With the new year here, what does 2012 look like for you? Will you be more successful this time around? Did you make some New Year resolutions that you plan to keep? What are they?

My biggest problem for online business success has been learning how to focus my attention in the right places, along with what my 8th grade teacher used to call “stick-to-it-tiveness.” Or, as someone else once told me when I was having trouble picking something, “Just make a decision and live with it!”

Of course, it’s possible to make the wrong decisions and having to live with that isn’t always a great idea. But you have to start somewhere. You can change the details along the way.

Another buzz phrase that went around for a while was, “Ready, Fire, Aim.” In other words, make your decision, live with it, but you aren’t stuck with it if it’s not right. You are the architect of your life, so if something looks wrong, fix it!

I tend to like advice along the lines of “make a plan and work it.” So that’s my personal resolution this year. I’ve already used up a lot of paper devising and revising plans.

I’m also going to follow some other great advice: Find a mentor. One can waste an awful lot of time buying programs and trying to make them work. Without guidance, that’s a disaster plan…and I don’t mean a disaster prevention plan.

Here is a great mentoring program I’ve just joined and found the system to be unlike any other:

Internet Business CodeX

In other words, I recommend it!

Happy New Year!

Related articles

• Regroup, Refocus – 5 Tips to Tackling the New Year (theworkathomewoman.com)
• Wondering What the New Year Holds in Store for You? (ohmyachesandpains.info)
• Welcome to 2012 (harrisonministries.wordpress.com)

Publishing a book can be an exciting venture and experience, and Amazon has been helping everyone out by giving us all an equal chance to share the joy. Uploading an ebook to the Amazon Kindle store is extremely easy…and free.

Unfortunately, as soon as you make life easier for people, the scam artists find it easier, too. Now buyers are finding less joy as they encounter an ever-increasing amount of crap from these online scammers.

Not only is this gumming up the works for Amazon as they find themselves wallowing in thousands of so-called new books, it’s even threatening to give them a black eye in the industry. Publishers with a good track record for providing quality products are respected in the industry and by the public, which lends authors a share of that respect.

If this isn’t remedied soon, it could become an embarrassment to admit you have a book available in the Kindle store.

Never has the phrase Caveat Emptor (buyer beware) been more apropos than right now, as buyers slog through tons of ebooks for their Kindles, not knowing until it’s too late if they got something worthwhile.

Read more about this Kindle spam here.

If you want to build make money blogs, you’ll want to consider your personal passions.

You might think sentiment seems misplaced in the otherwise mercenary world of internet marketing. What role could your feelings play in your success? If the numbers look good, you have a moneymaking niche on your hands, right?

No.

If there’s one thing experience has taught us about blogging profitably, it’s the fact that those who are sincerely interested in their subject matters are far more likely to succeed than others are. There are some very persuasive reasons to choose a blogging niche that resonates with you in a meaningful way. Let’s look at a few of them.

Initially, those who love a niche are more likely to create quality content for their blogs. If you really know your topic, you’re less likely to supply inaccurate information. You’re also far more likely to create content that will connect with your blog’s readers. If you want to know how to make money, you need to realize the power of working on topics that interest you.

Second, you’re much less likely to abandon a project if you care about the subject area. Motivation is a critical part of internet marketing success and it’s much easier to find the motivation to work on a project that interests you than it is to labor on something that bores you to tears. Blogging isn’t a one-off way to make money. Your success depends upon regularly adding content and making improvements. If you choose a niche that doesn’t match your passions, you’ll find it hard to keep things running–and making money.

Third, making money in a niche you love opens doors to other opportunities. If you’re working with your passions, you’re more likely to find ways to expand your operation in profitable directions. You’re not likely to spot ways to improve the profitability of your widget blog if you don’t really care about widgets. You’ll overlook opportunities to interest, excite and motivate your readers. You’ll miss opportunities. If you’re actually passionate about your niche, you’ll naturally discover new ideas and ways to improve your blogging business.

Finally, it’s fun. It’s simply more enjoyable to work on topics about which you care. We all want to start making money online with our blogging. That doesn’t mean we need to measure those returns exclusively in terms of dollars and cents. Doesn’t the idea of profiting and having a good time sound nice?

Consider your personal passions when choosing niches for blogging. Go beyond simply getting rid of options that are patently unappealing. Actively search out ideas that match your personal passions. Keeping your passions in mind is one of the best things you can do for your business.

Power, Opportunity and a Challenge

What started as a convenient platform for blog owners has become a highly recommended content management system. We’re referring to WordPress, a zero cost resource that is able to transform any individual into a proficient web based publisher.

WordPress makes it easy to generate online websites. It makes it easy to add or alter website content. It’s google and yahoo oriented, extremely supported and is versatile enough to handle practically any task. As a result, its acclaim is growing with a quick rate. It boasts a number of themes, supplying its end users the chance to create sites with an boundless assortment of looks and components.

Although WordPress is fantastic, it is not perfect. You may use it to do pretty much anything, a number of projects are harder than others are. WordPress hasn’t entirely escaped its roots as a blogging service. Consequently, some of the online websites individuals generate with WordPress appear not as much like static online websites and more like web logs. That can be particularly troublesome for internet marketers, tend to have many different specific requirements that do not conveniently fit in the templates widely used by most WordPress themes. That has resulted in the invention of custom theme engines like the AuthorityPro Theme Engine.

Getting Even More from WordPress

You can discover many WordPress themes that duplicate the style and feel of fixed online websites. They will be an acceptable option for some tasks. Still, most of these themes tend not to boast the flexibility required to tackle a number of website marketing purposes. They might also lack the visual appeal you may be expecting from a top quality web-site.

That leaves internet marketers who would like to take advantage of the potential of WordPress with only a few choices. Either they might develop into skilled theme designers or they can work with a strong theme designing engine to build the type of sites they require to get the greatest results.

Studying the ins and outs of WordPress and coding will not inspire most internet marketers. They’re more excited about rapidly producing and deploying profitable projects. They’re not really interested in the thought of turning into designers or coders. Only those people who already possess quite a bit of expertise in these areas will be enthusiastic about developing custom themes for plans.

A theme engine is more efficient. A theme engine is a very easy to customize WordPress theme that can be adjusted to serve a range of unique jobs. A marketing expert can utilize a solid engine to develop themes with assorted website page layouts and designs, integrating required tools.

If you have ever before made an effort to create a compelling squeeze page with a standard WordPress theme, you understand that it’s almost out of the question. Even some of the more adaptable premium themes are unable to complete the task. A high-quality theme engine, on the other hand, can make it simple to build a strong squeeze page, a gorgeous sales page, good looking supporting internet pages, sign up forms and almost everything else necessary to transform a raw idea into a profit center. The right theme engine tends to make it easy to work with sign up forms, video footage, audio and additional online marketing elements, as well.

The Ideal WordPress Theme

The ideal WordPress theme is much more than one particular theme. It’s a resource that can make it possible for you to generate the internet sites you must have to realize success. A fantastic theme engine will provide you with the ability to customize, top quality style and design components, versatility, full compatibility with essential tools, and remarkable simplicity of use.

The WordPress Authority Pro Theme Engine, as an example, manages to score on every one of these fronts. It can make it possible for marketers to generate page layouts by dragging and dropping custom-made factors. It incorporates collection of highly effective custom widgets, works well with just about all of the most well-known Internet marketing tools and retains the easiness new WordPress users require.

The Power of Partners

You can make a living online with your own product. If you create a rock-solid product and do all of the right things in terms of promotion, you will generate sales. You might even find a void in the marketplace that will make your product a minor hit.

However, you can’t hope to experience optimal sales numbers if you’re working alone. The most successful internet marketers realize that it’s easier to achieve success if you’re traveling with joint venture partners. It’s easier to post huge profits when you’re working with others.

Imagine what your sales numbers would look like if you had some of the industry’s biggest marketers promoting your product to their list. How big could the numbers get if you had top marketers backing your product just as diligently as they would their own? What if you could multiply that impact by teaming up with a group of top marketers?

The World of Joint Ventures

Every product creator needs an affiliate program. When other people are pushing your product, the sales figures naturally inflate. However, a standard affiliate program isn’t going to take you to the next level. You want to do more than attract a few other marketers to your cause. You want major players to line up with you to transform your product into a best-seller.

That’s why building joint ventures should be a top priority. There’s no better way to post sales than by creating JVs with top marketers. That’s why forging successful joint ventures is the most important step anyone with an interest in moving up into the ranks of the top marketers can take.

Unfortunately, making those connections and setting up those joint ventures isn’t always easy. It can be hard to build top-notch JVs if you and your product aren’t already well-known. The top marketers are constantly on the receiving end of JV requests. If you don’t have a plan that stands out–and that really makes sense to those folks–you’re not going to get anywhere.

Many marketers treat working with JV partners as if it’s a mere extension of the standard affiliate program. That just won’t work. If you’re not thinking on a bigger scale with a very specific plan, you’re not likely to score meaningful joint ventures. You must approach JVs the right way.

Keys to JV Success

Smart JVs require a few things. First, you need to know the various ways you can structure a good JV. Second, you need to understand how to build JVs that will benefit both parties. Third, you need to know how to get your foot in the door and to make the connections necessary to tap the power of joint ventures. Fourth, you need to know the fine details of building a JV proposal that will really take off. Finally, you need to master the process of organizing and implementing your plan.

If you fall short on any front, you’re unlikely to experience optimal JV success.

Basically, you need a real education in joint ventures if you want to enjoy the strength in numbers they produce.

You could try to learn the ropes on your own, of course. Be prepared to experience at least a few failures before things get moving if you take that route. It only takes a small mistake to derail a seemingly solid joint venture plan.

That’s why those who understand strength in numbers will want to learn from someone who knows the world of joint ventures inside and out. If there’s one part of internet marketing that screams for a quality, paid education, this is it. You should commit yourself to learning about joint ventures from someone who knows his or her stuff. Once you’ve learned the ins and outs of JVs and have a joint venture template at your disposal, you can start experiencing serious profits from your products.

Trying to Buy Success

How often are you purchasing ebooks, strategy guides and software to build you IM business? Are you spending money left and right in hopes of finding the perfect internet business system? Are you becoming an IM product addict, investing your cash in anything and everything that might improve you bottom line?

If you’re spending a fortune on your business, you’re not the only one. Many IMers are on the buy-buy-buy-and-buy-some-more treadmill.

There’s nothing wrong with that, either. It’s perfectly reasonable to purchase new products and information to refine your already-successful business. It’s sane and sensible to invest in new strategy guides to stay abreast of changes in the industry and to get your hands on innovative ideas. Making those purchases before you have a profitable business is a different matter, though.

There’s a big difference between the person who’s staying on the cutting edge of new developments and the person who’s spending like a madman in hopes of finding a magical solution that will turn things around.

You want to be the smart investor. You don’t want to spend yourself into bankruptcy before you build a real business.

Making Smart Purchases

So, how do you avoid becoming the wrong kind of serial buyer? It starts by building a rock-solid foundation. If you ignore the bells and whistles, you’ll see the IM is really based on a few simple premises.

You need to have something to sell. You need to have a strategy to sell that product. You need to bring traffic to your the site you’ll use to make sales.

That’s really all there is to it. Everything you do needs to strengthen one or more of those three simple core needs.

As such, you need to focus on building strength in all three areas. Everything you buy should support your efforts to work on one of those three factors.

You need to build a solid foundation that will allow you to start making money online free before you begin worrying about the details. You can start experiencing real IM success after that foundation is in place. After you’re making money, you can being looking at those extras and adjustments.

How to Build Your Foundation

You can start building that money making foundation without going broke in the process. This is what you need to do.

• Get a smart, big picture understanding of Internet marketing. You can get that kind of perspective from someone with successful IM experience.
• Make traffic a top priority. As noted, traffic is one of the three keys to a solid foundation. It’s probably the most important of those three elements. Until you have adequate traffic, you won’t be able to find out if your products are attractive or if your copy is converting. You need to get people to your site as soon as possible.
• Discover a continuing source of support and guidance. An ebook can be great. A video can be invaluable. However, you’ll find more value in cultivating a good relationship with an experienced, successful IMer. You can become more efficient and successful when you’re on the receiving end of expert advice.
• Minimize your exposure. You want to meet your objectives without risking significant losses. Look for opportunities to secure the right information at a reasonable price. Look for a business coaching program or mentoring arrangement that doesn’t cost more than you can afford.

Even if you’re new to Internet marketing, you’ve heard the same old saying a thousand times. The money is in the list. Building your own list is one of the last legitimate home based business opportunities. You must learn how to build a list in order to reach your potential.

Why it works

Most people won’t open their wallets after seeing a marketing message only once. Repeated exposure is usually necessary to inspire action. The best way to reach someone more than once is by making them a part of your subscriber list.

People are also more likely to buy from those with whom the feel a trusting connection. List building allows you to build a relationship with your subscribers. Making those connections will boost your trustworthiness, encouraging additional sales.

How to do it

List building is an easy home based business strategy and it all starts with a squeeze page. A squeeze page exists to do one thing and one thing only. It should encourage readers to become subscribers to your list. Anything else is completely extraneous.

The use of a free gift is an effective way to persuade visitors to join your list. This time-tested strategy can substantially boost your bottom line.

A great inducement isn’t enough to get the best results, however. Building a squeeze page the right way is just as important. There are certain squeeze page strategies that produce the best results. You should be using those moneymaking approaches. That will involve closely following three important guidelines.

Squeeze page basics

First, keep your squeeze page free of any links leading to other sites of pages. You want your squeeze page to inspire sign ups, not to provide guests with an avenue to move on to other sites or pages.

Additionally, your squeeze page should have a concise, strong message. You want to make your offer of an inducement attractive and you don’t want to dilute that point with extraneous verbiage. Remember that your squeeze page is there for a single reason – to build your list. Every word on the page should serve that function.

Third, you need to treat the sign up process like a sale – you must “close the deal”. That means that you will need to make a strong, persuasive call to action as part of your sign up form. Make it crystal clear that there’s a real value in becoming a part of your list.

Summary

If you follow those three recommendations and offer an attractive freebie, you’ll be well on your way to building a list. That will give you the opportunity to develop an effective relationship with prospects. You’ll also have the chance to expose your subscribers to key marketing messages more than once.

You will dramatically improve your business by using these email list building secrets. The fact that so many successful marketers embrace list building isn’t an accident. The real money is in list building.

It’s undeniable that the one thing you need to succeed in your online business is traffic. And nothing beats free traffic. And where’s the best place to get free traffic? Google and other search engines.

How do we get free traffic from Google?

The process works in a way that you have experienced many many times. You visit your favorite search engine. Enter in a word or phrase you want to research. And then you visit one or more of the sites that show up. Well, the link you clicked on just sent free traffic to that website owner. We will discuss here how to get website traffic to you for free.

Most people only click results from the first couple pages. In fact, the first page of results receives almost all the free traffic. What’s even more amazing is that the first 3 links get more than 70% of the free traffic.

So to get any significant amount of free traffic from Google, you really need to be on the first page. And that means you need to be “ranked” in the top 10 by Google. And this bring us to…

What is search engine optimization?

SEO means your website is clearly about something specific, Google knows what that is and thinks others will agree and find your site useful. It’s a complex formula that only people working for Google know exactly. However, we do know a few things that count.

Getting indexed

Before your website can begin gaining ranking, you have to alert Google to its existence. This is known as being “indexed.” This is when Google looks at your site and take notes about it, which are stored in their database.

Google needs to actually find your site in order to index it. Getting a link from another site will accomplish this easily. Since some of these sites will already be indexed, Google will follow the links on their pages and find you.

Use your Twitter and Facebook updates to get quickly indexed links to your site. Because these sites are indexed multiple times every day, any new links will be followed right away.

Gaining ranking

Once you have been indexed, you will start working on increasing your rank. Google has billions of pages indexed, so just getting into their database does not mean anyone will see you.

There are three components of gaining ranking:

• Content
• Links
• Activity

Content strategies

This is the SEO work you do on your page. It’s critical that your page content is consistent with the keyword phrases you’re targeting. Obviously, the article you’re reading now is about search engine optimization. Google knows that, not just because the words ‘search engine optimization’ show up. And another way this is determined is by the other related phrases like traffic generation that are also in the article.

The title of the page, the domain name and other pages on your site are also important. These all play a part in helping Google determine what your website is about.

Your links

The next thing to consider is your links. The links coming in and the links going out are included in this. You want to make sure you have more inbound links than outbound links. So the number of inbound links is important.

Article spinning is a super easy way to get a bunch of inbound links. To use this technique you write articles related to the topic of your websites. Then create a bunch of different versions of it. And then upload different versions to a bunch of sites that allow you to add content. And quantity is the key here – so do lots and lots.

Make your site active

Finally, we know that Google gives you credit for the activity on your site. You can’t just put up a page and leave it alone and expect it to rank well. So you need to update your pages often. You can do this with RSS feeds and news posts.

But the best way is with active discussions on your page itself. This means you need to get real live people to your site also. Online forums are simple sources of real live visitors.

Create profiles on lots of forums about your site’s topic. Visit often and make posts. Always include a link back to your site. This will get you more inbound links. And it will also get real visitors to your site.

Conclusion

It’s important that you do everything listed here. But let’s face it, writing multiple versions of the same article, creating profiles on a ton of forums, and posting your content all over the web is time consuming. Which means you probably won’t end up doing it.

The good news is that there are automated software programs out there that will do this for you. So the best thing you can do is to automate this process. Otherwise, you won’t do it at all. By taking these steps you practically ensure you’ll get free traffic from Google.

OK, forget everything you know about affiliate marketing. Everything you’ve been taught is simply out of date. If you play by the old rules, you will lose this game.

The promise

You’ve been told it’s easy to get started as an affiliate. Well, that’s true . . . to a point. There’s no doubt it’s easier than starting your own business. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

The cold hard truth

And to make matters worse, you’ve been taught to do it the hard way. You’re told to pick one or more products to promote. Next to look for easy keywords to target. Then to use these keywords to buy ads promoting the product. And just enjoy the commissions. But, it’s all wrong.

Keywords are dead

There was a time when this worked. But keywords are too expensive now. Adapt and change…

A brand new formula

There is a solution to this problem. Follow this method and win again…

• Get into CPA marketing
• Instead of researching keywords, research demographics
• Use image ads

Start using CPA marketing

CPA stands for Cost Per Action. It’s far superior to product promotion. Because you don’t have to get people to spend money. Your commission is generated when they complete an “action.” Like completing a survey. Which is much easier than getting them to buy something.

Utilize demographics data

You’re not even going to use keywords (explained below.) So spend your time doing demographics research. First, select the CPA offer you want to promote. Then hop over to Quantcast.com and find your target demographic.

Market on display networks

Now you have your offer and your demographics. You can target these exact demographics on display networks and let images do the work. No keywords required. The biggest advantage is price. Display networks charge a fraction for image ad clicks vs. keyword ads.

Summing it up

This is a powerful method to make money online. Because you can start CPA marketing for free. It’s much cheaper to do image ads than keyword ads. You can laser target with demographics. And your commission is much easier to earn.

Answer this question: What’s the biggest reason millions of people log onto the Internet each day? The answer is simple – they’re looking for information. This is so ubiquitous a quest that Google handles 400 million queries a day! So what does this mean to you? It means you have a massive opportunity to give people exactly what they’re looking for – information. And to earn some cash for doing it!

What is info marketing?

First of all, an info business is the least complex business possible. You create a product that provides information. And people pay you for the information inside it.  Pretty simple, wouldn’t you say?

But how does it all work?

You’ve got the basic concept – exchange info for money. In order to be successful you’ve got to provide information people want. So the key is to figure that out. How can you find out what people want?

A super simple trick is to just to check “answer” sites. Just go to Yahoo! answers or Ask.com and you’ll get a good idea of the kinds of things people need help with. You’re looking for popular questions or common themes… something most people don’t already know… and provide the answer – in the form of an info product.

An encouraging word

Don’t worry! Info product creation is easy. Put it this way: An ebook is nothing more than a collection of articles. Don’t try to write a whole ebook. Just write some articles for your blog. And when you’ve got a few finished, expand and embellish them and voila! You’ve got an ebook.

Why info products? Funny you should ask . . . Here are the seven reasons:

1. Ease

Once it’s built it runs pretty much on its own. There is almost no support. So it’s nearly a 100% hands-free business. It’s like having an automated cash machine.

There’s no inventory. You don’t have to ship anything. It’s all delivered online.

2. Product combos

When you have a created a few information products, you can put together bigger, more expensive information products. It’s nothing to combine the content from several ebooks. And you’ll be able to charge much more for this “new” product. People will be willing to pay a lot more for one big ebook versus multiple smaller ones.

3. Resellers

You can grant other people resell rights to your own products. Resell rights are very hot right now, because most people simply don’t have the time, money and effort it takes to create their own products. And what’s more, you’re selling the same product . . . but for 3 times the price for the rights!

4. Leverage

Leverage means doing something once and reaping multiple rewards. Break it apart and create a multi-part email series with it. You can use this to build a list that you can marketing to again and again.

5. More leverage

Don’t stop there . . . break it into several smaller reports. Then use these to generate leads for the main product. You can give them away or even charge a small amount for them. And you’re creating targeted leads for your main product all along. And if you’re really clever, you’ll let your affiliates use these reports as marketing tools. Which brings us to…

6. Affiliates

This one is huge. When you own your own products, you’re able to let other people market them for you. How would you like to have an army of affiliates selling your products? You can’t do this unless you have some.

7. Joint Ventures

Last, but definitely not least, setting up joint ventures is the fastest way to gain success. Period. So, I’d say this is the most important reason to have you own products. Because if you don’t have you own product, you’ve got nothing to JV.

Summing it up

If you can’t see the power of info product marketing, then you haven’t been paying attention. With your own info product you can write your own ticket, because it’s your business and you control it. So, don’t waste any more time:

• Head over to Yahoo! answers
• See what people are asking about
• Start writing

The steps on how to write an ebook are really that easy. Before you know it, you’ll have your own info product.