Internet Marketing: A Journey Of Discovery

 

A summary of the journey we take 

from beginner to experienced internet marketer 

Internet marketing is an intense experience It's like living your whole life over again in a few short months or years. Read this article and decide which step you are currently at. This may give you an idea of what to expect as you progress in your internet adventure:

Step 1: Babyhood! 

You start off your internet marketing career as a brand new baby, with no idea of how the whole system works. You just follow obediently what others tell you to do, think and say, and you get to know the basics of how the whole system works.

Step 2: "Know-it-all" Teenage Years 

Then you become a "teenager", and have just enough knowledge to be dangerous to yourself and others! You go out, gung-ho, spending lots of money and telling everyone what they should be doing. In fact, you probably don't make much money in this phase because you really don't know what you are doing and you eventually find this out the hard way!

Step 3: "Study" Phase 

Then you enter the "study phase", where you decide that if you are going to make money at this, you better learn a bit more about the theory of marketing and how to apply it to your business. You realise that this internet marketing business isn't as easy as you thought it was going to be. It is tough going. This is the phase where most people drop out. You find out things about yourself that you didn't know. You grow in your personal knowledge. Even if you do drop out at this stage, it is not really a failure. You have just admitted that this is not for you after all.

Step 4: "Career Phase" 

If you tough it out and say to yourself "I AM going to make a success of this", then you enter the "Career" phase. You start taking your business very seriously and you look at how you are going to progress from here on in. Maybe you will decide you are going to build an e-zine or an opt-in mailing list. Maybe you decide to join a REAL marketing company with REAL products, and stop jumping on the bandwagon of the latest on-line ventures that eventually all go bust.

Step 5: "Senior Executive Level" 



The previous stage takes a long time. Just like a normal career, your on-line business career will develop over a period of 5 - 10 years and longer, until you are fully established in your career and are now a "Senior Executive" in the on-line business market, and you are enjoying the fruits of your hard labour! You have achieved immense personal growth, have stuck it out through the hard times and can be very proud of what you have achieved.

 

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Lianne Blanch is a successful online marketer and work-at-home mom.
Visit her website today! http://www.working-from-home.biz/1721

About the Author
Lianne Blanch is a successful online marketer and work-at-home mom.
Visit her website today! http://www.working-from-home.biz/1721

9 Steps to Public Speaking Success

 

By following these nine tips, you will be able to develop a speech for any group on any subject on which you have some knowledge. Enjoy the moment and do not allow stage fright to hold you back.

During your time on stage presenting your well-prepared material, you will shine in the spotlight!It is inevitable that at times during our careers or personal lives; we will be required to provide a presentation or public speech to a group of people. 

Perhaps the group is a group of peers; perhaps the audience will be senior or top-level management; perhaps the group will be comprised of people who wish to learn something from you. This is an opportunity that can boost or hinder your career path. When the day comes to provide a public presentation, will you know what to do to create and present an effective speech? Will you put the audience to sleep? 

Or will you be able to hold the attention of most of the audience? While you may wish you had listened more during that speech coaches presentation last year, you still have to get ready to hold the interest of an audience for a specific period of time. Professional speech coaches will always stress that preparation is the key to success in public speaking.

Speech Coaches Tip 1: Know your audience: Before you begin to prepare your material to present, you need to know what group of people will most likely comprise your target audience. It is important to speak at the level of understanding of that particular audience. 

If you are speaking about aerospace to grade school children, you would want to be certain you will be speaking at the level they can understand clearly and find interesting. If you are speaking to rocket scientists about aerospace, a completely different and much more technical speech would be required. 

One way to be certain to put an audience to sleep is to talk over their heads or far below their level of knowledge. All good speaking coaches will agree that targeting your audience and their knowledge level is crucial. 

You may well know exactly what group you will be speaking to and their level of understanding of the topic. If you do not have this information, seek it out by talking to the person or group who invited your to speak or talking to members of a group likely to be similar to those who will attend your speech.

Speech Coaches Tip 2: Know Your Subject: Speech coaches sometimes state that anyone can speak to any group on any subject and hold their interest  for a short time. This is true, but only to a point. Hopefully, you were asked to present this speech because you are an expert in the field. However, that may not always be the case. You must know the subject you are speaking on to the level of detail that will prepare you to answer questions from the group. 

Research, read, search the internet, talk to experts, or whatever is required to gather the information so that you know your topic well. Remember, you will need to be able to offer specific facts or anecdotes if you are to create a lasting impression with your speech, so make sure to take at least mental notes of real-life examples to pepper throughout your speech.

Speech Coaches Tip 3: The Rule of Three: People in general can focus on three things and remember them well. Speech coaches recommend that a speaker identify the three major things they wish the audience to remember from the presentation you provide. Identify what three things you want to emphasize to your audience. 

Speaking coaches also recommend that no more than three examples or proofs of each point be made as sub-points. This will provide a basis for your outline of the speech. You will also want to repeat the three major points three times in your speech: during the introduction, while covering each point, and in the closing statements.

Speech Coaches Tip 4: Prepare Your Material: At this point, most speech coaches recommend sitting down and fleshing out the material you will be presenting the body of the speech or the three points you identified as your main points. Don't worry about opening or closing the speech at this point, just get your three points defined and formatted so that you can convey excitement and knowledge about your topics.

Speech Coaches Tip 5: Compelling Opening Statements: Now that you have bodies for your speech, professional speaking coaches recommend reviewing your material and developing a compelling and interesting opening comments section. You must give the audience a reason to listen. 

Make them want to know what you have to tell them. Humour can be used provided you are a person who can deliver humour naturally and intelligently to the target audience but it is not necessary. In the opening, you should include the three points you will be covering in the body of the speech.

Speech Coaches Tip 6: Closing Statements: You should close the speech with a brief review of the three major points contained in the speech. These should be brief, but, remembering the Rule of Threes, will allow you to reinforce your main points.

Speech Coaches Tip 7: Read and Re-Read Your Material: After you have prepared your speech, read the material until you know it well. Speech coaches recommend that you not attempt to memorize word-for-word, but that you know the material so well in your head that you can discuss the subject even if you lost all your notes! By having this material in your brain, you are prepared to delivery the knowledge to other people. 

I once attended a lecture series with a man who would enter the room, sit on top of his stack of notes, and then recite them word for word for the next three hours. The notes and speech were not even in his native language. You may never be the most dynamic speaker in the world, but you have full control over whether you are perceived as being informed and prepared.

Speech Coaches Tip 8: Audience Involvement: Speech coaches often stress that you must involve an audience to hold their attention. Depending on your audience, this can be accomplished in several ways. 

For a formal audience where you cant break the audience into groups or other physical involvement, ask questions of the audience such as What would you do if this occurred? Another technique is to ask for a show of hands of how many people have been in similar situations or had the same questions you are answering in your speech. 

Tell the audience, Now, please write this down because it is crucial knowledge for your success. If the group is small and informal, you may be able to involve the audience by asking groups of several people to write a question or comment to be collected and reviewed at the end of the presentation. 

Any technique you can think of that will involve the audience and get them to participate will work much better than ending with, Are there any questions? That ending almost never, according to the best speech coaches, results in a response from any attendees.

Speech Coaches Tip 9: Present with Confidence: When the time comes to present your speech, take a few minutes to practice deep breathing to calm yourself. Remember that body language is very important and you must be animated while speaking. 

Talk the speech rather than read it. These people came to hear you, not read your work! Make eye contact with the audience, moving that eye contact from person to person. Move your hands and if room allows, walk about the stage. Smile where appropriate, show facial expressions of concern where appropriate. Animate your body and your face to remain interesting and dynamic. 

If you make a mistake and have to correct yourself, laugh at yourself. Accept that you are human and this one speech is not the end of the world. Use short, clear sentences spoken in a clear, calm voice. Pause at main points there is no need to rush because you are prepared and KNOW you are prepared.

 

Affiliate Marketing vs. Google Adsense: Let the Battle Begin…

Lately there has been a lot of discussion on how to make tons of money with Google Adsense. In fact, many people are making the claim that Adsense sites can earn a higher revenue then an affiliate-marketing site.

So that brings us to an important question: Which is a better online business - Affiliate-Marketing sites or Google Adsense sites? 

Let's explore each one and then find out which online business is better option:

Google Adsense

How do you like the idea of earning m*ney without dealing with customers or answering emails. This is possible when you run a Google Adsense site. With Adsense sites, you can have a virtual passive-income that requires little maintaining. But is this the best option for an online business?

Here are the positives of Google Adsense sites:

· They are perfect for people who run information sites that have no related affiliate product

· You can set it and leave it. With Google Adsense, you can create a content page, and there is little need to update the content.

· Adsense sites are easy to scale. Since they require little upkeep, you can easily create multiple websites that each make a nice income.

Here are the negatives of Google Adsense sites:

· They are not a great long term solution. Instead of getting your visitors to subscribe to a mailing list, you are focusing on getting people to click on ads. Real online businesses concentrate on building assets that can use for long-term growth.

· These sites are dependent on search engines. Most Google Adsense sites make the mistake of depending on search engines for the majority of their traffic. If the SE algorithms change then your income might drop significantly.

 

Affiliate Marketing

Being an affiliate marketer is great for those who want build a theme site. With this type of business, you can easily create web pages around a topic and get people to buy products through your products. If done correctly, you can easily build a loyal following that will help you make money for years to come.

But can affiliate marketing make you more money then Google Adsense?

Here are the positives of affiliate marketing:

· A great advantage of affiliate-marketing is that you can build a long term business that will bring in a revenue stream for years.

· With affiliate-marketers you need to focus on building an email list. This list is a major asset of your business. Every time you have an offer, you can go to your list and increase your profits..

· Unlike Google Adsense sites, which only concentrates on high paying keywords, an affiliate marketing site can be centered on a topic that you have an interest in.

Here are the negatives of affiliate marketing:
 
· You have to learn how to write persuasively and get people to purchase the product that you are recommending. For many people this is a difficult skill to learn.

· Each affiliate marketing site requires a lot of effort. You must spend a lot of time writing product reviews, building your email list and creating web content.

So which is better: Affiliate marketing or Google Adsense?

The answer is that both are great solutions for an online business. Instead of choosing one over the other, you should create websites that can take advantage of both.

Here is how you can do this:

1) Create a content site on a topic that you are interest in, while paying a good amount per Adsense click.

2) Integrate your Adsense into the menu bars and the top of your web content.

3) Add web pages for affiliate-products and your opt-in email list. But, make sure that you leave out the Adsense blocks on these pages. This way you are ensuring that you are building your long-term assets.

4) Create optimized web page articles that focus on a specific keyword phrase. Place your Google Adsense in these blocks.

5) Provide your email list with good content and product recommendations. Once in awhile, email your list and provide a link to some of your web articles. That way, you can earn a little bit of m*ney from your subscribers while giving them good content.

By focusing on both affiliate products and Google Adsense, you will be building both short-term and long-term profits.