Are All Payment Processors The Same?

Payment processing is the beating heart of making money online. Without a way to collect payments, all the fancy sites and great products would be worthless. Oh sure, we could resort to having people send us checks in the mail. Good luck with that. Most won't bother. Truth is, without payment processing systems, we'd be out of business. But, are all payment processors alike? This article is going to cover two of the top payment processors to show how they are dramatically different and how you need to be aware of these differences.

Let's start with Clickbank. Actually, Clickbank is more than a payment processor. It is also an affiliate marketplace. If you have your own product to sell and sell it through Clickbank, they will actually display your product in the marketplace in order for you to attract affiliates. This is one of the big advantages of using a payment processor like Clickbank. However, there is a downside. Clickbank holds your money until their pay period is reached or, if you don't make enough sales, until your threshold is reached. This can really put a crimp into your cash flow. So if you use Clickbank, make sure you have enough money to pay your expenses until you actually get paid.

Another big payment processor is PayPal. PayPal does not have an affiliate showcase. So if you sell a product through them, you're on your own to create your own affiliate program and pay affiliates yourself, whereas Clickbank pays them for you. This can be a real pain in the backside for somebody just starting out. On the plus side, with PayPal, as soon as the money comes into your account, you can have it transferred to your bank account. There is no waiting period. Transfers happen in about 3 to 5 business days. So as you can see, there are advantages to going with PayPal instead of Clickbank.

Both payment processors have their own TOS and it is critical that you read them. Failure to do so can get your account closed. And if your account is closed, especially by PayPal, good luck trying to get another one. It's close to impossible.

And I haven't even gotten into the fact that some countries don't have access to certain payment processors, mostly because of fraud.

Bottom line...it is important that you assess your needs when choosing a payment processor. The wrong choice can turn your business into one ugly nightmare.

Is Freelancing Right For You?

There are plenty of ways to make money online. Marketing products is not the only way, though it seems to be the most popular. However, it is far from the easiest. Believe it or not, there are much easier ways to make a buck on the Internet. Freelancing is one of them. The question is this. Is freelancing right for you? Well, that's the question that we're going to try to answer in this article. Ultimately, only you can decide if freelancing is something that you want to get into. Hopefully, this article will help you make that decision.

First of all, what exactly is freelancing? Well, simply put, freelancing is where you offer your services for a fee. These services can cover a wide range of things such as article writing, graphic design and programming, just to name a few. If there is a skill out there, then more likely than not, there is a demand for that skill. That is how freelancers earn their keep. But, let's get back to the original question. Is freelancing right for you?

Well, first things first...you need a skill. If you don't have one, then obviously freelancing is not an option...at least not yet. See, you can always learn a skill. There are plenty of courses online and even free tutorials where you can learn just about anything. How long it takes you to master that skill will depend on your natural talent and how much time you put into it.

But deciding on whether or not freelancing is right for you is more than just figuring out whether or not you have a skill that is marketable. There are many people who have marketable skills who are just not cut out for freelancing. But why is that? Why is it that some people just can't hack being a freelancer?
Well, for one thing, being a freelancer takes a lot of self discipline. Unlike working a job, there is nobody to drag your butt out of bed in the morning. You have to force yourself to get to that computer and do your work. If you don't work, you don't get paid. It's that simple.

And then of course there is the fact that there are no guarantees that you're going to get assignments. If you're looking for a guaranteed paycheck, such as with a regular job, you've got a long wait. Just like with marketing a product, you have to market. Only this time, you're marketing yourself. And let me tell you, there is a lot of competition. Therefore, you have to be very good at marketing yourself. You have to give prospects a good reason to use you instead of somebody else.

In a sense, freelancing is a job...without the security of knowing you're going to get paid just by showing up. So before you decide to get into freelancing, make sure you're ready for the challenges ahead of you.

Seven Steps to Internet Marketing Success

I am often asked what it takes to make a successful
business on the Internet. Truthfully, there is no single
answer: it takes dedication, patience, and practice.
However, there are some common aspects to Internet
marketing that every entrepreneur should be focussing on.

Before I start however, it is worth considering how
Internet Marketing is not so different from the offline
businesses. Did the owners companies like BP or WalMart
start out with a unique idea that took the world by storm?
Not a chance. They looked at the market and said "I can
build a better company".

Similarly, the chances are that your core business is
probably not unique - but by doing things better than your
competition, you increase your market share and your
business blossoms. Providing there is enough demand for
your what you offer, the possibilities for the home
business owner are endless.

Step 1 - Know your Customer!

You will get absolutely nowhere without identifying who
your market is made up of. Who are you trying to sell to?
What readership are you trying to attract? It makes no
sense to even start a business without working out who your
customer is in the first place. Where would you place your
marketing? What would it say? You have to know the answers
to these questions before you start advertising. You need
to get in the mindset of your customers - try to work out
what they want to hear. If you can match your advertising
to the way your customer thinks, this will dramatically
increase your conversion rate.

In order to track where your visitors are coming from, you
will need some form of analytics. Your system may include a
complete analytics package. If not then you could do worse
than Google Analytics (which is free) or one of the
specialist services such as Statcounter. In either case,
you would be advised to set up tracking codes that then
enable you to identify the source of your traffic. Once you
know how your visitors found you, by establishing what they
do once they reach your site (leave, sign up to a
newsletter, purchase) you can identify which source of
visitors are the most valuable to you.

Step 2 - Build a List

So, you've identified your target clients. Excellent! You
are already ahead of 90% of your competition! Now, no
matter which form of advertising you decide upon, one of
your primary goals should be to build a list of clients.
This is typically acheived in the form of an opt-in email
address database. Why do you think all of the most
successful companies do everything they can to get you to
sign up to email updates from them? They know, as you will
learn, that it is approximately ten times cheaper to sell
to an existing contact than to obtain new contacts.

You should use your list wisely though. No-one likes being
spammed. So every contact you have with your clients should
be targetted to provide as much value to the client as
possible whilst retaining your primary goal to move a sale
forward. Research has shown that the average customer
buys/accepts your offer after seeing your message 7 times.
So you are going to need to leverage this list to make sure
that the client buys into your offering over time.

Online Marketeers also know the benefit of Affiliate
programs. These are schemes where you agree to sell a
complimentary product in return for a commission from the
providing company. Now even with the greatest product, your
offering won't appeal to everyone you come into contact
with. This does not stop you suggesting other products or
services that may be of interest. This way you get to make
money off people who don't buy your primary product or
service.

Step 3 - Play the Numbers Game

I've been involved in sales and marketing for over 15
years, and one of the first lessons I ever learned was a
simple concept of "Don't Eat your Pipeline". You may wonder
what this means, but the message is simple. Sales is a game
of numbers. The more interested people you get, or leads,
the more sales you will get. Basic huh? But it always
amazes me how many businesses fail at this level.

Selling is a funnel process. You have to start by getting
your message out to as many people as possible. If you have
got your marketing message right, this will result in
leads, that go in the top of the funnel - and believe me
you need as many of these as you can get. Some of these
leads will turn into prospects. That is, those who have an
interest in what you have to offer, and the means to take
advantage of it. If you have a valuable product or service,
you will get sales (or conversions).

Step 4 - Free is Better than Paid

This once again seems like I am stating the obvious. Why
would you buy something if you can get the same thing for
free? Well the difference often is time and convenience.
Most people will turn to paid advertising initially to get
their message out to the world, and don't get me wrong,
there is absolutely an essential mix to be had where paid
advertising does indeed feature. However, the web has grown
up and there are so many opportunities out there to get
high quality visitors without paying for every one.

You will have heard of SEO or Search Engine Optimisation,
which is the art of tailoring your online presence to be
successfully pickup up by the major search engines. This
can be vey powerful, and should be part of your stratagy,
but I don't want to go into this today. SEO is the subject
of countless blogs and sites in their own right to do
justice in a short article.

My advice would be to take advantage of what is
collectively known as Web 2.0 resources. These are sites
that are specifically set up to connect people and ideas.
You should look at writing and maintaining your own blog
which gives you all the opportunity in the world to put
your thoughts and ideas across to your clients. Social
Networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are
fantastic for gathering interested clients as they are read
by 100s of millions of people every day. This ranks the
sites highly with the search engines, increasing your
chance of getting free hits to your site. I will be posting
future articles dedicated to Web 2.0 as this area is
rapidly growing and will become increasingly important to
your online success.

Step 5 - Test everything!

How do you know which marketing activities are proving
valuable? The answer? Check! Unless you constantly are
using reports to assess the effectiviness of your
activities, how will you know what to reproduce and what to
drop? This is where you need to introduce the concept of
split-testing.

Split-testing refers to when you test two variations of
something to identify which works best. This could be two
similar advertising campaigns where the specific wording is
slightly different, or perhaps the page you point your
visitors at (landing page) to see how each affects the
conversion rate.

By working out over time what is effective, you know where
to spend your time and money continuing to further refining
the process.

Step 6 - Have Something to Sell!!!

Sounds obvious eh? Of course you have something to sell! I
am continually astounded at people who sign up to Internet
Marketing schemes whose whole purpose is just to get more
people involved. Where is the product? Where is the value
you are providing to your client?

Without value, those leads you sweated over getting earlier
will drift away as there is nothing to keep their
attention. Whatever you are offering, make sure that there
is always something valuable for them to buy into, and that
there is an upgrade path for further sales as your
relationship with your client develops.

Step 7 - Don't Stop!

Very rarely will you hit on anything that delivers huge
profits without having to work for it. Even if you have a
fantastic product, with amazing profits, you will sell
nothing without continued marketing effort. This is
imperative to a sustainable business. The more you put into
the business, the more you will get out of it.

If something doesn't work and ends up costing you time
and/or money what should you do? Give up? Absolutely NOT!
Change what you are doing? Possibly (so long as you know
what was wrong and where to start fixing it). You may find
however that you are doing the right things and you just
need time to convince your leads that you are in it for the
long term. Remember - most customers will need 7 attempts
to get them to buy from you. You can't do this if you don't
allow enough time for the process to complete.

About the Author:

Matt Lawless is an Internet Entrepreneur based in the UK.
With 15 years sales and marketing experience, his passion
is helping anyone excel online.
Gor more information go to http://www.mattlawless.com .
Follow him on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mattlawless

How to Generate More Backlinks

Backlinks play an essential part to any website. Backlinks are links that are directed to your website from other websites, blogs or forums.

These backlinks will not only generate traffic to your site by giving web surfers an active link to get to your site, they will also increase your page rank. Page rank is Google’s way of measuring the value and relevancy of your website.

You will achieve a higher page rank based on the amount of inbound links coming to your site. So therefore, the more links that come in, the higher page rank you will receive. With a higher page rank, you will attract more websites willing to link with you.

So, as you can see, by increasing the backlinks to your site, you will be driving up the number of visitors to your website as well as attract more websites willing to link with you.

Here are a few ways you can increase your number of backlinks:

1. Visitors to your site could very well have their own website or blog. Ask them to link with you. You’ll be amazed at how well this works, as long as your site offers good content that is useful and informative.
2. Create a “Link to Us” page to make it easier for others to link to you. Provide the html code for them to put on their site so all they have to do is cut and paste. The easier you make it for them, the more likely they are to exchange links.
3. Write some articles and submit them to various article directories. In exchange, you will receive a link back to your site. This is usually done through your Resource Box that will be submitted with your article.
4. Go to Link Directories and submit your link. There were no search engines back in the early days of the Internet. Most people found what they were looking for by searching through directories. These directories were broken down into categories, making it easier for the searcher. Today, most people prefer to use search engines to find what they are looking for, but that does not mean that directories are dead. There are people that still use them and the links will still count towards your page rank. Do a search for Link Directories for a list of directories where you can submit your site to.
5. When you agree to link to a website in exchange for that website linking back to you, is called a reciprocal link. As with directories, many website owners have all but given up on reciprocal linking. They argue that the search engines have devalued reciprocal links to the point where they’re not worth the time it takes to obtain them. On the other hand, there are others who still have great success with this method. The key is to not just link to anyone for the sake of linking. Link to sites that are truly useful and relevant to your visitors.

When done right, reciprocal linking will work for everyone and both websites will receive an increase in traffic.

Backlinks do take some time to set up, but once done, are a great way to bring traffic to your site.

Lori Gorman is the owner/webmaster of My E-biz Place Visit for all the up to date work at home offers. While there, sign up for a free newsletter subscription to bring hot new offers and tips right to your mailbox.

The Two Things You Need To Know About Writing Articles and Monetizing Them
By: B Hopkins

Article writing serves many purposes for website owners and
Internet marketers. It is a powerful way to market your
business, and is also a powerful way to earn income
directly from the article content itself. When you want to
monetize your articles, you will need to understand how to
use your articles to create the greatest benefit from them.

Some of the methods in which you can monetize your articles
include: - Adsense - Promoting your own products and
services - Promoting affiliate products and services -
Long-term revenue - Viral revenue

There are other ways to get income by promoting your
products and services, but the ones listed above are some
of the more common ways you can earn an income through
writing articles.

The first thing you need to know is the purpose in which
you are writing your articles. Are you writing them to
promote a product or service, or are you writing them to
brand yourself as an expert in your field? Each way will
require you to write your articles differently. If you are
writing your articles for adsense, then you will want to
write many informative, how-to articles that contain many
of the keyword phrases used by your target audience. Your
articles should talk about the products and services that
are found on your site. The purpose of the article is to
draw the targeted adsense ads that will be served on your
website.

If you are writing and marketing articles to promote
affiliate products, then your article should get the reader
to go to the affiliate site, and also buy something as
well. If you require a multi-step process to sell the
affiliate product or service, then it would be better to
use the article to send the reader to a lead capture page
to get the reader's email so you can market to them through
an auto responder series. This is where you can put other
articles that you have written and send the reader one
article per week.

The second thing that you need to know when writing
articles and monetizing them is to write the articles in
such a way that they receive a lot of traffic in some form
or another. Your articles won't do much good if no one can
find them, so it is important that they are easily found on
the Internet. Your articles can be found through article
directories, individual websites, other publisher's
newsletters, eBooks among a host of other ways. The more
ways you make use of, the better the chance your article
will get seen by your target market. There are many
sources out there today that contain a list of different
places where you can publish your article. Once you have a
list of places, you want to narrow it down to the top 5 to
10 places to submit your articles. Your criteria should be
based upon how much traffic is going to the website where
you want to publish your articles, and if your target
market is willing to purchase your product or service.
Once you have the answer to these questions, you will be
able to write powerful articles that have a good response
rate.

When you are writing articles to monetize them, it is
crucial that you have a good strategy for writing,
marketing and publishing them. If you don't, you will end
up going through a lot of work over nothing. The next step
is to look for ways of earning a long-term income for your
article writing efforts.

About the Author:

If you still want tips on how to write articles and
monetize them discover the secrets of Article Cash at:
http://resourceshosting.com/articlecash
To learn more about how to write articles and market them
go to:
http://resourceshosting.com/turnwords

Finding Legitimate Internet Home Business Opportunities

There's an abundance of home business opportunities on the internet for you to choose from. The problem is knowing which internet home business opportunities are legitimate, which ones are borderline, and which ones are outright scams. So, how do you know? That is what I am going to answer in this article.

One thing you can do is go to some of the top home business websites on the internet and see what opportunities they are recommending. Be careful when doing this though because most of them are promoting these internet home businesses as affiliates, so their opinions can be very biased. However, if there's an opportunity that most of these websites are commonly promoting there's a strong chance it's a good one. Or if the owner is promoting many home business opportunities you can email them and ask which one they recommend the most.

You can also go to home business forums and ask the members what they think about an opportunity you want to get some feedback on. It's best to ask in a few different forums and see what the overall consensus is among the members. If most of them have positive things to say about it then it's probably a legitimate internet home business opportunity. If you are getting mostly negative reviews or if it's pretty much neutral then move on to another opportunity.

Another way to see what other people think about a home business opportunity is to go to Google and do a search for the name of the opportunity plus review. Let's say the program you are looking into is named "Successful Home Business Future Team" as an example. So you would go to Google and search for "Successful Home Business Future Team Review" or "Successful Home Business Future Team" +Review. This will give you many reviews of what other people have said about the opportunity. Again be careful here because many of these reviews will be biased opinions of people who are affiliates of the program. Find some that seem to be unbiased and see what they say.

One more great way to find legitimate internet home business opportunities is to seek out a few very knowledgeable people who have been in the industry for a long time and get to know them. After a while you will know if they are helpful and honest. If they are you can always ask their opinions on any home business opportunity you find.

Those are four of the best ways to find out if an internet home business opportunity is legitimate or not. You can't go around crying if you happen to get scammed because you didn't do your homework on an opportunity before getting involved with it! There are enough legitimate internet home business opportunities out there that you don't have to take a shot in the dark on one just because it was the first one you came across.

About the author:

Trent Brownrigg is a successful internet marketer, blogger, and home business mentor. His passion is teaching people how to make money online. He has been doing this for a long time and can teach you everything you need to know about home business. Visit his site http://www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com for more information.

The Fastest Way to Ezine Advertising

An ezine is an online newsletter. They are used to share news, updates and promotions. They are a great way for webmasters to generate traffic to their site and keep in touch with their visitors.

Generating traffic to your site through an ezine is not that complicated. Most, if not all, ezines accept third party advertising. What that means is Joe Smith has an ezine relating to car maintenance. You are selling a new car polish that will protect the finish of your car. You place an ad in Joe Smith’s car maintenance ezine. This will also help Joe (the ezine owner) to offset the cost of operating his ezine as well as give him an additional source of income.

You can choose to place an ad for your website, product or service in the ezine. You can place different ads in different ezines. If this is done right, you will generate loads of traffic to your site.

You should place your ads in ezines that are related toward your specific niche. Be as specific as you can to narrow the possibilities. To use the above example, let’s say your car polish is used on vintage cars to restore their original color and shine. Would you then place your ad in an ezine for the new 2009 sports car or an ezine relating to car restoration? By narrowing your target audience, you will get the most for your money.

Try browsing sites in your niche to see which ones run an ezine. You can also do a search on Google. Try searching for: “your keyword + ezine” (ex: “car restoration+ ezine”). Once you have a list of possible sites, you can start to narrow it down to find the most targeted one as well as to compare prices and the number of subscribers.

There are various pricing options for these ads. Some things to take into consideration might depend on the niche or the number of subscribers. There are also different prices based on where your ad is placed.

Most ezines will have several options on where to place your ad. They may have one at the top, another in the middle and then when down at the bottom.
The best (and most expensive) is the solo ad. As the name implies, this is “one” ad. This will be the only ad the readers will see. This means great exposure for you. Because of this, you want to create an effective ad.

One way to do this is to subscribe to the ezine yourself and read through a few issues to get a feel of its style of writing. Then you can construct an ad to reflect on that style and match the tone and message it is trying to convey. The words you choose for your ad will determine the success of your ad, so plan on taking some time to construct it.

One last thing, track your ads carefully. You will want to test and keep track of which ezines are getting you the best response. Play around with your ad and see what kind of results you get. Only by testing will you see which ads are bringing in the traffic and which ads are wasting your time and money.