Ok, you've thought it over, and you know you want a better life for yourself. You've decided to build a home based business so you can live life the way you want. Maybe you even know what kind of business you want to build. So far, so good. What's next?

The path to success isn't easy, but it is simple. It only gets confusing when we try to make it complicated. First, you need to understand that you're not running a sprint. You're doing a marathon so that your income will stay solid and support you over the rest of your life. With that said, here is how you win your marathon prize. Just remember to W I N!

W stands for being willing to work now so you can play more later. Our universe and culture reward effort. Your business will grow as you willingly put in the time and effort it takes to grow. Gardeners don't just buy a packet of seeds, put it on the hall table, and wait eagerly for plants to grow. Why? Because they know that the plants won't grow until they make the effort to put the seeds in the ground and water the plants as they grow. Your home based business works the same way. If you think you can enroll in some program and just sit back and wait for profits to roll in, you're not really ready to be your own boss and be financially free. That's essentially playing the lottery to get rich. A person who is serious about being wealthy and successful knows that some initial work is necessary.

I stands for invest. You will need to invest your time, energy, and some money into your business to get it going. Time, energy, and money are all assets, and each person has different amounts of each asset. Those with more time will invest it more than money and vice versa. Everybody ends up investing at least a little money in their home business, even if it's just to pay for the phone line and internet connection. Invest money in the tools you need to build your business, not in the things that you want because they're cool. There will be money available for that once you're up and running well.

N is for networking with friends, co-workers, and people you meet through your business. Even "self-made millionaires" work with other people they know or want to know. If you're starting a home business, you'll get a lot of help, encouragement, and ideas from making time to talk with people who are walking the same path. There may be business owners' meetings where you live. You can also use online forums, talk to your team members if you're doing network marketing, or get to know other internet businesspeople from their blogs. Every business owner has challenges to overcome and will have discouraging days now and then. A supportive network of friends and colleagues will make those times much easier for you. Sometimes you may just need to know that you're on the right track. Most home business owners overlook this step, and it weakens them over the long haul.

One more thing before I go, while you W I N your way to success, please pass these ideas along to the people you meet and care about. The path to business success is simple though not always easy. Be willing to work, invest your assets when they're needed, and network with the people around you as you go. Come on! They're waving the flag. It's time to start running!

To find out how I'm WINning with my business, visit http://www.clarion-jayde-publishing.com

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." --
Sir Richard Steele

I have known this instinctively since early childhood. Some of my best business ideas come to me while reading. I'm not necessarily reading a business book when this happens. Sometimes a scene or character in a book will jog my memory and spark my creativity. I find that this happens most often when I read biographies. George Dawson's book Life Is So Good is an example of such a book. If you haven't discovered this gem yet, you're in for a treat. It's written by a man who is 100 years old. George began life as a "colored" citizen of Marshall Texas, completely hemned in by discrimination and relegated to hard labor as a young boy. His attitude could have become hard, bitter, and angry. Instead, he opened his heart and shared candidly his triumphs and tears, his hopes and fears. For the first time, I really began to understand the cultural divide between the races here in America.

I am white, and my parents worked hard to teach my brother and me that people are created equal and that skin color means nothing about the person inside. They did such a good job that both my brother and I chose African American partners when we grew up. Because of my upbringing, I honestly couldn't understand why there was tension between the races. Now I do understand thanks to the memoir of this gentle, wise man.

What does that have to do with business? In the book, George discusses learning to read at age 98. He inspired me to start learning about building web pages and putting audio on the web. He reminded me that fear often limits us when we're capable of so much more. His story inspired me to offer help to someone who knew less about building web pages than me. Most of all, George taught me not to shy away from working hard when the work has to be done. I'm still processing what I read regarding the racial issues. I think it's important, but I'm not sure how to use it to help other people yet. Maybe I'll read this book again.

Stormpay is putting this project together, and I'm 100 percent with them. Please take a moment to honor our fallen heroes and troops. Here's a copy of their email.


Dear StormPay Member,

It’s been 5 years since the horrific attack on the Twin Towers in New York. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the 9-11 attacks.

Our thoughts and prayers are also with the troops who are fighting the terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas throughout the world. These troops
need our support and need to know we are behind them, and that we care deeply about them.

StormPay.com has created a special “Remembrance Wall” where Internet users can post a short note to our soldiers, and/or their thoughts on Sept. 11, 2001.
These notes will be printed, packaged, and sent to the troops letting them know we care.

We ask that you take a moment out of your day to post a note of thanks to the troops or a special reflection on that terrible day, on the Internet “Remembrance
Wall”. We’re sure this will mean a lot to our troops. Please post your note and forward the web address to all you know so that they may also post a note
to our troops.

We ask that along with signing the “Remembrance Wall”, you burn a candle on your house steps, or burn an electric candle in your window on Monday 9-11-06
in special remembrance of the fallen 9-11 victims.

The Internet “Remembrance Wall” can be found at
http://www.stormpay.com/wall/ .

Sincerely,

The StormPay Team

StormPay.com
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Clarksville, TN 37043

Can we really change with the sound of the buzzer?

Sometimes the seeds of change are sown in a small event, something that happens often and that goes unnoticed most of the time. This morning's lesson came from the insistent buzz of our dryer. Can you relate to this one?

I sat at my desk, working on answering an email. One of my housemates had put a load of clothes into the dryer, turning on the wrinkle guard. For those of you who don't have this feature on your dryer, it dries your clothes and then buzzes every 5 minutes until you remove your clothes. This buzz cycle goes on for around 45 minutes or so unless you open the dryer door. The buzzer on our dryer is unusually loud and raucous to me. I think the sound of it could wake a dead man.

After turning the dryer on, my housemate left to have lunch and go shopping with a friend. At the first buzz of the dryer, I felt a flicker of annoyance but continued working. I began to fume and smolder at the second buzz. By the third buzz, my annoyance had turned into frustrated anger and some choice words for my housemate's inconsiderate behavior. Finally, after the fourth buzz, I got up and went to turn off the dryer, grumbling about my housemate and the wrinkle guard all the way. By now, I was in a bad mood and was completely distracted from my work.

I snagged a cup of coffee on my way back to my desk, and that is when it happened. A new way of seeing dawned on me. I began to realize that though I was faced with an unpleasant situation, my choices compounded it and created more bad feelings toward my housemate. Was she inconsiderate in leaving the house with the dryer set like that? To me, she was. However, she might not have given the matter any thought. She may not have even realized how annoying I would find this situation to be. More than that, how did I respond to the situation? I tried to ignore the dryer for a long time, hoping it would magically go away. Logically, that wasn't a realistic expectation since I know how wrinkle guard works. Because it continued to make noise, I then began to think badly about both my housemate and the company who makes our model of dryer. I let myself get into a grumpy mood, and I lost my focus on the email I was writing. So, assuming that my housemate was inconsiderate, did my response to the situation help me in any way? I would have to say no because I ended up prolonging the situation and feeling angry. I lost productive work time doing this, and I still ended up having to turn off the dryer.

How might I have handled this differently? What could I do next time to reduce my stress? I could ask her to turn off the wrinkle guard if she leaves while doing laundry. I could turn off the dryer after the first buzz. It would disrupt my work, but I'd probably be less frustrated and distracted. I could grab my laptop and work elsewhere. I could also look into the possibility of reducing the loudness of the buzzer since that would help our entire household and solve the problem in a long-term manner. None of us likes the loud buzzer we have, and I could come out being the hero in the situation. I could also choose to quit working and leave the house if I don't feel like turning off the dryer. This is a less appealing option, but I could do it if I wanted to.

So what about you? Are there little things in your life that bug you but that you have not addressed? If someone offered you a million dollars, could you change how you respond to the situation? Are there some simple things you could do to correct them or reduce their impact on you? If so, what can you gain by taking a minute or two to put your ideas into action? You may not get a million dollars for making the change. Isn't your time and peace of mind worth more than that? You're worth it.

I have spent most of my adult life studying the lives of people who are successful in life and in business because I wanted to be one too. My discoveries parallel those of Napoleon Hill, Robert Allen, and Thomas J. Stanley, 3 men who have also spent many years studying the habits of successful people. Here are six traits that successful people share, traits you can learn and develop for yourself.

1. Successful people are dedicated learners, most of them reading for hours each day. They seem to know intuitively that continuing to learn about the world and other people is part of what lets them be creative and make sound decisions.

2. Successful people have a burning desire to accomplish the thing they are working on. It's more than a passing fancy, more intense than a dream, and is more focused than a goal. It is a melding of logic, emotion, and the spirit. Do you remember when you fell in love for the first time? That intensity is a component of burning desire.

3. Successful people develop highly specialized knowledge. They are experts in their chosen field and have learned every aspect of their field or niche. Though they do read and learn about other subjects, successful people become deeply involved in their chosen field and are rewarded for their expertise.

4. Successful people are disciplined. They use discipline to keep themselves focused, and they count on discipline to get them through hard times when they may be discouraged emotionally. Discipline gives them the self-control to do the things that aren't very much fun but must be done if their project is to succeed. I read somewhere that successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. I like that saying because it doesn't say that successful people necessarily like doing what unsuccessful people aren't willing to do. It just means that they get the thing done and keep moving.

5. Successful people tend to have a decisive nature. They are able to make most decisions fairly quickly and don't second guess themselves once a choice is made. They take full responsibility for their choices, whether the decision was the right one or not.

6. Successful people surround themselves with other successful people and people who have a can-do attitude. They network with other people and turn to successful people for encouragement when times are hard. They seem to actively avoid working with people who are habitually negative. They do their brainstorming with a carefully chosen mastermind group, and they don't let negative people steal their dreams.

Look over this list of traits of successful people. How many of them do you see in your life? What can you do to encourage development of these traits in your life? If you don't have one, what could you do to develop a mastermind group of your own?

This is so cool! Most companies have their conventions and/or training sessions in hotels or stuffy offices. Success University is breaking the rules this year. Everyone who is a rank of Director and above will be going on a 5-day fun cruise! They're even going to pay the way for everyone who is an Executive Director. A cruise in February to boot! Ok, I'm excited now. I have never liked cold weather, and this will be so much fun. Just think... While most of my friends are freezing and coping with bosses and deadlines, I will be basking in the sun. This is a goal worth working for. I've never done anything like this before. I'm ready! Bring it on! :D

I was sitting at my desk, talking to a friend of mine. I was Telling him about our team meeting tonight, and I realized just how much I love what I'm doing. How many places have you worked in where your co-workers actually help you do your job better? A lady, with no financial gain for doing this, gave me an idea to try for advertising my business. In the work world most people live in, that would be foolish because she'd lose business from helping me. With Pay-It-Forward 4 Profits, she knows that she will still have plenty of business even though she's helped me. Why is that? Because we know different groups of people, use different tools for advertising, and most of all, because we're a team that succeeds by working together. We both see that we actually build the team when we help each other. I really enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of our training calls, the laughter, and the encouragement. It isn't the pie in the sky I've seen from some groups. It's encouragement based on realistic goals, and that feels good to me. So, thank you to Linda for sharing, and thanks to Rick for keeping the flame of encouragement burning bright during our calls. Oh, and thanks to George for helping me stay organized. :)

Would you like to build a large, profitable downline that is motivated to do what it takes to succeed? If so, use this acrostic to help you remember the principles that will help you build a high-retention team. It's called the power of GIVE.

G stands for get personal. What I'm about to write applies for your existing team members if you haven't taken this step yet. When you find a new team member, don't rely on an email welcome letter. Call him to introduce yourself and let him know how to reach you. Offer to answer any questions he might have, and make it your business to get to know him. Take time to understand his goals and dreams. Don't assume that he's building a business for the same reason that motivates you. In addition, make a note of his spouse's name as well as those of his children. These are the people who are important in his life, and you should be aware of them as you build your team. Keep in touch with each team member in a way that's comfortable for them. It's ok to take notes if you're not a natural people person or don't remember things like names very well. In fact, I keep a file with index cards to remind me of birthdays, spouse names, spouse birthdays, and my team member's personality type. This system supports me well in an area of business where I was weak.

I stands for invest your time and knowledge with your team. If you've learned how to do things, teach your team members. Don't keep the information to yourself, assuming that they'll figure it out eventually. Show them which software you use, where you got your business cards, and how to talk to potential team members. If you're new to the business yourself, teach them what you know. Then invest your time in learning from your sponsor. Take an extra ten minutes to call your team members before a conference call to be sure they know where to call. Remember that you are growing a team as much as you are building one.

V stands for vision. Having an idea of how you want your team to grow and what you want from your business will make a big difference to your success. Sharing that vision with your team and asking about their vision will help you all stay focused and on track when there are setbacks. There will be setbacks; that's just part of life. At these times, your team needs to remember why they're working at it, why they want to build their own businesses. It's rarely just money that they want, and it's your job to find out what makes each team member tick. Do you see how the G, I, and V work together so far?

E stands for encouragement. Encourage your team members in some way each time you have contact with them. If you look for it, you can find at least one honestly worthwhile comment to make to each person on your team. One of my upline commented once that I ask good, insightful questions. I felt like a million bucks after that. I felt so good about myself that I plucked up the courage to tell someone about my products because I thought they'd help him. I'd been feeling shy and afraid to talk to him because I'd told myself that I was too new to my business to talk to anyone. The next time I talked to my upline, I told him what I'd done. He was excited and cheered me on. What I did probably seemed like a small step to him, but he knew that I had taken a big leap of faith to speak up. His reaction to me was like putting a match to kindling for a fire. Every time I see this man, whether it's face to face or on a packed training call, he's busy encouraging someone. I have seen this power transform shy people into successful networkers and turn on the power of creativity where people had seen themselves as too practical for such things.

Are you ready to build your downline team? You do have what it takes if you'll commit yourself to success. Use the power of GIVE and watch your business blossom.

Are you feeling overwhelmed by in inbox full of unread emails? Do you spend a lot of time doing things but find that your important projects are left untouched at the end of the day? Do you have trouble finding important papers, receipts, or notes when you need them? If any of this sounds familiar, you have an unseen enemy whose name is Chaos! Here are six powerful strategies for vanquishing your chaotic foe.

1. Spend some time figuring out what type of storage you need for your work space. It takes some fine-tuning, but every person can find an organization system that works well if they take the time to look at what they need. Invest in some hanging file folders, a desk organizer with an in and out tray, a bulletin board, a trash can, and buy a business card holder to help you keep track of the various cards you get during the week. It's much easier to keep your work space neat if you have a place for each item in your office.

2. When you pick up a piece of paper, decide what you'll do with it. Either work on it, file it, mail it, or put it in the trash. If you have a bill that you can't pay right away, put it on your bulletin board and set up a reminder on your computer to remind you to take care of it. As soon as you do, take it off the board and either file it or throw it away.

3. Each night before you stop working, take a moment to write down the six most important things you need to do the next day. Put this list on a very visible part of your desk or office space where you'll see it easily. Writing it down will keep your mind from swirling with plans and worries before bed, and it will help you focus on important things when you start work the next day. Do the items on this list first, and you'll find that things flow more smoothly.

4. Put yourself on an email diet. If you're getting mail from lists you rarely read, go no mail or unsubscribe completely. For your remaining mail, use your email client's filtering system and make folders for various types of mail. Personal mail goes to one folder, list mail goes to another, and a third folder can be used for training emails you recieve from the companies you work with.

5. Turn off the feature in your mail client that tells you each time a new email arrives. Instead, set aside a certain amount of time for email each day. Handle what you need to, delete the unnecessary junk, and then close your email program. Answering each mail as it arrives distracts you from your work and breaks your concentration.

6. Get a date book or planner. Use something that works well with your personal style. Use a print planner or a PDA. Just make sure it's portable so you can take it with you when you travel. Schedule your working time in it just as if you worked in a regular corporate office. In addition, when you get your child's schedule of school events and field trips, put those in your date book too. You can plan your work schedule around your child's schedule, so you won't be stuck choosing between a work meeting and the school Christmas play.

These strategies have a lot of power. They only work if you take the time to use them. You can do this and still be creative. In fact, you'll have more time and space for your creativity. So take a first step now. Over the next few days and weeks, you will conquer the chaos in your office and life.

I'm kind of rambling this evening. Some things are on my mind, so I thought I'd write them down. I don't know about you, but I'm going to scream if I see another "guru" pushing the Ewen Chia cloning program. The self-appointed gurus are beginning to get on my nerves this week. They seem to be very focused on recruiting affiliates, but they are doing very little to help or train the people they sign up. This isn't true in every case, of course, but many of the ones I've worked with make promises to get people to sign up and then never say a word again until it's time to ask their team members to buy the next greatest thing. Seeing some of them trying to sell me a system that costs over a thousand dollars while they won't even talk to the team members they already have makes me feel disgusted and angry. From my experiences, I have learned to ask some direct questions when someone talks to me about joining their downline or affiliate program. If the person won't answer the questions or tells me that the answers aren't important, I politely end the conversation. If you are considering becoming part of a business team, you'll do yourself a favor by asking some questions for yourself. I ask things like:

1. How will you and the company train me when I sign on? (The purpose here is to find out if you'll just be pointed to the company web site or if your sponsor will actually teach you how to succeed.)
2. Will you be my direct sponsor, or are you going to put me underneath someone else?
3. What is the average retension rate for your team? (This can be a good indicator of how well the team works over time. People who focus only on recruiting new people won't like answering this question. You'll never see 100% retension because people do leave businesses, even excellent ones. Still, it's good to know that at least half of his team has stayed around. It's also instructive to see how he handles the question itself.)
4. How many people will I need on my team in order to earn $x per month? (I use the figure $10,000 in this scenario.)
5. Will I have phone contact with you and/or the person you designate as my sponsor? (I've seen a few gurus who sponsor people and won't give them any way to contact them except by email. When I tried emailing them, I got a canned auto-reply. That's why the answer to this question matters, especially if you're new to online business.

I hope you'll find my rambling useful. This isn't really a structured article, but these issues have been on my mind all evening. If you're looking for a way to do business online where you actually get to talk with your sponsor and even the founders of the program, visit my site. I was given the world's best sponsor, and he has taught me so much about doing business with both profits and treating people well. Finally, you may want to visit Judith May's site to learn more about choosing your business wisely. She and I aren't linked financially; she's a sharp lady who has shared her wisdom with me. She taught me to ask the right questions and to be confident that I deserve answers if I'm going to invest my time and money on something. You'll like her very much. She'll give you a free ebook that has ideas in it for choosing a good business, and it has a lot of information about how to avoid being flimflammed by some of the greedy "gurus."

I have fun playing Texas Hold 'Em with friends. Did you know that playing the game or watching shows like World Tour Of Poker can help you succeed in business? I didn't realize that while I was learning to play, I was gaining valuable business skills that have translated into money in my pocket. No, not by gambling money away. :) Let me show you what I mean. I learned four things from playing poker.

First, I learned how to make the best of the cards I was dealt. I learned when to play a hand, when to take risks, and when to throw the cards away and wait to act with better ones. This kind of discernment helps a business owner make sound decisions about working with assets and when to cut a project loose if it's not producing good results. I found that when starting your own business, you will invest 2 assets—your time and your money. Depending on where you start, you'll use one of these assets more than the other. A realistic understanding of which asset you're working from can help you make the most of what you've got.

The second lesson I learned from poker is that you've got to use a strategy to win. Good players spend years learning from each other and developing a strategy that's right for them. Their strategy is reliable and flexible enough to adapt to new situations. They learn something new from each game, and they actively look for the lessons when they lose a hand. They know how much they're willing to bet in an evening, and they aren't pushed off course by setbacks because their strategy takes the slow time into account. To succeed in business, you need a strategy, a plan that will keep you on track when you're tempted to go off course or slammed by hard times.

The third lesson I learned is that while I must understand the cards I've got, I must watch my competition and adjust what I'm doing accordingly. If I have a solid straight in my hand, I still need to watch my fellow players because one of them might have a straight flush. If you only focus on your hand, you may end up broke in no time flat. Even if you've got an awesome product, don't fool yourself into thinking you've beaten your competition. In business, there are always going to be people who want to move into your market. People are actively creating new products and services, and yours could be left in the dust if you aren't paying attention. The difference here is that you may find that good strategies include partnering with your competitors and funding joint ventures. Unlike poker, you both can win.

The last and most important lesson I learned from playing poker is that risk isn't the four-letter word! Risk is a good thing if you have studied your competition and know you have a good hand. The reality of business is that you will have to do some things you've never done before or that make you feel nervous. This is a good thing because you become a better person once you push through your fear of taking a risk. I used to worry about what would happen if I lost a bet. I played to prevent losing instead of playing to win. There's a big difference between those things. Playing to win means putting yourself out there, letting people know you've got a good product or service. Playing so you won't lose usually results in you losing or barely breaking even because you can't do the very things that cause your business to sky rocket to the top.

In summary, I learned to use my assets well, implement a winning strategy, to respond to my competition, and to push past the fear of losing. Think about other activities you've done over the years. What skills did you learn? How can you use them to build your successful business?

Women have 3 assets that I see as secret weapons in the business world. For the past 30 years or so, women have been encouraged to behave as their male counterparts do so they can succeed and achieve equality. To me, this is backward and counterproductive because they have several valuable skills that businesses need to grow and serve their customers well. Since people are unique, these assets show up differently in each woman. Today I'll share the 3 most important of these abilities with you. My hope is that these skills will be recognized for the powerhouses of strength that they truly are.

Women have strong verbal communication skills. In fact, scientists and psychologists tell us that women speak more than 3 times as many words during a day than men do. Furthermore, our conversations tend to involve responsive listening and focus on the process of relations rather than sharing facts. Women know how to build rapport, understand a person's strengths and weaknesses, and can easily include encouragement in conversation. Businesses need effective communication and team building skills, especially in sales, marketing, and negotiations.

Second, women are intuitively skilled negotiators. They have been conditioned for centuries to get what they want through negotiation and community. No matter how you feel about it, this is an historical fact and is our present reality. Women had little economic power, and they learned how to work in a system where they weren't the boss. Rather than direct bloody fighting and wars, they learned to work with others and create good compromises or find a win/win outcome. Now that they have economic freedom, they can use the skills they've learned to help themselves reach their goals and do it with class. these skills can help an organization flourish by creating partnerships with those they do business with. Win/win situations are good for everybody, and women have a talent for finding ways to make that happen. They've done this socially for centuries, and their mothers have taught them these skills from infancy. Women just don't recognize it and thus think they can't negotiate in business matters. They can, and they can often see win/win options that their male colleagues miss.

The final secret weapon women have is their ability to work as part of a team. Again, this is partially due to their inborn character as a female and partially due to their cultural conditioning. Have you ever noticed that when you're with a group at a restaurant, one woman at the table says she's going to use the ladies room; almost immediately others will go with her? They often will go as a group and will come back to the table together. You don't see this behavior from men. Our culture seems to value the image of a self-made tycoon who takes the business world by storm. Reality is very different though. Most "self-made" business tycoons have a quality team of support staff behind them. It is actually the power of the team that brings success. Those companies who reward employees for good teamwork will profit and will survive when hard times come. Women excel at teamwork, and they should be sought out for this quality. Mary Kay Ash understood this well, and she became wealthy by creating a team and helping each team member to reach his/her personal goals.

Women who recognize the power of these 3 secret weapons can accomplish anything they want to do. Using her strong communication skills, her ability to negotiate well, and her teamwork skills, the sky is the limit. Will she be a self-made tycoon? Probably not, and to me, that's as it should be. Can she build wealth and reach her dreams? Yes! You would win that bet!

Getting orders for your products and services is often a matter of building relationships with your customers and doing little things that make you stand out from the crowd. Here are some road-tested techniques to help you jumpstart your sales.

1. Turn part of your web site into a members only
web site. Instead of charging for access, use it as
a free bonus for one of your products.

2. Create a free ebook directory on a specific topic
at your web site. People will visit your web site to
read the free ebooks and will see your product ad.

3. Add a free classified ad section to your web site.
You could then trade banner ads with other web
sites that have free classified ad sections.

4. Create two versions of your e-zine so people
can choose if they want ads included with it or not.
This will attract the people who hate ads to subscribe. Then offer a free bonus to your subscribers to thank them for signing up.

5. Publish your e-zine only on your web site. Have
people subscribe to a "new issue" e-mail reminder.
This could really increase your traffic and sales, especially if your newsletter has video and audio segments.

6. Sell advertising space in your product package.
You could sell ad space on inserts, flyers, brochures, booklets,
and digital ads for electronic products.

7. Offer daily or weekly visitor bonuses. This will
increase your repeat traffic and sales because your
visitors will visit regularly to get the visitor bonuses. Jim Edwards is a master of this technique and has built up an army of loyal, expectant customers. We open his emails just to see what he'll do next.

8. Tell your affiliates that for every 10 products they sell, they get one to sell for a 100% commission. Post a web page where you list the name of each seller who has reached this bonus level, and make the names clickable to that affiliate's primary home page. Your affiliates will love the extra links to their site as well as the bonus commission.

9. Allow people to download software or e-books
from your web site at no cost. Just ask your visitors
in return if they'll refer their friends to your web site. Make sure you provide a tell a friend for them to do so.

10. Build up the number of people that join your free
affiliate program quickly by temporarilly offering your
product for free to the people that sign up.

11. Negotiate with e-zine publishers to get free or
discounted ads by letting them join your affiliate
program and earn commissions on the ad you run.

12. Create a bring your buddy sale where you offer your services at half price to everyone who brings a buddy to sign up. Offer a special free bonus to the buddy so he'd have an incentive to visit your site when his friend invites him.
Ok, now you've got some great ideas. What are you going to do with them? Drop me a line and let me know how these are working for you. Get started today.

I wrote this article to help some of my team members understand some of the options they have to promote their sites. I hope that you, my reader, will find this useful too.

Business owners opt for internet advertising methods because there are over a billion people using the internet for various reasons. Practically one sixth of the world's population does at least part of their business online. If you have your own business, you have to decide on which internet advertising methods work for you. You need to decide on the dollar amount you can spend for marketing. Ask yourself who your products will help and what kind of people want what you are offering. what are you going to use: the expensive internet advertising methods or the no cost ones? How about a combination approach? Many people operate on a shoestring budget and know they need the low-cost options. Others will immediately choose the more expensive options, assuming price equals quality and results. They don't know that the cheaper internet advertising methods attract great benefits as well.

Here's the lowdown on internet advertising options and a comparative look at the low-cost and more expensive internet marketing methods:

The Expensive:

1. Pop-ups. Not only is this form of advertising expensive, but also has the drawback of being annoying to web surfers so that visitors often close pop-up windows without even bothering to know what they're all about. If you have a small budget, this is an internet advertising method that you can do without. Fly ads are derivatives of pop-ups which are less irksome to most visitors. They may be worth your consideration.

2. Buying leads. Because marketing to a list of interested people can be very profitable, many businesses buy contact information for people who have expressed interest in the general line of products the business offers. This can be a smart move if your lead provider is reputable and skilled with finding prospects. There are some lead generation companies who use unethical tactics including spam, so it's important to check out the company before signing up. Additionally, the cost of good leads can eat up your marketing budget rapidly unless you use your system wisely.

3. Podcasts. Broadcast is to TV as pod cast is to internet. It's one powerful internet advertising method that can work well with your marketing budget. If you're thinking results, pod casting is worth the money. Your expenses will come from getting a decent microphone, sound editing software, and buying bandwidth for customers to download your podcasts.

4. Paying the search engines. This is a simple strategy to implement. You buy ad space, and the search engine will display your ad above your customer's search results. When someone types in a keyword related to your site, some search engines will place your URL automatically in the first page of the top search results. Fixed payment for the search engine allows just that. There is also another internet advertising method: the pay-per-click system where you only pay for ads when customers click on your link. Expensive? Yes, but if we're talking about Google and Yahoo search engines here, it's worth the expense. Don't give it a second thought. However, paying for a lot of advertising on lesser known search engines may waste your resources because they don't get as much traffic.

The Low-cost and Free:

1. Blogging. This is my favorite! Get on the bandwagon and blog about your business, your experience as a business owner, and your website. Give your business some personality and get people interested in what you're doing. This is an internet advertising method that is popular both with people and the search engines, so you can attract business very successfully with this marketing method. Blogs are everywhere, and they are used by everyone from company presidents to grandparents. All you have to do is sign up for a blogging account, post and voila! You don't even need to pay! Two fine services you can try are Blogger and LiveJournal.

2. Submit to smaller search engines.
This is cheap and dependable. If you submit your site to smaller search engines, you have better chances to get bigger results. Large engines like Google often index the content of these smaller engines, and that's good for your site. Remember that the search engine giants are so vast that they can overlook your site easily, so this internet advertising method might just be the right one for you. Multiple exposures on other sites and search engines makes sure Google and MSN see you.

3. Reciprocal text links. This is not just cheap...this is virtually free! Ask someone to put a link for your site on their pages, and then you return the favor. A program like Link Machine can automate a reciprocal links directory. Try writing articles, post them on article directories, and put your link in the article as part of your signature. Post in forums, putting the link to your web site in your signature file. Be creative, but please don't spam anyone.

To spend money or use our own efforts, that's always the question that stumps us whenever we're trying to accomplish something. In the field of internet advertising, just take enough time to figure out what will suit your needs. Price isn't a good way to judge quality here, and you may get better results using a combination of strategies. Go for what you want as long as there are visible results.

I left LiveJournal a few months ago when I launched my business blog. I thought I'd get better search engine rankings since Google owns Blogger. I have had nothing but grief and hassles, and I've finally realized that coming back to LJ is the smart thing to do. Blogger may be free, but its cost to me has been great. I'm sharing my experiences here so I can let people know about some of the hidden pitfalls with Blogger.

First, Google can and will flag your blog as a probable spam offender without giving you the reasons for doing so. When this happens, your blog is locked down until you prove that your blog is legitimate. To do this, you must submit a form using visual verification and allow them time to review your blog. The decision to lock down a blog is made by the Google spider that indexes pages. You are treated as guilty until you prove your innocence. Mine was locked down for 5 days, and they never did tell me why. The problem occured right after I posted a short post about Google's new payment service with a link to an article on Betanews. I got a turse email saying that my blog had been locked and pointing me to a link to apply for a review. There was no person to call for help, and Google's help file simply stated that there are many reasons a blog can be flagged as spam. It didn't contain any examples of these many reasons though. Needless to say, I was pretty angry since my blog contains nothing but original posts and articles written by me. The icing on the cake came when they did unlock my account because they made no effort to tell me what triggered the spam flag. This means that it could be triggered again, and I still wouldn't know why.

The second reason I left Blogger is that it lacks the features and community feel of LJ. It's nice that they have different templates, but you have to know a lot about HTML and CSS to make your blog look nice and work well. They don't support an offline client either, and I like posting in a normal word processor.

The final reason I left Blogger is that their site is only quasi-accessible for a blind person. Their editor required me to spend a hour posting whereas I could do the same thing in five minutes on LiveJournal. So while they are owned by Google and can give me search engine ranking, I waste hours each week fighting with the site. I've finally decided that it's not worth the hassle.

I'm glad to be back home, and now I'm going to set about making this journal serve as my business and technology blog. Keep an eye out for some special links in the next few days, links to some free software and some business resources as well.

Hmm. The latest version of Semagic seems pretty cool. It's definitely more accessible than the version I tried last summer. Nice work. :)

Slashdot is carrying an article titled Website Accessibility a Legal Issue? It discusses a pending lawsuit against Target for their unwillingness to make modifications to their site's code so that blind and low vision visitors can access the site. He asks some good questions and marvels at Target's refusal to help disabled shoppers since the modifications are fairly simple to do and wouldn't change the visual design they use.

Many web designers mistakenly believe that they would have to make a separate, text only site for blind users. Modern screenreaders can handle sites with graphics, tables, frames, and even image maps if alt tags and text links are provided in some form. Flash does give us a rough time, but even that can be made accessible from within Macromedia's development tools by giving the buttons a text label in the actual code.

If you would like to read more about making your web site accessible, you can check out the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 You'll find that it's not as difficult as it sounds, and your code will also help other groups of people who cannot display images for some reason.

I'm currently reading an interesting book by Hugh Hewitt called Blog : Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World. This isn't a how-to book. Rather, it is a who, why, and how it's happening book. In it, he writes about how blogs and the people who read and write them are changing our world and how we get information for everything from politics to which car we should buy. He compares the explosion of blogging to that of the invention of the printing press in the sixteenth century. Hugh presents a case for blogging as a viable media and encourages business leaders to think about blogs as part of their business planning. He argues that traditional media sources are becoming increasingly distant from their viewers and that blogging has begun to tip the balance away from networks like CBS and ABC. He also describes how well-informed bloggers helped to shape the 2004 election and the removal of Trent Lott from his role as the majority leader in the Senate after he had made racist comments at a very public party. You'll find links to some great blogs as you read.

Hugh Hewitt is a well-known, conservative news and politics commentator in the U.S. I like the way he shows respect to us, the general public, the people who write blogs and those who read them. Whether you agree with his political position or not, I think his ideas on this subject are sound and worth considering. The links at the top of this post lead to his web site and his book on Amazon respectively. You can also purchase his book in audio format, unabridged and read by the author, from Audible. If you read the book, please let me know what you think.