Planning Your Business Exit Strategy

Does your business have its liquidity event mapped out? Entrepreneurialism can be demanding, and therefore drafting an exit plan is often ignored. If you have raised venture capital then the chances are that your investors will expect you to achieve liquidity at one point in the future.

One tough part of entrepreneurialism is not only working out if you have a good idea, but also establishing if it has the capability to scale, get acquired, or go public. If the answer to any of those questions is "no", then it's essential that you establish what your long terms goals are. If you are not able to achieve liquidity, then the performance of your profit and loss account will be the only business metric that matters. It also means that, should you wish to move on in the future, you'll have to give up your businesses profits with no realizable gains.

One key part of entrepreneurialism is planning your exit strategy. Although your business may change routes along the way, having a solid plan to work from can often pay dividends in saving wasted time, energy and money. If you wanted to start a broadband business, for example, then it would be easy to think of potential companies that might want to buy you at a later stage. And, the market is certainly big enough to go public if you manage to gain a decent percentage of market share.

However, entrepreneurialism isn't always that simple. Some companies may have a completely new idea taking on a completely new market. In this instance planning your exit can get a little bit trickier. It's less likely you will have direct competitors who would look to buy your business, and therefore you have to consider the likelihood of achieving liquidity through an alternative route.

Maybe a potential buyer would be able to achieve synergies through selling your product to their customers, or integrating it with their existing technologies? Or maybe if you manage to promote entrepreneurialism within the boardroom, a management buy-out could be an option?

The following are options to consider when planning your exit:

IPO

An IPO or initial public offering is when you make your shares available on the stock market. This is usually the most liquid market for equities, however you will usually require a sizeable market capitalization and stable earnings before this is an advisable option. At this point, there will be a firm price associated with the equity you own in your business.

Acquisition

If your company gets acquired then you may be able to get a much quicker exit than if you hold out for an IPO. If you intend to develop great technology, but do not want to build the infrastructure to unlock its full potential, this can be a great option. Sometimes entrepreneurialism can be about doing what you do best, and then moving on. For some people, that's starting companies and taking them to a certain stage.

Sell Your Equity

It's possible for you to sell your equity while allowing pre-existing investors to keep hold of theirs. You may find that pre-existing investors are the best people to approach in this instance. However if the company has potential, a large pool of potential candidates may be interested. The board may also consider a share buy-back.

Article reproduced from Article Land. Further articles from Naz Daud can be found here.

Author

Naz Daud - Internet Franchise Opportunity & Business Opportunities UK Business Franchises and Internet Business Directory Ireland Business Directory & Computer Franchises Work from Home

Online Guitar Tuner - How To Stay In Tune All The Time!

One of the trickiest skills to learn when you first start learning to play guitar is learning to tune your instrument properly. There are a ton of different types of tunings that serious guitarists use, but if you’re a beginner it’s a good idea to start out with standard tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E).

There are a lot of different ways you can tune a guitar as well. Some guitarists who have a lot of playing experience have developed a good ear and can tune their guitar correctly by using their ear only. Some people can tune their guitars to a piano. The easiest way for a beginner to learn the basics of tuning will be to use an online guitar tuner.

There are quite a few benefits to using an online guitar tuner. One of the biggest perks to using an online guitar tuner is that most of these are free to use. A lot of individuals who are just starting have already dropped a lot of their hard-earned money on their guitar, amp, cords, picks, and all sorts of essentials (maybe even splurging a little on some good effects pedals) to playing guitar. The last thing you’ll want to do is try to come up with some extra cash to buy a tuner.

Another great benefit of using an online guitar tuner is how easy they are to find. If you’re a musician, and especially if you’re a musician who is on a tight budget, the Internet can be your best friend. There are a number of websites on the Internet that feature an online guitar tuner for you to use free of charge. All you have to do is go to a search engine like Google and type in “online guitar tuner,” and you’ll have a number of sites to choose from.

Online guitar tuners are also extremely easy to use and only require you to have your guitar, computer, and speakers. Once you’ve chosen an online guitar tuner you want to use, turn on your speakers and get ready to tune. Most of these tuners only do standard tuning, so you shouldn’t have to worry about accidentally tuning your guitar to an alternate tuning.

Each online guitar tuner should feature some sort of button for you to click on to hear the correct pitch of each string. All you have to do is keep on playing each pitch on the tuner and match up your guitar string to that pitch by tweaking the tuning peg on your guitar. It’s important to remember that you will be hitting each note open while tuning it.

Using an online guitar tuner can be a tremendous help to those who are just starting to get familiar with their six-string rock machine. If you’re looking to learn how to perfect your tuning skills and help train your ear, then an online guitar tuner is a great tool for you to use.

Article written by Ted Halpeart and available from Article Land.

Here are the two online guitar tuners I recommend you use. The first online guitar tuner is at GuitarHack and is great. You can also check out this online guitar tuner on Scribd. Enjoy!

The Sony PSP Is Not Just For Games

To the average Joe, when you ask him or her what a Sony PSP (Sony Playstation Portable) is, they will tell you it a handheld video game console. The average person has no idea what all you can do with a Sony PSP. It's not just a fancy Gameboy! It does a whole lot more than just play video games. Let me explain.

Gaming- video games The Sony PSP has over 350 game titles and more coming all the time. They are constantly adding titles all the time. You can get all the hottest titles of all your favorite games. Plus, one thing I absolutely love about the PSP is you can download emulators and play all you favorite games from the past. Super Mario Brothers, Sonic, Castlevania, Punch Out, Street Fighter, just to name a few of my favorites. So even if you only used it for video games it is fun little device to have. But that's not what this article is about. I want to talk about all the other cool stuff you can do with a PSP.

Video- More than 460 feature films, TV programs and music videos available on UMD disc (each sold separately). If you travel a lot like me, and you do get sick of playing video games all the time, you need a chance to just sit back, relax and watch a movie on the airplane. The PSP is perfect for this. The screen is just the right size to watch movies while you travel.

Music- The PSP also plays music file of all the top formats including MP3s, WAVs, WMAs, ATRAC3+ and MP4s Not quite as compact as an Ipod, if that's what you would really use it for, but a very handy feature to have. But I'll bet most people didn't know you could use the PSP as an MP3 player.

Photo- Another nice little feature of the PSP is the ability to create a slide show of your photos. If you have kids like me and you want to show grandma the latest pictures of the kids, you can do like I do and always keep the most recent photo's on my PSP to show them off. You can even beam them to other devices via Wi-Fi.

Network- I know this relates to playing games, but most people don't realize that you can communicate with other PSP systems and play games online. Not only that, but you can browse the internet right from your PSP.

As you can see the Sony PSP is so much more than a little video game player, it really has become the best device, that fits in the palm of your hands, for all your entertainment needs. Another thing I have to mention that is fairly new, is that there are more and more websites offering PSP downloads. Now you don't even need to leave your house to get the games, movies, and music. You can get everything you need from a click of a mouse.

This article was written by Chris McCann and reproduced from one of the internet's best article directories - Article Land.

Chris McCann is an avid gamer who is crazy about the Sony PSP. He has reviewed dozens of websites for PSP downloads and has uncovered the top 3. You can view his findings at his website.

http://www.pspdownloads.shop4coolstuff.com/videogames/psp

The Secret of "Why Do People Procrastinate?"

Nobody has yet come up with a solution as to "why do most people procrastinate?" Even at present, procrastination is considered to be the biggest mysteries surrounding human beings. Although, most people know that the solution to such problems lie deep within them, in reality, they would not admit them. It is not only counterproductive to put off an inevitable task, but it also causes a great deal of stress, especially in those cases, when a person hardly has the patience to wait and wants it to be done. Numerous reasons can be cited as to "why do people procrastinate?" this is because each person would have their very own reasons. As a matter of fact, there might be different underlying motivations with some people just procrastinating about a particular thing, while it is simply a way of life for others.

Spoilt Work Practices:

There are some individuals who thrive when they are imposed tight deadlines or work- pressure. In reality, it may actually appear so. The main problem involved over here is that there is a high possibility that people might lie. A major reply to the question as to "why do people procrastinate?" seems to be bad work practices. The crux of the matter in such situation of procrastination is poor prioritizing skills and lack of organization. In case, a person is awarded a task for which he is devoid of any idea, it may so happen that the person would put that work assignment off rather than figuring it in a proper manner. On some occasions, procrastination is an outcome of a feeling that the particular work assigned would take a long time for completing. Hence, the other reason for the question as to "Why do people procrastinate?" is this general feeling experienced by an individual of being overwhelmed.

Attitude of Perfectionism:

Another reason for the question as to "why do people procrastinate?" is the perfectionist attitude that most procrastinating people have. This is mainly because, such people observe the task set before them as a sort of encumbrance, which mostly decreases the intensity of people to start and accomplish a task. Such maneuvers have a tendency of clouding the main issues and are actually the leading procrastination causes, especially in those individuals who are creative in nature and who need to exercise some control. Hence, such people continually work on their individual task by striving for perfection. Since the perfection level is not that absolute in nature, it totally breaches the deadline.

The other reason as to "why do people procrastinate?" is their disliking of a project or a task before them. This mostly happens in case of kids. It is a fact that, most children don't clean their rooms, prepare a report or study for a test and subsequently, indulge in procrastination. Obviously, when such kids are forced to do so, they do it albeit in a hating way which normally results in the particular assignment boomeranging.

Article written by Jason Hobbs and available from Article Land

If you would like to learn more about Procrastination and receive a FREE Newsletter on the subject visit the authors site:

http://www.procrastinationadvice.com/

Boosting Fertility: Protecting Yourself From Plastics

We drink from plastic bottles and use plastic food wraps all the time but a growing number of scientists are getting concerned about the safety of these products, along with tin cans and dental sealants.

This is because some substances in certain plastics used to make various products have been shown to have substances such as nonylphenol and octylphenol, biphenolic compounds and phthalates which can have a negative effect on reproductive hormones and fertility.

One such chemical is bisphenol-A, a synthetic oestrogen used in the manufacture of many food containers, cans and baby bottles and dental sealants. To illustrate the power of this chemical, some male workers developed breasts after inhaling dust containing bisphenol-A and one study showed that women with a history of miscarriage can have as much as three times the chemical bisphenol-A in their blood compared to women who have never miscarried.

Other research has raised questions about the safety of cling film made of a type of plastic called polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which contains plasticisers. Some animal studies suggest that PVC may be an endocrine or hormone disruptor. Other research on phthalates - chemicals which are used in commercial products as softeners of plastics, solvents in perfumes and additives to hair sprays, lubricants and insect repellents - has shown that they have the potential to be reproductive toxins.

Until we know more about the effects of common plastics on our reproductive health use the simple strategies below to protect yourself:

- Use plastic wraps and cookware made of polyethylene which doesn't contain plasticisers. If the product doesn't make this clear, don't buy it.

- When you reheat or cook food don't let plastic wrap touch it.- Don't wrap food in cling film; use paper instead. Immediately remove cling film wrap from food you buy and transfer them to a bag or container. Better yet ask the person on the deli to wrap your food in paper.

- Don't store fatty food in plastic wrap. Xenoestrogens are lipophilic (fat loving) and will tend to leach into foods with a high fat content.

- If you buy hard cheese wrapped in plastic use a knife to shave off the surface layer- Avoid food that needs to be microwaved in a plastic container. Better still avoid microwaving food altogether.

- Use glass bottles. Cans and plastic bottles of fizzy drink contain six times the amount of aluminium compared to the same beverages in glass bottles. There is always a small amount of residue that dissolves into drinks from the lining of a can or from a plastic bottle. Glass bottles are much better than plastic.

- Refill your own non-plastic water bottle instead of using toxic plastic water bottles. While it's good for your health to carry your own water and drink it throughout the day, if it's in a clear polycarbonate plastic bottle, it can be leaching a toxic substance into your water-even if the bottle is sitting on table at room temperature.

Article written by Marilyn Glenville

Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD 'marilynglenville.com' is the UK's leading nutritionist specialising in women's health. Marilyn is the author of 8 international best-selling books including 'Natural Solutions to Infertility', and her latest book 'Getting Pregnant - Faster'.

View all articles currently available on Article Land by Marilyn Glenville

Adsense - Loved By Advertisers

Google is the biggest search engine on the web. It controls over 40% of Internet searches, and with that it controls pay per click advertising (PPC). PPC involves the advertiser paying a fee for every click through (CTR) in which the advertisers set. As their budget increases, their position increases, and as their position increases, they get more traffic.

This has lead to over 140,000 companies choosing to advertise with them, and they advertise in a number of ways. The first way is through is through appearing on Google searches, the second is through appearing on distributors websites, and the third is through appearing in distributors search results. As advertisers appear in Google searches, the question is sometimes asked. Why do they choose to advertise with distributors as well?

One reason for this is scalability. Those who originally choose to advertise in search results and who were getting a ROI (return on investment) will decide at one point that they need to identify other advertising opportunities. With thousands of websites which have the capacity to display their adverts the advertisers can gain further exposure very quickly.

Another reason why advertisers choose to advertise in Google distributors websites is that it gains them further exposure. 60% of internet users do not use Google, so the advertiser can appeal to a wider audience through choosing to opt for distribution channels. Many website users may be looking to buy a product such as a phone, yet instead of coming across a website which sells such a product, they come across an article. If the article is on a website which contains Adsense then inevitably advertisers can use this channel to penetrate their audience.

Another reason why advertisers choose adsense is because they trust Google. The company is renowned for being an ethical company who are fun to work whilst providing free services to millions worldwide. Advertisers feel that money invested with Google is safe. Despite the evolution of click-fraud and its inevitable disadvantages for advertisers they appear to understand that this is an issue which Google wants to stop and hopefully will eventually.

Advertisers are happy that Google admits a problem exits and provides refunds accordingly.
The trust in Google also stems from a trust in pricing. The pricing is set by market forces and therefore advertisers never feel that publishers or Google are overpricing the service. This means that as long as advertisers are able to advertise they will continue to do so, if not at the same rates.

Another strong advantage for advertisers is that they can appear where publishers promote their service. An example of this can seen if you consider a publisher who is discussing the benefits of new IT software. If a software retailer appears on the website then inevitably they will be the likely source from which the web surfer will purchase the product. If the surfer is not interested then you could argue that they would not click on the advert.

The service which Google provides has created an opportunity for businesses of all sizes to advertise. Although the issue of click fraud still plagues the service it is till widely regarded as the best. New businesses attempt to promote themselves on the web, whilst established brands alike choose to attract interest in their service using the same technique.

Steve is the owner of http://www.articleland.co.uk. He has written a book on article marketing entitled Article Marketing Avalanche which is available as a free download from his website.

What Is The Right Product To Sell On The Internet To Make You Money?

Learn how to create you own profitable, quick, low-cost online products for the internet even if you know absolutely nothing.

Don't look for the "hot" product to sell, start looking for the hot market.

Nearly everyone has the "right" idea for an online product these days. This can be a positive start, but it is also the very reason why making money over the internet has becomes almost impossible. If you are truly trying to find the right product you must first find a group of people that are openly saying they love something in particular or hate something in particular. This way the market is telling you what they want. All you have to do is help them get it.

These specialized groups of people are called "niches". For instance: hobbyists ... or boat lovers ... or car lovers ... or dog owners. There are thousands and thousands of people who have a particular interest in a certain topic. The great part about selling to niches is that because your information is tailored to them specifically, a higher percentage of people buy. We all like information that tells us exactly what we want. Catering to niche markets, rather than the general market can increase your profits.

What products to sell?

Sell downloadable products.

The internet was designed for information exchange. Information is why most people go to the internet. They are searching for information that will help them. There are millions of people on the internet looking for quality information all the time. Which makes selling downloadable information based products over the Internet the best business you could ever dream of having.

Why? Because:

1. Downloadable information can be delivered instantly. Customers can satisfy their needs right then and there.

2. Quick and easy to produce. Truly, in a matter of hours you could have your own information product created. It can be as easy as buying the rights to an eBook online or recording a 1 hour interview.

3. You don't need to keep any stock. With a downloadable product, it's one product that is downloaded thousands of times. No need for buying stock and storing it!

4.You can automate your business to run without you! If you sell products which are downloadable, your customers can buy your product any time of the day automatically. Meaning they can give you their money and download their product and easy-to-use software takes care of the lot.

Downloadable products can be in for form of:

* a digital video recording
* an audio recording
* a written book in electronic format (also known as an "e-book")
* a piece of softwareOnce the information product is developed, it will cost you almost nothing to produce an additional copy.!

You're selling the same file repeatedly. You can make money over and over again, but you only do the work once. In fact, the entire process of your business can all be done from your website without your personal involvement.

Selling quality information to the right market is the most lucrative business of any kind.


Article Written by Gloria Gangi and reproduced from Article Land

For more detailed information on how to find and create the right online product visit: http://www.business-ebooksstore.com

Social Networking - Part 1

Stumble Upon - A New Wave In Internet Marketing

Social Networking is without doubt the next generation in internet marketing. Some of the most popular Social Networking sites are receiving 2 to 3 times more traffic than Google itself. This is a proven fact that can be verified by carrying out some simply resource on the internet.

So What Is Social Networking?

Social Networking relates to sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, StumbleUpon, Digg, HubPages, etc... All of these sites have one thing in common, they connect people and build people's social interaction. Hence the name Social Networking. The fact that so people are connected together via a network offers the internet marketer an opportunity that has not been seen since the beginning of the internet. The opportunity to market to literally thousands of people with the click of one button.

I am going to show you how to do this over the next few weeks using your existing campaigns and adding Social Networking into the pot to increase your website traffic tenfold.

First on the list of Social Networks, is StumbleUpon.

StumbleUpon is a great networking tool with over 4.5million users. I've only picked this first because I use it alot and like it's simplicity.

To use Stumble Upon you first need to download the toolbar. This is a simply process, and once complete you will be able to carry out a number of activities.

The first activity is to simply click the Stumble icon and start stumbling through websites provided by their database. I've come across some really good and useful sites just by doing this which I regularly return to for information or to use a free tool they offer. Ok so what benefit does simply stumbling through sites offer? Well if you vote for the site in your browser it will show up on the site owners Stumble dashboard. They may or may not visit your site and vote for yours too.

The second and probably the most important aspect of Stumble is the ability to vote for your own sites. When you vote for your site, it appears on the StumbleUpon homepage briefly, as it shows the recently voted for pages. In addition it also gives you a backlink from a PR8 (yes you read right) website. StumbleUpon is PR8 and loved by Google. So not only will you get a PR8 one way link, you also get some Google love!

Thirdly, you can add people in the network as friends. If they accept, they can see what you've been stumbling and might also check out the same websites as you. If you've been stumbling your own websites, this is going to generate more traffic.

A good way of getting traffic to your sales page, is to write articles, post them to reputable article sites and once they've been published, go along and rate them using Stumble.

This process can also be used with Twitter and Fleck. I use all three!!! If you use all three you are gaining valuable one way links to your web pages from 3 different, high traffic websites.

Go get yourself over to StumbleUpon, Twitter and Fleck and start rating your articles and websites today.

Steve Sharpe is the CEO and Editor in Cheif of Article Land, Information Booth & Crazy Linker.

How To Blog

A blog is basically an online journal wherein you can digitally pen down your thoughts, ideas, opinions and practically anything that you want people to read. Blogs come in different styles, formats, and settings, depending on the preference of the user. Many blogging sites, offer built in features such as hyperlink, straight texts, pictures etc. Some blogging sites, even allow you to put video and mp3's on your blogs.

Instead of writing texts, some bloggers choose to make their blogs more audio friendly, by using spoken word entries. This is called audio blogging.

Basically a blog contains these features:

title- which allows you to label your post
body- this is the content of your post
trackback- other sites can be linked back to your blog
permanent link- every article that you write has a URL
comments- this allow readers to post comments on your blog.

One of the advantages of blogging, is that it is made of only a few templates. Unlike, other websites that is made up of numerous individual pages. This make it easier for blog users to create new pages, because it already has a fix setting that include: slots for title, body of the post, category, etc.

This is especially useful for first time users, since they can start blogging right away. They can chose from a number of templates that blogging websites provide.

Anyone who wants to start a blog can do so by becoming a member of a blogging website of their choice. Once they've become members, they automatically become a part of that particular blogging community. They can browse through other bloggers pages, and link them back to their own blogs. They can also make comments on other members' blogs.

Blogging is not just limited to personal usage. There are a lot of blogs that follow a theme such as: sports, politics, philosophy, social commentary, etc. These blogs espouse on their specific themes. This way blogging becomes a medium in which people can share their knowledge and opinions about a variety of themes and topics.

Some bloggers even use their blogs as a means to advertise. Some authors advertise their books on their blogs. While other bloggers, use their blogs to shed light to currents issues, events, news and catastrophes.

Nowadays in education, blogs also play an important part. Professors use blogging to document the lessons that they have discussed and taught. This way, students who who have missed classes, can easily catch up with their assignments.

A lot of entrepreneurs benefit from blogging by promoting their businesses on their blogs, with millions and millions of people logging onto the net everyday, blogging has become a lucrative move. Some bloggers who run online businesses promote their merchandise online. While others profit through advertisement.

But by far, the most popular blog type is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers. Individuals who want to document the daily struggle of their everyday lives, poems, rants, opinions, find that blogging offers them a medium in which to express themselves.

Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging. It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts, and comments with each other.

Blogs varying in topics, themes, and set-ups, can be found in blog directories. First time users who want to get an idea of what the blogging world is all about can browse through a number of blogs using these directories. This way they'd get an idea of what these blogging communities are like.

Blogging is popular all over the world. Blog is short for the term weblog. There are no rules when it comes to blogging. Bloggers have the freedom to express themselves how ever way they want, and the best thing about blogging, is that most blogging sites are free.

There are numerous blogging websites to choose from in the net. This give first time users the option of joining a blogging community that appeals to their interests.

Blogging is for everyone. It is fun, simple and easy. Articleland offers a free blog function that automatically pings the best blog directories when you click submit. This system is one of the easiest systems in the world to use and generates immediate exposure for your blog.

Visit Article Land for more information.

Articles Are The Quickest Way To Your Customers Wallet

One way of promoting your website and product is with article marketing and guess what, it's free. As an additional bonus, this “free” method can boost your sites traffic and sales, doubling and even tripling your income.

How does this work?

Write articles relating to your website and submit them to “free content” submission sites. Easy to do, takes little time and can increase your website traffic, sales and of course, your income.

How can article writing boost traffic and income?

The article on the free content site contains a link to your own website. Readers, after reading your articles, may choose to click on the link and pay you an unexpected visit. Having them on the free content sites is also making these articles available to other webmasters who may wish to publish that article on their site.

If they do, your article will include a link back to your site. And anyone who reads the article on that site can still click on the link to visit your site.

As the list of your published articles grow larger, and more and more of them are appearing on different websites, the total number of links to your site increases too. Major search engines are placing a lot of significance on incoming links to websites so they can determine the importance of a certain site. The more incoming links the website has, the more importance search engines attach to it. This will then increase your website’s placement in the search results.

If you site promotes a product or service, the links that your articles have achieved will mean more potential customers for you. Even if visitors only browse through, you never know if they might be in need of what you are offering in the future. Don't forget to add an easy 'Bookmark' button on your pages.

There are also those who already have specific things they need on their mind but cannot decide yet between the many choices online. Chances are, they may stumble upon one of your articles, click the link in your resource box and visit your site. Provided your site is set up to sell your product and service you stand a very good chance of making a sale. See how easy that is?

Search engines do not just index the websites, they also index published articles. They also index any article that is written about your own website’s topic. So once someone searches for that same topic, the list of results will have your site or may even show the articles that you have written. And to think, no effort on your part was used to bring them to your site.

It is no wonder why many webmasters are suddenly reviving their old writing styles and taking time to write more articles about their site than carrying out other means of promotion.

Getting their site known is easier if they have articles increasing their links and traffic and making it accessible for visitors searching the internet. Since many people are now taking their buying needs online, having your site on the search engines through your articles is one way of letting them know about you and your business.

The good thing with articles is that you can write about things that people would want to know about. This can be achieved in the lightest mood but professional manner, with a little not-so-obvious sales pitch added.

If you think about it, only a few minutes of your time is spent on writing one article and submitting it to a free content site. In the shortest span of time also, those are distributed to more sites than you can think of. Even before you know what is happening, you are getting more visitors than you previously had.

If you think you are wasting your time writing these articles, fast forward to the time when you will see them printed and wide-spread on the internet. Not to mention the sudden attention and interest that people are giving your website and your products or services.

Try writing some articles and you will be assured of the sudden surge in site traffic, link popularity and interest. Before you know it, you will be doubling and even tripling your earnings. Nothing like getting benefits for something you got for free.

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Steve is the CEO & Editor in Chief of Article Land. He has written a book entitled 'Article Marketing Avalanche' which is available free on his website.

How To Continually Grow Your Affiliate Checks

The promise of earning profits without really doing much of anything has enticed a lot of people towards affiliate marketing. But does affiliate marketing really work this way?

As an affiliate, all that is required of you is to simply place the merchant's ad on your website. Then after that, you virtually do nothing but wait for someone to click on the merchant's ad and later collect your profits. Easy, right? Well, not quite. Many affiliates earn almost nothing from their affiliate programs simply because they do nothing. Remember that affiliate marketing is but another form of marketing, and you'll definitely need to market your merchant's product for you to earn something.

Successful affiliates in any affiliate program simply don't sit there and wait for the money to come in. Why? Because there is no money in simply sitting and waiting. If you want to be successful in affiliate marketing and if you want to continually grow your affiliate checks, you've got to do something. Think of ways to promote your merchant's business and products better. Think of ways to induce other people to click on the link or ad provided to you by your merchant. Think of ways to make your affiliate sales increase!

So if you're new in affiliate marketing and you try to follow the easy go lucky pit that most unsuccessful affiliate marketers follow, then you're definitely on the wrong track. But we're not advising you to stop right there. No. Rather, we want you to take some steps to make your affiliate program work better and gain more commissions for you. How? Here are a few guidelines that may help you to continually grow your affiliate checks:

Become an expert on your affiliate product.

You can promote your merchant's product better if you know a little about it. To become an expert, the best thing you could do is purchase your merchant's product yourself. This way, you can tell your customers about your first-hand experience using the product. You could also write a testimonial or a personal endorsement ad about it. But if any condition does not permit you to purchase the product, you can at least thoroughly research it.

Host your own website.

Or at least have a domain name that is short and easy to remember. You certainly wouldn't expect a visitor to remember a very long and incomprehensible URL. And if that's so, you also wouldn't expect him to visit your website any time soon. That means less traffic for your page and less chance for your affiliate ads and links getting clicked.

It is also a good idea to create a private website and offer access to it to anybody who clicks on any of your affiliate ads. Visitors usually get interested with these private websites. Private websites also give you a venue to promote your back-end affiliate products.

Write your own affiliate ads.

Many merchants usually wouldn't mind if you write and design your own ads for their products, providing you ask permission from them and present them your ad before posting it on your site. This gives you a greater advantage over a lot of other affiliates who will be advertising the same affiliate products.

Participate in chat rooms, discussion boards, and forums related to your product.

If you use to ignore them before, then it is time for you to start focusing your attention on them. You can start your own chat or join an existing chat related to your product. You don't have to promote your affiliate product at once, but find the chance to advertise and promote it as you go along. The same would be true for message boards, discussion boards and forums.

Create a free ezine or newsletter.

Ezines and newsletters are periodical publications whose aim it is to inform a group of people about a certain subject. In your ezines and newsletters, you don't always have to promote your merchant's product as this may annoy your subscribers. Rather, find a way to insert your affiliate ads and links on some portions of the letter. Also, don't forget to promote your ezine or newsletter on your website.

These are but a few guidelines on how you can increase your affiliate sales and continually grow your affiliate checks. Sure there are a lot of other tips out there, and if you think they would work, we won't discourage you from following them. What's important is that you are able to find a way to: attract more traffic to your site, induce your visitors to click on the ads on your site, and be able to promote your merchant's products even outside the boundary of your website. If you can accomplish these things, there is no reason for you to fail in affiliate marketing.

http://www.articleland.co.uk

3 Things You Must Know Before You Submit To Article Directories

To all writers and non-writers out there, now is the time to start digging up those creative writing skills again. With modern communication technology comes the popularity of information based marketing. This is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to your sites and converting them into buyers. This is why article writing, submission and publication are as popular as they've ever been.

There are already many tools that people can use to make the process of distributing their articles more efficient. Although this is invaluable in getting the contents more exposure, it is only half the story.

Let us first take a look at the most common mistakes that people make before they submit their articles to article directories:

1. Confusing the reason to promote the articles with the reason to write them.

When writing an article, you should be trying to achieve three things; branding, lead generation and promotion. All three are part of your optimization efforts. But there is only one reason why you write an article, and that is to inform your audience of your product or point of view. If the article is not focused on these primary and important facts, they will fail to achieve the promotion benefits because no one will be interested in reading them. You need to figure out first how to get people to read what is in your article, then make them click on your resource box. You can achieve this by producing good quality content with an eye catching title, combined with a resource box that encourages the reader to click your link.

2. Failing to maximize the promotional opportunities of article marketing.

You may know already that your articles can help you generate additional links back to your site. But do you know that you can get more visitors and better search engine results from that same articles? Mention keywords at strategic places. Just be sure not to overdo them. Some are even using anchor text which is also an effective method. But it is important to know that majority of the directories are not able to support this.

Remember that it is not only about generating links back to your site. If you write good quality articles, they may get picked up by ezine publishers with a large reader base. This will enable you to get your message in front of thousands of extra prospective customers. By using strategically placed keywords, your search engine results will also increase.

But these things may still not put much money in your pocket. There are other factors that can turn your article marketing efforts into an opportunity that can boost your earnings, not just increase the number of visitors to your site. Start out with a plan and see to it that your article will serve the function that you intended it to have.

3. Publishing content that does not help your readers.

Maybe in the process of writing articles, you are thinking that all that is required is back links to your site. Increased traffic to your site is also a bonus, but guess what? Not all article banks and directories are going to accept your articles automatically. Very often they have guidelines and specifications on the articles that they are accepting.

You can double the number of sites you can submit to by writing articles that the directories want to share with other people. All it takes is one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to increase your potential audience overnight. Write the articles that publishers want in their publications. This also means you have to obey the standard guidelines, use a spell checker, research your topic and maybe even hire a writer to produce a good quality article for you.

At the end of the day, it is really a matter of choice on your part. You can start getting a little exposure from increased back links back but on a very basic level. Or with a little effort generate a quality article and enjoy massive exposure.

It will be your choice. Please be aware of the fact that a sub standard article submitted to directories will not have the same level of exposure as a highly-targeted article geared towards niche group of people.

Learn the difference between these two facts and it will surely help you when you decide on your article topic to write and to submit.

Steve Sharpe
http://www.articleland.co.uk