, Consulting, Freelance work, and Recruiting. Out of these, find the one that best fits your style and personality so that you can begin a profitable home business.

Blogging - A website devoted to one person’s, or a group of people’s, comments about a certain topic (i.e. This blog is dedicated to your online business success).

Virtual Assistance - Helping other people with basic computer needs.

EBay and Auction selling - Selling, buying or trading online. This is usually done using EBay, Amazon, or Craigslist.

Arts and Crafts - This can either be a how-to site or you can actually sell products you’ve made.

Business Marketing - A site dedicated to promoting products for other companies.

Internet Research - With this kind of site, you’ll conduct research for other companies. Usually law offices that don’t have time to do their own research.

E-commerce - This is a technology-based service you provide to others on your website.

Consulting - A site where you provide your professional knowledge to other businesses.

Freelance work - There are many different kinds of freelance websites. Most require you to provide services like copywriting, design, illustration. You can be billed on an hourly rate with this kind of website.

Recruiting - With this site, you’ll be finding candidates for companies who, in turn, pay you money for finding their new employee.

Keep in mind that you don’t need a background in any of these areas to begin your business. Millions of people are turning to internet businesses who have no previous history in this job line. There are books out there to help you along the way. Businesses like Amazon even have online tutorials to help you out when first beginning your online job.

If this is your first time working for yourself online, I’d advice you begin working for a pre-existing website. By doing this, you’ll be able to get a decent idea of how to run your own internet business when you’re ready. Sure you know how to sell or how to communicate with others, but are you prepared to create your own business plan at this very moment to successfully run your own company? Most people are not.

Most people know that setting goals is important when they want to achieve something. Unfortunately, not many people know how to effectively do this. How many people can you think of that set a New Year’s resolution with an attitude of giving it 110%, only to give up on their resolution less than two months later? Some people do not even make it that long. Why is that?

When setting a goal, make sure that you are realistic. You can pick a goal that is challenging, but do not pick one that is impossible. If you pick a goal that is impossible or nearly impossible, you are more likely to just give up on the goal.

Next, determine how long you have to reach the goal. Do you want to reach it within a month, six months, or a year or more? Give yourself enough time to reach the goal, but not so much time that you don’t have to “work at it.”

Once you have determined whether your goal is short or long-term, take the time to plan how you are going to reach your goal. List the steps that you can take to obtain the goal. Be as specific as you can. This is a very important step. If you do not plan out how you are going to achieve your goal, then you are setting yourself up for failure!

Another important factor in setting a goal is to list any problems that may come up that will prevent you from reaching it. This list should include ANYTHING that you think can stand in your way of reaching your goal. Include small things like your car breaking down, to illness, and big things, such as a death in the family. Remember, anything is possible. If you expect something may happen, then it won’t crush your chances of reaching your goal if it does.

Now you need to ask yourself what you would do to overcome each of the obstacles. By doing this you are “planning ahead,” and you will be in a better position to deal with any of these obstacles, should they arise.

Okay, by this point you have decided what your goal is. You have outlined the steps that you need to take to get there and you have figured out ways of dealing with any obstacles that come your way. Now all you have to do is start taking the steps one by one to complete your goal.

Planning all these things out prepares you mentally to achieve your goal. You will not be as likely to give up or just “forget” your goal. Read over your goal often. Add any new obstacles and solutions you come up with over time.

Seeing your goal in written format will motivate you to work harder to reach your goal. Planning your goal out in this way is the biggest part of accomplishing your goal. Congratulations, you are well on your way to achieving your goals!

It has been immensely popular and grew to over 1,000 paid subscribers in record time.  To celebrate our two year anniversary, I’ve decided to do three things:

1. Double the size of the newsletter starting with the December 2008 issue.

2. Increase the number of people receiving it to over 20,000 using some inhouse lists we have developed.  These will be unpaid subscribers, but they will be encouraged to subscribe to continue receiving the newsletter.

3. Add some half page ads to offset the new costs of sending to over 20,000 unpaid subscribers.

The ads will take no more than 1/4th of the newsletter so the paid subscribers will still be receiving 50% more content than they have ever received before.  That will give room to cover some of the topics that I just had to leave out with the 7 page newsletter.  The new 15 page newsletter with no more than 3.5 total pages devoted to ads will give us that space.

The ads will all be half page ads and any page with an ad will have the other half filled with content.  The advertisers can choose whether they want the top half, bottom half, left side or right side of the page.  Advertising rates will be killer.   You’ll be able to reach over 20,000 people with a huge 1/2 page ad for only $1,000/issue.

Of course…  I need to do a 24 hour special to launch this new service.  Your price during this 24 hour special is only $500/issue.  You can sign up here:

http://www.DiegoNorte.com/products/The_Diego_Norte_Letter_Advertising

Of course advertisers will also receive a free subscription to the newsletter so they can see their ads.

Even better, those who sign up during this special will never have their prices increased for as long as they continue advertising in The Diego Norte Letter… even if we increase our number of subscribers to 100,000.

You can change your ad monthly and even advertise a different web-site or a different product.  Here are all of the details:

http://www.DiegoNorte.com/products/The_Diego_Norte_Letter_Advertising/

Blogs are great.  I highly recommend them for the center of your business.  However, the attention that a printed newsletter gets is extraordinary as compared to any kind of online content.  When the printed newsletter arrives in the mailbox, people open it immediately and sit down on the comfy couch and read it all of the way through with exacting attention.  

Advertising in a printed newsletter will always get much more response than any kind of online advertising for this precise reason.  Now you can advertise in an offline publication that is eagerly read by over 20,000 people every month with the exact same ease as advertising anywhere online.  Here is the URL again:

http://www.DiegoNorte.com/products/The_Diego_Norte_Letter_Advertising/

This offer expires at noon on Thursday (CST which is GMT-7).

There are several tips that will apply to any online business:

1. Do your homework. Learn as much as you can about the product you intend to sell, the people you are selling to, who your competitors will be, etc. The first year should almost be like a college course, where you spend a good portion of your time just researching everything you can think of that might affect your business, both now and in the future. This will help you to set reasonable goals and create strategies to win.

2. Remember that just because your business is online, you don’t have to conduct all of your business online. Think of all the people and places you go on a regular basis. The odds that they may stumble across your website on the internet are fairly low, but you have chances to let them know your business is out there all of the time. Don’t hesitate to do some good old-fashioned marketing, like fliers and print ads in local newspapers. Tell your friends and carry business cards. You never know when you will meet someone who could benefit from your business.

3. Try to look as professional as possible. You may be working with a small budget starting out, but simplicity can still look professional. The reason for this is that some people may be wary of doing business with a company that is run out of someone’s home. There is no shame in it, but you want your customers to be as comfortable with your company as possible so they will be more likely to purchase. It’s not hard to appear professional. Keep your correspondence formal and make sure your email address is linked to your website instead of a free service like yahoo or gmail.

4. Understand before you start that a home business requires a lot of time and effort. It may reach a point where it is easy, but the beginning will require a lot of hard work. A lot of new business owners find themselves unprepared for the amount of work they will have to do because of the idea that a home business will be easy. It will not, but the trade off, such as being your own boss, will be worth the extra effort.

Making your home business a success does not require a lot of money or talent. Remember that dedication, hard work, and some common sense will go a long way in ensuring that your business succeeds.

Until noon tomorrow though, you can get it for $35 here:

http://www.DiegoNorte.com/products/WAH_Job_Seekers_Disk_2

That’s 0.35 cents per name… not 35 cents per name, but about 1/3rd of a penny per name.  Can you earn more than 1/3rd of a penny from each person on this list?  Then it’s profitable.  If you don’t yet know how to earn 1/3rd of a penny from each name on this list, then go back and read the prior blog entries starting from the beginning.  I earn about $100 per name on my lists.

The names, email addresses and postal addresses are all new WAH job seekers that are unique from the first disk and have requested information about working at home even more recently than the first disk (in the last 3-4 weeks).

Here are the details:

http://www.DiegoNorte.com/products/WAH_Job_Seekers_Disk_2

This special expires at noon on Wednesday (CST which is GMT-6).

What’s So Important?

The importance of Ad and keyword monitoring all boils down to search engine optimization. If your site doesn’t rank well with the search engines, then you’re not going to get noticed. It’s essential to have the right keywords and ads on your site - but that’s not all. These ads and keywords also need to be placed in the right way. Having too many keywords in your content can get your site blacklisted, so it’s essential to know just how many keywords you can safely use. So how exactly does one determine a winning keyword? The search engines calculate the quality of a keyword by looking at its textual relevancy, its performance record, and its Click Through Rate.

The reason why keyword monitoring is so important is because the search engines and the keywords are both in a fluid state. Word ratings constantly shift and as a result, you need to keep an eye on what’s moving and what isn’t. Ideally, you should aim to have ads that have relevant text as well as high quality keywords. Make a shortlist of keywords that are best suited to your product and try to make them as specific as possible. Avoid using single words or terms that are very general.

What’s The Competition Doing?

Today, it’s not enough to just know the basics of Ad and keyword monitoring. You also need to know what your competition is up to! By keeping a tab on the keywords and ads that your competition is using, you can customize your own content accordingly. Technically, this is known as Ad Spying but that doesn’t mean it’s illegal! In fact, there are a number of tools out there that can help you monitor and spy on what the competition is up to. A good piece of spy software will show you which ads and keywords are ranked the highest - they will also give you the inside information on your competition’s affiliates.

When looking for a good piece of monitoring and tracking software, make sure that it provides you with information about ad positioning. It should also show you roughly how many ads you are competing with for your keywords. You should be able to see the exact ad copy that your competition is using as well as the offers used and the landing page URL. If the other guys are bidding on some keywords, you should be able to find that out as well.

These monitoring tools and methods are all perfectly legal so in the end, the choice is yours. If you really want to give your online business a boost and keep abreast of what’s happening in your niche, investing in a keyword research and spying tool just makes good business sense.

So, I’ll start with the cost… $1 for the next 24 hours.

What do you get for $1?  How about a daily feed of regular new content… quality articles that have been proofread by at least five different people… the same content you see on this site and other partner sites of other topics?

You will also receive reprint rights to use this content on your own sites, blogs, forums, newsletters or wherever.  The cost is only $1/month if you order before noon tomorrow (CST which is GMT-6).

We actually pay an average of $16 per day per site to get this content produced.  We are then offering it to you for about 3 cents per day.  How’s that for a customer appreciation special?

Here is the URL:

http://www.diegonorte.com/products/Article_Submissions/

BTW, if you aren’t signed up to recieve blog announcements… now is the time to sign up.  I’ll be offering some specials only to those on that list in the future.  We will also need beta testers soon for some new software products.  If you want a free advance copy of some of our new software… you need to be on the blog announcement list.

To get on the list, go to the upper-right coner of this blog and find the signup box.  Put in your name and email address and click the button.  It’s that easy.

Back to the current special.  Here’s the URL again along with all of the details:

http://www.diegonorte.com/products/Article_Submissions/

Live well!

Either way, you are probably wondering how doing so will affect your income, and if and when you can expect to reap the financial benefits of taking such a risk. I’m here to tell you that you’re not alone, every day millions of people simply walk to the mailbox and collect their checks. Or, they see their return on their bank statement each month. It really is that simple.

Finding ways to supplement your income is an idea that is gaining popularity. More and more Americans are worried about how they will look when it comes time to retire. Running your own online venture is a great way to stop the worries and increase your happiness. Think about it like this, which would you rather do, work day in and day out your whole life, and end up wasting away in suburbia? Or, start planning now for your future, keeping in mind where you want to live out your retirement, what your financial situation looks like right now, and what it will take to reach your financial goals and retire, living the good life? I’ll bet the second answer makes much more sense when you think about it in those terms.

If you know what you want to do, are willing to put the time and dedication into doing it, and keep at it with a continued sense of success, you too can be one of those people who simply walk to the mailbox and collect the checks!! All you need to do is take that initial leap of faith, and start your very own online business.

The most important idea to remember is this…failure is not an option. As long as you adopt that slogan and live by it, you are almost guaranteed to bask in the financial rewards of pursuing your dream. If you aren’t the type of person who believes in those types of self motivating slogans, try doing this…think about where you want be living and in what sort of lifestyle you would like to be a part of when you get ready to retire and live out your golden years.

If the picture in your mind includes scenes like sparkling beaches with miles of open sand and crystal blue waters, than you are the type of person who knows what they want out of life. You understand that working a 9 to 5 day in and day out will not provide you with the cash you need to retire in such a setting. You need something to help supplement your income now, so you can make the plans that will enable you to live out your days sunning and sipping margaritas.

Make the decision today on where you want to be financially when you retire. Then consider starting that online business you always wanted. I guarantee you won’t regret it!!!

Make it Quick

When your customers are asked to provide feedback, you shouldn’t necessarily give them a list of hundreds of questions. While this might seem helpful to you, if a customer has to spend more than five minutes on a feedback form, chances are high that they will either lie or they simply won’t fill it out at all. Try to limit your questions to about five to ten questions with short or multiple choice answers. You can always rotate your questions out when you have enough answers and then find out the answers to new questions that come up.

Make it Easy

Feedback forms which are easy to find and easy to use are the ones that will get used more often. Place your feedback form somewhere along the checkout process when people might be waiting for things to happen - the form will pass the time. Or you might want to create a link in the receipt email that you send to them at the end of a transaction. You might also send out a short email after the transaction is over to see what their feedback might be.

Make It Worthwhile

Of course, some people will want to have something in return for their opinions. If this seems to be the case, you may want to offer a discount on their next order or perhaps create a sort of contest in which one of the names is drawn each day for a prize. If you find that your customers aren’t answering your questions, it may just be a matter of giving them something in return for their time - and it doesn’t have to be something substantial either.

Make it Fun

Feedback forms that are fun to use are the ones that will get used more often. Simple multiple choice surveys are bright and colorful and you can see the results of others surveys as well, if they are set up in a certain way. Perhaps when they click on a certain answer, they will see a picture or they might get a response for their opinion. Try to create a feedback form that is interactive to help engage them and make the time they spend pass quickly.

Make it Confidential

Very often, customers are nervous to give feedback for fear they will be identified with a negative response. Make sure that you are not asking for any identifying information, if you can, to show that you simply want feedback and aren’t going to penalize anyone for something that went wrong during a transaction. Of course, this is harder to do when you have a feedback form during the checkout process, so you might want to leave the feedback as a separate transaction.

The value of feedback is difficult to measure. Feedback can help you find a new direction for your business or to choose a new product to sell. On the other hand, you might find out about problems that need to be addressed immediately. In any case, make sure that you are reading the answers and responding to them.