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Copyright © Dave Foster – All Rights Reserved

http://www.soloprofits.com

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Do you have any dream killers in your life? Dream killers are those
people who discourage you when you are trying to change your life. It’s
amazing how many people tell their friends and family that they cannot
succeed. This is especially true when you are trying to do something
“outside of the box” like making money online or starting your own
business.

The main argument these dream killers have is that your goals are
unrealistic. They will advise you to be more “practical”, and pretend
they are offering you sound advice.

Many of them believe they are doing a favor by discouraging you. They
think they are helping you live a life in “your best interest”. But
really, they are encouraging you to a live a life without vision.

If you are really motivated toward success, doing anything less than
your ambitious goals will be unfulfilling for you. You end up wondering
what could have been. You continue to live your life for other people,
instead of yourself.

Your friends and family who discourage you from trying something new are
only giving you insight into what they would do in your position. They
do not have the vision and the drive that you do. They are only reacting
out of their own fear.

Other people take the path of least resistance, but that does not mean
that you have to. Your goals are important to you for a reason. You will
only be happy when you achieve them. Giving up on your goals because
other people think they are unrealistic is no way to live your life.

How to you overcome the dream killers in your life?

You may want to start with choosing who you spend your time with. If you
want to be self-motivated, you’ve got to spend time with other people
who are self-motivated. The same goes for the other aspects of success.

If the dream killers in your life are close relatives, and long time
friends, try keeping your business goals to yourself for a while until
you get going. By the time you’ve had a little success, they will
probably be a lot more supportive.

Finally, the best way to overcome the dream killers in your life is to
be confident in yourself and your goals. If you are truly confident in
yourself and your ideas, then no one can stop you.

Keep your goals and dreams in front of you all the time. They will be
your motivation, when some of your “well-meaning friend” try to
discourage you.

Don’t let anyone steal YOUR DREAM!

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Dave Foster owns and operates the “Solo Profits” blog and podcast,
guiding individual entrepreneurs and home-based business owners to
online success using audio, video and multimedia techniques. Dave
also explores the virgin territory of multimedia psychology and how
to present your message effectively through these new communications
channels.

Want to discover more? Go To ==>> http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Copyright © Dave Foster – All Rights Reserved

http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I remember my first foray into the online world way back in the late
September of 2003. It was when we were switched on to broadband here in
the wilds of North West Durham, in the UK.

Until then I had only used the internet for minutes at a time (on dial
up) and only for the most necessary tasks in my longstanding, and
stress-laden offline business.

Now that I had a 24/7 super-speed connection, there was no stopping me.
I wanted to know everything I could about building a business online and
becoming stinking rich, without all the trials and tribulations that
accompanied a traditional bricks-and-mortar operation. This was going to
be the “Magic Bullet”!

Literally the first name I uncovered during my research was a company
called Site Sell. I’d be very surprised if you’ve not heard the name
yourself, but if not then I’ll tell you more in a moment.

I spent hours reading through the company’s excellent information about
their unique approach to building a business online. Although I was a
little skeptical, I kept on reading and writing. I then made my very
first purchase online, which was an ebook written by the company’s CEO,
I’ll tell you more about this person in a moment.

I read the book from cover to cover twice and thought “Hey, this is the
answer. I’ll go with this system and I’ll be fine”. Yes, it was going to
be a bit of work and take time but I felt it was the correct way to go.
However, before I clicked the Site Sell buy button, which would by now
have totally changed my life, I saw another link to another company,
purporting to do the same thing, only faster. Then there was another,
then another… Blah, blah, blah – You know exactly what I’m saying
don’t you?

Before long I was suffocating under tons and tons of online marketing
noise and blather. Every time I tried to get back to square one, I’d
find myself swept back down the online rapids, paralyzed by the sheer
volume of information and counter information.

The upshot is I didn’t start to build my online business using Site
Sell’s premier product “Site Build It!” until quite recently. I’ve
literally lost 4+ years of what could have now been a thriving online
enterprise. However, I’m doing it now (not in the fast lane… this is
at a slow and easy pace… and you know, it’s a pleasure to do and
working out just fine).

Why am I telling you this? I assume you are in a similar position in
that you want to get a profitable online business up and running as
quickly as possible. If that’s the case take a bit of advice from
someone who fell right into all the online marketing traps. Slower is
faster when it comes to building your business online.

The folks at SiteSell are always on the cutting edge of everything
e-business. They’ve helped tens of thousands of people launch successful
Web businesses with “Site Build It” also known as SBI!.

SiteSell has an absolutely unique perspective about business, and life.
Take a peek inside the world of SiteSell at this blog post by the person
I like to think of as the Grandaddy of successful online business, Ken
Evoy, SiteSell’s CEO.

Ken has strong feelings about how even seasoned business people succumb
to “the lure of the speed of the Web”… Get ready because in the busy
and noisy blogosphere, you’re in for some quiet, original, and valuable
thinking, not to mention unique insights into SiteSell itself.

Here’s the link to Ken’s Blog post again.

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Dave Foster owns and operates the “Solo Profits” blog and podcast,
guiding individual entrepreneurs and home-based business owners to
online success using audio, video and multimedia techniques. Dave
also explores the virgin territory of multimedia psychology and how
to present your message effectively through these new communications
channels.

Want to discover more? Go To ==>> http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Copyright © Dave Foster – All Rights Reserved

http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The derivation of the word blog comes from web logging, as it used to
be known. It has changed a lot in its development and now blogging is a
front line tool in the Internet promotion tool box. It is now used to
promote products and services and presents another platform to to
communicate with the visitor and develop a lasting relationship with
them.

Having created the the business blog you can then monetize it as well
as personalize it to your own requirements. Once created, you can make
money out of the blog by syndicating it through RSS to your business
website. If you have decided that you will set up a blog for business,
below are a few tips on how to make it one of the more interesting and
popular blogs.

1 – Your audience. You are writing your blog post for your audience to
read, so don’t forget that what you write is of interest to them. They
have searched for through a keyword, or keyword phrase, and arrived at
your blog. So, make sure they are happy with what they find and even
interested enough to look a little further into your blog, and maybe
visit your website.

2 – Words fail – see sketch. A large block of text can become very
boring when reading, especially online. A picture or graphic or two
placed within the text breaks up the strict framework of the post and
keeps the reader interested through to the end. It is especially true
if the picture is relevant to the subject of the post.

3 – The content needs to be relevant. The posts made to your business
blog need to be relevant to the subject of the blog. In other words the
blog is set up around your niche market and with keywords and keyword
phrases that are relevant to the subject. The intent is to draw traffic
to your blog based on those keywords and keyword phrases. The business
blog needs to create a special relationship with its visitors with the
aim to sell products or services/ If you consistently write good
quality posts to your blog the visitor will return for more of the
“good stuff”, and will eventually trust that you know what you are
talking about and buy one of your recommended products or services.

4 – Keep things simple. The art of good communication is to keep things
simple. Keep away from the technical jargon unless absolutely necessary
and try to keep the sentences short and to the point.

5 – Make it interactive. Audio and video are very good interactive
methods, but all blogs come with a “comments” facility for each post
made. Make sure that this feature is not turned off, and all comments
must be approved before publishing them.

Before starting out with your blog you will need to do some
pre-planning as to how you will personalize and monetize the blog, as
well as how often you will post to it. An important fact to resolve is
where will the content for each post come from. A good business blog
needs a steady stream of interesting and relevant content in order to
become a profitable venture – how will you complete this task? Remember
that no plan is a plan to failure.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dave Foster owns and operates the “Solo Profits” blog and podcast,
guiding individual entrepreneurs and home-based business owners to
online success using audio, video and multimedia techniques. Dave
also explores the virgin territory of multimedia psychology and how
to present your message effectively through these new communications
channels.

Want to discover more? Go To ==>> http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Copyright © Dave Foster – All Rights Reserved

http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

OK, so you have been working your business for a while but yet you seem
to continue having issues with your business planning. Have you
considered that you might have holes in your business plan?

What are holes? Glad you asked. Holes are those things that may cause
you to lose money, allowing potential business clients to slip through
your fingers.

Some examples of holes are as follows:

Income funnel not present: an income funnel allows you to build your
mailing list while also allowing you to upsell your products to your
mailing list.

Missing outsourcing opportunities: outsourcing opportunities allow you
to hire others to handle tasks that would be more financially
reasonable for someone else to complete.

Not holding teleseminars: when you hold a teleseminar, you can also
record it so that you can sell the audio or transcript as a product via
your website.

No financial plan: in order to understand where you business is going
financially; a plan must be in place. The plan will help you by showing
when you should make changes in your business too reflect growth.

Lack of a crisis management plan: having a crisis management plan in
place will help you be ready to handle tragedy when it happens.
Examples of tragedies are computer failure, fire destroying office
equipment, or flood damage to office.

The above list is just a short list of holes that you might find in
your business. Regardless of what type of holes that you find in your
business, you need to take action to fix them.

One final area that would be considered a hole is not have a business
mentor. A business mentor is someone who provides sound advice and
direction to you as you manage your business. Some of the
characteristics of a good business mentor are:

~ Ability to give you constructive feedback

~ Successful in own business

~ Experienced at mentoring business owners

~ Able to be real and truthful to you

~ You are open to receiving their feedback

~ You respect their opinion

These are just a few of things that you should consider when looking
for a business mentor. Just keep in mind that a good business mentor
will fit well into your business plan. If the mentor does not fit, you
need to give more thought to whether you want to keep them or get a new
one.

So be an undercover agent and work to find the holes that may be
holding back your business.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dave Foster owns and operates the “Solo Profits” blog and podcast,
guiding individual entrepreneurs and home-based business owners to
online success using audio, video and multimedia techniques. Dave
also explores the virgin territory of multimedia psychology and how
to present your message effectively through these new communications
channels.

Want to discover more? Go To ==>> http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Copyright © Dave Foster – All Rights Reserved

http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A lot of people ask me how multimedia fits in with the WWW.

Well, it is the next logical progression in this amazing phenomenon we
call the Internet, which didn’t actually exist (as we know it) 12 or so
years ago. The damned thing wasn’t even invented until 1989… here’s a
crash history.

Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the Web. In 1989, Tim was working in
a computing services section of CERN when he came up with the concept
(web); at the time he had no idea that it would be implemented on such
an enormous scale. Particle physics research often involves
collaboration among institutes from all over the world. Tim had the idea
of enabling researchers from remote sites in the world to organize and
pool together information. But far from simply making available a large
number of research documents as files that could be downloaded to
individual computers; he suggested that you could actually link the text
in the files themselves.

In other words, there could be cross-references from one research paper
to another. This would mean that while reading one research paper, you
could quickly display part of another paper that holds directly relevant
text or diagrams. Documentation of a scientific and mathematical nature
would thus be represented as a ‘web’ of information held in electronic
form on computers across the world. This, Tim thought, could be done by
using some form of hypertext, some way of linking documents together by
using buttons on the screen, which you simply clicked on to jump from
one paper to another.

Tim’s simple but effective idea turned out to be the greatest
communication device of humanity even if it was not supported by big
companies and manufacturers. For instance, Hewlett-Packard, in common
with many other large computer companies, was quite unconvinced that the
Internet would be a success; indeed, the need for a global hypertext
system simply passed them by. For many large corporations, the question
of whether or not any money could be made from the Web was unclear from
the outset.

Later, especially after Mosaic, the first web browser was released; the
competition between the companies became more obvious. The later version
of Mosaic in competition with the Microsoft Internet Explorer added new
features to the HTML language like n-compass and active-x controls
respectively. Meanwhile, the World Wide Web Consortium was formed to
fulfill the potential of the Web through the development of open
standards. They had a strong interest in HTML. Just as an orchestra
insisting on the best musicians, the consortium recruited many of the
best-known names in the Web community headed up by Tim Berners-Lee.
During 1995, all kinds of new HTML tags emerged. Some, like the BGCOLOR
attribute of the BODY element and FONT FACE, which control stylistic
aspects of a document, found themselves in the black books of the
academic engineering community. “You’re not supposed to be able to do
things like that in HTML,” they would protest. In the end, the
technology of web was for the pure purpose of science and technology. It
was not supposed to turn into a multimedia “tool”. It was their belief
that such things as text color, background texture, font size and font
face were definitely outside the scope of a language when their only
intent was to specify how a document would be organized.

While the W3 Consortium was working on already the HTML 3, the web
design was benefiting the competition between the Netscape and IE. Even
for the good intentions of the consortium, the big corporations insisted
on creating their own derivatives for HTML. This was creating many
compatibility problems. Finally, following the success of the November,
1995 meeting, the World Wide Web Consortium formed the HTML Editorial
Review Board to help with the standardization process. This board
consisted of representatives from IBM, Microsoft, Netscape, Novell,
Softquad and the W3 Consortium, and did its business via telephone
conference and email exchanges, meeting approximately once every three
months. Its aim was to collaborate and agree upon a common standard for
HTML, thus putting an end to the era when browsers each implemented a
different subset of the language. The bad fairy of incompatibility was
to be banished from the HTML kingdom forever, or one could hope so,
perhaps.

The incompatibility was not banished but was at least minimized.
However, HTML kept on growing and the last versions like the dynamic
HTML, like HTML 4.0 brought new colors and usages for this language.
Especially after the edition of style sheets, it became extremely
difficult to standardize the view of a web page depending on the browser
you use.

As you can see, HTML was written for the pure purpose of information
sharing but turned into a mass communication mechanism. It was supposed
to be an organizational language, and yet became a multimedia source
where you can edit the layout and add images, sound and many other
multimedia files. We can blame the evolution process of this language
for the non-standardized nature of it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dave Foster owns and operates the “Solo Profits” blog and podcast,
guiding individual entrepreneurs and home-based business owners to
online success using audio, video and multimedia techniques. Dave
also explores the virgin territory of multimedia psychology and how
to present your message effectively through these new communications
channels.

Want to discover more? Go To ==>> http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Copyright © Dave Foster – All Rights Reserved

http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Last year saw the arrival of online social media. If you operate
a website or blog, you would be well advised to realign your
site to exploit the popular social media sites for increased
traffic.

You should also introduce social media components to your site
because web users are experiencing these new forms of
interaction on more and more sites and they will have an
expectation of the same from your site too.

If you want to attract repeat visitors and want them to stay
longer, your focus for the next few months should be on the
social aspects of your site.

Social media uses technologies like RSS, blogging, podcasting,
tagging, etc. and offer social networking (MySpace, Facebook),
social video and picture sharing (YouTube, Flickr), and
community-based content ranking (Digg, MiniClip) features.

The central theme of these sites is user generated content used
for sharing amongst other users. The social aspects of these
sites allow users to setup social communities, invite friends
and share common interests.

You don’t have to change your site immediately to take
advantages of these new technologies. Introduce small changes
incrementally and you will be well on your way to measure up to
your visitors’ new expectations.

Step 1. Declare who you are to the online community. People
should be able to relate to you. Unless they know more about
you, you will be just an unknown identity and most people don’t
like to deal with people they don’t know. Create an About Me
page to list your achievements skills and aspirations.

Step 2. Create a MySpace page and link your biography in the
Profile of your MySpace page. Also provide a link back from the
MySpace page to your website. Spend an hour every week to develop
your online social network in MySpace. Invite a few of your new
friends to write blog articles at your site about your products
or services.

Step 3. Install a free blog and start publishing at least one
article in your blog every week. Provide an easy bookmarking
feature to social bookmarking sites like delicious (just like
the ones at the bottom of this post). This is done by providing
an action button for each article in your site. The action
button takes users to the submission page of the bookmarking
site.

Step 4. Provide an action button for direct posting of blog
articles to digg. Digg is a popular news ranking site. A well
dugg article will bring thousands of visitors to you.

Step 5. Provide a forum at your site for users to discuss your
products and services. Don’t delete negative comments because
they provide insights into the improvements needed to serve your
visitors better. However, censor hate speeches and meaningless
bantering. Register your forum at BoardTracker. BoardTracker is
a forum search engine.

Step 6. If you are offering products, allow users to review and
rate your products. This will help you in inventory management
because you may want to discontinue low rated products.

Step 7. Provide RSS feeds for your new products, blogs, forum
postings, etc. An RSS feed provides teasers of your content.
Users will use RSS readers to scan your teasers and visit your
site for more information if the teasers interest them.

Step 8. Publish all your feeds at feedburner. Feedburner
provides media distribution and audience engagement services for
RSS feeds. They also provide an advertising network for your
feeds. If you have quality content, you will be able to monetize
your material using their services.

Step 9. Create short how-to or new product videos and post these
videos in social video sharing sites like YouTube, Google video.
Provide a few start and end frames in these videos to introduce
your site with your site url. Post these videos using catchy
titles, teaser descriptions, and appropriate tags to make them
easy to discover.

Step 10. Provide embedded links to your remotely hosted videos
on your site. This will save your bandwidth and storage space
because the videos reside in the video sharing sites rather than
on your own site’s server.

Step 11. As well as videos, use social photo sharing sites like
Flickr and SmugMug to share pictures related to content in your
site. Use the same title, description and tag techniques
discussed earlier for social video sites.

Step 12. Provide a “Send to Friend” feature for all the products
and services you offer. This feature is a link that sends the
article, product description, etc. to a recipient via e-mail.

Social media is not a fad. It is here to stay and brings a
profound change to web surfers’ experiences. Now is the right
time to implement features that will make your site
Social-Media-Friendly. Also, using marketing techniques that
utilize popular social media sites, you will see a massive
increase in traffic to your site.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dave Foster owns and operates the “Solo Profits” blog and podcast,
guiding individual entrepreneurs and home-based business owners to
online success using audio, video and multimedia techniques. Dave
also explores the virgin territory of multimedia psychology and how
to present your message effectively through these new communications
channels.

Want to discover more? Go To ==>> http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Copyright © Dave Foster – All Rights Reserved

http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Streaming video is here and the Internet is rapidly spreading the
use of streaming multimedia, no longer is it about the technical
ability to download audio-visual files before playing them.
Technology has moved on (right in front of our eyes) to deliver
full-blown, good quality video streaming.

From marketing tools, to movie clips – from online infomercials
to streaming TV and live webcasting. Like it or not, we are in
the grip of a major shift in online communication and we will
all have to embrace this technology as our ‘first-generation’
static (text-based) websites gradually become extinct.

Time scale? Probably two years.

The first true video search engine, Google Video, shows that
this streaming video technology is becoming part of the day to
day Internet experience for millions upon millions of people,
hence the recent Google take over of the widely used YouTube
video site for a conservative $1.65 billion…What a bargain!
Why? Because Google knows how important it is to be positioned
at the front of the online video curve.

YouTube was founded in February 2005 as a means for people to
watch and share original video. Within two years it has grown
into a site where more than 70 million videos are watched every
day (figures are climbing day by day so when you read this, the
real numbers could be way above that).

Most experts agree that worldwide technology is rapidly moving
to the point of true convergence between the Internet,
television and telecommunications systems that will provide one
single service or application for a truly multimedia world.

The major advantage of YouTube-type technology over other forms
of internet video is the playback system, based on Macromedia
FlashPlayer 7, which is already preloaded onto more than 85% of
computers connected to the Internet.

This offers a distinct advantage for viewers who can immediately
play video files on their computers rather than have to download
and install additional software. It provides true point and
click functionality.

Online video is here to stay. YouTube’s rapid growth has far
exceeded that of other household name websites such as
Craigslist, Myspace, even eBay and Blogger. That has to be
absolute proof that online streaming video has at last arrived
and is here to stay.

The whole point of this brief synopsis is to illustrate the
massive impact online video has had – and will continue to have
- not only on the Internet, but also on traditional media such
as network television. Experts agree that online video will be
the largest and fastest growing global advertising medium over
the next few years.

Most of the video clips posted on sites such as Google Video and
YouTube are by amateurs looking for a few laughs, some notoriety
and their 15 minutes of fame. However, with a little tweaking,
this worldwide video delivery system can be used to drive
traffic to websites and get your message in front of millions of
potential customers, at almost no cost.

However, there’s more to this than simply uploading a video and
hoping people stumble across it. The basic rules of keyword
research and relevant descriptions apply just as much to this
form of online promotion as they do to promoting a website.

Whether you’re selling a product, a principle or an idea,
there’s absolutely no doubt that (for the moment) online
streaming video services provide online marketers with the
perfect vehicle for massive global publicity – though it may
only be for a limited period, as it’s highly likely that the
door to this particular free ride will be slammed shut within
the next few months as more people catch on!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dave Foster owns and operates the “Solo Profits” blog and podcast,
guiding individual entrepreneurs and home-based business owners to
online success using audio, video and multimedia techniques. Dave
also explores the virgin territory of multimedia psychology and how
to present your message effectively through these new communications
channels.

Want to discover more? Go To ==>> http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

- by Dave Foster

Copyright © Dave Foster – All Rights Reserved

http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Autoresponders are one of the most simple to use yet most
effective promotional tools created in recent times and are an
essential requirement for any online business. You may hear the
terms, automatic emailer, email responder, autobot or mailbot.
Whatever the term, the important point is that an autoresponder
will automatically answer incoming email messages on your behalf
and once set up, will continue to do so indefinitely, without
further intervention from you.

No matter what task an autoresponder is performing, the biggest
benefit it offers is that of saving you time. Autoresponders
never take a break, they tirelessly work 24/7 all year round and
for no extra pay, they very rarely get sick…(as long as you
have a reliable service provider), they never question your
decisions or the tasks you have set them and they follow your
instructions to the letter.

If you’ve noticed that I’m using the plural ‘autoresponders’
that is because even though you will opt for one autoresponder
service provider, every campaign you run will need a separate
autoresponder sequence, which is simply a series of response
messages concentrating on one specific issue. For example; you
may have an autoresponder set up to welcome new subscribers to
your newsletter and maybe follow through with a short series of
related messages. You will also need to set up another one to
send out chapters of your e-course over a predetermined time
span. You will need yet another to follow up with customers who
have bought your ebook or special report and so on. Therefore
you will be dealing with one autoresponder service provider
account with which you can run multiple campaigns, each one
being known as an “autoresponder”.

We all realize that the Internet is growing day by day and will
continue to do so with thousands of new users coming online in a
never-ending stream. This means that you have an expanding
international marketplace at your disposal. Naturally,
competition is fierce…especially in certain markets (such as
internet marketing;-). There are many thousands of companies
vying for attention and business so you must do whatever it
takes to get an “edge”. The last thing you want to happen is
that you gain that edge, attract hundreds of visitors to your
site every day and then fail to capitalize on the advantage you
have worked hard to win.

Internet companies and marketers know full-well that bringing in
visitors is only the very first step in doing online business.
What you must do next is convert visitors into paying customers.
They know from experience there is no way they will convert every
visitor, they also know that very few visitors buy anything on
their first visit. It’s statistically proven that it takes an
average of five to seven visits before a person will pull out
the plastic and make a purchase online. Therefore it follows, to
succeed on the Internet you have to bring back those visitors
time and time again until they like and trust you enough to do
business.

That is where autoresponders are indispensable. Successful
online businesses understand that to bring back potential paying
customers they need to use the autoresponder process to stay in
touch with visitors. The most effective technique is to offer
visitors something as an incentive to return, which could be
something like additional information relating directly to the
site’s theme (niche) in the form of an ebook or a free report.

If your website or blog already contains lots of useful
information and/or you produce a regular newsletter, your offer
could be for free notifications of new updates or a free
subscription. Anything of quality will do as long as it’s about,
or closely related to, the subject in which your visitors are
interested.

Your autoresponder will generate code for you to cut and paste
into your website or blog. This creates a subscription form that
you can place just below your offer for visitors to provide you
with their name and email address. You will then need to write a
generic response to your subscribers’ requests and load it into
your autoresponder for immediate response when they submit the
form.

Something like this may be appropriate: Hi (name), and thank you
for requesting more information about XYZ. You will receive the
first part of the mini-course as soon as you confirm your
details by clicking this special link http://www.1234abcd (not a
real link) – Your details will never be disclosed to anyone else
and you can unsubscribe at any time “guaranteed”… Regards,
(your name).

This is what is known as double opt-in because your visitor has
to confirm their intention to be part of your subscriber list
before then can receive the first release of information. The
information, in this case a mini-course, would be a series of
say, seven short reports about the subject in which your
subscriber is interested, each one pre-set to be released by the
autoresponder to your subscriber at specific intervals after
their first contact (e.g. Part 1 – released immediately, Part 2
- released on day 3, Part 3 – released on day 5, Part 4 -
released on day 7 etc.).

This high level response will show that you are serious about
providing quality information in a professional manner and will
also cement your relationship with subscribers who will feel
increasingly more confident in you as a person with which they
can do business. The great advantage of using this method of
contact and delivery is that is provides a personal service to
individual clients on a scale that would otherwise be impossible
for a solo operator to achieve.

To most people, customer service ranks higher than price point
and other purchasing factors. Autoresponders help the individual
business person to provide that service in an easy and affordable
way. Although your main objective in business is to make sales,
your first priority online should be to offer top-flight
information and thus capture as many names and email addresses
as possible. This is the absolute bedrock of any successful
Internet business.

Put your autoresponders to work and establish a sense of total
trust within your visitors…the sales will follow. Your
autoresponders will help to keep your customers and leads happy
and up to date with your information. Most of all, they will
feel special because you are sharing and taking good care of
them.

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Dave Foster owns and operates the “Solo Profits” blog and podcast,
guiding individual entrepreneurs and home-based business owners to
online success using audio, video and multimedia techniques. Dave
also explores the virgin territory of multimedia psychology and how
to present your message effectively through these new communications
channels.

Want to discover more? Go To ==>> http://www.soloprofits.com

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Copyright © Dave Foster – All Rights Reserved

http://www.soloprofits.com

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Building and operating a home-based business offers a number of
super benefits. Not only do you have a better than average
opportunity to earn higher income (compared to what you can earn
in a traditional J.O.B…which as we know, is the true acronym
for ‘Just Over Broke’), there are also significant lifestyle
benefits as well.

Whether lifestyle or monetary, these benefits can be far greater
than those you receive working for an employer. In addition to
the fact that your life is no longer controlled by a time clock,
you no longer have to go cap-in-hand to your employer whenever
you need a raise, a vacation, or time off due to sickness
(either your own or that of a family member).

If you are already working in your own home-based business or
just entertaining the idea, be sure to evaluate your options and
consider the value of the benefits you will receive. Home-based
business opportunities can provide you with total independence
and financial freedom, if you make smart decisions.

Not everyone is motivated purely by money when they decide to
start their home-based business. Sometimes more esoteric reasons
take precedence over pure financial gain when considering
home-based business opportunities.

One of the more powerful advantages to working from home is the
sense that you regain your independence. You set your own
schedule, work the hours that are most convenient for you, and
have time available for family obligations and leisure
activities. Parents with children in school are particularly
well placed to gain from running a home-based business. Teacher
conferences, after school activities and the ability to be home
when the children are out of school are strong motivators in
making the decision to start a home-based business. Working from
home gives you the benefit of flexible hours and the freedom to
adjust your schedule according to the needs of your family.

A massive advantage (one that I eagerly support at every
opportunity) is that the moment you step off the
employer/employee merry-go-round, you have effectively severed
the ‘hold’ that the depersonalized corporate world has over you.
You have regained your very own super-power. In short, you get
back your life!

What other benefits are there? Stress reduction is a huge
advantage of operating a home-based business. Any
entrepreneurial activity will likely produce its own levels of
stress and as humans, we do need a certain amount of stress in
order to function effectively. But unhealthy, prolonged and
enforced stressful factors can be avoided when you take
advantage of the more interesting and enjoyable home business
opportunities that are available to you.

Additional benefits; You will have no daily commute, you will
save money on gas and automobile expenses, and you will have the
extra time in the morning and evening to relax and interact with
your family instead of spending that time getting to and from
work. If you plan properly and budget your time wisely, being
your own boss can greatly reduce the stress you feel due to
constant demands from the ‘old boss’ and the pressures created
by time-leaching interruptions from co-workers.

A home-based business not only gives you the benefit of earning
money while working from your home, it will also, without doubt,
manifest all the benefits we’ve discussed, as well as a massive
boost of super-confidence. In my humble opinion, a home-based
business provides anyone with the perfect opportunity to attain
financial and personal freedom.

So what’s the flip-side? Okay, we all know that nothing is
totally free, and “with great power comes great
responsibility”…now where did I hear that? Was it Spiderman’s
uncle or Superman’s dad? Whatever…the message is clear
enough;-)

Here’s the bottom line: There are many home-based business
opportunities available to you. The point is that you are now
‘literally’ your own boss. The buck stops with you, so be
prepared to take the full responsibility for ensuring that your
home-business will work. The future success of your enterprise
lies squarely on your shoulders and it’s entirely up to you to
make it grow and flourish…which happens to be just the subject
of an upcoming article;-)

In the meantime, be thankful for the massive advantages given to
you as a home-based entrepreneur. Accept the fact that your
business will require determination and on some occasions a
seemingly super-human effort to produce the financial rewards.
Carefully research your home-based enterprise and make sure you
are willing to provide the effort that will be required in order
to succeed.

As any self-respecting super-being would no doubt testify,
life-changing action is most effective when undertaken on your
home ground. So harness the super-benefits of running your own
home-based business, get back your life and become incredible!

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Dave Foster owns and operates the “Solo Profits” blog and podcast,
guiding individual entrepreneurs and home-based business owners to
online success using audio, video and multimedia techniques. Dave
also explores the virgin territory of multimedia psychology and how
to present your message effectively through these new communications
channels.

Want to discover more? Go To ==>> http://www.soloprofits.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^