Don't Expect To Earn Fast Money Online

In my first year online, I tried all kinds of "earn-money-fast opportunities" --- everything from MLM to turnkey websites. I hate to admit this, but if I didn't make any money the first couple of months after I had signed up for one of these programs, I just gave up and moved on to the next opportunity.
Then I would begin the whole process all over again. I found a new site that promised to all who joined, that they would earn a lot of money fast, and they would earn their money without hard work.
I know the truth now, it was just another line of bulls**t!!!!
Twelve months later, all I had to show for my first year online, was many wasted hours and lots of wasted money.
THE MAKING OF A WEBSITE
As I began my second year, I realized that I had to make my own website. I didn't know anything about HTML. And, I knew nothing about where to find a hosting company, or even why I needed one. So the first six months of that second year, I was learning the basics of how to become a webmaster. I read through all the forums about web-mastering and SEO that I could find on the Internet, and tried to build a website that finally could make me some money.
I finally got my website up and running.
For the first 8 months that I had my website, I did not earn any real money for all of my hard work. The worst thing that could happen to a person began to happen to me... I began to lose hope. I began to believe that making money from the Internet was just a far-fetched dream that I could never attain on my own.
I was not alone. Hundreds of thousands of people have met or will meet this same crossroad in their Internet careers. Some will take the easy road and walk away from their dreams. Others will push on, not willing to let their dreams die.
I decided to push on.
I added new pages of content to my website every week. I exchanged links with other websites as often I could. Slowly and steadily, the visitors were starting to come to my little corner of the internet to browse and buy.
In the early stages, I had 30-50 visitors each day. Then, I began to see 100-150 a day. And soon, the first small amount of money was earned through my website.
Now it's 4 months after my first payday, and the traffic is still getting higher each week. Even though I'm not earning a whole lot of money now, I believe it's just a matter of time until I can leave my day job.
THE FIRST LESSON LEARNED
Looking back on these last three years, I have learned a few things that I would like to share with you today.
First of all, you should never join any of those scam sites that claim you will make a lot of money fast without working hard.
The cold, hard truth is that there is no way that you can make money online unless you are willing to work hard!
The next time you read about an opportunity where the promoter is telling you that you will not have to work hard to be successful, Stop! Stop and ask yourself "how hard this person is working" to part you with your money?
What about that email opportunity you are reading, where this anonymous person is telling you that you will not have to send other people email in order to make money? If he is being honest with you about the nature of his business, why did he have to send you an email to get Your business? If his way is best, why is it that he is not practicing what he preaches?
You have to approach new programs with your eyes wide open! Be willing to read between the lines to see if the promoter is lying to you to part you with your money. Be willing to research on the internet what other people have said about the program that you are looking at. Be willing to discover and separate the people who are trying to sell the program, from the people who are giving you an honest appraisal of the program, from the people who are just complaining about everything to hear themselves talk.
In the end, it comes down to this. If you get involved with one of the myriad of scam opportunities floating around out there, you will end up spending all of your money with zero rewards in your pocket for your time or effort.
THE SECOND LESSON TO BE LEARNED
Find a niche product to sell or promote. And then make your own website. If you don't know anything about how to become a webmaster, use Google to find forums about the subject. Or, you can buy a ebook about web-mastering.
Don't expect to earn much money the first year your website is online. Look at it as your learning period. Be persistent and don't take any shortcuts. It takes time to build a money making business, whether you make your business online or offline.
And finally, try to have fun while you are working on your website. It's much easier to become successful if you like the work you are doing.
Good luck!

Getting Free Traffic

You’ve published a website right? You realize that it’s a meaningless endeavor unless you get some good traffic. You have absolutely no money for expensive advertising campaigns. In fact, your advertising budget is virtually non-existent. Read on to discover some simple methods to get good free traffic.Good SeoThis cannot be emphasized enough. Good Seo is your starting point to any free advertising campaign. Before you even consider any other methods for free traffic, get your website user and search engine friendly. Put on quality content in line with the objective of your website.

Make your content interesting, fresh and unique for the user and the search bots will come crawling. If word gets around that your content is great, webmasters may voluntarily link to your website. This one-way linking will increase your link popularity, search engine rankings and get you good free traffic. Ensure your site is well designed, your html is clean and compliant, your pages load quick and there are no dead links. Your users should be able to get what they want within three to four clicks. Avoid excessive use of graphics and animation unless absolutely necessary. I don’t recommend you use pop-ups as most users get irritated by them.ArticlesWriting articles is another great way to get free traffic.

Webmasters are constantly looking for fresh, quality articles to put on their website. When you write an article, you are allowed to describe a little about yourself and your website in the resource or author bio box. It is in this box that you are allowed to put a link back to your site. Submit these articles to article directory sites. If your article is relevant and exciting, webmasters will put it on their websites. In this way, you can improve link popularity by getting a one-way link back to your site and free traffic from readers who read your article. Write articles that relate to your website. For example, if you have a website on growing roses, write an article that has something to go with growing roses.

Submit your article to as many article directories and relevant websites as possible.ForumsEvery niche on the internet has a plethora of forums. Do a Google search and find relevant ones in your niche. Join these forums as member and contribute to the community by making useful and thoughtful posts. You are allowed to put your link in your signature line. This also counts towards your link popularity as search engines also index forum posts. Fellow forum members may also click on your link to visit your site. A word of caution – every forum has a different set of rules, especially when it comes to links. Make sure you read and obey them at all times. If you just go in and put up links, you will be banned almost instantly.Link ExchangeThe great granddaddy of free traffic, link exchanges are still very relevant and effective today. Make contact with sites that are in a similar niche as your own. Offer to exchange links with these sites. A word of caution – choose the sites that you link to very carefully.

Avoid linking to spammy, black-hat sites with questionable content and motives. Make sure that these sites are not banned by the major search engines.NewslettersYou not only need to get a continuous stream of new visitors to your website, you need to make sure you keep the old ones coming back all the time. The best way to do this is by providing fresh valuable content and by way of a newsletter system. Put in a newsletter subscription form on your site and invite visitors to subscribe to a newsletter that you can email to them either weekly or monthly. You can put some content, some special offers, ads and a link back to your site in your newsletter every time you email out.

Also provide them with an incentive or reason to click on your link and visit your site. In this way, you remind your visitors about your website.Submit to directoriesThere are many directories available on the web that allow ads or links free of charge. Some are general and some specialize in a particular niche. Choose relevant ones and submit your link or ad to them. Make sure you choose quality directories that are indexed by search engines. In this way you get a one-way link back to your site. You benefit by getting free traffic and improved link popularity.Email this pageAnother great, yet simple idea is to add an "Email this page" feature to your website. It’s a simple form where a visitor fills in the name and email address of another person that he/she wishes to recommend your site to.

You set the form to automatically email a link to your website to that person. That person will then receive an email with a short message that says that so and so person had recommended that he/she visit your site, etc.If you follow these simple ideas, you should start to see an increase in traffic to your site. Please note that building traffic takes time and won’t happen overnight. All the best!

How to Start Greeting Cards Home Business

Do you like to create pictures and designs, or writing? Do you love to look at the greeting cards in your local stores? Then a greeting cards home business could be for you. This is a business with incredible growth, and income potential. It also gives the greeting card home based business owner several options in the business itself.
A greeting card home business opportunity can have you doing only one part, such as drawing or writing. This same business can be selling e-cards or cards sold in stores. It could also entail purchasing a territory from a larger card distributor.
The first step in how to start a greeting card company is to decide what part of the greeting card business you want to focus on. As a freelance greeting card artist, you would focus only on designing cards for other companies. There are costs associated with this option and could include the purchase of a computer and graphic art software if you don’t already have these items.
If you decide to be a freelance greeting card writer, your home based greeting card business would focus on only writing the phrases to be used on greeting cards. For this, you only need a computer and quick turn around time.
Of course, you can always freelance as both a writer and artist. To get jobs you must contact companies to see if they are in need of freelancers. They pay from $50 an assignment to several hundred dollars per assignment. However, until you build up a portfolio of samples, and sometimes even after, jobs can be hard to find.
Another option is to purchase a vending route from a larger greeting card company. This route becomes your way of starting a greeting card company. You are required to keep current clients stocked in cards, replace old cards with new ones and get new clients to build your income. You have start up costs that can run from several hundred to several thousand dollars in inventory. However, when you take the cards to the clients, you receive your payments right then.
If you want to start your own line of cards, your greeting card business plan would focus on all aspects of greeting card businesses. You will design and write each greeting card inside and out. Your creative freedom would not be hindered by someone telling you what they want. You would make all the decisions and it would truly be your greeting cards business.
Being a greeting cards home business owner would make the internet your best marketing tool. You wouldn’t be able to compete with larger greeting card companies, so you will want to create a special niche for your cards on the web and in small local stores.
This option requires research before beginning the creation of cards for your greeting cards home business. You will need to price printing services and software. Once you have these ready, you can being creating. Go ahead a start creating cards, but at the same time, think of a name for your greeting cards home business and create a website.
Websites are very easy to create, depending on the provider you decide on. Research domain name registries and web site providers. The more web pages and information you want to provide will influence the charge of the web site. A greeting cards home business web site should be able to be effective without many extras at first. The extras can come later.
Once your website is ready, put pictures of your cards and ordering information into it. If you create the web site yourself or pay someone else to do it, make sure the site is search engine optimized. This will bring more people to your greeting card web site and start selling your cards.
Since some people like to hold cards and feel their quality before purchasing, it may be best to have your greeting cards home business web site offer one free card, or one free sample package per household. This gets your cards on the market and helps drive customers to your web site. Also, consider creating a special “Thank You” card that you personalized by you for all inquiries and orders. This is another way to let people know the quality of your cards.
Have the cards printed as the orders come in to the web site. Offer personalized cards to increase sales. Make sure you have plenty of designs for each category. You want your greeting cards home business website to look full, but not cluttered.
You now know several of the options available to start your greeting cards home business. Now all you have to do is to decide which is the best option for you. This business can grow to be as large or as small as you want it.

Can Article Marketing Benefit Your Home Based Business?

If you are online for your home based business, article marketing is incredibly effective at increasing your bottom line.

What is article marketing?
Article marketing involves writing informative articles about some topic that would be of interest to the demographic of the people who use your web site and buy from you, and submitting those articles to various online article directories.

Why does it benefit your home based business?
When you write and submit articles, you create links in the internet world that point back to your web site, sending you regular traffic.

You also are able to create something of an expert status for yourself simply by reading articles.
When more people see you as an expert and click into your web site for your home based business, your profits will go up. What is the single biggest problem an internet - oriented home based business faces? Certainly it is traffic, and by writing multiple articles and getting them submitted online, you create massive traffic.

Give it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised at the results.
Do this: Write short articles on related themes to your web site.
Submit them to the various online article directories.
Watch your traffic grow, and your profits should follow.