A Moment Of Sharing

Our Impromptu Shouts on the latest Web Development...to YOU!

Good day ! Today's lesson: profitable blogging.

All About The Internet, Software And Business

Major Traffic Source Of The Future (Actually Now): Blogs

How To Protect Your Affiliate Commissions

3 Big Reasons Why Online Businesses Fail And Ultimately Disappear

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Major Traffic Source Of The Future (Actually Now): Blogs

If you see web pages as the original publishing platform since the Big Bang of the World Wide Web, surely this variant platform called 'blog' and its increasing popularity heralds another mode of information publishing and communication. Maybe 10 years down the road another new platform is born. For now, 'blog' is in the spotlight.

The blog shares some similarities with the web page as well as being the anti-thesis to the newsletter. It has its own URL so it can also be called a site. You update a web page via FTP upload, whereas you edit an existing post or create new ones within your blog account, so it's faster in a sense. Moreover, the most popular blog services are free (for now) so you don't have to pay for a blog host service, and so is a good substitute for a site except that you don't have the luxury of web space to upload other files.

Every week we have to upload a complete newsletter in our autoresponder and click a 'mass-mail' button. Even so, it may get filtered out, but this is 'push' marketing. The blog gets read mainly on-site and with RSS newsreaders or aggregators. Through these software the blog invites the general public to opt-in if they want to keep their Inbox aside for other purposes, so that's 'pull' marketing. If they are flooded with mails they may miss yours, but with a newsreader they just click on your blog link to access all your posts past and present. The major weakness (sort of) is your readers are still 'out there' so you can't qualify them into a list unlike what you can do with an autoresponder, but if they like what they read, they will stick to you.

The blog's most powerful feature is that every post ends with a 'Comment' link. Know how to exploit this to the fullest and you can forge interactivity with your readers. Since the game of the day is 'communication', no more formalities and e-zine marketing. Write in the way you speak, keep articles short and regular, and keep your blog tightly themed by applying SEO. Remember your tongue twister last week? The blog is your best practice ground. Even a few misspellings are forgivable.

Essentially, the blog (you can create one at blogger.com) becomes a communication tool which forms a very significant extension to your site. And Google loves them. So...

credibility + consistency + SEO + link exchange = high ranking → TRAFFIC, yes!

What we have here next is Priya Shah, an expert on blogging, discussing "Using Blogs to Market Your Products & Services" in an MP3. If you are non-technical person who want to market your products and services online, blogs are ideal personal branding vehicles that you can use to grow your influence and establish yourself as an expert in your field. Here's the audio of the teleseminar hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff.

Articles under "RSS & Blogging", we also have. Refer to them, you can.

We want to exchange blog links with you as well. If you have a blog related to online business, please send us a mail stating your blog title, description and URL. Your link will be seen in a prominent place. Then through the 'comment' links, we can contribute replies to one another in support.

You can subscribe to our blog feed by going to the main site and look out for the XML, MSN and Yahoo Feed buttons on the top left.

If you already have a blog, you can submit to BlogExplosion and BlogClicker. They have the only 5-level-down blog-based referral program we know to date. Submit your blog for FREE and watch your traffic flood in. Do a search for "free blog submission". Or you can click into our blog, scroll down and look out for all the graphic buttons of the sites where you can submit your blogs.

Our little research tells us non-marketers outnumber marketers about 5 to 1 when it comes to blogging...except that only we have prosperity consciousness. If blogs are so popular, why not use it to enhance your online business presence?

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How To Protect Your Affiliate Commissions

A quick report by Wojciech Spytek. Download, you must.

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3 Big Reasons Why Online Businesses Fail And Ultimately Disappear

1. Quite often, the entrepreneur has no idea how to market/sell the product without offending anyone. Even though they may be a great inventor, importer, writer, etc., they don't know how to create a benefit oriented sales message because they are not in touch with their customer.

2. They grossly overestimate the demand and importance of their product in the marketplace. Many people think they have a winner, something everyone in the world needs. Generally, products appealing to everyone appeal to no one.

3. The biggest problem is the product is not positioned or even suited to the Internet or to online marketing. It may sell very successfully in specialty retail stores, or via direct-mail, however, the online marketplace isn't interested enough to actually pull out their money and purchase. Or worse, the market place is used to doing business a different way and can't see themselves ever buying "X" on the Internet. Examples: cars, jewelry, boats, health products etc. However, we believe this point is constantly becoming more of an exception as more people go online shopping, but only you can know the type of customer demographics you have in your hands now, and whether your site is playing an active role in selling and delivering your products via dropship.

Here the classic verse that has been around since it was uttered by some well-known guru in 1989:

"Pick your market before you pick your product. Then, you can be sure you are selecting a customer group you want to do business with, one with money, and passions you can appeal to or problems you can solve."

Fresh Picks

SEO Elite

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SEO Elite

Here is another SEO software that even Aaron Wall of SEO Book fame is giving the thumbs-up! SEO Elite:

1) allows you to spy your competitor's websites to see exactly why they're outranking your website.

2) allows you to find and e-mail thousands of link partners in mere seconds. Finding link partners has never been easier!

3) continually monitor your link partner status. If they've removed your link from their website, you'll know instantly and can either contact them with the e-mail address provided by SEO Elite, OR you can simply delete their link from your website.

4) allows you to quickly see where your website ranks on all major search engines including Google, Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, and Alltheweb. It is also very search engine friendly, in that SEO Elite allows you to use the Google API key which allows you to abide by Google's Terms of Service.

5) to quickly see which web pages have been indexed by all of the major search engines including Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alltheweb, and Altavista! This is a great way to see if there is something wrong with one of your webpages, which is causing it to not be indexed. You can then make the necessary changes so that the page quickly gets indexed.

The above 5 points are demonstrated on video. Moreover, you can download a trial edition.

The Human Inter-dependency Dynamics

Minimizing Conflict With Effective Communication by Lee Hopkins

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Minimizing Conflict With Effective Communication by Lee Hopkins

Tackle 5 type of negative communication with 5 positive team values. Article by Mr. Lee Hopkins.

Your Inner Strength Info-chest

Individual Thinking vs. Group Thinking

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Individual Thinking vs. Group Thinking

There must be POWER in collective decision-making. We guess it is safer to say group thinking is more reliable than individual thinking. Throughout human history there is a secret consensus within shared cultures that uphold great societies, countries and civilizations and they had their 15 minutes of fame.

The fine line in teamwork is: do you tend to create differences with others or make the difference for others? Creating differences requires you assert ego. Making the difference requires you assert a self-standing principle which others may not be aware of but you know it's your job to make them understand your POV for the benefit of themselves.

Sometimes, you must be prepared that your team mates will reject a 'principle' as 'your idea', and then every moment becomes a question of whether to follow the majority and go the wrong way or stick to oneself and believe it is the right way, and vice versa.

The twist of this article is individuality in a TEAM is important for self-preservation when you know how to master it. First, it is quite logical to say very creative people are hardly conformists, but they must train themselves long and hard to examine and conclude their own strength of character.

When you're right, do you really stand up to the group? Or do you talk yourself into convenient compromises? Do you listen to what everybody else says before you form your own opinion? Do you adjust your opinion so that it hews more closely to the group consensus?

If you can't rely on guidance from the group, you'd better have a damn good replacement or you've got to develop a talent for ferocious self-criticism. If you're going to stand up for your principles, you'd better make sure those principles are right. It's easy to stand up for your ego; it takes nothing more than the flick of a hormone to let ego run rampant. Generally speaking, many assertive people are not truly intellectually assertive; they are merely egotistically assertive. To do this well, you must develop an idea-attacking demon that assaults ideas (especially you on yourself) from every possible angle. Only an idea that can survive the meat grinder is worthy of further consideration.

Preserving your individuality against group thinking does not prevent you from soliciting the advice of those whose judgment you respect. More likely, you'll be weighing the difference in opinions before coming to a decision.

We're sure it happened to you that after carefully inquiring into the details of a recommended course of action and after much discussion, you announce you will take the opposite course of action! It sounds like you have wasted your mates' time. The trick here is that the value your confidants lies not in the actual recommendations but in the reasoning behind the recommendations. The question is: Are you sure your own reasonings will work for you? Or is it out of your comfort zone to accept their reasonings when the recommendations are obviously good? So you don't make decisions based on what your advisors "vote for"; your decisions are based on the soundness of the reasoning. If they offer no more arguments that you had not already anticipated, then you can conclude that your own thinking is sound and you proceed with it. On the other hand, your confidants' ability to surprise you is their trick to impress you to the point of changing your mind.

This is a very, very difficult subject to act on if easier to just write about, or else Justin and Nelson wouldn't have come this far. Your path in life very much hinges on this. As a team player yourself, be always prepared for group disapproval and balance group contribution for the common good with a robust process of self-criticism augmented with solicited criticism from mates as time demands.

May The Force Be With You,

Nelson Tan